The Office

Ask someone to describe nine-time Emmy nominee Ricky Gervais and they might mention his scathing stints as a Golden Globe host, his take-no-prisoners standup comedy routines or his role as the clueless, often thoughtless boss on the original British version of The Office.

For the past nine years, Phyllis Smith has played Phyllis (Lapin) Vance, the sneakily snarky den mother on NBC's The Office. The Lemay, Mo. native was a dancer during her youth-she was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals cheerleading squad and was once part of a burlesque troupe in her home city-but her role on The Office was her very first acting gig. When the series finale airs May 16 at 9 p.m., she will have appeared in all 184 episodes.

The broadcast networks' season is coming to an end, and series showrunners are hell-bent to leave us wanting more.  The next two weeks we will see stunt casting, cliff-hangers and plot twists enough to lure even the most casual viewer to the tube.  Here are seven we want to see: