Steve Carell Saved 'The Office' from Cancellation With One Joke — Find Out Which

The American version of The Office, starring Steve Carell, wouldn’t have made it past Season 1—if it weren’t for the actor himself. The information was revealed by executive producer Greg Daniels in an interview with Collider during San Diego Comic-Con. According to him, Carell improvised a joke in the Season 2 premiere, "The Dundies," that ended up saving the series from cancellation.

Daniels said the episode was nearly scrapped after filming because of a legal issue involving the Chili’s restaurant chain, where much of the story takes place. The company’s lawyers, who had authority over the script, questioned the plotline in which Pam (Jenna Fischer) gets drunk during the awards ceremony organized by Michael Scott, arguing that Chili’s does not serve excessive amounts of alcohol to customers.

The producer said he became desperate, since Pam’s drunkenness was essential to the narrative and to the development of her relationship with Jim (John Krasinski) throughout the season. "I just fell apart. I had a complete meltdown," Daniels recalled, saying he even came to believe the series would be canceled if the episode had to be discarded.

That was when Steve Carell, known for his improv experience, suggested turning Chili’s demand into a joke within the episode itself. In the final version, the restaurant manager appears in a talking-head interview saying the chain has a strict policy against over-serving drinks and explains that Pam had been secretly taking drinks from other customers’ tables. He then reveals that he made a copy of the character’s driver’s license and that she was banned from entering any Chili’s location.

The solution pleased the restaurant chain, allowed the episode to air without changes to the main plot, and, according to Daniels, kept The Office from being canceled so early in its run.

The joke also became one of the show’s most memorable and even got a follow-up years later, when Jenna Fischer joked on social media about trying to go back to a Chili’s, prompting the chain to announce, in a playful tone, that Pam Beesly had officially been "unbanned."