The Bracket Maker (2024)

29/10/2020

What is The Office’s best Halloween episode finale!

Finale: S2E5 Halloween vs. S7E6 Costume Contest
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Halloween: It’s Halloween and Michael has procrastinated the entire month on his orders from Jan to fire an employee in Scranton by the end of October. He starts with trying to fire Stanley but can’t follow through. Michael then turns his attention towards Creed. Creed then convinces Michael to let Devon go. After Michael fires Devon, Devon angrily rebuffs Michael's attempts to save their friendship, and invites everyone in the office (except Michael, Creed, Dwight, and Angela) to join him at a local bar. Jim and Pam play a prank on Dwight to convince him to move to Cumberland Mills in Maryland. When the chaos settles down, Pam tells Jim that she thinks that he would be a good real choice for the job, hurting Jim’s feeling in the process. Pam later apologizes and Jim confesses to the camera crew that Pam is the only thing keeping him at Dunder Mifflin. At the end of the episode, Michael is alone at his home in front of the television, upset over firing Devon. When trick-or-treaters come, Michael cheerfully gives them a generous amount of candy.

Costume Contest: The Dunder Mifflin staff have a Halloween costume contest, Michael's upset after Darryl gives an idea to corporate without running it by him first, and Pam tries to make Danny open up about their dating past.

Results from Match 9: Costume Contest finished off the loser’s bracket for a final chance to win with 76.3% of the vote and Employee Transfer is sent packing with 23.7%.

26/10/2020

What is The Office’s best Halloween episode?

Match 9: S5E6 Employee Transfer vs. S7E6 Costume Contest
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Employee Transfer: Pam is the only one wearing a costume on Halloween in New York. Creed, Kevin, and Dwight all dress up as the Joker from The Dark Knight. Holly and Michael take a long trip to Nashua with Darryl after they get some shocking news from corporate. Back in Scranton, Dwight gets under Andy's skin by displaying Cornell paraphernalia.

Costume Contest: The Dunder Mifflin staff have a Halloween costume contest, Michael's upset after Darryl gives an idea to corporate without running it by him first, and Pam tries to make Danny open up about their dating past.

Results from match 8: Halloween moves on to the finals with 73.9%, and Employee Transfer moves to the finals of the loser’s bracket with 26.1%.

22/10/2020

What is The Office’s best Halloween episode?

Match 8: S2E5 Halloween vs. S5E6 Employee Transfer
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Halloween: It’s Halloween and Michael has procrastinated the entire month on his orders from Jan to fire an employee in Scranton by the end of October. He starts with trying to fire Stanley but can’t follow through. Michael then turns his attention towards Creed. Creed then convinces Michael to let Devon go. After Michael fires Devon, Devon angrily rebuffs Michael's attempts to save their friendship, and invites everyone in the office (except Michael, Creed, Dwight, and Angela) to join him at a local bar. Jim and Pam play a prank on Dwight to convince him to move to Cumberland Mills in Maryland. When the chaos settles down, Pam tells Jim that she thinks that he would be a good real choice for the job, hurting Jim’s feeling in the process. Pam later apologizes and Jim confesses to the camera crew that Pam is the only thing keeping him at Dunder Mifflin. At the end of the episode, Michael is alone at his home in front of the television, upset over firing Devon. When trick-or-treaters come, Michael cheerfully gives them a generous amount of candy.

Employee Transfer: Pam is the only one wearing a costume on Halloween in New York. Creed, Kevin, and Dwight all dress up as the Joker from The Dark Knight. Holly and Michael take a long trip to Nashua with Darryl after they get some shocking news from corporate. Back in Scranton, Dwight gets under Andy's skin by displaying Cornell paraphernalia.

Results from match 7: Costume Contest moves on with 57.1% and Koi Pond is eliminated after receiving 42.9% of the vote.

19/10/2020

What is The Office's best Halloween episode?

Match 7: S7E6 Costume Contest vs. S6E8 Koi Pond
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Costume Contest: The Dunder Mifflin staff have a Halloween costume contest, Michael's upset after Darryl gives an idea to corporate without running it by him first, and Pam tries to make Danny open up about their dating past.

Koi Pond: This is where it may get confusing for some Netflix only viewers. During the NBC premier of Koi Pond, the cold open featured a haunted warehouse put on by the members of the office for children related to the employees. Darryl is the guide on this tour as the “Gangster Pumpkin” (dubbed by Michael). The tour goes along uneventfully, as Darryl was never briefed what to prepare for or what people were dressed as. Right when then tour is expected to be over, Michael (dressed as SNL’s D*ck In A Box character) drops down hanging from a noose, in front of all the children. He then takes the opportunity to give a speech to the children about su***de. It’s not hard to tell why NBC decided to alter the cold open after the premier. I’ve included a link for your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00TlpDbwS4Q

Results from Match 6: Koi Pond moves on with 71.1% of the vote and Here Comes Treble is eliminated after receiving 28.9%

16/10/2020

What is the The Office’s best Halloween episode?

Match 6: S9E5 Here Comes Treble vs. S6E8 Koi Pond
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Here Comes Treble: It's Halloween in the office and Andy invites his college a ca****la group to perform, which leads to a confrontation with his frenemy Broccoli Rob. Meanwhile, Dwight finds evidence that a madman is loose in the office and tries to track him down, and the first meeting of Jim's new job causes a fight with Pam.

Koi Pond: This is where it may get confusing for some Netflix only viewers. During the NBC premier of Koi Pond, the cold open featured a haunted warehouse put on by the members of the office for children related to the employees. Darryl is the guide on this tour as the “Gangster Pumpkin” (dubbed by Michael). The tour goes along uneventfully, as Darryl was never briefed what to prepare for or what people were dressed as. Right when then tour is expected to be over, Michael (dressed as SNL’s D*ck In A Box character) drops down hanging from a noose, in front of all the children. He then takes the opportunity to give a speech to the children about su***de. It’s not hard to tell why NBC decided to alter the cold open after the premier. I’ve included a link for your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00TlpDbwS4Q

Results from Match 5: Costume Contest moves on with 56.9% amount of the vote, and Spooked is our first elimination after it received 43.1 amount of the vote.

14/10/2020

What is the The Office’s best Halloween episode?

Match 5: S8E5 Spooked vs. S7E6 Costume Contest
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Costume Contest: The Dunder Mifflin staff have a Halloween costume contest, Michael's upset after Darryl gives an idea to corporate without running it by him first, and Pam tries to make Danny open up about their dating past.

Spooked: Andy runs individual meetings to approve of the office’s costumes in the cold open. A montage is shown of Toby removing the dangerous accessories of Dwight’s Halloween costumes throughout the years that presumably weren’t featured in the documentary, along with this years’ Kerrigan “Queen of Blades” costume. Erin is placed in charge of the Halloween party, but it’s determined to be too childlike once Andy gets word that Robert California would be attending, along with his son. In an attempt to spookify the office party, Erin seeks Gabe’s pizzazz in order to make it more “scary” and “sexy”. While Gabe’s idea turns out to be a disaster with his “Unsettling movie”, Robert reaches into the minds of the employees to learn their deepest fears, and later gives a ridiculous speech including those fears.

Results from Match 4: The OG Halloween episode moves on with 75% of the vote, and Koi Pond moves to the loser’s bracket with 25% of the vote.

12/10/2020

What is the The Office’s best Halloween episode? We're back at it with an improved Halloween bracket!

Match 4: S2E5 Halloween vs. S6E8 Koi Pond
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Halloween: It’s Halloween and Michael has procrastinated the entire month on his orders from Jan to fire an employee in Scranton by the end of October. He starts with trying to fire Stanley but can’t follow through. Michael then turns his attention towards Creed. Creed then convinces Michael to let Devon go. After Michael fires Devon, Devon angrily rebuffs Michael's attempts to save their friendship, and invites everyone in the office (except Michael, Creed, Dwight, and Angela) to join him at a local bar. Jim and Pam play a prank on Dwight to convince him to move to Cumberland Mills in Maryland. When the chaos settles down, Pam tells Jim that she thinks that he would be a good real choice for the job, hurting Jim’s feeling in the process. Pam later apologizes and Jim confesses to the camera crew that Pam is the only thing keeping him at Dunder Mifflin. At the end of the episode, Michael is alone at his home in front of the television, upset over firing Devon. When trick-or-treaters come, Michael cheerfully gives them a generous amount of candy.

Koi Pond: This is where it may get confusing for some Netflix only viewers. During the NBC premier of Koi Pond, the cold open featured a haunted warehouse put on by the members of the office for children related to the employees. Darryl is the guide on this tour as the “Gangster Pumpkin” (dubbed by Michael). The tour goes along uneventfully, as Darryl was never briefed what to prepare for or what people were dressed as. Right when then tour is expected to be over, Michael (dressed as SNL’s D*ck In A Box character) drops down hanging from a noose, in front of all the children. He then takes the opportunity to give a speech to the children about su***de. It’s not hard to tell why NBC decided to alter the cold open after the premier. I’ve included a link for your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00TlpDbwS4Q

Results from Match 3: Employee Transfer surprisingly wins, despite Halloween only being featured in the cold open, with 69.9% (nice) of the vote. Costume Contest moves to the loser’s bracket with 30.1% of the vote.

09/10/2020

What is the The Office’s best Halloween episode?

Match 3: S7E6 Costume Contest vs. S5E6 Employee Transfer
Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Costume Contest: The Dunder Mifflin staff have a Halloween costume contest, Michael's upset after Darryl gives an idea to corporate without running it by him first, and Pam tries to make Danny open up about their dating past.

Employee Transfer: Pam is the only one wearing a costume on Halloween in New York. Creed, Kevin, and Dwight all dress up as the Joker from The Dark Knight. Holly and Michael take a long trip to Nashua with Darryl after they get some shocking news from corporate. Back in Scranton, Dwight gets under Andy's skin by displaying Cornell paraphernalia.

Results from Match 3: Koi Pond wins with 64.7% of the vote and Spooked moves to the loser’s bracket after receiving 35.3% of the vote.

07/10/2020

What is the The Office’s best Halloween episode?
Match 2: S8E5 Spooked vs. S6E8 Koi Pond

Please react to the original post to have your vote counted.

Spooked: Andy runs individual meetings to approve of the office’s costumes in the cold open. A montage is shown of Toby removing the dangerous accessories of Dwight’s Halloween costumes throughout the years that presumably weren’t featured in the documentary, along with this years’ Kerrigan “Queen of Blades” costume. Erin is placed in charge of the Halloween party, but it’s determined to be too childlike once Andy gets word that Robert California would be attending, along with his son. In an attempt to spookify the office party, Erin seeks Gabe’s pizzazz in order to make it more “scary” and “sexy”. While Gabe’s idea turns out to be a disaster with his “Unsettling movie”, Robert reaches into the minds of the employees to learn their deepest fears, and later gives a ridiculous speech including those fears.

Koi Pond: This is where it may get confusing for some Netflix only viewers. During the NBC premier of Koi Pond, the cold open featured a haunted warehouse put on by the members of the office for children related to the employees. Darryl is the guide on this tour as the “Gangster Pumpkin” (dubbed by Michael). The tour goes along uneventfully, as Darryl was never briefed what to prepare for or what people were dressed as. Right when then tour is expected to be over, Michael (dressed as SNL’s D*ck In A Box character) drops down hanging from a noose, in front of all the children. He then takes the opportunity to give a speech to the children about su***de. It’s not hard to tell why NBC decided to alter the cold open after the premier. I’ve included a link for your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00TlpDbwS4Q

Results from Match 1: Employee Transfer wins with a whopping 86.6%, with Here Comes Treble receiving 11.8% of the vote, and 1.6% of the vote going to abstentions.

05/10/2020

It it time for our first bracket to determine the best Halloween episode of The Office!

Round 1: S9E5 Here Comes Treble vs. S5E6 Employee Transfer

Here Comes Treble: It's Halloween in the office and Andy invites his college a ca****la group to perform, which leads to a confrontation with his frenemy Broccoli Rob. Meanwhile, Dwight finds evidence that a madman is loose in the office and tries to track him down, and the first meeting of Jim's new job causes a fight with Pam.

Employee Transfer: Pam is the only one wearing a costume on Halloween in New York. Creed, Kevin, and Dwight all dress up as the Joker from The Dark Knight. Holly and Michael take a long trip to Nashua with Darryl after they get some shocking news from corporate. Back in Scranton, Dwight gets under Andy's skin by displaying Cornell paraphernalia.

Here Comes Treble features an entire Halloween episode, while Employee Transfer only features Halloween during the cold open.

Voting will last for 48 hours. Results along with the next round will be posted at ~8am PT Wednesday.

04/10/2020

Compiling information and creating a bracket for The Office's cold opens is going to take more time than anticipated, so what better way to buy some time than to run a topical Best The Office Halloween Episode bracket! Here's a sneak peak on what to expect for the bracket launch: This bracket will be a seeded 6 entry double elimination bracket. The first head to head match up will launch tomorrow at approximately 8am PT. Each match will have voting open for about 48 hours. After the 48 hours, the results will be posted, along with the next head to head match up. The episode entries are as follows:

1. S7E6 Costume Contest
2. S2E5 Halloween
3. S8E5 Spooked
4. S9E5 Here Comes Treble
5. S5E6 Employee Transfer
6. S6E8 Koi Pond

30/09/2020

Hello everyone, and welcome to The Bracket Maker! For the first bracket on this page, I would like put together a large bracket (likely 64 entries) for a head to head battle to determine the best cold opens on NBC's The Office (U.S. version). What are some cold opens you would like to see featured? Feel free to embrace your inner Andy and include some "deep tracks".

The Bracket Maker