How John Krasinski Prepared To Play Jim On The Office

As chronicled in "The Bassoon King: Art, Idiocy, and Other Sordid Tales from the Band Room," a comedic autobiography written by Rainn Wilson, who starred in "The Office" as Dwight Schrute, John Krasinski made a trip to Scranton to do some on-location research. Wilson wrote, "Before the pilot was shot ... [Krasinski and his friends] brought a crappy little video recorder and interviewed people who worked at actual paper companies in the Scranton area. This tape would greatly influence the set design and decoration. As they drove around the city, they literally shot out the window at some passing Scranton landmarks. These shots would eventually find their way into our opening credits and would stay there through the entirety of our show. Thanks, Kras!" 

It was this kind of active engagement with the material that made "The Office" such a gem to audiences. As noted by Mental Floss, many of the performers went above and beyond what was expected of them to pour their own personality into their respective roles, so much so that the series reached a point where it was practically expected of the creative minds involved to experiment and iterate. Again, we understand that this is all common knowledge. "The Office" was one of the biggest TV shows, pretty much ever. Still, if this was enough nostalgic goodwill to stir one fan to a repeat viewing, then our job is done.