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Image credit: KRASINSKI AND FISCHER PHOTOGRAPH BY GAVIN BOND

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With 22 episodes having aired, the American version has already outlasted the 14-episode original. (Producers have wooed the U.K. folks back to work: Gervais and co-creator Stephen Merchant will write an episode for season 3.) But with longevity come new creative challenges: specifically, what to do about will they/won't they lovebirds Jim and Pam, whose mutually unfulfilled crush is as compelling and addictive to watch as Ross and Rachel's courtship. Daniels remembers sound-mixing an episode in which Jim squanders his chance to kiss Pam on a booze cruise. ''I'd seen it many, many times, but I was yelling, 'Do it, you idiot! Kiss her!''' (And he wrote that episode.) Says Krasinski, ''People come up to me and say, 'I really appreciate [those scenes], I was in the same situation.' People aren't coming to our show for some feel-good relationship. It's real and delicate.'' But how long can they flirt, especially when Pam already has a wedding date? Pressed for a prediction, Fischer waxes romantic that perhaps Jim isn't Mr. Right, just the guy who shows Pam her fiancé is Mr. Wrong. ''The truth is,'' she admits, ''I want them together. The Pam in me is pretty sure she wants to marry Jim someday.''

When The Office returns from its Olympics hiatus March 2, episodes will feature a mandatory staff skating-rink field trip to celebrate Michael's birthday, Dwight getting public-speaking advice from his boss when he has to accept an award for Salesman of the Year, and Michael's disastrous attempts at professional conflict resolution. Mundane topics, for sure, but they'll likely spin into the absurd directions that have earned this show — and Carell — some very high-profile fans. On the red carpet of the Golden Globes last month, Carell passed Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, who saw him, spread his arms, and said, ''My hero!'' The comedian, who won a best-actor award that night, is still in shock: ''That this renowned director even knows who I am, let alone blurts out something like that...'' he says, playing down the encounter. ''You have to enjoy a moment like that, and realize how silly and unreal it is.''

(This is an online-only excerpt of Entertainment Weekly's Feb. 24, 2006, cover story.)