All About the Kevin Malone-Focused Episode of 'The Office' That Almost Happened

Over the course of a nine-season run, only so much could happen on The Office. The workplace comedy featured a variety of wacky personalities, including that of chili connoisseur, Kevin Malone. As reported by Bustle, The Office writer and producer Michael Schur recently spoke to The Guardian about his experience working on the hit comedy series. According to Schur, one of the many pitches that never made it to the screen included one hilarious Kevin-centric episode that drew inspiration from another popular series at the time. When the Kiefer Sutherland-led Fox drama 24 "was getting big," Schur revealed his idea that ended up on the cutting room floor.

"My pitch was Kevin would get a chicken pot pie and it'd say on the instructions "microwave for 21 minutes and 30 seconds," Schur explained. "The episode would begin with him putting it into the microwave, setting it for 20:30 and hitting start. The story would play out over 21 minutes in real time and at the end of every act, he'd go back into the kitchen and we'd slowly push in on the microwave clock counting down." Even if the episode never got much traction, the image of Kevin staring down a microwave is pretty funny!

In the same interview, The Office showrunner Greg Daniels told the outlet that the U.S. version of the series almost wasn't made because he thought the title was boring. Thankfully, it did get made, and people can make gifs of Kevin dropping that pot of chili for years to come.