Production
This episode was the fourth episode of the series directed by series creator Greg Daniels. Daniels had previously directed the first season episode "Basketball", along with the second season episodes "The Dundies" and "The Client". "Valentine's Day" was written by Michael Schur, who plays Dwight's Amish cousin Mose. In the DVD commentary for this episode, Greg Daniels described how some of Michael's actions in this episode, such as having the requested branch info, unlike Craig, and saving Jan's job by deflecting Craig's comments when talking to David Wallace, were scripted to show how he plausibly remains employed.
For the first time ever on The Office, Pam Beesly's hair is in a different style. Several hairstyles were shown to Greg Daniels before the one used in the episode was selected. Dwight's line about a ham being a romantic gift was written during filming on the set. The writers did not have a punchline in the scene, so they came up with several alternatives, including ham, as well as "a boombox". Most of the street scenes in New York City were improvised. They had to be kept short because crowds quickly formed around Steve Carell when he was recognized. Conan O'Brien appeared in a cameo in the episode. He previously worked with Daniels on the writing staff for Not Necessarily the News, Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons and the two also went to Harvard University together.
The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include Michael handing out plastic roses, Michael choosing the most attractive part of a woman, Creed calling everybody "Ace", Michael meeting Devon in New York, the Vance Refrigeration employees getting into a fistfight, Michael wondering why his meeting is on Valentine's Day, Jim learning that Dwight has a girlfriend, and Kevin learning that his fiancée has returned to town.
Read more about this topic: Valentine's Day (The Office)
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—Gus Hall (b. 1910)
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“Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)