Dream Team

"Dream Team" is the twenty-second episode of the fifth season of The Office, and the show's 94th episode overall. It was written by B.J. Novak and directed by Paul Feig. It was aired on April 9, 2009. It was viewed by 7.20 million people.

Cold open
The phone at reception rings. Kevin answers it and tells the caller he will transfer the call, only for him to shout for Oscar to come to reception. Jim then explains in a talking head that Kevin is performing in his role as well as one would expect him to. A call comes in for Andy and Jim tells Kevin to try transferring it normally instead of asking Andy to come to the desk. After several tries, Kevin successfully transfers the call to Andy as the entire office celebrates. While the office celebrates Kevin finally learning to use the phone system, Andy tearfully reveals in a talking head that the call was to tell him his maid died.

Synopsis
Charles Miner is now in charge of the Scranton branch, due to the absence of Michael Scott, and seems to dislike Jim, much to Dwight's pleasure. Pam and Michael decide to assemble a 'Dream Team' to get the company started. Michael recommends Ryan, stating, "He's everything I'm not and everything I am," an offer which Pam quickly denies. Michael then states the company already has a meeting later with an investor, making Pam visibly excited. Michael and Pam then decide to search for Vikram, an employee Michael formerly worked with at the telemarketing agency. Back at the office, Andy discovers that Charles loves soccer and soon the whole office is trying to impress him. When Jim says that he plays soccer (from second to fourth grade, he was on the orange team), he soon finds himself being stuck in a soccer game with Charles after work. He then reveals his strategy is to have as little contact with the ball as possible.

With Vikram now part of the company, Michael drives to a bowling alley claiming he has to use the bathroom. When Pam heads inside to see why Michael is taking so long, she discovers him talking to a new bleach-blonde Ryan, who is working at the counter. Michael claims the new company has no files and therefore no proof of his past misconduct, leading Ryan to join them. The Michael Scott Paper Company tries to get the members of a local investment club (one of which is Michael's grandmother) to invest, to which they soon decline, saying the company will never get ahead with the state of the economy. The game back at Dunder Mifflin then begins, revealing that Jim has no soccer experience, and does not even know how to play. Vikram claims that the investors brought up some good questions, that the company is impractical, and he soon quits and is thrown out of Michael's car.

While playing soccer Jim ducks out of the way of the ball and Phyllis is hit in the face, knocking a tooth down her throat, prompting Jim to reveal to Charles that he does not in fact know anything about soccer. Pam, sitting in Michael's car, tells him that she was just feeling impulsive and should have never taken the job with him. Michael tells Pam that he works best when people don't believe in him and that he is going to go find an office space for them. The office that Michael finds turns out to be a converted closet in the same building as Dunder Mifflin.

Trivia

 * This episode was followed by the premiere of Parks and Recreation, followed by the episode "Michael Scott Paper Company".
 * Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) returns after an absence of eleven episodes from his alleged trip to Thailand.
 * With Pam no longer working at Dunder Mifflin, the candy jar at reception is now empty.
 * Michael's "Proud owner of a quality Seiko timepiece" certificate and other office decor can now be seen throughout his condo.
 * This episode marks the last appearance of Marcus A. York as Billy Merchant.
 * The letter from the Kellum Court Condo Association (116 Kellum Court, Scranton, PA 18510) is addressed to Michael Scott Paper Company, 126 Kellum Court, Scranton, PA 18510. Kellum Court is an alley in Scranton, with no houses facing it. Even if it had houses, there would be no house number 126: The alley ends before the house numbers can go below 300.
 * This is not the first business to be run from Michael's condo. In "Dinner Party", Jan sets up a candle business in Michael's condo. However, unlike the Michael Scott Paper Company, Serenity By Jan did not advertise its presence with a sign in front of the condo, and it's arguable whether Jan was even taking the candle business seriously.
 * Michael's grandmother was played by, a comic actor whose career spanned 85 years. She was 96 years old at the time the episode was filmed, and she was considered Hollywood's oldest working actress when she died in 2015 at age 105.
 * Although several fans take outrage that it was only natural for Jim to duck out of the way of the ball; a response from a more experienced soccer player would be to in fact jump and use their chest to intercept the ball.
 * Michael starts the expression "Keep your friends close" and looks to the camera as Pam and the camera crew wait for him to finish the expression, only for Michael to genuinely assume there is no second part.

Amusing details

 * At the start of the episode, Pam states how it is a strange phenomenon that when one person in a partnership is being anxious and nervous, the other person becomes weirdly calmer. As Pam is calm while Michael is freaking out at the beginning; Michael is similarly calm while Pam is freaking out at the end of the episode. B.J. Novak intended this to be the theme of the episode, that each partner has to rescue the other when they are down.
 * Andy openly looks at pictures of soccer on his monitor in a lax manner, but Charles is amused and bonds with Andy over the matter. Ironically, Charles' main issue with Jim is that he views him as a slacker.
 * Charles genuinely seems to take a liking to Jim when he thinks that Jim is a soccer enthusiast as well.
 * Jim doesn't even try to kick the cup when Charles treats it as a soccer ball in the kitchen. Jim just bends over and moves it with his hand.
 * The entire office evidently, with the exception of Dwight, does not have an interest in soccer and are only feigning so to be able to bond with Charles Miner.
 * Stanley reads from his hand when describing his favorite soccer player.
 * It is implied that Charles keeps a soccer ball in his car, given that they had a ball readily available for the soccer match after work.
 * As Michael and the others enter the nursing home, two uniformed workers wheel out a stretcher in the background, suggesting that a resident has died.
 * When Jim makes a "What happened?" gesture to Pam in the parking lot, Phyllis Smith is hit in the face for real with a soccer ball.

Goofs

 * The sign for "Michael Scott Paper Company" is altered when Charles enters the room.
 * Idris Elba's British accent slips a bit during the office's discussion of soccer players. In particular, he pronounces "Pelé" the British way (peh-lay) rather than the American way (pay-lay).

Connections to other episodes

 * Vikram was Michael's coworker at the telemarketing company in "Money."
 * Michael tells Pam that Ryan deserves a "second, second chance", alluding to how Ryan was already given a second chance after he committed fraud to work at the Scranton branch as a temp in "Weight Loss".
 * Ryan's description of Thailand is "It was indescribable."
 * Michael previously mentioned he had a grandmother who initially mailed him money that became more frequent in larger amounts in "Goodbye, Toby". In that episode, Michael believes that it is because his grandmother has become more senile, but this episode instead suggests that it may in fact be due to his grandmother potentially receiving more revenue from investing in local businesses. Although he may be talking about two different grandmothers.
 * Michael's story of how he scored the most goals in school history recalls his skating skills and his dream of playing hockey professionally in the episode "Michael's Birthday."

Behind the scenes

 * The exterior of the telemarketing call center was 13005 Saticoy St, previously seen in "Money".
 * Idle Hour Lanes was represented by Canoga Park Bowl, now named Winnetka Bowl in Winnetka, CA.
 * The banquet room at the Winnetka Convention Center (adjacent to Winnetka Bowl) was used for Michael's grandmother's investment club.
 * When filming the cold open, Brian Baumgartner was really forwarding phone calls. However, the phone that rang was not always the one he intended, so the scrambling to answer phones was real.
 * Aaron Shure wrote the "My maid died" joke. Jennifer Celotta thought it went too far, but B.J. Novak fought to keep it.
 * The writers were worried about the Michael Scott Paper Company arc because they had bad experiences taking Pam out of the office (for example, going to New York), but they felt better about this because she wasn't going alone. She also had Michael and Ryan.
 * B.J. Novak finds this episode notable because the character of Jim is doing more overt comedy than in most episodes. Usually, he's the unflappable character responding to craziness, rather than being the source of it.
 * B.J. Novak was worried that the episode would be so complicated, with multiple location shoots, that they would have to cut out Vikram.
 * An alternate version of Dwight's gloating talking head went "The new boss is black and wears glasses, so Jim just looks like a blurry, annoying honky."
 * B.J. Novak put a little of himself in Jim: He feels he has too much integrity to suck up, but then also wonders if he's missing out on opportunities by refusing to do so. This story contrasts Jim (refusing to kiss up), and Andy who embraces it.
 * B.J. Novak found it challenging to make Michael's vision of the Michael Scott Paper Company funny, while still making it believable enough that Pam would go along with it.
 * All that B.J. Novak knew about his character's return was that he would be blonde. He was not prepared for the fake tan as well. Mindy Kaling insisted that Ryan's hair be completely blonde, rather than just having blonde tips. Novak wore a hat in public to avoid revealing the surprise. When performing stand-up, he used a temporary brown hair spray, but it ran, revealing some blonde hair, which the audience interpreted as gray hair.
 * It was Mindy Kaling's idea for Michael to ask for even more money after his Nana shows hesitancy.
 * In the original script, Vikram exclaimed, " Jesus !", underlined. It got a huge laugh at the table read, but Standards and Practices objected, and the show had to soften it to "Sweet Jesus".
 * When Phyllis is hit in the face with the soccer ball, the scene was filmed with no ball at all. The ball was inserted via computer graphics.
 * In the original script, Pam's meltdown occurs at the front door of Michael's condo. Jennifer Celotta suggested that Pam refuse to get out of the car. Writer B.J. Novak is embarrassed that he thought it wouldn't work.
 * An alternate take of the final scene had Michael taking letters from Dunder Mifflin to make the letters of "Michael Scott Paper Company".

Cultural references

 * is a multinational technology company. The company did operate out of co-founder Steve Jobs's parents' garage in its early years.
 * Michael compares himself to "Benjamin Button in reverse." The movie  is about a man who ages backwards, so Michael is saying that he's improving normally.
 * Michael wants to assemble a dream team. The term was used to describe the . The 1992 was the first year in which professional athletes were permitted to compete in the Olympic Games.
 * The ' is the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world. The ' was held in Germany.
 * ' and ' are considered to be among the greatest soccer players of all time.
 * Michael says "Keep your friends close". This is the start of a famous line from the movie . The full quotation is "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer," considered by the American Film Institute as one of the.

Main cast

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

Supporting cast

 * Ed Helms as Andy Bernard
 * 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
 * Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
 * Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
 * Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance

Special guest star

 * Idris Elba as Charles Miner

Recurring cast

 * Marcus A. York as Billy Merchant

Guest cast

 * Ranjit Chowdhry as Vikram
 * Connie Sawyer as "Nana"
 * Eve Sigall as Elderly Investor
 * Jim Woods as Elderly Investor