Golden Ticket

"Golden Ticket" is the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office and the 91st overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 12, 2009. In the episode, Michael excitedly starts a Willy Wonka-inspired promotional gimmick providing discounts to customers who receive golden tickets, then tries to blame the idea on Dwight when the promotion appears to cost the company a large amount of money. In a B story, Kevin receives conflicting romantic advice from Andy, Jim and Pam. The episode was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Randall Einhorn. It received mixed reviews from critics, and many criticized the selfishness and mean behavior of Michael Scott in the episode. According to Nielsen ratings, "Golden Ticket" was watched by 7.7 million overall viewers the week it aired. Synopsis Michael Scott, inspired by the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, decides to put five "golden tickets" randomly into five different boxes of paper that will provide Dunder Mifflin clients with a ten percent discount for one year. Michael is excited about the promotional gimmick, which prompts him to dress and act like Wonka. However, because Michael distributed all the tickets on the same day in the same small area of the warehouse, all five golden tickets go to their biggest client, the Blue Cross of Pennsylvania; because Michael did not specify "limit one per customer", the company is owed a fifty percent discount. As a result, the Scranton branch is expected to lose a significant amount of revenue which could shut down the branch. When Chief Financial Officer David Wallace demands to know who is responsible, Michael claims Dwight Schrute thought of the idea. Michael convinces Dwight to take the fall, insisting that Michael needs the job more than Dwight.