How Real Was The Office Season 3’s Bat Scene?

There’s a reason “The Office” remains so beloved more than a decade after its ninth and final season ended in 2013. In fact, there are several reasons, from the cast to the writing to the way in which the early episodes, at least, felt like they were giving you a glimpse into the lives of real people who just happened to have an absolutely twisted weirdo as a boss. But the show was also just packed with some incredibly funny moments that remain forever embedded in fans’ memories. From the disastrous dinner date at Michael (Steve Carrell) and Jan (Melora Hardin)’s house to the legendary fire drill cold open that began one of the best and most chaotic episodes of “The Office,” the series’ already hilarious tone was punctuated by so many of these comedic high-points. 

One of the funniest moments on “The Office” came during the season 3 episode “Business School,” in which a bat becomes trapped in the Dunder Mifflin office. Naturally, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) takes it upon himself to rid the company of its minor infestation, embarking on a mission to trap the bat. Unfortunately, he ultimately manages to trap both the animal and Meredith’s (Kate Flannery) head inside a trash bag in a scene that is both hilarious and looks remarkably real. In fact, all the “Business School” scenes featuring the bat seem strikingly convincing. So, just how real were these moments?

While “Business School” didn’t require the “Office” producers to go to the same lengths as when they used a $12,000 fake cat, shooting the bat scenes was a fairly complicated affair. On a 2020 episode of the “Office Ladies” podcast (via People), Pam and Angela actors Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey broke down the “Business School” episode, including the various bat scenes. The pair enlisted the help of producer Kent Zbornak and Meredith actor Kate Flannery to get the full rundown on how the show managed to make the moments featuring the bat so realistic. As it turns out, it involved the use of three different versions of the creature, only one of which was real.

The three bats comprised a CGI version, a mechanical headset, and a real bat that was used for a handful of shots. As Zbornak explained, the CGI model was used for scenes where the bat was flying around the office and the staff were screaming, which would have been impossible to shoot safely with a real bat. However, an actual live bat was used for the shot where Dwight stands on Pam’s desk and lifts a ceiling panel to discover the creature for the first time. Zbornak revealed that the real animal was also used for “a few shots of the bat on the ceiling in the conference room” and “for that shot of the bat on the ceiling in the kitchen.”

Evidently, using a real-life bat required the presence of two bat wranglers in the forms of Chad Dunn and John Baldwin. The former was actually in the ceiling holding the bat for the shot where Dwight first discovers him. As Fischer recalled, “I remember we had to be super silent as they brought the bat in and placed the bat.”

Interestingly enough, Kinsey also recalled from the episode’s DVD commentary that Rainn Wilson named the bat after learning that the wranglers never gave him a name. “Rainn was like, ‘What? I’m gonna name him.’ And so Rainn named the bat Gary,” she recalled.

Unsurprisingly, that infamous moment where Dwight traps Meredith inside a trash bag with the bat did not use the real animal — at least for the trash bag incident itself. As Kate Flannery recalled on the “Office Ladies” podcast, the real bat was used for shots where Meredith was trapped in the bathroom and the creature was hanging on the ceiling of the kitchen outside the door. “We had a real bat with five handlers,” she explained. “But we were not allowed to make any noise around the bat. You couldn’t, I couldn’t scream. So even though I was screaming, I was acting like I was screaming when we were shooting.” The actor remembered that screaming wasn’t allowed because it would interfere with the bat’s sonar and upset the animal — hence, the real bat also couldn’t be used for the scenes in which the entire office staff ran around screaming.

When it came time to shoot the trash bag moment, producers brought in the animatronic bat, which according to Flannery was “this fluttery thing, something like a headband with a motor.” The actor explained how she performed the entire scene with Rainn Wilson while wearing the “motorized thing” on her head. “Yes, I could breathe with a bag over my head,” she recalled. “We figured it out. It was fine. So I was acting my ass off.” Flannery also claimed this was “one of the most fun scenes” she’d ever shot with Wilson, who she praised as “an amazing actor”

Later, in the season 4 premiere “Fun Run” (which made our list of the best episodes of “The Office”), the bat storyline is revisited briefly when it’s revealed Meredith received a rabies shot due to being bitten by the bat in “Business School.”