Initiation (The Office) - Production

Production

This episode was the first full episode of the series directed by Randall Einhorn. Einhorn had previously directed all ten webisodes of the spin-off mini-series "The Accountants". "Initiation" was written by B. J. Novak, who also acts for the show as Ryan Howard.

The episode was filmed before "Grief Counseling", but it aired after it. There were rumors that "Initiation" was supposed to air before "Grief Counseling", but it turned out the location of the beet farm was only available that week. Although the idea for writer Michael Schur to be Dwight's cousin Mose had been a joke among the writers since the first season, B. J. Novak pitched the idea when writing "Initiation". Schur had to grow out his beard for three months and wear wool clothes on a hot day as part of his character. Mose was based on an actual participant in the UPN reality show Amish in the City. In this episode, Jim was seen singing Lovefool by The Cardigans. The song playing in Dwight's car when he and Ryan are driving to the beet farm is River Runs Red by Life of Agony. In the basket that Mose makes for Ryan is "something he whittled" which strongly resembles a Venus figurine.

The third season DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from the episode, including Jan asking Michael to record his day on a schedule, Ryan being hugged by Michael before leaving for his first sales call, Dwight and Ryan leaving the office, Michael reading his schedule in a talking head scene, Pam encouraging Michael to "focus" for the day, Ryan reflecting on his life path, and Dwight showing Ryan his family cemetery.