Casino Night - Production

Production

"Casino Night" was the first episode of the series written by Steve Carell. Initially, Carell suggested to executive producer Greg Daniels that an episode should revolved around a casino night. When it came time to plan the finale for the show, Daniels chose the idea and picked Carell to write the script. Parts of the script were fleshed up during the flights to and from New York when the show was filming the earlier episode "Valentine's Day". Later, Carell had only one weekend to write the bulk script. Daniels was very happy with the rough script and noted "came in with a great draft". Jenna Fischer admitted that filming the episode was a relief because she had "been carrying around the secret cliff-hangers for two months". Toby Flenderson, who is portrayed by writer Paul Lieberstein, stated during the episode "I'm gonna chase that feeling" after winning at a game of poker. The line was originally intended to lead to a subplot wherein Toby develops a gambling addiction, but the storyline was later abandoned.

The episode was the fifth episode of the season and the seventh of the entire series directed by Ken Kwapis. During the editing of the episode, executive producer Greg Daniels publicly addressed NBC in an interview, stating, "I'd like to get a supersized episode, because it’s a really long script with a lot of good stuff." In response, fans of the show set up an online petition to "supersize" the season finale. The website generated over 2,800 signatures. On April 20, NBC announced it would be extending the season finale by ten minutes. Although other NBC shows Will & Grace and My Name Is Earl that aired on the same night had extended episodes, cast members David Denman and John Krasinski credited in interviews the petition for the extended time. Denman and Krasinski both believed that the petition was partially responsible for the other two shows getting extended times as well.

The episode features Kevin Malone playing the drums in a band, which had been an idea circulated since the first season, when allusions to him being in a Steve Miller tribute band were written; the scenes had to be removed from the series due to issues negotiating with the singer. The crew later decided to have Kevin be in a Police tribute band called Scrantonicity because he "talks so low, and has very little expression, and there is no band that sings higher and with more expression than the Police." While Kevin was always intended to be the band's lead singer, executive producer Greg Daniels approached Baumgartner about possibly playing an instrument, but the actor replied he could not play anything. Daniels and Baumgartner then discussed instruments that would be "funny" to play and brought up harmonicas, saxophones, and drums. They ultimately decided on the latter because they deemed a "drumming lead singer be the funniest choice," regardless of the fact that the actor had "absolutely no drumming experience, and it's a difficult instrument."

The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include Michael creating Dunder Mifflin Mad Libs, Dwight and Jim choosing their charities, Dwight considering Jim's telekinetic powers, an extension of Michael's scene with Darryl, Pam finding planning a wedding stressful, Meredith and the casino dealer sharing a past.