THE OFFICE Writers Originally Planned to Have Jim Cheat on Pam, But John Krasinski Refused
The Office is a perfect series. It has comedy first and foremost, great characters, and a perfect ending, as well as the most wonderful TV love story, possibly of all time. The nine seasons were the perfect arc for Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) to cultivate a friendship, reveal their feelings, have a setback, finally get together, and then build that beautiful love story we all fell for. But it was almost not as perfect as we know it to be.
In the recently released book, Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office, Krasinski talked about having to put his foot down in response to the writers wanting his character Jim to cheat on Pam by kissing part-time receptionist Cathy during the show’s eighth season:
"That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down. I remember saying things that I never thought I’d say before, like, I’m not going to shoot it."
He went on to talk about his being so protective of his character, as well as his relationship with Pam, saying:
"My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience. They are so dedicated. We have shown such great respect to them. But there’s a moment where if you push them too far, they’ll never come back. And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they’ll never come back."
To this day, The Office creator Greg Daniels defends his decision to push the envelope, saying he had planned the moment because fans "were very comfortable with the show they were getting, and I needed to worry them that maybe I was going to give them a bad ending."
I don’t know why he would think this bump in the road would be worth it if it lost him viewers. There are so many bad relationships with terrible things that happen. We don’t need to see more of that. People want to see the ones that stick out the hard times and come through it stronger. I’m so glad that Krasinski stood up for Jim and Pam. The Office is a better show because of it.
via: Uproxx