"Fan Level Midnight": Docuseries on NBC sitcom "The Office" gets Friday screening in Scranton before 5K run/walk Saturday

“The Office 5K” weekend, which features the run/walk event Saturday downtown, will kick off Friday night with a world premiere, sneak-peek screening of a documentary series titled “Fan Level Midnight: Devoted to The Office.”

The screening will show at the Scranton Art Haus Cinema and Social Club movie theater, 301 Lackawanna Ave. at Penn Avenue.

This celebration of the beloved NBC sitcom “The Office” is billed as “a labor of love that delves deep into the legacy and cultural impact of this iconic show that called Scranton its home.”

The “Fan Level Midnight” screening event Friday includes a welcome reception at 7:30 p.m., followed at 8:30 p.m. by screenings of the first three, 30-minute episodes of the docuseries, and then wrapping up with a Q&A session with the creators.

The cost of $50 per person includes the welcome reception, screening, Q&A, light snacks and a complimentary first drink.

Then, on Saturday, the third annual “Office”-themed 5K run or 1-mile walk event begins at 1 p.m. in the 500 block of Linden Street. The route traverses parts of downtown and Pine Brook and ends back where it started on Linden Street. Many participants dress in costume as favorite characters from the sitcom.

A fundraiser by the nonprofit Valley in Motion organization, the 5K spoofs and celebrates “The Office.” Online pre-registration of $25 per person for the 5K ended Thursday at noon. But runners and walkers can still register on the day of the event, at a cost of $30 per person, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the 500 block of Linden Street. For race event details and information, visit theoffice5k.com online.

As of the end of pre-registration on Thursday, over 1,460 people registered. That amount dwarfs the 356 people who participated last year, and 299 in the inaugural outing.

This year’s event got a big boost from organic social media as well as a more-concerted promotional effort. Market Share Consulting of Olyphant, which donated its services to help to promote the 5K, created a humorous and engaging website, theoffice5k.com, and Facebook and Instagram pages for the race, and has capitalized on key influencers who happened upon the event. Those included an Office Memes group on Facebook that shared photos of last year’s race, producing an early initial bump in registrations for this year’s event. The website Hidden Remote that covers sports and TV shows also ran an article spotlighting the 5K. That exposure, as well as Google searches and the Lackawanna County Visitor’s Bureau website, also has driven online traffic to visit the Office 5K website.

“It’s really taken off this year. We’re really excited about it,” Valley in Motion President Gus Fahey said.

Although “The Office” ended over a decade ago, it has lived on and grown in popularity through reruns and streaming, proving the popular show still has legs and has gone the distance. The show ran for nine seasons, from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013. “The Office” Wrap Party held in Scranton in May 2013 brought the show’s cast and legions of fans to town to celebrate the conclusion of the series. Since then, the show has endured through television reruns, streaming platforms and social media that have captured new generations of fans.

The 5K race/walk spoofs the “Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For The Cure” featured in “The Office” television show set in the Electric City at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Co.

The “Fan Level Midnight” docuseries title pays homage to an episode of the sitcom involving an action film titled “Threat Level Midnight” created by the character of Michael Scott. “Fan Level Midnight” is promoted as “a documentary about the mockumentary.”