The Dundies

Plot

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is the only person who looks forward to "The Dundies", his annual awards show at the local Chili's restaurant. Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) tries to dissuade Michael from once again awarding Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) the "World's Longest Engagement" award. Meanwhile, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) learns that there is graffiti about Michael on the ladies' room wall, and his attempts to investigate are embarrassingly unsuccessful.

At the awards show, Michael's performance as MC falls flat. Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) is embarrassed when Michael awards him "Hottest in the Office". Pam's fiancé Roy Anderson (David Denman) and Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) leave, taking Pam with them. In the parking lot, Roy and Pam argue, and Pam returns alone to the restaurant, where she begins drinking beer and margaritas. Heckled by other customers, Michael decides to end the show, but an intoxicated Pam leads the office in encouraging him to continue. Relieved upon winning the Dundie for "Whitest Sneakers", Pam gives a drunken acceptance speech and kisses Jim on the lips. This leaves Jim surprised, but happy.

As Jim recaps the Dundies for the camera, Pam stares at Jim with dazed fascination and then falls off her stool, and Dwight springs to her rescue, thinking Pam is having a seizure. He then tries to take off his dress shirt and tie, but a Chili's employee stops him. After the party is over, Pam runs to the camera and screams "I would just like to say that this was the best Dundies ever! Whoo!". In the parking lot, Pam admits to Jim that it was she who wrote the graffiti. She begins to ask Jim a question, but stops when she notices the camera. A Chili's employee then talks to the camera and says that Pam apparently was sneaking drinks off of others' tables, which is against the restaurant's rules. He then tells the audience that he Xeroxed her driver's license and she is never welcome at Chili's again. Jim helps Pam into Angela Martin's (Angela Kinsey) car and smiles as they leave.

Production

"The Dundies" was the second episode of the series directed by Greg Daniels. Daniels had previously directed the first season episode "Basketball". "The Dundies" was written by Mindy Kaling, who also acts for the show as customer service representative Kelly Kapoor. According to Daniels, while he worked on the Fox animated series King of the Hill, the show would have an annual Dundies-type event called the "Swampy Awards". He previously considered using the plot from this episode for the pilot, but decided it was a "very risky thing to do" and decided to make the pilot a direct adaption of the first episode of the British version. Following the mixed reaction towards the first season, the writers attempted to make the series more "optimistic" and make Michael more likable. They also established the supporting characters of the series more, giving them actual personalities, and the producers also made the lights to the office brighter, which allowed the series to differentiate itself from the British version.

The episode was filmed at a former Chili's in the San Fernando Valley, in the city of Burbank. The episode was filmed "from dawn, until very late at night", according to Kaling. During filming breaks, Kaling later joked that she took "ladylike" naps, while Paul Lieberstein made notes on the episode and its script. While filming, many parts of the script were changed so the restaurant would allow the shoot to continue. For instance, in the original script, Pam vomits at Chili's and Dwight responds, "A woman has vomited!" Because the completed script was not available for Chili's to review until shooting had already started, when they were finally given a chance to read it, they objected to a customer vomiting in their restaurant. Chili's withdrew its permission to shoot, but, after a few hours, Steve Carell developed a compromise: Pam would fall off her bar stool and Dwight would respond, "A woman has had a seizure!" In original version, Pam was also to be over-served alcohol by the Chili's staff, but Chili's—feeling that this would reflect poorly on their character as a company—did not want this in the episode either. To solve this issue, the writers had Pam steal drinks off other tables. The writers and producers also agreed to include a scene in which the actual owner of the Chili's restaurant (Jon Bosshart, not an actor) makes it clear that the restaurant does not over-serve alcohol to its customers. Since Jenna Fischer does not drink much in real life, B. J. Novak took her out so she could get drunk while Novak described to her how she was behaving and how it did not match her own perception. She drew upon this experience for her performance.

Release and reception

"The Dundies" originally aired on NBC in the United States on September 20, 2005. In its original American broadcast, the episode received a 4.3/10% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 2.4% of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 6% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. The episode was seen by 9.0 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode of the series at the time, sans the show's pilot episode.

"The Dundies" represented a turning point in the series, in which the show found its own tone and differentiated itself from the British version. It received critical acclaim unlike the first season. In its "The Top 10 Moments from The Office", IGN ranked Pam's drunken scene at Chili's as number five. Michael Sciannamea of TV Squad stated that "This season's first episode showed a marked improvement over the final episode from last season", and went on to praise the episode's expansion of supporting characters as one of the main reasons for the improvement. In a Flashback review, Travis Fickett of IGN complimented the episode for creating the personalities of the supporting characters and for the workers affection towards Michael in the episode. He also praised the Jim and Pam moments in the episode. He ultimately gave the episode a 9.0/10. Seb Patrick of Noise to Signal, while comparing the American version of The Office favorably to its UK counterpart, writes that the series "could be finding its feet again over the course of its opening couple of episodes."

Jacob Clifton from Television Without Pity gave the episode an A rating. Erik Adams of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B", citing the scene wherein Pam and Jim both convince Michael to continue on with the Dundies celebration, noting that "they’re clapping and chanting for Michael Scott, human being, and that’s incredibly important for the episodes that will follow". However, he felt that the episode's reputation was slightly inflated by its success, and that the episode, while good, is merely just a start for the success that would follow it.