Why Creed from The Office was almost fired early on in the show

Creed Bratton is definitely one of the most memorable characters on NBC’s The Office, but once upon a time, he was just a background actor who almost got fired early on, believe it or not. And here’s how it all went down.

In season 2, Creed’s wacky fun almost ended when he almost got fired by Michael Scott. In the hilarious “Halloween” episode, Michael’s boss (and object of his affection at the time), Jan informs him that he must let someone go “today” due to “cutbacks” at the company. Reluctantly, he narrows it down to Creed and Devon, both lesser-known characters on the show.

As Michael delivers the bad news, Creed pleads for his job while dressed as a vampire. The now-famous scene where Creed almost gets the boot also serves as his unofficial intro as a main character on the show. After all, it is the moment he said his first lines on The Office.

Creed manages to convince Michael to keep him around, telling Michael not to fill out the paperwork and saying they’d fight this one together “like the old days,” even though Michael famously has no idea what “old days” Creed is talking about.

Creed’s “don’t do it” demands pay off and Michael decides to let Devon go instead. Today, we’ve all turned out to be pretty grateful for that decision, seeing as Dunder Mifflin just wouldn’t be the same without its kookiest quality assurance expert.

According to Bustle, Creed’s character wasn’t the only one who avoided getting fired that day. During an episode of Office Ladies, Bratton revealed to his former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey that “none of the series regulars could be fired because they were under contract,” and apparently, creator Greg Daniels didn’t want to fire supporting cast members without contracts either.

On top of that, Bustle noted that Daniels didn’t want to hire new actors just for the sake of firing them immediately afterward, so it came down to their only two background actors, Creed and Devon, which makes a ton of sense. As reported by Bustle, Creed revealed:

"At the time, he told us, ‘One of you guys is going to have to go, but we don’t know yet. We’re going to shoot you both and see how it works out.’"

On Office Ladies, Bratton admitted that he knew the firing scene was his “moment,” so he set out to secure his now-iconic role. Reflecting on all of Creed’s endlessly hilarious moments to follow on The Office, I’d say things definitely worked out for the best in the end.