Pam Beesly

Pam Halpert
The Office character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Jenna Fischer
In-universe information
Occupation	• Receptionist, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton PA • Sales Representative, Michael Scott Paper Company •Sales Representative, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton PA
Family	Cecelia Marie Halpert (daughter) William Beesly (father, Rick Overton) Helene Beesly (mother, Shannon Cochran and Linda Purl) Penny Beesly (sister, Anna Camp) Sylvia Beesly (grandmother, Peggy Stewart) Jocelyn Webster (cousin)
Spouse	Jim Halpert (husband)
Children	Cecelia Marie Halpert
Based on	Dawn Tinsley

Pamela Morgan "Pam" Halpert (née Beesly) is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom The Office, played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of The Office is Dawn Tinsley.

Overview

Pam spends much of the series as the friendly but often frustrated receptionist at the Scranton branch of the fictitious paper-distributor Dunder Mifflin. As the series progresses, she becomes a sales rep for the branch. She can seem shy or hesitant to speak her mind, but enjoys chatting with her best friend, and later husband, Jim Halpert. She often helps Jim play pranks on his deskmate Dwight Schrute. Her boss Michael Scott often asks her to do strange office tasks, and mocks her about being a receptionist. At the beginning of the series she had been dating warehouse worker Roy Anderson since high school and had been engaged to him for three years.

Pam attended Valley View High School, as well as college, where she focused on art, and played volleyball, although she mentions disliking gym class in high school. Jenna Fischer's backstory for the character describes her as an alumna of Marywood University, majoring in art education, but not graduating. Later in the series, she returns to school to take art and animation classes and in "Goodbye, Toby", she is selected to participate in a three month graphic design program at the Pratt Institute, where she also becomes a resident assistant. Pam has above average typing skills and is able to type ninety words per minute. Her favorite yogurt flavor is mixed berry, and she enjoys French Onion Sun Chips. In "The Dundies", she was banned from all Chili's restaurant chains due to sneaking drinks off of other customer's tables. In "The Fire", she reveals her favorite movies to be Fargo, Edward Scissorhands, Dazed and Confused, The Princess Bride, and The Breakfast Club, but she also enjoys Legally Blonde. She drives a Toyota Yaris hatchback in Bayou Blue Pearl, first seen in the third season episode "Grief Counseling" and knows how to change a tire. She is Presbyterian. In "Did I Stutter?" it is shown she is very nearsighted, and usually wears contact lenses instead of glasses. In a deleted scene, she says she has 20/400 vision. During the same episode it is revealed that her middle name is Morgan. In "Weight Loss", her weight is revealed to be 126 pounds. Her AIM Screen Name is Receptionitis15.

Character history

Seasons 1–3

At the beginning of the series, Pam and Roy have been dating for eight years and engaged for three. Their open-ended engagement has become one of Michael's running gags and a sore spot for Pam.

Pam does not want her current job to become permanent, remarking that "I don't think it's many little girls' dream to be a receptionist." Pam is apathetic toward her work, evidenced by her frequent games of FreeCell on her office computer. However, in the pilot episode, she breaks down crying when Michael pulls an ill-advised prank by telling her that she will be fired.

Michael has criticized Pam for simply forwarding calls to voice mail without answering and (in a deleted scene) for not sounding enthusiastic enough when speaking on the telephone. Pam is usually happy to abandon her work if asked to do something else by Jim. She will do extra, unnecessary work (such as making a casket for a dead bird or paper doves for the Office Olympics) to make other people happy.

Despite the abuse she takes from Michael, she never goes any farther than calling him a jerk. In later seasons however, she becomes more honest and forward with Michael and will often make sarcastic comments toward him.

Pam denied, or was in denial about, having any romantic feelings for her friend Jim. After Jim confesses his love for her at the Dunder Mifflin "Casino Night" she turns him down. She later talks to her mom on the phone and says Jim is her best friend (though she doesn't say his name), and says "Yeah, I think I am" to an unheard question.

In "Gay Witch Hunt," the first episode of the third season, it is revealed that Pam got cold feet before her wedding and did not marry Roy after all (to the dismay of Roy). Pam and Roy break up, and Pam moves into her own apartment.

Season three marks a turning point for Pam's character; she gains self-confidence and appears less passive and more self-assured as the season progresses. She begins taking art classes, a pursuit that Roy had previously dismissed as a waste of time, and buys a new car. She also participates in an art show, but only Oscar, Michael, Roy, and Roy's brother, Kenny attend. Oscar brings his partner along who, not knowing that Pam is standing behind him, criticizes her work by proclaiming that "real art requires courage." Oscar then goes on to say that courage isn't one of Pam's strong points. Later, Pam tells the documentary crew that she is going to be more honest, culminating in a dramatic coal walk during the next-to-last episode of the season, "Beach Games".

Jim and Pam appear to have ended all communication after Jim transfers to the Stamford branch, but he accidentally calls her at her desk one night when trying to reach Kevin's voice mail. Pam is delighted when Jim moves back into the Scranton office as a result of The Merger, but he soon reveals to Pam that he is seeing someone else, Stamford transfer Karen Filippelli. Pam still harbors feelings for Jim, but awkwardly denies this when confronted by Karen in "Ben Franklin."

Meanwhile, Roy becomes depressed, gains weight, and is eventually arrested for a D.U.I. This serves as a wake-up call to Roy, who vows to clean up his act and win Pam back. Roy's desire to reunite with Pam intensifies during Branch Closing when it's initially announced that the Scranton branch will be shut down permanently. Roy's efforts to improve his relationship with Pam are quite successful, but once Pam and Roy are back together, he falls back into old habits almost immediately. Pam later tells Roy that he has to do "boyfriend stuff" if they're going to stay together. Roy agrees to attend an after work get-together at a local bar with Pam and her coworkers. Pam, feeling that she should be more honest with Roy, tells him about Jim kissing her at "Casino Night." Roy yells, smashes a mirror, and trashes the bar. Pam, frightened and embarrassed by his reaction, breaks up with Roy immediately. Roy vows to kill Jim.

Roy unsuccessfully tries to attack Jim at work (Jim is saved by Dwight's intervention), and he's subsequently fired. Pam later agrees to meet Roy for coffee. After the polite but brief meeting, it appears that their relationship has ended amicably with Roy encouraging Pam to pursue Jim.

In "Beach Games", Michael takes the office on an outing to the beach in an attempt to search for a new regional manager, as he incorrectly believes he will be chosen for the open corporate position. After spending the day responding to Michael's usual antics, Pam—who has been trying to be braver and more self-assured for the entire season—determinedly participates in a coal walk and, high from the adrenaline of the activity, rushes over to Jim and, in front of not only him but the entire office, explains, "I called off my wedding because of you...I really miss you."

In "The Job," Pam has become much more assertive and doesn't regret her previous speech in "Beach Games". She states that she is happy that Jim is with Karen and that she hopes that she may find love too someday. As she is saying this, Jim interrupts her and asks her out for dinner. She happily accepts, visibly moved, forgetting what she was previously saying.

Seasons 4–6

In Season 4, Pam retains the assertiveness she developed in the third season. She wears her hair in a more loose style and has updated her old dowdy wardrobe.

In the season 4 premiere, "Fun Run", Jim and Pam confess that they have started dating after the camera crew catches them kissing. The office ultimately learns of their relationship in "Dunder Mifflin Infinity". In "Chair Model", after teasing Pam about his impending proposal, Jim tells the documentary crew he is not kidding around about an engagement and shows them a ring he bought one week after he and Pam started dating. In the next few episodes, Jim fake-proposes to Pam multiple times. In "Goodbye, Toby", Pam discovers she's been accepted at Pratt Institute, an art and design school in New York City. In an interview later in the episode, Jim announces that he will propose to Pam that evening. Just as Jim is preparing to propose, however, Andy Bernard stands up and makes his own impromptu proposal to Angela. Having had his thunder stolen by Andy, Jim reluctantly puts the ring back in his jacket pocket, leaving Pam visibly disappointed as she was expecting Jim to propose that night.

In the Season 5 premiere, "Weight Loss", Pam begins her three-month course at Pratt Institute. In this episode, Jim proposes at a rest stop saying that he "can't wait". In "Business Trip", Pam learns that she is failing one of her classes and will have to remain in New York another three months to retake it. Although Jim is supportive and tells her he will wait for her to come back "the right way", she ultimately makes the decision to return home, saying that she realized she hated graphic design and missed Scranton. In "Two Weeks", Pam agrees to become Michael's first saleswoman in his not-yet-established company, The Michael Scott Paper Co., as a supportive Jim looks on. When David Wallace makes an offer to buy the company Michael negotiates in order to get their jobs at Dunder Mifflin back instead, including adding Pam to the sales team. In "Company Picnic", Pam injures her ankle during a volleyball game and is taken to the hospital against her wishes. At the hospital, the camera crew is stationed outside an exam room while a doctor updates Jim and Pam on her condition. There is no audio as the camera shows Jim and Pam embrace, looking shocked and ecstatic. It is implied that the urine pregnancy test, given before an X-Ray, had tested positive.

In the Season 6 premiere, "Gossip", Pam and Jim confirm that she is four months pregnant. In their wedding episode, titled "Niagra", after lamenting their decision to involve other people in their wedding at all, she and Jim run away from the church and are married on deck by the captain of the "Maid of the Mist (in Niagara Falls)". They come back for the planned ceremony, where their friends and family dance down the aisle as shown in the popular YouTube video [1] – exactly the sort of thing that would have ruined the wedding had they not already secretly married. In "The Lover", Pam and Jim come back from their Honeymoon in Puerto Rico and Pam finds out Michael has been dating her mother, much to her horror and later fury. Pam struggles in her new job, making very few sales per month. As Pam's pregnancy progresses, she becomes cold and humorless.

In "The Delivery" of Season 6, Pam begins having contractions at work, but refuses to go to the hospital until midnight, per her insurance coverage. This has Jim on edge, and as he, with comedic help from Michael and Kevin, finally tells her it's time to go, she reveals that she is really just afraid of delivery. Jim encourages her, and they rush to the hospital as Michael drives. In the second half of the episode, Cecelia Marie Halpert, named after the real life niece of actress Jenna Fischer, is born weighing in at 7 lbs 2oz.

Coworker relations

Jim

Main article: Jim Halpert

At the beginning of the series, Pam is the object of Jim's affection and his best friend though she is engaged to warehouse employee Roy Anderson. After fighting with Roy at Dundie Awards, a drunken Pam momentarily lets her guard down and kisses Jim. Pam's ambition to be an artist has been openly supported by Jim, while Roy continually derides it.

When Pam's mother visits in "Sexual Harassment" she asks Pam about Jim, and Pam's embarrassed reaction reveals that she has discussed him in private. Someone complains to Toby about Pam making wedding preparations in the office during work hours ("Conflict Resolution"), and while Pam initially assumes it was Angela, Jim confesses to Pam that he filed the complaint.

In the final episode of Season 2, after years of friendship, Jim tells Pam that he is in love with her. She gently turns Jim down, saying that his friendship is important to her, but he leaves her with tears in his eyes. Shortly afterward, Pam is clearly shaken and talking to her mother on the phone at Jim's desk, but quickly ends the call when Jim enters the office. He kisses her, and even though she returns the kiss, she tells him she still intends to marry Roy.

In the Season 3 premiere it is revealed that Pam called off her wedding to Roy, although not before Jim has transferred to the company's branch in Stamford, Connecticut and the two have seemed to have stopped speaking. When Jim moves back to Scranton due to the merger, Pam is enthusiastic while Jim remains cool. Jim's new relationship with Karen Filipelli, as well as Roy's attempts to win Pam back, cause their renewed friendship to be strained. In "Beach Games," Pam reveals to Jim (and the entire office) that she called off the wedding because of him—specifically that there were many reasons not to marry Roy, but none that mattered until she met Jim. In the Season 3 finale ("The Job"), Pam leaves an affectionate note in Jim's briefcase wishing him luck. When he finds it in his briefcase during the interview, it makes Jim realize that he is still in love with Pam. He leaves Karen in New York, returns to Scranton, and asks Pam to dinner. She tearfully accepts. (Note: This is both a nearly direct reference to, and a reversal of, the British series' Tim-Dawn relationship, in that Tim was the giver of the gift that made Dawn realize she wanted to be with him, resulting in the two getting together.)

In the Season 4 premiere, Jim and Pam have started dating, saying that "it's going really great". They initially try to keep it a secret but are forced to confess to the documentary crew after confronted with footage of them kissing. In "Chair Model" Pam tells Jim she has been accepted into the Pratt Institute for a three month program. In "Goodbye, Toby" Jim decides to propose to Pam that night at the party for Toby, even going so far as to pay Phyllis to buy fireworks. However, moments before Jim pops the question, Andy ruins the moment with an impromptu proposal to Angela.

In the Season 5 premiere, Pam is in New York at the Pratt Institute and Jim is in Scranton. In a talking-head interview, Jim says that he and Pam have not gotten engaged because Pam will be away for three months and doesn't want a long engagement (as her engagement to Roy was unpleasant and seemingly endless). The distance begins to take a toll on them, and at the end of the premiere episode, Jim asks Pam to meet him for lunch at a rest stop halfway between Scranton and New York. As Pam starts to tease Jim about the rest stop being "not halfway!" between their two locales, Jim drops his jacket and falls to one knee. To Pam's utter shock, Jim proposes then and there, saying "I can't wait." She happily accepts, and they kiss in the rain. In "Business Ethics", Jim and Pam announce their engagement to the rest of the office to no congratulations from anyone, save from Michael, who tackles Jim with a flying hug. In "Crime Aid" Jim and Roy end up at the same bar. When Roy asks about Pam, Jim reveals that they are engaged, then tells him how much fun Pam is enjoying her new friends. When Roy points out that Jim used to be just a friend, Jim becomes insecure before reassuring himself that they are "not that couple". In "Customer Survey", Jim listens in via Bluetooth when Pam's friend Alex suggests that she has no future in Scranton if she wants to further her career in art. Pam's return is uncertain when she learns she is failing one of her classes and would need to stay another three months to retake it. Jim tells her he will support her if she decides to stay, but Pam decides to come home without retaking it, saying she doesn't like graphic design and that Scranton is her home. In "Frame Toby", Jim surprises Pam with the news that he has bought his parents' house for them. Pam is nearly silent throughout a tour of the house, which culminates in the garage that he suggests could be converted to an art studio. As Jim sheepishly tells her that he knows it doesn't look great, Pam is overcome with emotion and exclaims that she loves it. In "Stress Relief", Pam's parents are having marital issues. After talking to Jim, Pam's father decides he wants a divorce. She initially blames Jim, but later learns from her father that "even at their best" he never felt the same amount of love for Pam's mother that Jim feels for Pam. In "Cafe Disco", Pam and Jim decide to elope as planning their expensive wedding is proving too stressful. But after partying with coworkers in Michaels' cafe disco, they realize that they really do want a traditional wedding, however cheesy it may be. In "Company Picnic", when Pam has her ankle examined after injuring it in the company volleyball tournament, the doctor gives her and Jim some surprising news that causes them to be ecstatic; though it is not heard, it is suggested that Pam is pregnant.

In the Season 6 premiere, Jim and Pam reveal her pregnancy to the rest of the office despite wanting to hide that fact until after their wedding. After a series of mishaps on the eve and morning of their wedding, they run off to be secretly married by a captain on the deck of the Maid of the Mist, only to return for their planned ceremony without telling anyone where they have been.

In the two part episode "The Delivery" Pam and Jim finally have a daughter named Cecelia Marie Halpert, weighing 7lbs, 2oz and 18 inches long.

Roy

Main article: Roy Anderson (The Office)

Pam has dated Roy since high school, but has become so comfortable in the relationship that she ignores his faults. They were engaged for three years without ever setting a wedding date, until Roy set a wedding date during Booze Cruise. Roy openly admits to being attracted to Angela and to Katy (the purse salesgirl) with Pam right next to him. He bosses her around, ignores her at parties, makes fun of her interest in art, and offers her sex as a gift on Valentine's Day. Jim, with a hint of disgust, comments in Season 2 that Pam does not like to "bother" Roy with her "thoughts or feelings" and previously noted that her job and Roy seemed to be the only two problems in Pam's life.

In "The Client," it is revealed that on Pam and Roy's first date, he took her to a minor-league hockey game, brought his brother and left her there when she went to the bathroom and the game ended.

When Jan informs Pam of a graphic arts internship offered by Dunder Mifflin, and Pam expresses enthusiasm, she becomes unsure about taking it after arguing with Roy, who objects to the opportunity (while Jim supports it). Pam elects not to take the internship, saying that the impracticality of it was the deciding factor (followed by a moment of her breaking down into tears), but Roy's role in cajoling her to change her mind is undeniable.

Between Seasons 2 and 3, Pam decides they are no longer engaged nor a couple anymore, which sends Roy into a downward spiral. He eventually gets arrested for driving under the influence, but he also vows to turn his whole life around and become more supportive and friendlier to win Pam back. For a time, this works out for him, as they reconcile and get back together.

However, the reconciliation is ultimately short-lived. In an attempt to be completely honest with Roy, she tells him that Jim kissed her during "Casino Night." Roy reverts to type and becomes violent, which forces Pam to break up with him for a second time. The next day, Roy confronts Jim—but just as he is about to hit him, Dwight steps in and sprays pepper spray in Roy's eyes. Shortly after the altercation, Roy is fired from his job at Dunder Mifflin, and he apologizes to Jim for the incident.

After losing his job, Roy meets up with Pam for lunch and discusses her relationship with Jim, proceeding to tell her that Jim is more deserving of her than he is, as well as encouraging her to at least try to get together with Jim (even though he is dating Karen at the time). After lunch they share one last hug, officially ending their relationship, and part ways. In an edition of the "Dunder Mifflin Newsletter", Daryl writes that he does not keep in contact with Roy and thus doesn't know what Roy's been up to since losing both his job and Pam.

Roy's last name was revealed in the episode "Conflict Resolution" when Angela held Roy's and Pam's wedding invitation up to the camera. Roy's last name is Anderson, which means that if Pam had married Roy, her name would have been Pam Anderson. Pam makes mention of this at the start of season 4, saying, "Almost marrying Roy Anderson was as close to Pamela Anderson as I want to be".

Toby

Toby, the Human Resources Representative for Dunder Mifflin in the Scranton branch, has secretly harbored a crush on Pam. Pam is likely aware of this, especially after Toby's awkward advances toward her and seemingly related departure from Dunder Mifflin at the end of Season 4. However, she treats Toby kindly and feels sorry for him. In one of her interviews, she states that she finds him "cute". In season two's episode, "The Fire", during the all female game of "Who Would You Do", Pam says that Toby is "cute."

Toby's crush seems to have disappeared in later seasons. In the season 6 episode of "Double Date", Toby is aware of Pam hitting Michael and speaks with her about it, with her assuring him that it won't occur on company property. Toby then coaches Pam on how to properly hit someone.

Appearances

Pam has appeared in every episode with the exception of "Business Ethics", "Mafia", and "New Leads" in which her voice is only heard.