Season 3 (2006–07)
Season three premiered on September 21, 2006, and ended on May 17, 2007. It featured 25 episodes, including two hour-long episodes, four "super-sized" episodes, and guest directors such as J. J. Abrams, Joss Whedon and Harold Ramis.
The season marked the move of main character Jim Halpert from Scranton to Stamford, and also introduced Rashida Jones as Karen Filippelli, and Ed Helms as Andy Bernard (both members of Dunder Mifflin Stamford) as recurring characters. Helms would later be promoted to series regular. The main plot for the early episodes of the season deals with a recurring problem in seasons one and two—the problem of company downsizing—while in the last half of the season, inter-office relationships also became a major plot point. Metacritic, which assigns normalized ratings out of 100 to critics' reviews, calculated an average score of 85/100 based on five collected reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Production code |
U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 1 | "Gay Witch Hunt" | Ken Kwapis | Greg Daniels | September 21, 2006 (2006-09-21) | 3001 | 9.11 |
| 30 | 2 | "The Convention" | Ken Whittingham | Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg | September 28, 2006 (2006-09-28) | 3006 | 7.78 |
| 31 | 3 | "The Coup" | Greg Daniels | Paul Lieberstein | October 5, 2006 (2006-10-05) | 3002 | 8.89 |
| 32 | 4 | "Grief Counseling" | Roger Nygard | Jennifer Celotta | October 12, 2006 (2006-10-12) | 3003 | 8.83 |
| 33 | 5 | "Initiation" | Randall Einhorn | B. J. Novak | October 19, 2006 (2006-10-19) | 3005 | 8.46 |
| 34 | 6 | "Diwali" | Miguel Arteta | Mindy Kaling | November 2, 2006 (2006-11-02) | 3004 | 8.81 |
| 35 | 7 | "Branch Closing" | Tucker Gates | Michael Schur | November 9, 2006 (2006-11-09) | 3007 | 8.05 |
| 36 | 8 | "The Merger"† | Ken Whittingham | Brent Forrester | November 16, 2006 (2006-11-16) | 3008 | 8.63 |
| 37 | 9 | "The Convict" | Jeffrey Blitz | Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant | November 30, 2006 (2006-11-30) | 3010 | 9.07 |
| 38/39 | 10/11 | "A Benihana Christmas"‡ | Harold Ramis | Jennifer Celotta | December 14, 2006 (2006-12-14) | 3009/3014 | 8.44 |
| 40 | 12 | "Back from Vacation" | Julian Farino | Justin Spitzer | January 4, 2007 (2007-01-04) | 3011 | 8.80 |
| 41 | 13 | "Traveling Salesmen" | Greg Daniels | Michael Schur, Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky | January 11, 2007 (2007-01-11) | 3012 | 10.12 |
| 42 | 14 | "The Return" | Greg Daniels | Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky & Michael Schur | January 18, 2007 (2007-01-18) | 3013 | 10.2 |
| 43 | 15 | "Ben Franklin" | Randall Einhorn | Mindy Kaling | February 1, 2007 (2007-02-01) | 3015 | 10.11 |
| 44 | 16 | "Phyllis's Wedding" | Ken Whittingham | Caroline Williams | February 8, 2007 (2007-02-08) | 3016 | 8.84 |
| 45 | 17 | "Business School" | Joss Whedon | Brent Forrester | February 15, 2007 (2007-02-15) | 3017 | 8.84 |
| 46 | 18 | "Cocktails" | J. J. Abrams | Paul Lieberstein | February 22, 2007 (2007-02-22) | 3018 | 8.30 |
| 47 | 19 | "The Negotiation"† | Jeffrey Blitz | Michael Schur | April 5, 2007 (2007-04-05) | 3019 | 6.74 |
| 48 | 20 | "Safety Training" | Harold Ramis | B. J. Novak | April 12, 2007 (2007-04-12) | 3020 | 7.71 |
| 49 | 21 | "Product Recall" | Randall Einhorn | Justin Spitzer & Brent Forrester | April 26, 2007 (2007-04-26) | 3025 | 7.56 |
| 50 | 22 | "Women's Appreciation"† | Tucker Gates | Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg | May 3, 2007 (2007-05-03) | 3021 | 7.00 |
| 51 | 23 | "Beach Games"† | Harold Ramis | Jennifer Celotta & Greg Daniels | May 10, 2007 (2007-05-10) | 3022 | 7.20 |
| 52/53 | 24/25 | "The Job"‡ | Ken Kwapis | Paul Lieberstein & Michael Schur | May 17, 2007 (2007-05-17) | 3023/3024 | 7.88 |
Read more about this topic: The Outburst, Episode List
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