If a TV proposal doesn’t happen in the pouring rain, did it even happen? We’re going to say no.
Luckily for Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) from The Office, their love story culminated in a romantic-as-hell proposal — yes, in the rain — finally giving fans of the show the climax they had been waiting for.
The short and sweet scene may have looked fairly minimal — it took place outside of a gas station after all — it actually cost USD $250,000 to make according to Fischer.
On a recent episode of their Office Ladies podcast, Fischer and her co-star Angela Kinsey, who played Angela, explained why the 60 seconds of television had been so expensive.
“So first of all, 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,” explained Fischer.
“He thought that would be unexpected. You usually end seasons with proposals. So he thought this would be a real shock.”
“He also wanted to throw people off by having it in a very ordinary location,” the actress continued.
“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.”
The reason for the hefty price tag, as it turns out, is because Daniels decided to build a fake gas station, inspired by a real one he used to go to. The construction took nine days to build and even included a racetrack loop so that cars could be seen driving past in a realistic fashion.
“They built this in the parking lot of a Best Buy that I have been to many times, actually,” Fischer explained. “What they did was they used Google Street View to capture images of a real gas station along the Merritt Parkway, and then using those images, they built it to match this parking lot.”
“They set up cameras on the other side of this raceway and they had cars drive around it at 55 miles an hour. Then they added rain pouring down on us [with] these giant rain machines,” Fischer said.
“Our production manager, Randy Cordray, said they had about 35 precision drivers. They were driving not just cars, but like semi-trucks. When we were standing there on that set you could feel the wind like of these cars speeding past you. It was so, so bonkers.”
Since The Office wrapped in 2013, Fischer has appeared in feature films such as Kiss Me and Brad’s Status and television series such as You, Me and the Apocalypse and Splitting Up Together.
For his part, Krasinksi has played the titular character in the Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime Video and has served as actor, writer and director on 2018’s A Quiet Place and its sequel A Quiet Place II.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.