 " Livin ' the Dream " was written by story editor <unk> <unk> @-@ Wright , marking her second writing credit for the series , after the earlier season episode " <unk> " . It was directed by regular Office director Jeffrey Blitz , who last directed season eight 's " <unk> " . The episode was originally scheduled to air in its regular half @-@ hour time slot , but NBC later announced it would be expanded to fill an hour time slot beginning a half hour early , although it still counts as one official episode , similar to the earlier season episode " Moving On " . Rogers noted that " we knew the last two episodes would be hour @-@ longs , and The <unk> might even end up running longer , but we still had a lot of great storytelling to do leading up to them , and ' Livin ' the Dream ' was one that ultimately deserved to be an hour long episode as well ! " 
