Few TV shows had better Halloween episodes than The Office, which gave the employees of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch a chance to show off their creativity or, in Jim’s case, lack thereof. This episode, season six’s “Koi Pond,” is notable among Office fans because it includes a scene that was cut from returns and home media for being too dark, even for Halloween. It’s not Maggie killing Groundskeeper Willie, but it’s close.
The set up: the Dunder Mifflin warehouse has been turned into a “haunted warehouse” for children, hosted by Michael Scott in an already-dated “Dick in a Box” costume. While “gangster pumpkin” Daryl pushes the kids around on a “pallet truck of doom,” Michael backs into the darkness. The next time we see him, he’s pretending to commit suicide in front of the youngsters (“Suicide is never the answer”), dick-box still attached. There was an immediate backlash to the dark joke, and NBC quickly pulled Michael’s “suicide” from later airings and releases. But weirdly, it’s still on The Office‘s official YouTube account.
A former producer for The Office, who wished to remain anonymous, claims there’s another reason for the trimmed cold open. “Due to her work in suicide prevention, Caryn Zucker, who was married at the time to then-president and CEO of NBC Universal Jeff Zucker, also urged her husband to have the scene removed,” the A.V. Club reports. The episode was “re-cut and re-delivered, with the original HD-SR delivery masters collected back from NBC and thrown into deep storage,” possibly in the Dunder Mifflin warehouse.
Watch the full scene.
Watch ‘The Office’ Halloween Scene That Was Scrubbed For Being Too Dark
(Via the AV Club)
