Dinner Party (The Office)

Written by the writing team of Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Paul Feig, the episode originally aired on NBC on April 10, 2008.

In the episode, Michael Scott and his girlfriend Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), the former Vice-President of Regional Sales at the Dunder Mifflin corporate office in New York City, throw a dinner party and invite Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), as well as an uninvited Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson).

Jim begins to suspect that Michael fabricated the overtime assignment and the call to corporate just to maneuver him and Pam into coming to dinner.

Titled "That One Night", the lyrics of the song strongly suggest an intimate encounter once occurred between Jan and Hunter.

The police arrive, responding to a call about a disturbance; despite Jan becoming remorseful, Michael agrees to spend the night with Dwight under the advice of the officers.

[citation needed] The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike at 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time on November 5, 2007.

[11] Eisenberg and Stupnitsky later noted that, because the episode was the first to be filmed following the strike, there was "a great, loose vibe on set", and as such, many of the actors would break character and laugh at the jokes.

"[1] Contrary to most episodes of the series, in which the scenes and dialogue are scripted, many scenes from "Dinner Party" were improvised by the actors, such as Jan dancing while holding Jim's hand, Michael saying "snip-snap" when describing his multiple vasectomies, and Jan – along with Michael's reaction to – placing "finger horns" on her head while saying "I'm the devil".

[16][17] "Dinner Party" brought in an average of 9.2 million American viewers,[18] which was the highest total audience since the fourth season premiere episode "Fun Run".

Travis Fickett of IGN wrote that "this is one of those great episodes of The Office that is hysterical and difficult to watch at the same time.

[20] Jay Black of AOL's TV Squad said that "[he] was happy The Office was back" but "the only thing [he] worried about was whether it'd still be good" after the writers strike.

"[15] Aubry D'Arminio of Entertainment Weekly said that her favorite moment of the episode "was when Jan popped on that song by her former assistant, Hunter.

"[22] Jack Rodgers of TV Guide wrote that it is "a hilarious, brutally awkward look at the relationship (and apartment) from hell, a train wreck that you just can’t keep from staring at.

"[23] He also noted that it is "a study of four couples: one hideously dysfunctional (Michael and Jan), one loving (Jim and Pam), one mismatched (Angela and Andy), and one, ahem, "purely carnal" (Dwight and babysitter).

[16] Former United States Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a fan of the series, told writer B. J. Novak that his favorite scene from the show is in this episode when Michael is giving his guests a tour of his condo, and a tripod can be seen set up by his bed.

[25] Paul Feig won the 2008 Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for this episode.