The Office: The Fake Jack Black/Cloris Leachman Film Explained

Jack Black’s appearance on The Office came in season 5, episodes 14 and 15, “Stress Relief”, which featured a fake movie called Mrs. Albert Hannaday starring Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and Cloris Leachman. Unlike some other sitcoms, The Office ensemble cast held the show together without having to rely on big-name guest stars. One exception was in the two-part episode “Stress Relief,” with this trio of stars making an unexpected appearance, and the show found a unique way to bring the actors into the story.

A subplot in the episode involves Jim and Pam watching the now-infamous movie with Andy. The Jack Black movie’s full title is Mrs. Albert Hannaday, where Jack Black’s character, Sam, is introduced to his fiancée Sophie’s (Jessica Alba) grandmother, Lily (Cloris Leachman), and they begin a passionate affair. The in-show movie for Mrs. Albert Hannaday was so well-made that some viewers wondered if it was actually real. The Mrs. Albert Hannaday movie from The Office is, however, fake — though there are some fascinating BTS facts about it.

Mrs. Albert Hannaday Is Not A Real Movie

The Jack Black & Jessica Alba Comedy Was Made Up For The Office

Perhaps for the best, Mrs. Albert Hannaday is an entirely fictional movie that 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 Sam arrives at Lily’s 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 involves Jim and Pam talking about Pam’s parents breaking up, with Andy mistaking their comments for amazing insights into Mrs. Albert Hannaday.

The Office Executives Pulled Out All The Stops For Mrs. Albert Hannaday

The Two-Part Episode Was Airing After The Super Bowl, So Execs Wanted It To Be Special

Mrs. Albert Hannaday was obviously not a real film and doesn’t exist beyond the gag in The Office. What many viewers don’t know about the fake movie, however, is that a lot more went into its production than the series shows on the surface. With “Stress Relief” airing in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot, executives wants Mrs. Albert Hannaday to look as good as possible.

In addition, the fake film has its own authentic soundtrack, with songs like “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall and Oates and “All Out of Love” by Air Supply being included. There are even scenes from the movie that were cut from the finished product and never made it into the episode, such as when Jack Black meets Cloris Leachman’s new boyfriend, played by screenwriter Nate Federman.

Mrs. Albert Hannaday’s Cloris Leachman Was An Oscar-Winning Actress

Jack Black Isn’t The Only Famous Face In Mrs. Albert Hannaday

While Jack Black’s The Office cameo will have excited many fans who are familiar with the actor from hits like School of Rock, the appearance of legendary actor Cloris Leachman is just as much of a win for The Office. While some of the younger audience may not be as familiar with her work, it is likely they have seen her elsewhere as Leachman had a long and versatile career that spanned decades.

Leachman got her big break in the movies with The Last Picture Show, which won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as neglected homemaker Ruth Popper. While that role showed off her incredible dramatic skills, Leachman is likely best remembered for her comedic roles, especially her scene-stealing performance as Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein.

In her later years, she continued to work in notable projects, winning several Emmys for her recurring role in Malcolm in the Middle as Ida and appearing in Spanglish opposite Adam Sandler. After a long and acclaimed career, Leachman passed away in 2021 at the age of 94.

Other Celebrity Guest Appearances On The Office

The Likes Of Idris Elba And Evan Peters Have Also Graced Dunder Mifflin

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, and Josh Groban as Andy’s brother in a few episodes.

Stephen Colbert also appears as Andy’s friend Broccoli Rob, plus Idris Elba and Will Ferrell had important 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 appearances 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.

Related

The 10 Best Guest Stars on The Office, Ranked

The Office might have featured a lot of great regular characters, but there were also plenty of great guests stars that dropped by Dunder Mifflin.

The Office’s Other Fake Movie Can Be Viewed Online

Threat Level Midnight Is Available On YouTube

Mrs. Albert Hannaday isn’t the only fake movie featured in The Office. The Michael Scott-written and directed movie (starring him as the main character) Threat Level Midnight was first introduced in The Office season 2, episode 7, “The Client”, where Jim discovers the script and has a table read with the rest of his co-workers. Much later, The Office season 7, episode 17, “Threat Level Midnight”sees Erin telling the rest of the office that Michael has finished his masterpiece, and they are all going to watch it —and the entire fake movie is available online.

Through the official The Office YouTube channel, the fake movie Threat Level Midnight can be viewed in its entirety. While most of it is in the episode, some scenes were cut, but now that footage has been revealed. However, it’s unclear if there’s any way to see extra footage of Mrs. Albert Hannaday that didn’t make it in. Either way, The Office fans are still eager for a full cut of Mrs. Albert Hannaday, and maybe one day they’ll get their wish.

Other Fake Movies In Films & TV Shows

Sitcoms, Action-Comedies, And Horror Movies Have Included Some Fake Trailers

Notable Fake Movies:

There is a long history of fake movies appearing within shows and films, some of them causing similar confusion as Mrs. Albert Hannaday did with fans of The Office. While a lot of these fake movies are meant to be jokes, some of them have been intriguing enough to make audiences wish they were real after all. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is another sitcom that came up with its own in-universe movie with Thunder Gun Express, which is introduced in season 7 as the Gang attempt to make it to the theater in time to see it.

However, it makes a return later in the series with the Gang being chosen as a test audience for the franchise’s new entry, Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool. That episode features a clip from the sequel where it is revealed that Dolph Lundgren plays the hero, John ThunderGun. Entourage is perhaps the series with the most fake movise as it follows a fiction Hollywood star, Vincent Chase, with his projects including James Cameron’s Aquaman, Martin Scorsese’s Gatsby, and fictional director Billy Walsh’s Medellín.

There are even more examples of fake movies within movies, with Tropic Thunder being a perfect example of this. The comedy follows the chaotic production of a fake war movie, but it also features a number of fake trailers for movies starring the fictional actors of the story, including Tugg Speedman’s action movie, Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown, Jeff Portnoy’s gross-out comedy The Fatties: Fart 2, and Kirk Lazarus’s prestigious drama Satan’s Alley.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is another movie that looks at the life of a fictional actor. In this case, it is Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a Western TV star who has appeared in a few movies in his struggling career. While the movie highlights several of these appearances, the most notable is The 14 Fists of McCluskey. The war movie plays into the climax of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Rick uses his flamethrower from that movie to kill a member of the Manson Family.

While these fake projects all sound exciting, one of the most famous fake movies ended up becoming real. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up on Grindhouse, which was a throwback to double-billed exploitation movies of the past. This included featuring a number of fake movie trailers in between the two features of the movie, including horror movies Don’t and Werewolf Women of the SS. The fake trailers also included the slasher Thanksgiving by Eli Roth and the revenge movie Machete by Robert Rodriguez, both of which were turned into real movies following interest from fans.

The Office

The Office is the U.S. remake of the British comedy mockumentary series of the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a Dunder Mifflin Paper Company branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania, led by their unconventional and clueless boss, Michael Scott. The series covers nine years of footage as they find themselves recorded through their work days and off times.

Cast

Mindy Kaling , Jenna Fischer , Kate Flannery , Ed Helms , Craig Robinson , Paul Lieberstein , Ellie Kemper , B.J. Novak , Angela Kinsey , Oscar Nunez , Rainn Wilson , Brian Baumgartner , Phyllis Smith , Leslie David Baker , Creed Bratton , Steve Carell , John Krasinski

Release Date

March 24, 2005

Seasons

9

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