Stress Relief - Production

Production

"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 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."