On Super Bowl Sunday, people will reach for the top.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals will try to be No. 1; NBC will try to quit being No. 4.

Crowds will gather, parties will linger, food and drinks will be consumed. People will talk about football (a lot) and other things.

"I just watch for the commercials," admitted Jennifer Celotta. "And the halftime show."

On Sunday, she'll also be watching a special hourlong episode of "The Office," which she co-wrote and co-produced.

By the time that starts, viewers will have seen a lot. That includes:

• Pre-game music. Faith Hill sings "God Bless America"; Jennifer Hudson sings the national anthem.

• The halftime show, with Bruce Springsteen.

• Those commercials, with advertisers stretching for attention. One company hopes to pass out 125 million pairs of 3-D glasses. They can be used to watch two commercials (for the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" and for SoBe Lifewater) and, the next night, to watch a 3-D "Chuck."

• And the Super Bowl itself, which is suddenly finding surprises.

TEAM UPSETS

For a stretch, the New England Patriots simply dominated. Last year they were strong favorites for the Super Bowl championship — their fourth in seven years. "If the Patriots had won ... I'm not sure there's quite the mystery," said Cris Collinsworth, one of NBC's pre-game analysts.

Instead, the New York Giants pulled a 17-14 upset. "None of us would have thought the Giants were going to win the Super Bowl," said commentator John Madden. "That's the great thing about it."

This year, the upsets have continued.

The Super Bowl, with Madden and Al Michaels in the booth and Andrea Kremer on the sidelines, will decide which former underdog is champion: the Steelers or the Cardinals.

'THE OFFICE'

Later that night, "The Office" will pull out the stops because in most parts of the country, it is being screened right after the post-game show. (In Hawai'i, the sitcom airs at 9 p.m. Sunday.)

"It was a little off-putting at first," said producer Greg Daniels.

His show is sometimes subtle, but Daniels decided this is a time to go for large laughs. "The country's in the mood for a good laugh," he said.

This should be an episode that will keep "Office" fans happy, he figured, but it must also work with people who know nothing about the show.

So the hour will start with something big, Celotta said. "Dwight is incensed that nobody pays any attention to his disaster-preparedness talk ... So he starts a fire in the office."

There are bigger moments ahead, she said. "Pam and Jim and Andy are illegally downloading a movie."

This provided a chance to create a six-minute parody of a bad movie.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, talked Jessica Alba into doing the mini-movie, with Jack Black and Cloris Leachman.

The entire hour was directed by Jeffrey Blitz (best-known for the Oscar-nominated documentary "Spellbound"), but he gave the mini-movie a different look.

"It was done on film (instead of videotape), which makes everything different," said Paul Lieberstein, the episode's primary writer (and Toby on the show). "You need an hour to light a show. And you only do three takes; lots of times on the show, we'll do 20."