Valentine's Day (The Office)

Before a Valentine's Day meeting at the corporate offices in New York City with Jan Levinson and the new CFO David Wallace, Michael Scott, defending Jan to the other branch managers, lets slip that he and Jan "hooked up". At the meeting, Michael shows a sentimental video about the staff at his branch called "The Faces of Scranton" before providing data on the financial status of his branch as asked. Craig, from the Albany branch, is completely unprepared for the meeting and attempts to cover for it by insinuating that Jan is giving Michael preferential treatment because of the supposed sexual encounter between them. Due to Wallace hearing this accusation, Jan is convinced that her career is over. Michael defuses the situation by telling the CFO that it was a bad joke and Jan is innocent of any unethical behavior. As Michael leaves, Jan kisses him in the elevator, but groans when she realizes they were caught on camera. Back in the office, Angela Martin gives Dwight Schrute a "Dwight" bobblehead doll. Not having anticipated Angela would be interested in Valentine's Day gifts, Dwight consults with Pam Beesly, who advises him to choose a gift based less on the gift itself than on the meaning of giving it. He gives Angela a key to his home. Phyllis Lapin is inundated with gifts from her boyfriend Bob Vance, while Pam is irritated with her fiancé Roy Anderson when the only thing he gives her for Valentine's Day is the promise of the "best sex of [her] life". Jim Halpert is happy to be single on Valentine's Day, leaving him free to enjoy a poker night with friends. He is forced to listen to Kelly Kapoor talk about how Ryan Howard kissed her during a bar meetup with friends. Ryan regrets the entire encounter because it happened the day before Valentine's Day, and turns down Kelly for a date on Valentine's Day. Jim tries in vain to persuade Kelly to give up on Ryan. ==Production==

This episode was the fourth episode of the series directed by series creator Greg Daniels. Daniels had previously directed the first season episode "Basketball", along with the second season episodes "The Dundies" and "The Client". "Valentine's Day" was written by Michael Schur, who plays Dwight's Amish cousin Mose. The episode was deliberately written and shot to play against viewer expectations that a Valentine's Day episode of The Office would necessarily include a Jim and Pam plot thread, including a number of shots where they both appear without interacting. The initial draft of the script in fact ended with a scene in which Jim steals Dwight's poem for Angela and gives it to Pam to lighten her mood after her disappointing Valentine's Day, but this scene was cut as the writers decided to emphasize that Jim is moving on from Pam and starting to enjoy a life independent of her. For the first time ever on The Office, Pam Beesly's (Jenna Fischer) hair is in a different style. Several hairstyles were shown to Greg Daniels before the one used in the episode was selected. Dwight's line about a ham being a romantic gift was written during filming on the set. The writers did not have a punchline in the scene, so they came up with several alternatives, including ham, as well as "a boombox". Schur wrote the scene where Michael mistakes a woman for Tina Fey, inspired by his time working for Saturday Night Live, when he observed that seemingly every woman with glasses who walked by the Rockefeller Center was mistaken for Tina Fey. Conan O'Brien appeared in a cameo in the episode. He previously worked with Daniels on the writing staffs for Not Necessarily the News, Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons and the two also went to Harvard University together. Despite the brevity of his appearance, the shot required 15 takes due to difficulties getting the timing right and the frequency with which passers-by recognized O'Brien. ==Cultural references==

Michael notes that New York is the "city so nice they named it twice". directly across the street from Rockefeller Center. He gets up and walks toward the street, then is seen speaking to the camera in the lobby of the Simon & Schuster building at 1230 6th Avenue, indicating that Dunder Mifflin corporate has offices in that building. ==Reception==

"Valentine's Day" originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 9, 2006. The episode was viewed by 8.95 million viewers. This marked a dramatic improvement from the previous episode "Boys and Girls", which was viewed by only 5.42 million viewers. "Valentine's Day" received mostly positive reviews. Michael Sciannamea of TV Squad wrote that "The Office continues to deliver outstanding episodes week after week." "M. Giant" of Television Without Pity graded the episode with a "A". Brendan Babish of DVD Verdict was pleased with the entry and awarded it an "A−". He named the highlight of the episode "Michael's overwrought 'The Faces of Scranton' presentation played over U2's 'With or Without You.'" Betsy Bozdech of DVD Journal called the episode "memorable" and noted that it illustrated Pam and Jim's relationship ebb and flow. Francis RizzoIII of DVD Talk declared that Ryan's statement about beginning to date Kelly before Valentine's Day was "one of the funniest lines in the entire season." After the episode, fans wanted their own bobblehead dolls of Dwight. A petition was started to get NBC to sell them at their online store. NBC responded by creating an initial run of 4,000 bobblehead dolls, which sold out almost immediately. The network decided to make more, and since then, the bobblehead has become the best-selling merchandise on the NBC website, and has sold over 150,000 units. ==References==