How the perfect cold open for ‘Stress Relief’ of ‘The Office’ came together

OK it’s happening. Everybody stay calm!

After more than 80 episodes, the Office Ladies podcast finally reached the two-part Season 5 episode, “Stress Relief.” In a laugh-packed retelling, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about what Kinsey refers to as the “the cold open to end cold opens”: Dwight’s chaotic fire drill that leads to Stanley’s heart attack.

Before we break down the cold open that Kinsey once told Mashable was her favorite opening of the entire series, let’s run through a few facts about the episode, which was written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Jeff Blitz.

Fans who watched the live in 2009 may recall that “Stress Relief” received the coveted post-Super Bowl slot. It was the most viewed Office episode ever (a whopping 22.9 million people tuned in) and Kinsey and Fischer revealed a ton of planning went into the story. The special slot meant that pressure was on from the network. Everyone knew they didn’t just need a quality episode, but something that could appeal to fans and first-time viewers alike. And perhaps most importantly, they needed a captivating intro.

“So Greg had this idea: What if an office weirdo who wanted people to listen to his safety ideas actually caused a fire emergency? He was like, ‘You don’t have to know who’s who, it has a lot of energy, and a lot of physical comedy,” Fischer said.

That’s how the idea for the “Stress Relief” cold open was born. Now buckle in to learn how the masterful, sidesplitting scene came together.

The planning

Kinsey and Fischer chatted with line producer Randy Cordray who explained they had several planning sessions with all the department heads prior to filming the cold open.

“We had our director Jeff Blitz, cinematographer Randall Einhorn — they had to walk through this whole dance that we did with the camera stunts, animal trainers, script supervisor, Veda [Semarne] like tracking the continuity. And then our rock star first [assistant director], Kelly Cantley, she then broke it down into smaller moments,” Kinsey said.

“Dean Holland, our editor who edited this sequence, told me he was also brought in on those planning sessions. He said he got so much footage, but that it was actually really, really well organized and pretty easy to edit because they planned so well,” Fischer added.

The cold open alone took the entirety of Dec. 11, 2008 to film, and it was shot out of order for safety reasons.

Dwight kicking things off with a blow torch

Both Fischer and Kinsey recalled the cast and crew had to attend a bunch of safety meeting before filming. I guess all that prep made sense, since they did things like hand Rainn Wilson a real blow torch and lit cigarette.

For anyone wondering, Rainn really did start some fires in this episode.

“It was a real live blow torch. It was not a CGI flame,” Wilson told the podcast. “They had a lot of safety officers there — you know, a fire marshal is there and a special effects coordinator. And the [door] handles actually did get very hot. You know, nowadays they’d probably do CGI and maybe even make the door handle a little red with the CGI. But that was all completely real.”

“It was an actual cigarette that I smoked and lit and I threw it in the garbage can with the paper,” Wilson continued. “But I think they, like, ran in the second that camera panned away and tossed in some water and put it out.”

The menacing fire fans see in the trash can was created using special effects, as was the smoke that billowed through the door and filled the room.

Accidentally running over a camera man

Back in 2020, Kinsey told Mashable one of her favorite things about the “Stress Relief” cold open was that the cast accidentally knocked down camera operator Randall Einhorn.

“I remember when I was running backwards through the break room and Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin, was running at me because he’s frantically trying to get out of there. And he just kept running and running and gaining on me and gaining on me. And I’m running backwards with the camera. And he just got so close,” Einhorn told the podcast. “And I think he hit me and I hit the ground. I went down. But my camera assist, Chris Workman, who’s a really strong guy, just caught me [and the camera] with one arm and put me back on my feet.”

Baumgartner, who led the pack into Einhorn that day, also weighed in.

“I mean, look, I had people running behind me, OK? So I had to run over whatever was in front of me or I would have gotten run over myself,” Baumgartner said. “…Like the pro that you are, well, you just kept filming. I’m so happy that it made it into the cut.”

“Save Bandit!”

While the “Stress Relief” cold open has a number of perfect components, it’s nothing without Angela screaming “Save Bandit!” and tossing her cat into the ceiling.

“‘Save Bandit’ was the last thing on our call sheet for the day, all the rest of us had gone home. I know they did this because it was so complicated. They wanted you to have the set to yourself,” Fischer said.

Kinsey confirmed and shared the details behind her real cat training, a fake cat, her stunt double, and a ceiling trick. (If any diehard “Save Bandit!” fans are reading this, we urge you to listen to the episode for the full, delightful story.)

“Jeff Blitz fought really hard to have the moment where the cat goes up in the ceiling and then out a different part of the ceiling. That was the thing he fought for. He said to do this, though, it would involve a pair of matching cats and two trainers in the ceiling, one to catch Bandit one and one to drop Bandit two through a different ceiling panel,” Kinsey explained.

Ultimately, they couldn’t toss the stunt cat into the ceiling, so they brought in a $12,000 creepy fake cat (NBD!) for Angela to toss up, and then in the rafters a trainer gently released the real cat onto her desk a few feet below. 

For those worried about the real cat’s safety, Kinsey shared that Cordray went a step further and got a giant inflatable airbag to catch the falling cat.

“It was fine. The cat wasn’t traumatized at all,” Kinsey said. “They hid this airbag in the corner of my accounting desk with like papers and stuff. But there was a cat airbag on my desk, OK? And the ceiling panel had breakaway foam rubber. So it was all very cushy cushy.”

Save Oscar, too!

Bandit wasn’t the only one in the ceiling during that fire drill. Remember Oscar hopped up there to escape? That was a real production.

“Randy told us that that part of the stunt — getting Oscar up into the ceiling — was the other most challenging part because there was nothing to climb…” Fischer said. “…So he said in the weeks prior to filming this, our production designer Michael Gallenberg and construction coordinator Tim James had to completely reengineer the ceiling.”

“And it had to be enough to support not just Oscar, but all of the stunt personnel. He said on the day there were two stunt coordinators, the animal people, Oscar, Oscar’s stunt double, and an NBC Universal Safety Coordinator all up in the ceiling,” Fischer continued.

For those wondering if Oscar Nunez, who played Oscar Martinez on the show, did his own scene work, the answer is yes and no.

“I had a stuntman… He was he was I think it was from Morocco. He was from Cirque du Soleil,” Nunez said, explaining he did half of the stunt and his stunt double “did the really hard part.”

“It was a very funny scene — very complicated. I remember in one of the shots I made Steve laugh because one of the ways that I was coming down from the roof… They had a big a bar up there and it lowered me slowly through the hole. And that was a funny way to come down. And when I made eye contact with Steve, just hanging there with a straight face, of course, he laughed,” Nunez said. “Then they figured out another way to bring me down, which was the leap down.”

“If Steve broke, you know, it looked ridiculous,” Kinsey said.

Be sure to listen to the full podcast to learn more delightful behind-the-scenes stories from filming “Stress Relief: Part 1.”

You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.