The Office on wheels seemed like an exciting adventure, until it became the "death bus."
Co-stars Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer take fans behind the scenes of The Office in their new book, The Office BFFs: Tales of the Office From Two Best Friends, which was published May 17. In the book, Angela and Jenna—who also co-host Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast—shared that what fan's call the "Office Bus" episode of season nine was actually so deadly to film that they dubbed it the "Death Bus" episode.
Per Mashable, Angela wrote that the episode, directed by Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston, an elaborate attempt by Jim (John Krasinski) to get his wife, Pam (Fisher) a day off. He convinced Dwight (Rainn Wilson) that the office needed repairs, but instead of sending everyone home, Dwight creates a mobile office out of a bus. The bus they filmed in was cramped with office supplies, actors and crew. Angela recalled having to turn off the air-conditioning because it was too loud for filming and "at that point, the heat and the nausea seemed like our worst obstacles."
They were very wrong.
In a sequence in which Dwight swerves the office bus on the road, the team initially had the large vehicle rigged, but Jenna explained it wasn't authentic enough. The bus was then "detached from the rig and a stunt driver climbed on board," Jenna wrote. "There were no stunt actors, however. We stayed on and were told to keep doing what we'd been doing. And off we went."
They filmed as normal, Jenna recalled, but things changed when the assistant director yelled, "'Swerve!'"
"The stunt driver swerved HARD," Jenna wrote. "I mean he cranked that wheel like Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder. As a result, the entire cast and contents of the bus went flying into the side of the party bus! What no one had considered when they told this stunt driver to swerve as hard as he could without flipping the bus over was that none of our office furniture, props, or set decorations were securely tied down."
Office supplies and people slammed into each other and flew across the bus—and the chaotic day of filming did not end there.
"They had somehow gotten a portable air-conditioning unit!" Jenna wrote. "'We can pull it behind the bus with a hose that goes through the sunroof. It's totally quiet. So this afternoon, the bus won't be so hot.' We were thrilled, and as we loaded back onto the cool, reorganized bus, everyone relaxed and decided to put the morning behind us."
Everything was going smoothly until Jenna noticed a strange smell and commented on it. "We began debating whether the bus smelled funny," she wrote. "Then our camera operator spoke up. She didn't feel well. She stumbled and set down her camera."
Turned out the portable air-conditioner was right next to the exhaust pipe on the bus, "So that hose was sucking in exhaust and blowing it straight into the sunroof of the bus," she wrote. "We were all being slowly poisoned. Or not so slowly, actually."
What resulted out of everything was a funny (and almost deadly) episode.
Angela wrote later in the chapter, "Poor Bryan Cranston. I gave him a big hug. He was so calm and kind even as the wheels were literally coming off the Dunder Mifflin bus."