NBC removed the Halloween cold open from The Office episode “Koi Pond” after it aired just once, on October 29, 2009, then disappeared from every later version of the episode. The scene had Michael Scott stage a hanging during a haunted house for children in the Dunder Mifflin warehouse.
The Season 6 episode put the staff in charge of the attraction. Jim’s costume consisted of “BOOK” written on his face. Dwight insisted he was Jigsaw, while Creed, dressed as Dracula, offered to sell the children’s blood.
Michael wore his “Dick in a Box” costume and dropped from a noose. Addressing the children, he said, “Kids, just remember, s**c*de is never the answer, all right? … It is the easy way out. You are not alone.”
Darryl asked, “What the hell is wrong with you?” Michael answered, “Who wants candy?”
Jenna Fischer revisited the scene in June 2023, explaining that it had made the original Halloween-week broadcast. “And after it aired, NBC decided to pull it from all future episodes,” she said. Angela Kinsey added, “It’s also not on the DVDs in the deleted scenes section.”
The removal involved replacing the episode itself. A former producer said in 2019 that it was “re-cut and re-delivered, with the original HD-SR delivery masters collected back from NBC and thrown into deep storage.”
Subsequent versions begin with the scene that originally came after the opening credits. An expanded sensitivity-training meeting and an added Dwight pep talk help fill the missing time. The haunted-house opening is absent from the episode on Peacock, DVD and in syndication.
The scene also received praise when it first aired. In a review published the next morning, the Houston Press asked, “does it get better than Michael pretending to h*ng himself in front of schoolchildren and then telling them that ‘s***** is never the answer’? I submit that it does not.”