‘The Office’ finale: Saying goodbye to JAM

“Four years ago, I was just a guy who had a crush on a girl who had a boyfriend. I had to do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, which is just to wait. Don’t get me wrong, I flirted with her … For a really long time, that’s all I had: little moments with a girl who saw me as a friend. A lot of people told me I was crazy to wait this long for a date with a girl who I worked with. But I think, even then, I knew that I was waiting for my wife.” – Jim Halpert (Season 6, Ep. 4)

So was the journey of lowly nine-to-fivers Jim Halpert and Pam Beesley, more affectionately known as JAM by “The Office” habitue.

Beyond the bumbling antics of Michael Scott (Steve Carell), the resident bozo boss at Dunder Mifflin, a love story took hold: Jim (John Krasinski), the nice-guy-to-a-fault paper salesman, was smitten with engaged-to-someone-else receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) — and vice versa.

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In a television vale overrun by will they/won’t theys, the duo pulled off one of the most realistic office romances in TV history. But now it’s time to say goodbye to the paper-bound fairy tale when “The Office” wraps its run Thursday.

“I think unrequited love is one of those things that everyone has felt in some degree or another, but if you felt it for real the way these characters have — it’s huge,” Krasinski told The Times in late January on the show’s Van Nuys set. “And more often than not, people don’t act on it right away. They’re too scared. Theirs was a story of patience.”

The slow buildup in the Jim/Pam romance — wrought with longing smiles, rooftop grilled cheese dinners, a couple of kisses (drunken and stolen), and a broken engagement — would be the subject of countless fan mashups on YouTube set against pitiful ballads such as “Crash Into Me” (Dave Matthews Band) and “Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls) — don’t ask how we knew that. Their eventual coupling would come in Season 5, with marriage and babies soon thereafter.

To some, it was a sickly sweet story line that got more cloying as the seasons progressed, taking away from the essence of the quirky show. To others, their relationship was the pith, keeping things grounded amid George Foreman-grilled feet and Parkour sendups.

Greg Daniels, the show’s developer and executive producer, even dared to suggest the pair had an edge over the World’s Best Boss.

“Jim and Pam, to me, were so much the heart of the show — maybe even more than Michael,” Daniels said. “Because everyone has been there. That, ugh, I wish I could just kiss you right now! feeling.”

Much of the mockumentary comedy’s final season has been spent tearing down the fourth wall, revealing the documentary crew that have been skulking around the Dunder Mifflin offices all these years. Their point of entry came during the much-debated — by the show’s writers and viewers — story line that involved marital strife between NBC’s Ross and Rachel 2.0.

“It was really important to us that this continue to be a relationship that felt real,” Fischer said. “They had sort of been stuck in this fairy tale, where everything was peachy. And as much as that’s nice, it’s not authentic.”

If the twosome’s love-struck chemistry felt all too real, on some level it was.

“Without sounding totally sappy, Jenna and I have a relationship unlike any relationship I’ve had with a friend,” Krasinski said. “My wife and I have a totally different relationship, but it’s weirdly sort of parallel. To have any sort of personal connection with someone that you’re going through a fake relationship for a decade together — that’s what happens. It’s really weird and sad to say goodbye to that. But, hey, maybe people will keep us alive in those TV will they/won’t they lists that pop up every season?”

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