Season 5

Season 5 of The Office began on September 25, 2008, on NBC. It ended on May 14, 2009, and consisted of 28 episodes, making it the longest season of the series. The previous season was Season 4 and the next season was Season 6.

The start of the season revolves around Michael attempting to woo Holly and eventually succeeds only for David Wallace to transfer her to another branch forcing the two to end their relationship just when it got started. Meanwhile Jim and Pam become engaged and struggle through the difficulties of a long-distance relationship while Pam is studying art in New York. Eventually, new boss Charles Miner enters later in the season and causes trouble for Michael. Michael eventually cannot deal with his dictator-like changes and quits to form his own company taking Pam and Ryan with him. The company becomes successful and eventually, Dunder Mifflin is forced to buy them out. The season ends with Pam learning she is pregnant.

Behind the scenes

 * Like most television series, The Office filmed for three weeks each month with one week off. This gave the writers time to focus on writing, and the producers time to finish the episodes that had been filmed. However, for the 5th season, production shut down from Christmas 2008 to February 2, 2009 (six weeks) so that Steve Carell could film a movie. This meant that the show had to produce 19 episodes in a row. Co-showrunner Jennifer Celotta described it as "I feel like I'm in a horror movie and I'm the only one that sees the monster." About halfway through the season, co-showrunner Paul Lieberstein said, "I see the monster! I see the monster!" The week after the season finished, many of the cast members got sick from exhaustion.