Did Jan From The Office Actually Not Get Along With Her Co-Stars on Set?
The Office still remains one of the most-watched sitcoms in television history.
The mockumentary portrayed the daily routine and misfortunes of employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
The Office ran for 9 seasons and 201 episodes, earning both love of the audience and critical acclaim. This level of success would have been unlikely without good working relationships within the cast.
As far as we know, most of The Office's actors got along well with each other, even though the ensemble cast underwent considerable changes over the seasons. But there were a few exceptions.
In particular, look at Melora Hardin, who played Jan Levinson. Jan was Michael Scott's (Steve Carell) superior in the company, introduced as early as the pilot episode.
Initially she played the straight woman serving as a contract to comical antics of Michael and the rest of the office.
Later, after she got divorced, she and Michael eventually began dating, and their relationship, which developed over the course of the series, served as an additional source of comedy.
But over time Jan started to appear less and less – ultimately she was only in 42 out of 201 episodes, and absent for whole seasons in the later half of the show.
That decline in her character's screentime might have resulted from the fact that Melora never felt fitting in with rest of the cast.
As she explained in an interview with Insider, save for her costar Kate Flannery (who played Meredith Palmer), Melora was never close with anyone from The Office's cast.
"I don't really see them socially, really," she said, while noting that the cast is still "always happy to see each other."
It is possible that her character's demeanor – Jan too kept her distance from the rest of Dunder Mifflin crew – was initially to blame.
Jan Levinson, alas, was perhaps the most notable role Hardin ever played. Since The Office her biggest appearance was as a contestant on Season 30 of Dancing with the Stars.
Most of the roles both before and after The Office were small, usually those of single-episode characters on various shows.