The Office's season 5 episode "Stress Relief" featured Jack Black and Cloris Leachman starring in a fake movie called Mrs. Albert Hannaday.
The Office season 5 episode "Stress Relief" featured a fake movie called Mrs. Albert Hannaday starring Jack Black and Cloris Leachman - here's the fake romantic comedy explained. The Office is based on the acclaimed Ricky Gervais (After Life) BBC series of the same name. Gervais played the main character David Brent on The Office, who thinks he's a cool boss but whose attempts at humor are usually horribly embarrassing. The Office was shot in a mockumentary style and ended after two seasons and a Christmas special in 2003. Gervais would later return for 2016 film David Brent: Life On The Road.
The American version of The Office debuted in 2005 and has arguably overshadowed its predecessor in terms of popularity. The show featured breakout roles for Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, and John Krasinski, among many others. While The Office season 1 received mixed reviews, the series evolved into a comedy staple and ran for nine seasons. The Office is popular to this day and is still finding new viewers on Netflix.
The Office showrunners tended to avoid having major stars appear on the show to make it feel somewhat grounded. They worked around this rule in a clever way for season 5's two-part episode "Stress Relief," however. The main plot involves Michael trying to reduce office stress - only to realize he's a big part of why his employees are so anxious. A subplot involves Jim and Pam watching a pirated movie with Andy (Ed Helms, The Hangover). This fake movie is called Mrs. Albert Hannaday, where Jack Black's character is introduced to his fiancee's (Jessica Alba) grandmother, played by Cloris Leachman, and they begin a passionate affair.
Mrs. Albert Hannaday Is Not A Real Movie
Perhaps for the best, the Jack Black/Jessica Alba cameo Mrs. Albert Hannaday is an entirely fictional movie that isn't at all real and exists in The Office purely for comedic purposes. The episode includes brief glimpses of the fake rom-com throughout, including a steamy scene where Black helps Leachman out of her bath and they make out, and a later scene where she breaks up with him. The Office episode ends with Mrs. Albert Hannaday's final scene as Black's character arrives at her house with flowers and a new walker, only to look through the window and see her with a new young lover - he walks away heartbroken. Another gag that recurs throughout this episode of The Office involves Jim and Pam talking about Pam's parents breaking up, with Andy mistaking their comments for amazing insights into Mrs. Albert Hannaday.
Other Celebrity Guest Appearances On The Office
Although Black, Alba, and Leachman's roles in Mrs. Albert Hannaday are some of The Office's sneakiest celebrity cameos, the series also made increasing use of such guest appearances in its later seasons, despite the initial effort not to do so. Some of the most noteworthy cameos include Ricky Gervais as David Brent, Michael Scott's counterpart from the British version of The Office, Josh Groban as Andy's brother in a few episodes, Stephen Colbert as Andy's friend Broccoli Rob, plus Idris Elba, Christian Slater, and Will Ferrell in several minor recurring roles. Warren Buffett, Will Arnett, Ray Romano, and Jim Carrey all pop up in The Office's season 7 finale, "Search Committee." While each of these cameos is iconic and hilarious in its own way, Mrs. Albert Hannaday still stands out as one of the zaniest cameos on The Office.
The Office's "Stress Relief" episode aired during Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, which helped make it the highest-rated episode of the entire show. "Stress Relief" was also designed to be something of a gateway episode for new viewers to The Office, since none of the stories involved intimate knowledge of the previous seasons. This extends to the cameo appearances of Black, Alba, and Leachman in Mrs. Albert Hannaday, which didn't involve them interacting with any of the characters on the show.
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