"The Office" only aired its first Christmas episode during Season 2 of its run but it ended up saving the sitcom from being canceled.
Up until "Christmas Party" aired in December 2005, serving as the 16th overall episode of the show focused on the everyday lives of those working at paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin, the show had been struggling.
It slowly picked up momentum a few episodes into its second run that fall, but the show was still largely being dismissed as just an Americanized version of Ricky Gervais' original British series.
"We were almost canceled two, three, four, 10, 12 times at the beginning," Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on the hit NBC sitcom from 2005-13, told Yahoo Entertainment.
"We were struggling week to week," said Angela Kinsey, who played the tightly wound Angela Martin.
Everything changed after the Christmas episode aired. With a quirky plot and quotable dialogue, it went on to become a fan-favorite in the history of "The Office" Christmas specials.
"We had declined rapidly and then came back and [that episode] really served as a significant event for us," said Baumgartner. "And from there we really took off."
Kinsey noted that, after the Christmas episode, the show became the No. 1 streaming show on iTunes and "all of a sudden we were like, 'Hold up. We found our audience.' It turned a corner from there and we were set."
After the success of "Christmas Party," the holiday episodes became a near-annual tradition. During the series' run, nine were aired, including two two-part installments in seasons 3 and 7.
"They just became kind of legend episodes," said Kinsey. "We were like, 'Oh my God, there's another one. It's Christmas time.' We loved dressing up. The set always looked great. We knew there was gonna be some ridiculous drama. Everyone just really loved those episodes."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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