"A Benihana Christmas" is the tenth and eleventh episodes of the
third season of the American
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
'', and the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth episodes overall. It was written by
Jennifer Celotta
Jennifer Ann Celotta (born November 11, 1971) is an American television producer, writer, and director. Among her credits are ''The Office,'' Cobra Kai, Abbott Elementary, ''Malcolm in the Middle'', '' The Newsroom'', ''Greg the Bunny'', ''Andy R ...
and directed by
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and '' Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russel ...
. The episode originally aired in the United States on December 14, 2006, on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
.
In the episode, Christmas time at the office leads to depression for Michael, when his girlfriend Carol (
Nancy Walls) breaks up with him. Michael, Andy, Dwight, and Jim then go to a local
Benihana restaurant, where Michael and Andy find dates with two of the restaurant's waitresses. Back at the office, after a conflict with a bossy Angela, Karen and Pam decide to create their own Christmas party. When the majority of the office decide to go to Karen and Pam's party, Angela becomes upset, and seeing this, Karen and Pam decide to combine the parties. Soon after, Michael and Andy's dates leave them, but Michael nevertheless finds someone to go to
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
with him.
Plot
Carol Stills (
Nancy Carell
Nancy Ellen Walls Carell (born July 19, 1966) is an American actress, comedian, and writer best known for her work on ''Saturday Night Live'', ''The Daily Show'' and ''The Office''. In 2016, she co-created the TBS comedy series '' Angie Tribeca' ...
) confronts
Michael Scott (
Steve Carell
Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott (The Office), Michael Scott in ''The Office (American TV series), The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the The Office (B ...
) about the Christmas card he sent her, in which he superimposed his head on the body of Carol's former husband in a family photo. She breaks off the relationship, leaving Michael heartbroken and stuck with a pair of tickets to Jamaica. For the past several months,
Pam Beesly
Pamela Morgan Halpert (née Beesly) is a fictional character on the U.S. TV series, television sitcom ''The Office (American TV series), The Office'', played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of ''The Office (British TV ...
(
Jenna Fischer
Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer (born March 7, 1974) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Pam Beesly on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Suppor ...
) has led
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III () is a fictional character on ''The Office (U.S.)'' and is portrayed by American actor Rainn Wilson. Dwight's character was a salesman and the assistant to the regional manager, at the fictional paper distribution compan ...
(
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Emm ...
) to believe that he is being recruited by the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
, and her gift to
Jim Halpert
James "Jim" Duncan Halpert is a fictional character in the U.S. version of the television sitcom ''The Office'', portrayed by John Krasinski. He is introduced as a sales representative at the Scranton branch of paper distribution company Dunder ...
(
John Krasinski
John Burke Krasinski (; born October 20, 1979) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his role as Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom ''The Office''. He also served as a producer and occasional director of the series throughout its nine ...
) is that he can choose Dwight's first assignment. Jim declines the gift and claims that as the new office "Number Two" he should not be engaging in such activities, leaving Pam discouraged by a changed Jim.
Andy Bernard
Andrew Baines Bernard is a fictional character from the NBC comedy television series ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'', portrayed by Ed Helms. He is introduced in Season 3 as the Regional Director in Charge of Sales at the Stamford br ...
(
Ed Helms
Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom ''The Offic ...
) takes Michael to Benihana to help him forget his recent troubles; Michael drags Dwight and Jim along. The group stumbles upon an unexpecting couple (Anne Sertich and
Stephen Saux) at the table and Dwight fails when attempting to impress the chef with his knowledge of
Japanese knives
A Japanese kitchen knife is a type of a knife used for food preparation. These knives come in many different varieties and are often made using traditional Japanese blacksmithing techniques. They can be made from stainless steel, or ''hagane'', ...
. Andy successfully isolates Dwight from the rest of the party and convinces Michael to ask out their waitress, Cindy (
Brittany Ishibashi
Brittany Mariko Ishibashi (born November 2, 1980) is a Japanese-American actress. She has had starring television roles on '' Political Animals'', '' Supernatural'' and '' Runaways''. Ishibashi has had roles in films such as '' Teenage Mutant N ...
). Meanwhile, Jim plays pranks on Dwight and realizes that his excuse for declining Pam's gift does not hold water.
Angela Martin
Angela Noelle Schrute (née Martin; formerly Lipton) is a fictional character in the U.S. version of the television sitcom ''The Office,'' portrayed by actress Angela Kinsey. The character is based on Sheila from the original version of ''The O ...
(
Angela Kinsey
Angela Faye Kinsey (born June 25, 1971) is an American actress. She played Angela Martin in the sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013) and appeared in the sitcoms '' Your Family or Mine'' (2015) and ''Haters Back Off'' (2016–2017). Since ''The ...
) kicks
Karen Filippelli
''The Office'' is an American television series based on the British television comedy of the same name. The format of the series is a parody of the fly on the wall documentary technique that intersperses traditional situation comedy segments wi ...
(
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones (; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress.
Jones appeared as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), as Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Office'' (2006–2009; 2011), and as ...
) off the Party Planning Committee. In response, Pam reaches out to Karen, and the two plan a rival party. Jim appears uncomfortable with Pam and Karen's new friendship. Roy comes into the break room and chats with Pam. After he leaves, Karen suggests that Pam should date Roy. Pam pauses to tell Karen her history with Roy before instead replying with "maybe". The rival Christmas parties begin, and the office staff members are forced to choose sides. Pam and Karen's party is a hit, while Angela's is a dreary affair. Michael and Andy each return with a waitress as their "new girlfriend" (though neither is the one who waited on them at the restaurant). Angela accepts Pam's offer to merge the parties. Oscar enters the office with his partner Gil just as Angela is singing "
The Little Drummer Boy
"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 19 ...
," pauses for a moment, says, "Too soon" and leaves.
Meanwhile, Michael is unable to tell the two waitresses apart. To remedy this, he secretly marks his date's arm with a
Sharpie. When he offers to take her to Jamaica, she declines and says that she has to attend school, and the two waitresses leave the party because it "blows".
Jim consoles Michael by explaining that he just had a "
rebound" relationship. Jim mentions that they are fun for a while, but then you keep on thinking about the girl that broke your heart, implying he still thinks about Pam (the girl who "broke his heart"). From his office, Michael makes a phone call and asks an unknown person to go to Jamaica with him. The offer is accepted. Pam is crushed when she sees Jim and Karen exchange gifts. Jim is crushed when he sees Roy give a gift to Pam.
At the end of the day, Jim tells Pam that a helicopter will be arriving to take Dwight to a welcoming party at
CIA headquarters
The George Bush Center for Intelligence is the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, located in the unincorporated community of Langley, Virginia, Langley in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States; near Washington, D.C.
The headqua ...
in
Langley, Virginia
Langley is an unincorporated community in the census-designated place of McLean in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Langley is often used as a metonym for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as it is home to its headquarters, the Geor ...
. As Dwight waits on the roof, he receives the text message: "You have been compromised. Abort mission. Destroy phone." Dwight throws his phone off the roof and walks away.
Production
![Harold Ramis Oct 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Harold_Ramis_Oct_2009.jpg)
"A Benihana Christmas" was written by
Jennifer Celotta
Jennifer Ann Celotta (born November 11, 1971) is an American television producer, writer, and director. Among her credits are ''The Office,'' Cobra Kai, Abbott Elementary, ''Malcolm in the Middle'', '' The Newsroom'', ''Greg the Bunny'', ''Andy R ...
and directed by
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and '' Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russel ...
.
Ramis would return to direct the third-season episodes "
Safety Training
Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...
" and "
Beach Games
"Beach Games" is the twenty-third episode of the third season of the American version of ''The Office'', and the 51st of the series. In this episode, the office goes to a nearby lake for some "beach games". It is revealed that Michael (Steve ...
", as well as the
sixth-season episode
"The Delivery" (Pt. II).
The episode was shot in a real Benihana restaurant in
Encino, California
Encino (Spanish language, Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
History
In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north t ...
. The production crew hired all of the restaurant's chefs and waitstaff, along with 78
background actors, to play in the episode.
[
] During filming, John Krasinski threw a shrimp across the table at Rainn Wilson. It bounced off Dwight's glasses and landed in the glass of water from which he was about to drink; according to actor Ed Helms, "It was a one-in-a-million shot that pretty much shut down the set for five or 10 minutes of applause."
Ultimately, however, Ramis decided not to use the footage because it looked so improbable as to be unbelievable.
The actresses who played the women that Andy and Michael bring back to the office were different from the actresses who played the waitresses in the Benihana restaurant. According to the show's prop master, this was because Andy and Michael failed to pick up the original waitresses, and settled for "less attractive ones".
However, at Paley Fest 2007,
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office'' f ...
admitted that the women they cast were "too good-looking", which led to the joke failing since the original script specifically called for Andy and Michael's dates to be unattractive.
Reception
"A Benihana Christmas" was first broadcast on December 14, 2006, in the United States. According to estimates by
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
the episode was watched by an estimated 8.44 million viewers. The episode earned a 3.9/11 ratings share among adults aged 18 to 49, meaning that it was seen by 3.9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 11 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of broadcast. Among that demographic, ''The Office'' finished in twenty-first place for the week among all of the major networks. On the day that the episode first aired, it was the second most watched show of the night, behind only
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's
Survivor: Cook Islands.
"A Benihana Christmas" was generally well received by critics. The episode was also given a 9.2 out of 10 rating by
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
.
[ An IGN review stated:
Years after the episode originally aired, the storyline involving the Benihana waitresses received renewed scrutiny in the wake of acknowledgement of racism against Asian Americans. Kat Ahn, the actress who played the waitress that Michael brought back to the office, said in an interview with '']The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' that she was disenchanted upon realizing she had been cast on the show "just… to be the joke". Ahn also posted a video on TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
, which she explained "The storyline with myself and the other Asian American actress is that we were the uglier versions of the actresses at the Benihana. Also that all Asian people look alike. We're one big monolith and just one big walking stereotype without any personality or any individuality, which is problematic. The whole joke was that all Asians look alike and that's why Michael Scott couldn't tell us apart." In a 2020 episode of the ''Office Ladies
''Office Ladies'' is a rewatch podcast hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey which premiered on the Earwolf platform on October 16, 2019. It is also produced by Earwolf. In each episode, Fischer and Kinsey, who co-starred on the American tele ...
'' podcast, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey noted that they cringed when re-watching the episode in 2020, and reflected that "the storyline would othave been written today."
References
External links
"A Benihana Christmas"
at NBC.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benihana Christmas, A
American Christmas television episodes
The Office (American season 3) episodes
2006 American television episodes
The Office (American TV series) episodes in multiple parts