Stanley Hudson is stayin’ alive, people.
In the memorable cold open of the Season 5 episode, “Stress Relief,” fans saw how Dwight’s fake fire drill led to Stanley’s collapse. But after the smoke cleared and Stanley returned to work, Michael made it his mission to ensure if Stanley was ever in need of medical assistance again his co-workers could assist.
How? They all had to attend CPR training, which led to one of the funniest scenes in the history of the show.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey unpacked that glorious CPR scene, which featured a trainer (played by Robin Lynch), a CPR dummy, and an impromptu sing/dance along to “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees.
Here are some glorious tidbits you may not know about the beloved “Stress Relief” CPR scene:
The amazing CPR trainer
“I reached out to Allison Jones [Office casting director] and she said she found Robin through just a general casting call, and that Robin was by far the best person that they saw for the role,” Fischer said.
“She just plays it so perfectly straight. She’s there to teach CPR. This office goes off the rails and she just tries to stay the course,” Kinsey added, explaining she tried to slide into Lynch’s Instagram DMs to chat but never heard back.
Pitching a fake CPR scene that helped save real lives
A fan wrote in to ask Fischer and Kinsey if any part of the hilarious scene was improvised, and Fischer said, “No, guys. This whole thing, all the singing, the dancing, it was all scripted. And we followed this scene pretty much as written.”
She then explained she found out who pitched the idea: writer Jen Celotta.
“This whole ‘Staying Alive’ CPR idea came from her. She said that she had heard it was true. She looked it up and cross checked it. She said she cross checked it again because she didn’t want to put it on TV unless it was true,” Fischer said.
“And then she shared with me that before The Office she had been a writer’s assistant on Home Improvement and that the writers had done an episode where the Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ character found a lump on his throat. And it turned out that it was a thyroid issue in the episode. And Jen said that she was later in charge of opening the mail. And they got letters from all of these families that said after watching that episode, it helped save their children’s lives because their children had thyroid lumps. And because of the episode, they got it checked out,” Fishcer continued.
Since the “Stress Relief” episode aired, there have been reports of people who used CPR skills learned from The Office to save lives.
Dwight vs. the dummy
The scene is all fun and games until Dwight takes things too far and cut’s the face off of the CPR dummy and wears it as a mask.
“I know for sure Rainn really did cut into it because we watched him do it,” Kinsey said.
“Randy [Cordray, line producer] said we used three CPR mannequins in total,” Fischer added. “Now, in a minute, David Wallace is going to say that they cost thirty five hundred dollars each. But Randy said that was a little exaggerated. He said there are some top-end dummies that come with very sophisticated features like articulating heads and heartbeat simulators. Those cost, at the time, around $1,000 dollars each. But we used one that cost about $750 each.”
That may seem like a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to the $12,000 fake cat that Angela tossed into the ceiling during the cold open.
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.
