All About Pam & Jim

On this page we will attempt to compile as much background and facts as we can about the characters of Pam and Jim. We will include family trees, timelines, and factoids from the show. This can serve as a resource for your canon-compliant fics or just general trivia knowledge! If you have any questions or "facts" you'd like us to look into, message us via contact form or post your question in the shoutbox on the homepage.

Spoiler Warning for new fans: This page will contain info from the entire series, if you're not through the series yet and trying to stay unspoiled you should probably stop reading here.

Page Contents

Pam Beesly

General info:

Family

Other relations

Education

Notes:

1. Pam's birthday was never mentioned on the show itself, this date comes from NBC.com declaring this Pam's birthday to promote a bobblehead sale. Both Pam and Jim share the same birthday month as their respective actors (Jenna Fischer's birthday is March 7)
2. It's confirmed in Season 4 (Job Fair) that Pam went to Valley View High School, which is in Archbald, PA, indicating this may be Pam's hometown.
3. In the wedding program prop for Pam and Jim's wedding, Meemaw is named as "Sylvia Beesly" indicating she's Pam's paternal grandmother, but this is never confirmed on air. It's not confirmed if Grandpa Philip is Pam's paternal or maternal grandfather.
4. Danny Cordray was introduced in Season 7 where it was claimed he and Pam dated briefly in Season 3 when Jim was in Stamford. Danny can be considered a retcon, while claiming he and Pam dated doesn't necessarily contradict previously established canon, there's little to no indication Pam dated anyone during this time in S3 aside from her single awkward date with Kelly's neighbor Alan in "The Convention".
5. Jenna Fischer once ran a MySpace page as Pam and here she listed Pam attended Marywood University from 1998-2000, however this was just Jenna's personal backstory for her character and this was never confirmed or refuted on the show.

 

Jim Halpert

General info:

Family

Other relations

Education

Notes:
1. Like Pam, this date is never mentioned on the show, just a date NBC.com declared Jim's birthday to sell discounted bobbleheads. Jim does however share the same birth month as John Krasinski (whose birthday is October 20)
2. There are a handful of hints that Jim possibly grew up in nearby Dunmore, namely a deleted scene from S3's Product Recall where Jim indicates he attended Dunmore High (more on that under note 6). There's also a deleted scene where Jim says he took Pam to lunch at Cugino's (located in Dunmore) shortly after they met, and there's a line in later seasons about him going to the Dunmore Fleamarket, indicating he's familiar with the area. He also states his parents house that he buys is on (fictional) Linden Ave by the quarry and there is a quarry by Dunmore. However this is never explicitly confirmed on the show.
3. It's established Jim has a niece named Vanessa (who plays trumpet) in 5.05 "Employee Transfer" and Jim mentioned his nephew's T-Ball game in 5.01 Weightloss. In the prior season, 4.06 Branch Wars, Jim states his brother had a "new baby". Since it's highly unlikely the new baby was already playing trumpet or t-ball less than a year later, this is a possible 3rd niece or nephew for Jim.
4. Larisa was given as Jim's emergency contact in 2.06 The Fight and then four seasons later was tepidly confirmed to be Jim's sister in Niagara.
5. Katy's surname is listed as Moore in a photo gallery on the NBC Office website, but it is never mentioned on the show nor is it listed on IMDB.
6. Jim's high school is never explicitly named but there are hints he either attended West Scranton or Dunmore, jump down to "Jim's High School" in the "Unconfirmed/Fanon" section for the evidence.

A Rough Timeline of Events

October 1, 1978 - James Duncan Halpert is born

March 25, 1979 - Pamela Morgan Beesly is born

1996 or 1997 - Pam begins dating Roy Anderson around this time1

Spring 1997 - the likely time both Jim and Pam graduated from high school

2002 - Both started working at Dunder Mifflin about this time2. Pam gets engaged to Roy

Spring 2005 (possibly Summer) - a documentary crew starts filming at Dunder Mifflin

Fall 2005 - Jim very casually dates Katy.

January 2006 - Roy sets a wedding date for him and Pam, Jim ends his relationship with Katy

May 11, 2006 - Jim confesses to Pam he's in love with her. He transfers to Stamford, CT very shortly after

June 8, 2006 - Jim's planned departure to Australia (more about this in Unconfirmed section)

June 10, 2006 - Pam's planned wedding date with Roy

Mid-November, 2006 - Stamford branch is closed, returning Jim to Scranton (The Merger episode aired 11/16/2006). Jim also starts dating Karen Filippelli about this time.

February 2007 - Pam briefly rekindles her relationship with Roy after Phyllis' Wedding, but breaks up for good after just a couple weeks (Cocktails).

May 17, 2007 - Jim asks Pam out for their first date

May 24, 2007 (or around this time) - Jim buys an engagement ring (he just knew, okay?)

July - October 2008 - Pam attends Pratt university

August 2008 - Jim proposes to Pam at the Exit 17 gas station.

October 2008 - Pam leaves Pratt, Jim buys his parent's home for them.

Mid-May, 2009 - Pam finds out she's pregnant

October 8, 2009 - Jim and Pam marry in Niagara Falls

March 4, 2010 - Cecelia Halpert is born

December 5, 2011 - Philip Halpert is born

Fall 2012 - Jim joins a start-up called Athlead with his college friends

May 2013 - the documentary finally begins to air on PBS

May 2014 - the documentary crew returns to Scranton for bonus footage and to film a panel discussion. Pam agrees to move to Austin so Jim can join Athleap full time.

Notes:
1. Pam states in The Client (ep207) that her and Roy's first date was a local hockey game (that Roy left her at) indicting they started dating in the wintertime.
2. It's generally accepted Pam started at Dunder Mifflin first, though early on there was contradictory evidence. More in the "Refuted Fanon " section.

 

Unconfirmed/Fanon "facts"

Here we'll cover some of the things that were never quite confirmed on the show but are widely accepted in the fandom

Education:

Pam's college: unconfirmed but widely theorized she attended and later dropped out of Marywood University
Before she attended Pratt, Pam made a couple passing references to attending college. It is widely theorized she attended Marywood University in Scranton and we actually have Jenna Fischer to thank for that! Jenna ran a MySpace page as Pam and there she listed Pam attending Marywood from 1998-2000, however this was just Jenna's personal backstory for her character and this was never confirmed (but also never refuted) on the show. Pam is also often portrayed as dropping of college, Jenna in her personal backstory only has Pam attending college for 2 years.

Jim's high school: unconfirmed, indications he attended West Scranton HS or Dunmore HS.
The only thing we can say for sure is Jim did attend a local high school, but exactly which school is never confirmed. There are hints he either attended West Scranton or Dunmore. The main clue that he went to West Scranton is Jim's yearbook says "Invaders" on it which is West Scranton's mascot. The support for the argument that he went to Dunmore comes from a deleted scene from Product Recall where he talks with a student at Dunmore High and asks if a certain teacher still teaches there, there are also a few small clues that he may have grown up in Dunmore, detailed above in the notes under Jim .

Jim's college: unconfirmed, often sent to Penn State or (less frequently) the University of Scranton in fics.
Like Pam, Jim only ever makes a couple passing references to attending college. In S9, he starts up Athlead/Athleap with a college friend, but which college is never mentioned. Back in S1, he does wear a University of Scranton tee-shirt during the basketball game but he isn't ever shown wearing it again. In fanfic, Jim's typically sent to a nearby university, Penn State being by far the most popular choice. Jim’s area of study in college is also never confirmed.

Confirmed (or mostly confirmed) in Deleted Scenes or Cast&Crew Interviews:

Pam and Jim having a lunch “date” at Cuginos shortly after they met: In The Client (2.07) there’s a deleted talking head with Jim describing his worst first date, which was actually his best first date, where he had lunch with an unnamed woman at Cugino’s and they really hit off until he found out “she was already in love with someone else”. Though he doesn’t specially say, it’s obvious he talking about Pam.

It was often assumed this lunch happened the very first day they met (and was written into many fanfics that way), but this assumption was contradicted in Goodbye Toby (4.18/19) when Jim said his first meal with Pam was in the breakroom (at separate tables). Since Jim doesn’t specifically say the Cugino’s “date” was the first day they met, it’s still possible both events happened (the breakroom meal happening the first day they met and the Cugino’s “date” happening the next day or day after being one way)

Jim dating Brenda from Corporate: In the Booze Cruise (2.11) episode, we met Brenda from Corporate. Discouraged by Pam and Roy setting a wedding date, Jim calls Brenda and leaves a message asking her out in The Carpet (2.14). He leaves work early for a date at the end of Take Your Daughter to Work Day (2.18) but we never hear who the date was with or how it went. In a deleted scene for Drug Testing (2.20), Brenda calls Dunder Mifflin and Pam transfers the call to Jim, who is under jinx and unable to talk. Some take this to mean that Jim's date was with Brenda and that they did go out briefly.

Jim's trip to Australia
In Dwight's Speech (ep2.17) we see Jim respond to Pam's wedding planning by booking a trip to Australia with a departure date of June 8, allowing him to conveniently miss Pam and Roy's June 10th wedding date. It's then never mentioned again on the show, but it's most likely he did not go (however don't let this stop you from writing any Jim in Australia fic!)

 

Common Fanon later refuted by the show

Names of Pam and Jim's family members: No one in Pam's family and nearly no one in Jim's family was named before they got married in Season 6, so readers can expect to encounter many names as the browse older stories.

Jim's brother Jonathan: created by girl7, Jonathan Halpert was Jim's older brother who became a popular OC here on MTT and was "borrowed" by several MTT authors. Girl7 said frequently she envisioned Jonathan being played by Scott Foley. When Tom and Pete Halpert were introduced in Season 5, all of us were understandably a little disappointed.

Who started at Dunder Mifflin first?: In the early seasons, the belief was Jim started at Dunder Mifflin first. This was mainly due to Jim and Pam's kitchen conversation in The Secret (ep2.13):

Jim: Hey oh, listen, um, I told Michael on the booze cruise. It's so stupid. Um, I told Michael that I had had a crush on you when you first started here.
Pam: Oh.
Jim: Well I thought that, I figured you should hear it from me rather than, I mean you know Michael.
Pam: Right.
Jim: And seriously, it's totally not a big deal, ok? And when I found out you were engaged, I mean.
Pam: No, I know, like, I kind of like, I thought that maybe you did when I first started.

This was almost immediately muddled as later in the same episode, Pam and Michael had this exchange:

Michael: Look, about you and Jim.
Pam: Oh, no, that's, you don't have to...
Michael: No, I feel it's my responsibility as your boss slash friend.
Pam: No, really, it's okay. I know that Jim had, like a crush on me when he first started. But that was a long time ago, so.
Michael: It wasn't that long ago. It was on the booze cruise.

The fandom generally disregarded this second exchange and went with Jim and Pam's kitchen convo that Jim began first. But two seasons later in Launch Party (4.05/06), Jim and Pam went to the rooftop and talked about when they first knew they liked each other

Jim: Do you remember what you said to me on my first day of work, just before you walked me over to my desk?
Pam: Yeah, enjoy this moment, because you're never going to go back to this time before you met your desk mate Dwight.
Jim: And that's when I knew.

From this exchange it's clear Pam started first, and has since become the generally accepted canon. On the Office Ladies Podcast, Jenna Fischer says who started first was not written in show bible so it’s simply a continuity error.

For fanfic purposes, we say go with whatever fits your story best!

 

That's all for now! Again, if you have any questions or "facts" you'd like us to look into, message us via contact form or post your question in the shoutbox on the homepage.