The original ending to The Office episode ‘Dinner Party’ was extremely dark

Remember the iconic episode “Dinner Party” from The Office? How could anyone forget that one, right?

Often ranked among the most hilarious and most awkward scenarios on the NBC mega-hit, it’s hard to imagine Michael and Jan’s one and only dinner party going any worse, any more over the top, or any more unsettling than it ultimately turned out. But apparently, things almost got very dark at the end.

According to Mental Floss, the “Dinner Party” episode originally included a murder. That’s right, I said murder. Ultimately, writers behind the scenes decided that while the episode was definitely meant to be as uncomfortable as possible for all involved, they might’ve been going too far throwing in a kill scene at the end of it. In an interview with Rolling Stone, series writer Gene Stupnitsky revealed how the memorable episode almost ended.

Stupnitsky recalled of writing the episode:

"Most scripts get rewritten, and I think this was the only one ever done that didn’t. The only thing that was changed was that in our first draft Jan hits the neighbor’s dog and kills it on purpose.”"

Yikes, right? Supporting Stupnitsky’s version of rewriting events, writer Lee Eisenberg added, “We decided that was going too far.” Considering how bad Jan was made to look during the “Dinner Party” final cut, adding in a pet murder would’ve definitely been an unnecessary move or dare I say, overkill. Because when it came to painting Jan as a villain in the fourth season, especially during “Dinner Party,” her character already had that one covered, to say the least.

While also speaking to Rolling Stone, Jan actress Melora Hardin admitted that the dinner party was “crucial” to her character’s evolution. Hardin explained:

"Michael represented this possibility for her white picket fence, which is why the dinner party is so resonant. That really is Jan’s moment of white picket fence. It’s her moment of ‘here we are living together, and I’m gonna have a candle business, and we have a Warhol on the wall of me."

Ready to relive all the hilarious and famously awkward moments on The Office once again? There’s no time like 2021 to pick up where you left off with NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock. And if you’re not quite ready to move on from Netflix, don’t fret.

Here are five shows to comfort binge on Netflix right now. Cheers!