Stress Relief
Encyclopedia
"Stress Relief" is a two-part episode of the American comedy television series The Office. They constituted the fourteenth and fifteenth episode of the fifth season
, and the 86th and 87th overall episodes of the series. Both episodes were directed by Jeffrey Blitz
and written by Paul Lieberstein
, who also plays Toby Flenderson
on the show.
In this episode, Dwight stages a fire in the office to test the office's fire safety skills, but things go from bad to worse when Stanley suffers a heart attack
, causing Michael to come up with ways to relieve stress in the office, including a comedic roast of himself. Meanwhile, Andy, Jim, and Pam watch an illegally downloaded movie at work starring Jack Black
, Jessica Alba
and Cloris Leachman
, and Pam deals with her parent's recent argument that causes her father to move in with her and Jim.
Both parts of "Stress Relief" originally aired together immediately following the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII
, and The Office writers and producers sought to attract newcomers to the series with the expected increase in viewership. Guest stars Black, Alba and Leachman do not interact with the regular characters themselves, but rather appear in a film within the episode. The Office creator Greg Daniels
said this was done to keep the episode more grounded in reality.
The episode received generally positive reviews, with Time
magazine declaring it the best overall television episode of any series in 2009. Many commentators particularly praising the chaotic cold open
scene, in which Dwight panics his co-workers with a simulated fire as part of a twisted safety demonstration. Because of its proximity to the Super Bowl, "Stress Relief" is the most viewed episode of The Office to date with 22.9 million viewers (according to Nielsen Media Research
) during its original broadcast. It won the 2009 Emmy Award
for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Editing in a Comedy Series.
(Rainn Wilson
) tries another approach by sealing the office exits shut, cutting the phone lines and starting a fire in a trash can. Dwight calmly explains the proper safety procedures as the panicked employees try to flee, smashing windows, crawling through air ducts and destroying office equipment. Dwight eventually reveals it was just a drill, but Stanley
(Leslie David Baker
) suffers a heart attack and collapses in the commotion. Dwight is subsequently censured by Dunder Mifflin CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley), and Michael
(Steve Carell
) strips him of his position as safety officer. After Stanley is released from the hospital, his doctors warn him to keep his stress levels under control to avoid further damaging his health. Michael arranges for a CPR
training session for the employees, but they are too easily distracted and the lesson proves fruitless. The session ends badly when Dwight destroys the expensive CPR dummy, earning another rebuke from David Wallace. Dwight is ordered to apologize to his co-workers and get signatures acknowledging that they forgive him, but they refuse to sign.
With tensions running high in the office, Michael tries to calm his workers down with yoga
and meditation
sessions. However, Michael soon realizes he is actually the source of this employees' stress when Stanley’s stress reader beeps uncontrollably whenever Michael is nearby. Michael hands the stress reader to Oscar
(Oscar Nunez
) and is horrified when the same result occurs. Meanwhile, Pam
’s (Jenna Fischer
) parents are going through a rough patch in their marriage, and Pam’s father is staying with her and Jim
(John Krasinski
). Jim attempts to cheer Pam up by watching a pirated movie with Andy
(Ed Helms
). The film stars actor Jack Black
, who is engaged to a character played by Jessica Alba
, but falls in love with her elderly grandmother, played by Cloris Leachman
. During the movie, Jim and Pam discuss the situation with Pam’s parents. Andy believes their insightful comments are directed at the characters in the film, leading him to conclude they are "movie geniuses" finding hidden depths in the film.
of himself in the warehouse. Dwight tricks most of the employees into signing his apology letter by pretending it is a sign-in sheet, but Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) catches on and refuses to sign it. Each of the office and warehouse workers gleefully take jabs at Michael, who initially seems to enjoy the jokes, but grows increasingly uncomfortable and offended. When it comes time for him to roast his employees, Michael ends up storming out of the warehouse, visibly upset. After the roast, Michael takes a personal day (much to the concern of his employees, who started to feel bad about the scathing jokes towards Michael) and spends time at a playground to reflect, feeding pigeons by tossing whole slices of bread on the ground, despite the lack of birds in the winter weather. Dwight tricks Phyllis into signing his apology letter by making her sign for a fake package. Michael returns to the office, where he roasts each of his co-workers with one-liners. Stanley laughs heartily when Michael roasts him, breaking the tension. Michael tells his employees that they are the reason he got into the paper business, and they applaud him.
Pam asks Jim to talk to her father and convince him to work things out with her mother. But shortly after they talk, Pam learns her father has sought a separation and will be looking for his own apartment. Pam initially believes it is because of something Jim said to her father, making her worry that she and Jim might one day experience the same problems. This creates tension between the two, and Jim feels terrible for his apparent role in breaking up her parents. Pam confronts her father about why he left her mother, while Jim looks on through the window. Pam returns to the office and tells Jim her father left because Jim told him how much he loves Pam, and that he has never doubted that he wanted to be with her for the rest his life. Pam says that her father realized that he had never felt that way about her mother. Pam comes to terms with the separation and tearfully embraces Jim. Later, she expresses confidence that the two are true soul mates.
In the final scene of the episode, the ending of the illegally downloaded movie is revealed—Jack Black visits Cloris Leachman with flowers and a new walker, only to discover her affair with another young man and he walks away heartbroken.
"Stress Relief" was directed by Jeffrey Blitz
and written by Paul Lieberstein
, who also plays Toby Flenderson
on the show. The episode originally aired on NBC
in the United States on February 1, 2009, immediately after the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII
. NBC decided to air The Office after the Super Bowl
, rather than another show, due to positive feedback the series received from short promo commercials it aired during the 2008 Summer Olympics
. Some criticized the decision to place an episode of The Office, an already established NBC series, after the Super Bowl instead of a new show, and suggested it meant the network lacked any exceptional new material.
In writing the episode, Lieberstein said he sought to appeal to newcomers to the series and attract them to the show, without alienating regular The Office watchers: "We wanted to do a stand-alone comedy episode that could bring people in." Lieberstein said the script drew less attention to long-standing story arcs, which new viewers would not understand. Lieberstein said, "It almost had an air of a pilot in a way, where we had to reintroduce everything. We wanted it to be extremely funny and extremely funny up front." The Office creator Greg Daniels
said he felt the episode had to focus on physical comedy and easily accessible set pieces. Daniels said, "I looked at all the shows that followed the Super Bowl in years past and I feel that a comedy would be a good choice in the current climate. People want to laugh so we're trying our best to supply some laughs." Actor Rainn Wilson said of the episode, "It's a great opportunity for people to revisit the world of The Office and hopefully get into our style of comedy."
The two parts of "Stress Relief" ran an hour long (including commercials), compared to the typical half-hour length of most The Office episodes. Since the end of the second season
, the series had begun occasionally showing longer episodes (which they dubbed "super-sized") on special occasions. Unlike other episodes of The Office, "Stress Relief" included an extended main title sequence that included the names and images of the entire supporting cast of the series, in order to afford them recognition in anticipation of the high post-Super Bowl viewership. The opening scene, in which the characters frantically scramble to escape the Dunder Mifflin office due to what they believe is a fire, took about a day-and-a-half to shoot. It took much longer than the average 45 minutes of shooting time for a scene of that length due to the amount of stunt work involved. Due to the pressure of following the Super Bowl, actress Jenna Fischer said, "I don't think we've ever worked so hard on an episode in the history of our show." The Office actor and writer B.J. Novak, who did not appear in "Stress Relief", said of the episode, "It's awesome. After this airs, people are going to refer to the Super Bowl as the Pre-Office Football Spectacular."
In anticipation of particularly high viewership due to the Super Bowl, NBC officials encouraged The Office producers to feature celebrity guest appearances in the episode. Jack Black, Jessica Alba and Cloris Leachman all made guest appearances in "Stress Relief" as a result. However, they do not interact with the cast and characters of The Office, but rather appear separately in a bootleg film called Mrs. Albert Hannaday, which the characters watch within the episode. Greg Daniels said this was done because it "helps keep the show grounded and less like I Love Lucy
". Lieberstein also said of the casting decision made sense because, "If we're just casting some salesman that comes into the office and it's Jack Black, it's hard to believe that." "Stress Relief" marked Black's fourth television appearance in five years: he previously appeared in the Fox
sitcom Cracking Up
in 2004, the Comedy Central
series The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show in 2004, and the Fox animated comedy series The Simpsons
in 2007. Steve Carell said of Leachman's performance, "She is that extra seasoning. That extra spice to the pot that makes for a delicious comedy gumbo."
, of which he said, "PowerPoint is boring". Michael refers to Barack Obama
, the first African American president of the United States, to Stanley while he is suffering a heart attack by shouting, "Stanley! Barack is president! You are black! Stanley!" Michael calls an employee from the Red Cross
, an international humanitarian movement, to conduct a lesson about CPR. The instructor suggests they pump the heart to the tune of "Stayin' Alive
", a disco song by the pop band, the Bee Gees
, but Michael mixes the song up with I Will Survive
. At the end of the lesson, Dwight cuts the face off the CPR dummy and places it on his face in the manner of Hannibal Lecter
, a fictional cannibalistic serial killer who cut the face off a man and wore it as a mask in the 1991 thriller film, The Silence of the Lambs. Watching Mrs. Albert Hannaday, Andy says the Cloris Leachman character was originally supposed to be played by the much younger actress, Nicole Kidman
, and the last-minute replacement prompted a minor overhaul in the film's script. The songs "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates, "All Out of Love
" by the soft rock duo Air Supply
, "Have a Little Faith in Me
" by singer-songwriter John Hiatt
, and "Lady
" by Little River Band
play during scenes in Mrs. Albert Hannaday.
Michael describes the roast as an event in the style of televised comedy specials that air on the cable network, Comedy Central
. In describing the upcoming roast, Michael says he plans to call YouTube
, an online video sharing website, to record the event. During the roast, Pam says Michael's penis is so small, "If it were an iPod
, it would be a Shuffle
", a reference to the smallest of the Apple Inc. portable media player brands. Kelly said she would rather kiss Lord Voldemort
, the hideous antagonist of the Harry Potter novels
and films
, than Michael. Andy sings a song about Michael, "What I Hate About You", to the tune of the rock song by The Romantics
, "What I Like About You
". Angela makes a joke, "If you put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott", which is modeled after the "you might be a redneck" one-liner jokes by comedian Jeff Foxworthy
. While roasting his co-workers at the end of the episode, Michael says to Andy, "Cornell called and they think you suck", a reference to Cornell University
, the Ithaca
, New York
college the Andy character attended.
, making it the most watched episode of The Office to date and the only episode to reach over 20 million viewers. The episode drew a 10.6 rating and 14.46 million viewers between the ages 18 and 49. It more than doubled the show's previously highest rating in the age group, and constituted the largest 18-49 rating for an NBC entertainment telecast in four-and-a-half years, since the tenth season finale of the medical drama series ER
on May 13, 2004. An estimated 37.7 million viewers watched at least six minutes or more of "Stress Relief". As expected, The Office benefited highly from following the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII, which was seen by 98.7 million average viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl in history at the time.
magazine named it the best overall television episode of any series in 2009. "Stress Relief" was voted the third highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 8.89 out of 10. Stanley's heart attack in response to Dwight's fake fire drill ranked number 10 in phillyBurbs.com' s top ten moments from the fifth season of The Office. Many critics particularly praised the opening scene, in which Dwight panics his co-workers by simulating a fire. The sequence included scenes such as Kevin looting a vending machine amid the chaos, Oscar's legs crashing through the ceiling as he tries to crawl out, Angela tossing her cat through an open ceiling tile only for it to fall through another tile, and Andy's reaction to a series of popping caps: "The fire is shooting at us!"
Alan Sepinwall, television columnist for The Star-Ledger
called it a "balls to the wall, gut-busting, amazing Office episode", and called the fire opening scene "not only the best Office pre-credits sequence ever, but an all-time sitcom classic". Sepinwall said "Stress Relief" was accessible to newcomers and regular viewers, and displayed both the comedic and human sides of the characters. He said the only drawback of the episode was the Mrs. Albert Hannaday subplot, which he felt was an unnecessary gimmick added solely to accommodate the guest stars. TV Guide
writer Shahzad Abbas wrote, "This was one of my favorite episodes ever. It had me laughing the whole way through." Abbas particularly praised the fire opening scene and the final scene in which Michael insults everybody, which he called "a very satisfying ending to the roast saga". He called the Black/Leachman romance "creepy and hilarious", but described the Jim and Pam romance subplot as the weak link of the episode.
David Krone of the Los Angeles Daily News
said although he had mixed feelings about the fifth season so far, he found "Stress Relief" to be "one of the season's best efforts". Krone specifically praised the Jim and Pam subplot and Dwight's character, adding, "It's a pretty perfect way to unwind - or, if your team lost, to become reanimated - after the Super Bowl." Rick Ingebritson of The Palm Beach Post
said the episode "was funny from start to finish", particularly praising Dwight Schrute's role and the Michael Scott roast. However, Ingebritson said he was disgusted by the Leachman nude scene from Mrs. Albert Hannaday. Will Leitch
of New York
magazine, said the episode was funny, but "curiously unfocused [like] two half-hour episodes awkwardly spliced together. He praised the Black/Leachman film, the trouble Dwight kept getting in, and the Jim and Pam subplot, which he called "a rare Pam-Jim plot point that worked". However, he called the Michael roast "yet another Michael-wanting-to-be-loved-and-still-be-the-Boss subplot that takes over the second half".
Not all reviews were positive. Entertainment Weekly
writer Whitney Pastorek said the episode started strong with the fire scare scene, but "tapered off into a disjointed plot" that she felt would not win new viewers. She said many jokes went too long and lost momentum, but nevertheless wrote "a lot of the episode’s humor was engaging and smart". Lorenzo Perez of The News & Observer
said the Pam subplot was "overworked" and lacked impact, and the Dwight character was over-the-top, proving The Office writers clearly have no idea how to rein in Dwight Schrute. Perez also expressed doubt the show would attract a new audience because it ran too late into the night following the Super Bowl. However, Perez said he enjoyed the Black/Leachman cameos. Terry Morrow of the Knoxville News Sentinel
said, "This particular visit to The Office doesn't pop like most episodes". Morrow praised the Black/Leachman film, but said, "To be upstaged by a B-plot, one not involving the show's main characters at all, is a bit of a misdirection the show doesn't need in a post-Super Bowl time slot." USA Today
critic Robert Bianco said the plot was extremely thin and the Black and Leachman cameos were humorless and grotesque. Bianco wrote, "Unfortunately, in an hour you get at most a handful of funny moments. So if you want funny from a comedy, look elsewhere."
for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for "Stress Relief". David Rogers and Dean Holland were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Editing in a Comedy Series, but lost to the 30 Rock
episode, "Apollo, Apollo
". "Stress Relief" accounted for two of the ten Emmy nominations The Office received during the show's fifth season.
The Office (U.S. TV series) season 5
The fifth season of the American television comedy The Office premiered in the United States in the 2008–2009 television season on NBC on September 25, 2008 and concluded on May 14, 2009. The fifth season consisted of 28 half-hours of material, divided into 24 half-hour episodes and two hour-long...
, and the 86th and 87th overall episodes of the series. Both episodes were directed by Jeffrey Blitz
Jeffrey Blitz
Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, producer and screenwriter from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary, Spellbound and he won the Dramatic Directing Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for his 2007 film, Rocket Science.Blitz won the 2009...
and written by Paul Lieberstein
Paul Lieberstein
Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American screenwriter, actor and television producer. An Emmy Award winner, he is most widely known as a writer, producer, and as supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the U.S...
, who also plays Toby Flenderson
Toby Flenderson
Toby Wyatt Flenderson, M.S.W. born 1971 is a character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Paul Lieberstein. He is an original character and has no equivalent in the British version of the show, The Office.-Overview:...
on the show.
In this episode, Dwight stages a fire in the office to test the office's fire safety skills, but things go from bad to worse when Stanley suffers a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, causing Michael to come up with ways to relieve stress in the office, including a comedic roast of himself. Meanwhile, Andy, Jim, and Pam watch an illegally downloaded movie at work starring Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
, Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba
Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
and Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
, and Pam deals with her parent's recent argument that causes her father to move in with her and Jim.
Both parts of "Stress Relief" originally aired together immediately following the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
, and The Office writers and producers sought to attract newcomers to the series with the expected increase in viewership. Guest stars Black, Alba and Leachman do not interact with the regular characters themselves, but rather appear in a film within the episode. The Office creator Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
said this was done to keep the episode more grounded in reality.
The episode received generally positive reviews, with Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine declaring it the best overall television episode of any series in 2009. Many commentators particularly praising the chaotic cold open
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
scene, in which Dwight panics his co-workers with a simulated fire as part of a twisted safety demonstration. Because of its proximity to the Super Bowl, "Stress Relief" is the most viewed episode of The Office to date with 22.9 million viewers (according to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
) during its original broadcast. It won the 2009 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Editing in a Comedy Series.
Part one
Annoyed that none of his co-workers have paid attention to his previous fire safety seminars, DwightDwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. He originally exactly resembled Gareth Keenan from the original UK version of The Office. Dwight is the top salesman and former acting manager for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for...
(Rainn Wilson
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Dietrich Wilson is an American actor and comedian. He is primarily known for his role as the egomaniacal Dwight Schrute on the American version of the television comedy The Office...
) tries another approach by sealing the office exits shut, cutting the phone lines and starting a fire in a trash can. Dwight calmly explains the proper safety procedures as the panicked employees try to flee, smashing windows, crawling through air ducts and destroying office equipment. Dwight eventually reveals it was just a drill, but Stanley
Stanley Hudson
Stanley James Hudson is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Leslie David Baker. Stanley's counterpart in the UK series is Malcolm.-Overview:...
(Leslie David Baker
Leslie David Baker
Leslie David Baker is an American film and television actor who plays Stanley Hudson on The Office. He also had several small roles in Scrubs and appeared on That '70s Show as a janitor after a Ted Nugent concert and played an office worker in several of OfficeMax's "Rubberband Man" series of...
) suffers a heart attack and collapses in the commotion. Dwight is subsequently censured by Dunder Mifflin CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley), and Michael
Michael Scott (The Office)
Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, was the manager of the Scranton branch of paper and printer distribution company Dunder Mifflin Inc...
(Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
) strips him of his position as safety officer. After Stanley is released from the hospital, his doctors warn him to keep his stress levels under control to avoid further damaging his health. Michael arranges for a CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest. It is indicated in those who are unresponsive...
training session for the employees, but they are too easily distracted and the lesson proves fruitless. The session ends badly when Dwight destroys the expensive CPR dummy, earning another rebuke from David Wallace. Dwight is ordered to apologize to his co-workers and get signatures acknowledging that they forgive him, but they refuse to sign.
With tensions running high in the office, Michael tries to calm his workers down with yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
sessions. However, Michael soon realizes he is actually the source of this employees' stress when Stanley’s stress reader beeps uncontrollably whenever Michael is nearby. Michael hands the stress reader to Oscar
Oscar Martinez
Oscar Jual Paul Martinez is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Oscar Nunez.-Overview:Oscar Martinez is an accountant at the paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. He is a first generation Mexican-American. Oscar is also openly homosexual after being...
(Oscar Nunez
Oscar Nunez
Oscar Nunez , sometimes credited as Oscar Núñez, is a Cuban American actor and comedian.He currently appears as Dunder Mifflin's paper supply accountant, Oscar Martinez, on NBC's The Office.-Career:...
) and is horrified when the same result occurs. Meanwhile, Pam
Pam Beesly
Pamela Morgan "Pam" Halpert is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom The Office, played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of The Office is Dawn Tinsley....
’s (Jenna Fischer
Jenna Fischer
Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer is an American actress and director. She is most widely known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Pam Halpert on the NBC situation comedy and mockumentary The Office, and has also appeared in several films, including Blades of Glory, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,...
) parents are going through a rough patch in their marriage, and Pam’s father is staying with her and Jim
Jim Halpert
James Duncan "Jim" Halpert is a fictional character in the United States version of the television sitcom The Office, played by John Krasinski. The character is based on Tim Canterbury from the original version of The Office...
(John Krasinski
John Krasinski
John Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...
). Jim attempts to cheer Pam up by watching a pirated movie with Andy
Andy Bernard
Andrew "Andy" Baines Bernard is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. The character is highly insecure, yet egotistical, constantly mentioning his education at Cornell University...
(Ed Helms
Ed Helms
Edward Paul "Ed" Helms is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as Andy Bernard on the US version of the sitcom/mockumentary The Office and for his role as Dr. Stu Price in The Hangover films.- Early life :Helms was born and raised...
). The film stars actor Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
, who is engaged to a character played by Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba
Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
, but falls in love with her elderly grandmother, played by Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
. During the movie, Jim and Pam discuss the situation with Pam’s parents. Andy believes their insightful comments are directed at the characters in the film, leading him to conclude they are "movie geniuses" finding hidden depths in the film.
Part two
Michael decides the workers are stressed because they are reluctant to express their feelings, so he organizes a comedic roastRoast (comedy)
A roast is an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heartwarming tributes, the implication being that the roastee is able to take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult, and...
of himself in the warehouse. Dwight tricks most of the employees into signing his apology letter by pretending it is a sign-in sheet, but Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) catches on and refuses to sign it. Each of the office and warehouse workers gleefully take jabs at Michael, who initially seems to enjoy the jokes, but grows increasingly uncomfortable and offended. When it comes time for him to roast his employees, Michael ends up storming out of the warehouse, visibly upset. After the roast, Michael takes a personal day (much to the concern of his employees, who started to feel bad about the scathing jokes towards Michael) and spends time at a playground to reflect, feeding pigeons by tossing whole slices of bread on the ground, despite the lack of birds in the winter weather. Dwight tricks Phyllis into signing his apology letter by making her sign for a fake package. Michael returns to the office, where he roasts each of his co-workers with one-liners. Stanley laughs heartily when Michael roasts him, breaking the tension. Michael tells his employees that they are the reason he got into the paper business, and they applaud him.
Pam asks Jim to talk to her father and convince him to work things out with her mother. But shortly after they talk, Pam learns her father has sought a separation and will be looking for his own apartment. Pam initially believes it is because of something Jim said to her father, making her worry that she and Jim might one day experience the same problems. This creates tension between the two, and Jim feels terrible for his apparent role in breaking up her parents. Pam confronts her father about why he left her mother, while Jim looks on through the window. Pam returns to the office and tells Jim her father left because Jim told him how much he loves Pam, and that he has never doubted that he wanted to be with her for the rest his life. Pam says that her father realized that he had never felt that way about her mother. Pam comes to terms with the separation and tearfully embraces Jim. Later, she expresses confidence that the two are true soul mates.
In the final scene of the episode, the ending of the illegally downloaded movie is revealed—Jack Black visits Cloris Leachman with flowers and a new walker, only to discover her affair with another young man and he walks away heartbroken.
Production
Jeffrey Blitz
Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, producer and screenwriter from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary, Spellbound and he won the Dramatic Directing Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for his 2007 film, Rocket Science.Blitz won the 2009...
and written by Paul Lieberstein
Paul Lieberstein
Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American screenwriter, actor and television producer. An Emmy Award winner, he is most widely known as a writer, producer, and as supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the U.S...
, who also plays Toby Flenderson
Toby Flenderson
Toby Wyatt Flenderson, M.S.W. born 1971 is a character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Paul Lieberstein. He is an original character and has no equivalent in the British version of the show, The Office.-Overview:...
on the show. The episode originally aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the United States on February 1, 2009, immediately after the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
. NBC decided to air The Office after the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, rather than another show, due to positive feedback the series received from short promo commercials it aired during the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
. Some criticized the decision to place an episode of The Office, an already established NBC series, after the Super Bowl instead of a new show, and suggested it meant the network lacked any exceptional new material.
In writing the episode, Lieberstein said he sought to appeal to newcomers to the series and attract them to the show, without alienating regular The Office watchers: "We wanted to do a stand-alone comedy episode that could bring people in." Lieberstein said the script drew less attention to long-standing story arcs, which new viewers would not understand. Lieberstein said, "It almost had an air of a pilot in a way, where we had to reintroduce everything. We wanted it to be extremely funny and extremely funny up front." The Office creator Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
said he felt the episode had to focus on physical comedy and easily accessible set pieces. Daniels said, "I looked at all the shows that followed the Super Bowl in years past and I feel that a comedy would be a good choice in the current climate. People want to laugh so we're trying our best to supply some laughs." Actor Rainn Wilson said of the episode, "It's a great opportunity for people to revisit the world of The Office and hopefully get into our style of comedy."
The two parts of "Stress Relief" ran an hour long (including commercials), compared to the typical half-hour length of most The Office episodes. Since the end of the second season
The Office (U.S. TV series) season 2
The second season of the American situation comedy television series, The Office, premiered in the United States on NBC on September 20, 2005, and ended on May 11, 2006. The season had 22 episodes, including its first 40-minute "super-sized" episode...
, the series had begun occasionally showing longer episodes (which they dubbed "super-sized") on special occasions. Unlike other episodes of The Office, "Stress Relief" included an extended main title sequence that included the names and images of the entire supporting cast of the series, in order to afford them recognition in anticipation of the high post-Super Bowl viewership. The opening scene, in which the characters frantically scramble to escape the Dunder Mifflin office due to what they believe is a fire, took about a day-and-a-half to shoot. It took much longer than the average 45 minutes of shooting time for a scene of that length due to the amount of stunt work involved. Due to the pressure of following the Super Bowl, actress Jenna Fischer said, "I don't think we've ever worked so hard on an episode in the history of our show." The Office actor and writer B.J. Novak, who did not appear in "Stress Relief", said of the episode, "It's awesome. After this airs, people are going to refer to the Super Bowl as the Pre-Office Football Spectacular."
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
". Lieberstein also said of the casting decision made sense because, "If we're just casting some salesman that comes into the office and it's Jack Black, it's hard to believe that." "Stress Relief" marked Black's fourth television appearance in five years: he previously appeared in the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
sitcom Cracking Up
Cracking Up
For the movie, see Cracking Up .Cracking Up is an American television sitcom created by School of Rock writer Mike White, who also served as the series' head writer. It aired on the Fox Network on Monday nights from March to May 2004. The title of the program and the name of the psychiatrist, Dr...
in 2004, the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
series The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show in 2004, and the Fox animated comedy series The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
in 2007. Steve Carell said of Leachman's performance, "She is that extra seasoning. That extra spice to the pot that makes for a delicious comedy gumbo."
Cultural references
Just before Dwight starts his fire simulation, he said his co-workers previously failed to listen because he made a presentation on the computer program Microsoft PowerPointMicrosoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
, of which he said, "PowerPoint is boring". Michael refers to Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, the first African American president of the United States, to Stanley while he is suffering a heart attack by shouting, "Stanley! Barack is president! You are black! Stanley!" Michael calls an employee from the Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
, an international humanitarian movement, to conduct a lesson about CPR. The instructor suggests they pump the heart to the tune of "Stayin' Alive
Stayin' Alive
"Stayin' Alive" is a song by the pop group Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees and produced by the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on 13 December 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever...
", a disco song by the pop band, the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
, but Michael mixes the song up with I Will Survive
I Will Survive
"I Will Survive" is a song first performed by American singer Gloria Gaynor, released in October 1978. It was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris...
. At the end of the lesson, Dwight cuts the face off the CPR dummy and places it on his face in the manner of Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
, a fictional cannibalistic serial killer who cut the face off a man and wore it as a mask in the 1991 thriller film, The Silence of the Lambs. Watching Mrs. Albert Hannaday, Andy says the Cloris Leachman character was originally supposed to be played by the much younger actress, Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
, and the last-minute replacement prompted a minor overhaul in the film's script. The songs "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates, "All Out of Love
All Out of Love
"All Out of Love" is a pop–ballad by Air Supply, released in 1980. It reached number 2 in the US and number 11 in the UK. The song is considered to be one of the greatest love songs, placing 92nd in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs....
" by the soft rock duo Air Supply
Air Supply
Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of Graham Russell as guitarist and singer-songwriter and Russell Hitchcock as lead vocalist. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States, in the early 1980s...
, "Have a Little Faith in Me
Have a Little Faith in Me
"Have a Little Faith in Me" is a song written and performed by John Hiatt that appears on his 1987 album Bring the Family.The song has been covered separately by Michael English, Joe Cocker, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Kahn, Bob Malone, Mandy Moore, Patty Larkin, Bill Frisell , Jo-El Sonnier, and Ilse...
" by singer-songwriter John Hiatt
John Hiatt
John Hiatt is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for several Grammy Awards - although he has never won- and has been awarded a variety of other...
, and "Lady
Lady
The word lady is a polite term for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to, or spouse of, a lord or gentleman, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman...
" by Little River Band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
play during scenes in Mrs. Albert Hannaday.
Michael describes the roast as an event in the style of televised comedy specials that air on the cable network, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. In describing the upcoming roast, Michael says he plans to call YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, an online video sharing website, to record the event. During the roast, Pam says Michael's penis is so small, "If it were an iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
, it would be a Shuffle
IPod shuffle
The iPod Shuffle is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first to use flash memory...
", a reference to the smallest of the Apple Inc. portable media player brands. Kelly said she would rather kiss Lord Voldemort
Lord Voldemort
Lord Voldemort is the main antagonist of the Harry Potter series written by British author J. K. Rowling. Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was released in 1997...
, the hideous antagonist of the Harry Potter novels
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
and films
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
, than Michael. Andy sings a song about Michael, "What I Hate About You", to the tune of the rock song by The Romantics
The Romantics
The Romantics is an American New Wave band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1977. The band adopted the name "The Romantics" because they formed on Valentine's Day, 1977. The Romantics achieved popularity in the United Kingdom, The U.S...
, "What I Like About You
What I Like About You (song)
"What I Like About You" is a song by American rock band The Romantics. The song, written by Romantics members Wally Palmar, Mike Skill and Jimmy Marinos is featured on the band's self-titled 1980 debut album, and was also released as a single. Marinos, the band's drummer, is the lead vocalist on...
". Angela makes a joke, "If you put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott", which is modeled after the "you might be a redneck" one-liner jokes by comedian Jeff Foxworthy
Jeff Foxworthy
Jeffrey Marshall "Jeff" Foxworthy is an American comedian, television and radio personality and author. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also comprises Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White. Known for his "you might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy...
. While roasting his co-workers at the end of the episode, Michael says to Andy, "Cornell called and they think you suck", a reference to Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, the Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
college the Andy character attended.
Ratings
In its original American broadcast on February 1, 2009, "Stress Relief" was viewed by 22.9 million viewers in 13.34 million homes, according to Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, making it the most watched episode of The Office to date and the only episode to reach over 20 million viewers. The episode drew a 10.6 rating and 14.46 million viewers between the ages 18 and 49. It more than doubled the show's previously highest rating in the age group, and constituted the largest 18-49 rating for an NBC entertainment telecast in four-and-a-half years, since the tenth season finale of the medical drama series ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
on May 13, 2004. An estimated 37.7 million viewers watched at least six minutes or more of "Stress Relief". As expected, The Office benefited highly from following the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII, which was seen by 98.7 million average viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl in history at the time.
Critical reception
"Stress Relief" received generally positive reviews. TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine named it the best overall television episode of any series in 2009. "Stress Relief" was voted the third highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 8.89 out of 10. Stanley's heart attack in response to Dwight's fake fire drill ranked number 10 in phillyBurbs.com
Alan Sepinwall, television columnist for The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
called it a "balls to the wall, gut-busting, amazing Office episode", and called the fire opening scene "not only the best Office pre-credits sequence ever, but an all-time sitcom classic". Sepinwall said "Stress Relief" was accessible to newcomers and regular viewers, and displayed both the comedic and human sides of the characters. He said the only drawback of the episode was the Mrs. Albert Hannaday subplot, which he felt was an unnecessary gimmick added solely to accommodate the guest stars. TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
writer Shahzad Abbas wrote, "This was one of my favorite episodes ever. It had me laughing the whole way through." Abbas particularly praised the fire opening scene and the final scene in which Michael insults everybody, which he called "a very satisfying ending to the roast saga". He called the Black/Leachman romance "creepy and hilarious", but described the Jim and Pam romance subplot as the weak link of the episode.
David Krone of the Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
said although he had mixed feelings about the fifth season so far, he found "Stress Relief" to be "one of the season's best efforts". Krone specifically praised the Jim and Pam subplot and Dwight's character, adding, "It's a pretty perfect way to unwind - or, if your team lost, to become reanimated - after the Super Bowl." Rick Ingebritson of The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post is a major daily newspaper in Florida, serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and the Treasure Coast area. It is the 72nd largest daily newspaper in the United States and the sixth largest in Florida.-History:...
said the episode "was funny from start to finish", particularly praising Dwight Schrute's role and the Michael Scott roast. However, Ingebritson said he was disgusted by the Leachman nude scene from Mrs. Albert Hannaday. Will Leitch
Will Leitch
William F. Leitch is a writer based in New York City and the founding editor of the Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin...
of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine, said the episode was funny, but "curiously unfocused [like] two half-hour episodes awkwardly spliced together. He praised the Black/Leachman film, the trouble Dwight kept getting in, and the Jim and Pam subplot, which he called "a rare Pam-Jim plot point that worked". However, he called the Michael roast "yet another Michael-wanting-to-be-loved-and-still-be-the-Boss subplot that takes over the second half".
Not all reviews were positive. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
writer Whitney Pastorek said the episode started strong with the fire scare scene, but "tapered off into a disjointed plot" that she felt would not win new viewers. She said many jokes went too long and lost momentum, but nevertheless wrote "a lot of the episode’s humor was engaging and smart". Lorenzo Perez of The News & Observer
The News & Observer
The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of...
said the Pam subplot was "overworked" and lacked impact, and the Dwight character was over-the-top, proving The Office writers clearly have no idea how to rein in Dwight Schrute. Perez also expressed doubt the show would attract a new audience because it ran too late into the night following the Super Bowl. However, Perez said he enjoyed the Black/Leachman cameos. Terry Morrow of the Knoxville News Sentinel
Knoxville News Sentinel
The Knoxville News Sentinel is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. It operates , an award-winning news website....
said, "This particular visit to The Office doesn't pop like most episodes". Morrow praised the Black/Leachman film, but said, "To be upstaged by a B-plot, one not involving the show's main characters at all, is a bit of a misdirection the show doesn't need in a post-Super Bowl time slot." USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
critic Robert Bianco said the plot was extremely thin and the Black and Leachman cameos were humorless and grotesque. Bianco wrote, "Unfortunately, in an hour you get at most a handful of funny moments. So if you want funny from a comedy, look elsewhere."
Awards
Jeffrey Blitz won a 2009 Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for "Stress Relief". David Rogers and Dean Holland were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Editing in a Comedy Series, but lost to the 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
episode, "Apollo, Apollo
Apollo, Apollo
"Apollo, Apollo" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 52nd episode of the series overall. It was written by executive producer Robert Carlock and directed by Millicent Shelton. The episode originally aired on the National Broadcasting...
". "Stress Relief" accounted for two of the ten Emmy nominations The Office received during the show's fifth season.
External links
- "Stress Relief" at NBC.comNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...