Chair Model - Production

Production

"Chair Model" was the third episode of the series directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Blitz had previously directed "The Convict" and "The Negotiation". The episode was written by B. J. Novak, who plays temporary worker turned corporate manager Ryan Howard. Novak was originally going to name the episode "Michael Dating", but the title could have potentially been a spoiler because fans with DVRs would have seen it before "Dinner Party" aired and deduced that Michael and Jan's relationship melted down. For a while, "Parking" was going to be the title, but even that was decided against because that refers to the subplot, and also because it was generic and boring even by the show's no-frills-titles standard. Eventually, someone suggested "Chair Model", which was eventually kept as the name. Originally, Novak wrote Jim putting Dwight through a "phony management training", but NBC pointed out that it felt like the writers had done it before even though they had not. As a group, the writers tried to think of a new idea for the plot; they considered having Pam move in with Jim, but they thought that first the two should be engaged.

There was an auditioning process for both the chair model and the young blond woman that Michael sees in the coffee shop. According to writer B. J. Novak, the chair model was supposed to be "pretty" and "perhaps even prettier than your average model", but more of just an "average single girl", because the episode is more about Michael wanting to start dating again than the model herself. In the scene with the "Five Families", one of the actors, Paul Faust was the only first-time actor. Faust is the cousin of writer Paul Lieberstein, and had been on a tour of the set and talked to many of the writers. He made a good impression and so the character of "Cool Guy Paul" was based on him. The day before they were scheduled to shoot, the show still had not cast anyone for the role, so they called Paul in New York City and had him read the lines into a camera and e-mail to them. In less than an hour, Faust had landed the part and was flown out to Los Angeles.

Although Novak wrote the majority of the episode, Jennifer Celotta and Paul Lieberstein were actually the ones that came up with the graveyard scene in the end. The original song for Michael to sing was going to be a parody of "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John. Elton John however, refused to give The Office permission to use the song, because 30 Rock had requested permission for a parody of "Candle in the Wind" that offended Elton John, and he did not want to have his song parodied again. So then, the writers wrote parodies of "Legs" by ZZ Top and "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones, but eventually "American Pie" by Don McLean cleared, so the writers went with that.