Good thing John Krasinski was able to reel this in. Without his intervention, we could’ve seen The Office’s Jim and Pam breakup in Season 9. What kind of cruel, cruel world would it be if this really happened? And who on Earth thought a breakup between television’s most wholesome couple was a good idea?
Well, we can blame Greg Daniels, the series creator, who apparently wanted Jim and Pam’s love story to end with a cheating scandal. According to author Andy Green’s book, The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, a writer revealed Daniels’ plan to have Pam “hooking up a little bit,” with boom mic operator, Brian.
Fans might remember that decisive moment in Office history when the show *finally* broke the fourth wall. Pam gets off a devastating phone call with Jim and turns to someone off-camera—the series’ fictional boom operator, named after the real boom operator—for advice. In the following episodes, it becomes clear that Brian might have a crush on Pam. But apparently, there was supposed to be much more going on there.
According to series writer Owen Ellickson, there were talks of the pair having an affair. “Ultimately, I don’t think it was about actually going there. They never did anything,” he explained. “It was just to introduce worry in the audience.”
But if there was any chance of it happening in the first place, actor John Krasinski—who played Jim Halpert on the series—was adamant about stopping it.
“We had to pull the ripcord on it because it was so painful to the fans of the show. John Krasinski said to me, ‘Brent, this final season is for the ultra fans of the show. They’re the only ones really still left watching, right? This is for them,” explained show writer Brent Forrester in Green’s book. “Jim and Pam splitting up is too painful for them to sustain all the way to the reunion. We have to get them back together immediately.”
Forrester adds, “I was like, ‘Wow, we can’t allow this beautiful couple to really be like on the verge of divorce. It’s too awful for them.’”
Truly, just too awful. Good thing it didn’t happen!