Beach Games - Production

Production

"Beach Games" was written by co-executive producer Jennifer Celotta and series creator Greg Daniels, and was directed by Harold Ramis, whose credits include the episodes "A Benihana Christmas" and "Safety Training". Celotta and Daniels came up with the idea for the opening scene while researching medical symptoms at WebMD; they began considering ideas for the episode's cold open, and decided to write on what "we're doing right now," resulting in Michael researching symptoms. Michael's later conversation with David Wallace set an important foundation for both the season and the series, as it established that several people would be competing for a corporate job and solidified the CFO as an important character. The actor who plays Wallace, guest star Andy Buckley, was then working at Merrill Lynch as a stockbroker.

Originally the crew sought to film at a lake that resembled Lake Scranton. However, upon arriving at one in the area they found that it was too beautiful, as they had wanted a lake that was the equivalent of the dour office: "the bleakest lake find." Eventually, much of the episode was filmed at a fake beach at the reservoir of Hansen Dam, where it was "a thousand degrees during the day and minus 40 at night," Celotta remarked in the DVD audio commentary. "We had tents pumping air conditioning that didn't work all day long," according to one crew member. And at night, the production crew set up heaters everywhere because the weather became "frigid".

Actress Kate Flannery later said that the days of filming were extremely "hot", and she became sick of hot dogs after eating many of them in the contest seen in the episode. Many cast members spit out the hot dogs after putting them in their mouths, an act that sometimes activated Ed Helms' gag reflex. The cast members found the sumo suits uncomfortable, both due to the hot weather and the inability to sit down. Actress Angela Kinsey previewed before the episode broadcast that she would "forever look at John Krasinski differently, because he looked so hilarious to me" wearing his sumo suit. For the scenes of Helms floating in the lake in his sumo suit, the actor wore a harness and a fishing line that snaked out through his sleeve, the purpose being to drag him farther out on the lake. A crew member pulled him in a row boat; the crew would film a take of the scene, and then would have to wait fifteen minutes to do it again.

To create a safe enough fire pit to allow the actors to walk on it, the crew used a "light box buried in the ground with orange and yellow gels on it, with lava rocks on top," according to Ramis. Gas lines were also buried in the sand to supply a steady stream of flames. Many of the scenes and lines of dialogue were improvised, such as Andy throwing a rock at a duck and Jim guiding an unsuspecting Karen into the water. For Pam's speech, Daniels and Celotta knew it was important, and discussed with Ramis for about 45 minutes about how best to shoot it. Many different takes were shot, and Celotta thought Fischer "was so amazing, take after take after take." Ramis believed the past 28 episodes had contained a slow build-up to this scene. Daniels wrote most of the speech, though Jennifer did contribute some parts.

The third season DVD contains a number of deleted scenes. Notable cut scenes included Jim receiving a call informing him of the job opening, Michael annoying Pam when she's preparing the hot dogs by telling her to grill faster, Dwight sumo wrestling with Stanley, Ryan asking to participate in the fire walk, and Andy failing to flag down a passing car.