Details On The Most Expensive Scene In the History of The Office

We now know what the most expensive scene from The Office was, and it was only 52 seconds long. Jenna Fischer (Pam) explained on a recent episode of The Office Ladies podcast (h/t Entertainment Weekly) that the season five premiere scene where Jim proposes to Pam at a gas station between Scranton, PA and New York City (because Pam was in NYC at the time attending graphic design school).

“In the end, this was the single most expensive scene ever shot in the entire run of the show,” she said. “It lasts 52 seconds, and it cost $250,000.”

She also noting how unusual it was for a major proposal to happen in a season premiere instead of a season finale.

“I just want you guys to know that [showrunner] Greg [Daniels] spoke with us about this. He said that he really wanted Jim’s proposal to Pam to be in the season premiere. He thought, number one — that would be unexpected. You usually end seasons with proposals,” she said. “He said he also wanted to throw people off by having it in a very ordinary location. So, he wanted [it] to feel special, but he also wanted it to feel like Jim made the decision without a whole lot of planning.”

She also revealed that the gas station location was not a real gas station, but a set built in the parking lot of a Best Buy store, and that a four-lane, circular race track was built around the set so they could mimic traffic.

“They set up cameras on the other side of this raceway and they had cars drive around it at 55 mph,” she revealed.

Check out the scene below.