Manager and Salesman

"Manager and Salesman" (alternately titled, "The Manager and the Salesman") is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season and the 116th episode overall. It was written by Mindy Kaling, who also wrote "Secret Santa," "Niagara," and "Golden Ticket" and was directed by Marc Webb. It aired on February 11, 2010. Kathy Bates guest stars. It was viewed by 7.40 million people.

Cold open
Michael calls the hotel where he had reserved a room for the first week of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The staff member cannot find his reservation in the system and implies he is trying to make a reservation at the last minute. Dwight searches through Michael's e-mail to find the confirmation number and finds that Michael lied about not receiving his e-vite to Dwight's barbecue. Dwight also finds the confirmation number and the hotel employee apologizes to Michael, stating that she couldn't find the reservation due to the hotel having changed their computer system. His reservation definitely confirmed, Michael then cancels the reservation and is billed a cancellation fee.

Synopsis
The office is eager to welcome Sabre CEO Jo Bennett to Scranton, and are dazzled by her southern ways. Jo, along with her huge dogs and Gabe Lewis, comes to the office and takes a look around. She compliments everyone; however, when she realizes that there are two managers, she decides that one will go to sales and one will remain a manager.

Andy gives everyone Valentine's Day cards so he can give one to his love, Erin. When he throws an envelope at Meredith, she receives a paper cut on her throat, something she apparently is used to and dislikes.

Michael insults Jo Bennett's intelligence and the state of Florida. Jo tells Jim and Michael that they are just trying to save their positions and uses folksy sayings to explain her point. Jim and Michael both want the position as regional manager and are reluctant to give it up. Jo Bennett tells them she will pick who is to remain manager and tells them to go away. Later, she tells the documentary crew straightforwardly about herself and ends remarking that she is pleased to meet them.

Andy awkwardly gives Erin her Valentine's Day card, and Pam smirks. Andy implies that he loves Erin, however, Erin continues to be oblivious of his feelings. Andy's plans backfire when he accidentally gives Kelly a romantic card and Kelly concludes that he must love her. Kelly is flattered although she thought he was "annoying and homosexual."

Jo Bennett has a meeting with the whole office and tells Angela to sit down. Jo gives everyone a Sabre handbook and her autobiography. Jo humorously tells them about Sabre and their printers and tells them that they are going to take their "arm" and bring the Northeast printers. Michael repeatedly incorporates the word "manage" into his speech so Jo will see him as the true manager.

Pam tells Jim that he could make more money as a salesman than as manager and Jim goes to tell Michael that he will be the salesman. Michael accepts this idea eagerly and begins to brag about getting the job. Oscar tells Michael he wants to be a salesman too because Sabre has no caps on commission. Michael tells the crew he has been hustled and tells Jo and Jim that he wants to be the salesman. Jo accepts Michael's decision and welcomes Jim as the new regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Michael sarcastically congratulates Jim and mentions his future commission checks.

As Erin helps Michael set up his desk in the sales section, Dwight calls a meeting with Ryan to think of ways to take Jim down. A tardy Ryan angers Dwight with his terrible ideas. They ultimately try getting Nick, the new IT guy, to align with them, to no avail. Meanwhile, Michael has a difficult time adjusting to sales, particularly since the procedures he used are obsolete and he does not enjoy sitting with the employees. He tells Jim that he wants the manager job back and they both tell Jo, who allows them to do so. When Dwight taunts Jim about his demotion, Jim puts Dwight's tie in his coffee mug as Pam grins. At the end of the episode, Dwight and Ryan decide to go out for drinks to celebrate Jim's demotion, but they end up arguing about where to go.

Kelly kisses Andy, to his disgust. When he tells Kelly he likes someone else, she asks who. He struggles to say anything and doesn't; however, Erin is relieved that Andy doesn't like Kelly.

Deleted scenes
The following deleted scenes are on the Season 6 DVD:
 * Extension of the cold open
 * The hotel employee asks Michael if his name is spelled in a unique way. Michael says, "Yes. M-I-C-H- A-E -L."
 * In a talking head interview, Michael says that his favorite sport is the one where men "broom the ice in front of these cylindrical disks". He continues that nobody knows the rules, and that there are no winners or losers. "Only poetry." He identifies the sports as "curdling".
 * Michael and Jim visit Jo in the conference room. She observes that the two of them make a good pair. Jim is tall and thin, and Michael is "solid and dark". When Jim asks if she's okay with the idea of co-managers, she says that it is "ridiculous".
 * Alternate version of the conference room scene, in which Jo explains why her book is titled "Take a Good Look": She wasn't getting any respect as a female board member, so one day she went into a meeting wearing high heels and lacy underwear. She told them, "If this is all you see, then take a good look." Michael proudly announces that he is "not not sexist".
 * In a talking head interview, Jim explains that Michael's plan is to use the word "manage" as much as possible.
 * In a talking head interview, Michael explains that as a child, he worked the word "ice cream" into every conversation with his mother. Frustrated, she said, "If you don't stop saying 'ice cream', I am going to kill you." And then she felt so bad that she actually got him ice cream. "So it's a pretty effective strategy."
 * Michael tells Jim that "It really works! If you visualize something, it can actually come true." He tries again by imagining that is hosting , and he is in the audience as her boyfriend. He opens his eyes and checks the TV listing, disappointed that "" is hosting the show (incorrectly pronouncing it Ga-Narles, "must be a typo"), who he mistakes as "". Jim tells Michael he is going to talk to Jo, and Michael calls him a sweet person. Jim awkwardly leaves, and Michael sits back in his chair with eyes closed, smiling.
 * In a talking head interview, Michael says that the Atlantic Ocean is the best ocean, because "according to Oprah," the Pacific is full of garbage, the Indian full of pirates, the Arctic too cold, and the Southern Ocean is just the bottom of the others. The Atlantic Ocean "has all the history". It is where "the amobas crawled from the murky depths and became man."
 * In a talking head interview outside, Ryan says that whenever get gets ideas like "work with Dwight on diabolical plot" or "watch all the Michael Moore movies", he always loses interest. He decides to stick with the diabolical plot.
 * After Ryan tries a second Tolkien reference, Dwight mocks him. "When this whole thing is done, I'm going to bring you out to the farm and redo the entire trilogy and show you what an idiot you are." Ryan says that should talk to Nick and leaves.
 * Michael discovers that everybody has been eating his homemade frozen orange juice popsicles from the freezer. When Michael confronts Meredith, she taunts him, "What are you going to do about it? You can't fire us anymore. Ha-ha!" Creed offers Michael his half-eaten popsicle, and Michael leaves disgusted.
 * Extension of Andy's announcement: Kelly storms in from the annex upset that the email says that he doesn't like her. "Do you realize how hard that makes me like you?" Pinned into a corner, Andy explains that he likes someone else. (Meredith: "Please, God, let it not be me.") Pam suggests it might be "the person you sent the twelve drummers drumming to for Christmas." Andy angrily accuses Pam's baby of "squirting weird hormones into your brain." Andy says, "She doesn't even live here," and describes a woman he knows from Connecticut. Erin is quietly crushed. Kelly sobs, "Screw you, Andy. I would have loved you so good."
 * In a talking head interview, Andy says, "So I gave Kelly $50 and she promised to stop loving me."
 * The documentary crew films Jim as he puts Dwight's phone in Jell-O. Jim goes to HR to tell Toby that as manager, he couldn't do that and smiles. Toby tells him not to make it a habit. Jim says he is going to, to which Toby gets angry. Clip.

Trivia

 * The cold open with Michael canceling his Vancouver Olympics reservation was a plug for the 2010 Winter Olympics airing the next day.
 * First talking head of Jo Bennett.
 * Jo Bennett's biography is titled Take a Good Look.
 * Jo Bennett has two Great Danes, a large dog breed.
 * The dates in which Michael has made marks on his height are November 2005 ("The Fight," "The Client," "Performance Review," and "E-mail Surveillance," November 2004 (before the series began), December 2006 ("A Benihana Christmas") and December 2007 (no episodes due to Writer's Strike).
 * Jim has a Dundie behind him, which is his. To this date, we have no idea what awards Jim wins at the Dundies.
 * Jim kept Michael's desktop picture.
 * Ryan and Kelly have an on-again, off-again relationship. They were seen together in "Niagara," and in a deleted scene in "Secret Santa", Kelly says she wants Ryan for Christmas, however, they seem to have broken up in this episode.
 * Dwight taunts Jim for having the shortest term as Regional Manager, and then goes on to tell him the next shortest tenure, which is more than 9 years. He conveniently forgets his own stint as Regional Manager which lasted only one day.
 * Last episode of Jim as co-manager and regional manager.
 * Earlier on in the series, Pam says that everyone gives each other little gifts and cards for Valentine's Day. However, this is the first episode where somebody's actually given out a Valentine's card.
 * Kathy Bates, who played Jo Bennett, also portrayed in , a movie which Dwight is a fan of.

Amusing details

 * Dwight gives the camera a bemused look when Michael cancels the hotel reservation after they have spent the cold open making an effort to confirm the reservation.
 * Michael thinks Tallahassee is in Texas.
 * When Oscar tells Michael that it is stated in the manual that salesmen make more money than the manager, he asks "Manuel who?" Michael thought Oscar heard it from a person named Manuel.
 * Michael gives himself the title of "Head of Sales" when he answers the phone, just as Dwight insists on his position of "Assistant Regional Manager".
 * Jo's dogs chew on Andy's crotch while Erin narrates how Andy is a playboy. Andy attempts to drag the dogs away from his crotch in multiple scenes, before finally giving up and choosing to just let them be while he makes copies at the copier.
 * Erin is visibly happier to have Michael in the manager position than Jim.
 * Andy signs his email to the office with the contradictory "yours in professionalism, Nard Dog"
 * It is revealed that Michael keeps a space heater, humidifier, dehumidifier, fan, foot fan, food dehydrator and keyboard; all under his desk.
 * Jim wears his jacket in the office consistently since his promotion in "The Meeting", he symbolically removes his jacket as well as loosens his tie and collar after he returns to being a salesman in this episode.

Connections to previous episodes

 * Michael continues his bad relationship with money by paying the cancellation fee for his Vancouver trip. Michael has been bad with money by spending too much in "Money," and getting into a pyramid scheme in "Michael's Birthday."
 * Jim puts his Sabre thermos on his desk, given to the employees of Dunder Mifflin Scranton in "Sabre."
 * Dwight's Diabolical Plan was started in the episode, "Scott's Tots." In the same episode, he decides to team up with Ryan.
 * Joe Camel was last talked about by Michael and Jan in "Dinner Party."
 * When Kelly talks about thinking that Andy was homosexual, it refers to when Michael told Kelly that Andy was gay in "Gossip." Michael also said that "you're gayer than Oscar, boom roasted!" to Andy in his roast at the end of "Stress Relief."
 * Incorporating a phrase into one's speech in the hopes that the person listening will accept it was a technique first used by Kelly in "Michael Scott Paper Company".
 * Dwight continues to use code names ("Monkey," "Bobcat," "Dragon").
 * Michael last used his Train Conductor whistle in the episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", another Mindy Kaling written episode.
 * The I.T. specialist, Nick also worked at the graphic design table in the episode "Job Fair" but Pam doesn't seem to recognize him.
 * When Ryan asks Dwight, "Did you see Saw?", Dwight responds, "Of course, Mose and I seesaw all the time." This refers to in "Money" when Jim looks up Schrute Farms on Google Maps when Dwight tries to get everyone to not look it up on the Internet and finds a picture of Dwight and Mose on a seesaw, having a great time.
 * When Jo's dogs sniff Andy's crotch, Jo says, "They like a good crotch." Andy sees Erin grinning that this is a positive thing for him, so he allows both dogs a good sniff. This is a throwback to Andy and Erin publicly referencing his crotch in "Niagara."

Quotes
For Manager and Salesman Quotes see: Manager and Salesman Quotes.

Goofs

 * Michael musses Jim's hair at the start of their meeting with Jo, but when Michael stands up to congratulate Jim on being the new manager, Jim's hair is suddenly neat again.
 * When they show Michael at his new desk the door to Jim's office changes from open to closed in between shots.
 * Jo leaves the office with a different handbag from the one she had when she arrived.
 * When Michael is freaking out about the sulfur-like smell coming from Phyllis, Andy has stuck tissues up his nostrils. When talking with Michael, there is one tissue connected to both nostrils for a few scenes, but the last scene shows a tissue on each side.
 * Dwight claims that the Regional Manager that worked the least amount of time (before Jim) was Henry Rostin, but in "The Job" Dwight worked as Regional Manager for 1 day, which is less than Henry's 9 years.
 * In one of Jim's talking heads, right after he says "And the women," the film reverses for a fraction of a second.

Cultural references

 * The in Vancouver began the day after the episode first aired.
 *  is a television judge who resolves family disputes. It is customary to stand when a judge enters the courtroom.
 * Michael, trying to sound folksy, uses the phrase knee-high to a grasshopper, which is a folksy way of saying "very young." Michael misuses the phrase.
 *  is the, the first woman to hold the position.
 *  was an American writer who was openly gay.
 * , considered as the greatest tennis player of all time, was the top-ranked male tennis player for 2009. He does not have an eponymous cologne.
 *  was the cartoon mascot for . The character was controversial for a variety of reasons, including the similarity of the character's head to a penis.
 * A ' is a euphemism for a strip club. ' is not a gentlemen's club; it is an exercise club for women.
 *  is a 2004 horror film in which two kidnapped characters awaken chained in a room and left with instructions that in order to escape, they must saw off their own feet.
 * ' is a literary and cultural magazine. Michael confuses it with '.
 * An e-vite is an online invitation used to give people virtual cards about upcoming parties, events, and perhaps, barbecues. They have been used by both Dwight and Jim.
 *  are a flavored hard-candy, used by Erin to fill her candy bowl. They come in many flavors including tropical and mint.
 *  is a movie about a veteran cop being partnered with a young cop, and both have a common issue, they hate being in partnerships.
 *  is a type of Brazilian music, that attracted a large following, mainly among the young. It was used by Michael and Erin when he reentered his office.
 *  is a popular distilled liquor using a fermented grain, including wheat or rye.

Main cast

 * Steve Carell as Michael Scott
 * Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute
 * John Krasinski as Jim Halpert
 * Jenna Fischer as Pam Halpert
 * B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard
 * Ed Helms as Andy Bernard

Supporting cast

 * Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
 * Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
 * Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton
 * Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
 * Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
 * Ellie Kemper as Erin Hannon
 * Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
 * Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson
 * Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
 * Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance

Special guest star

 * Kathy Bates as Jo Bennett

Recurring cast

 * Zach Woods as Gabe Lewis
 * Nelson Franklin as Nick