THE OFFICE Spinoff is Happening
April 2, 2008 by Kath Skerry
I’ve been out and about all day looking at apartments, but when I checked my email via my phone and saw that I had over 30 emails with variations of “The Office Spinoff” in the title, I kind of panicked.
By now you probably know that yes, THE OFFICE spinoff is happening and the first episode of the yet to be named, titled, conceived (more on this in a minute) show will air after next year’s Superbowl, and will follow THE OFFICE in the NBC lineup on Thursday nights.
Just last week, during a conference call with Greg Daniels and Rainn Wilson, E!’s Korbi Ghosh asked about the rumored spinoff once thought to star Wilson’s Dwight Schrute, but didn’t get a straight answer. In response to the rumor, Wilson said “…the rumor of the Dwight spin-off was like some – I was at the Tony’s, I think, because I was presenting. And some guy from New York – I think it was like the New York Post. He’s like hey, Rainn, Ben Silverman is in charge at NBC now so what’s next for Dwight. And I – as I walked by I was like I don’t know, I smell a Dwight spin-off. And he goes, can I quote you on that? Can I quote you on that? And I just walked away and then it was like all over TV as this – it’s preposterous.”
But how preposterous was it really? Especially with the news that the spinoff has been under consideration for quite some time.
Here’s what we do know (or think we know) about the new OFFICE spinoff: Greg Daniels will be the showrunner for the spinoff as well the original series. But according to sources for E!, there is no concept for the show yet – they’ve been trying to come up with something for over a year but still have nothing. No definite word on whether or not the new show will take any actors away from Dunder Mifflin, but if Ben Silverman has anything to say about it (which he shouldn’t because he’s a suit and not the creative genius that is Greg Daniels) it sounds like some of our favorite Dunder Mifflinites might be featured. Silverman noted, “We can’t even service some of these great actors and performers [on the original show], so it’s very likely you will see some of those actors on the spin-off.”
Yeah, so that’s that. I don’t really know what to think about this news. On one hand the idea of an OFFICE spinoff scares the H-E- double hockey sticks out of me, especially if said spinoff would take anyone from the original series. But then again, it’s Greg Daniels and I’m so his bitch, so anything he does I’d have to support. But then yet again, it sounds like the spinoff wasn’t born from Greg’s need to tell another story as much as it was Ben Silverman’s need for money.
We’ll be paying attention to this story as it develop, but as always I would encourage each of you to also stay tuned into OfficeTally.com (a Sheinhedrt Wig/GE/Universal company) for the latest updates.
What do you think of the possible OFFICE spinoff?
Should we help out Greg Daniels? Any thoughts on the new premise?
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Filed under The Office, The Office Spinoff
This sucks, IMHO. One of two things is happening:
-the series will be set in the Utica branch as I highly doubt Rashida Jones’ pilot will be picked up since it was so AWFUL
AND/OR
-they are already preparing for the day when Steve C and now John K leave the show for greener pastures. Yeah, yeah, they both say they never will but, come on, eventually their movie careers will take over their lives and they’ll no longer have time for The Office.
I really hate this idea — especially if it takes anyone away from the original, even those that don’t get a lot of screen time. The show is perfect the way that it is. Why fix what ain’t broke??!?
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I’ve been wondering when you would post something.
Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I want to trust me, but it scares me!
I’m kind of hoping you came up with a better idea for an April Fool’s Prank and this is it?!?! If not – TERRIBLE idea.
#3 (Emily) – Sorry I was so late with posting this news. I was just out all day and not near a computer.
[…] bit behind in sharing the big news from the Peacock today. But there is news (and not just that of THE OFFICE spinoff), and most of it is pretty […]
My immediate reaction is that it is not a good thing…just like how the hour episodes didn’t turn out to be the amazing thing hoped they would be.
I could deal with it if it was another branch, with occassional cross-overs. I can’t imagine splitting the characters up into different shows – it’s giving me a panic attack!
But what have we learned over the ups and downs of this show? To trust the writers/producers. I’m going to try to go with the flow and trust them…and will of course watch whatever they roll out. 🙂
I can understand a spinoff after the original office goes off the air (shudder), but why while its still on the air?
The only benefit I could see is maybe some interacting between the two on occasion and getting some deeper storylines.
I’m going to wait to see it before I really judge it, but my first thought is why mess with a good thing?
I agree that it’s a terrible idea. I don’t understand what sort of premise could work running concurrently with the real show unless it’s a completely different atmosphere (corporate, perhaps). Another show about a bunch of regular people surviving through the day’s awkwardness… well, that’s kind of ridiculous. The Office does it just fine as it is now.
And yes… all signs point to the fact that this is not a story Greg Daniels feels he needs to tell. He’s been trying for a year to come up with a concept and they end up green-lighting the show STILL without one? Yep, Ben Silverman wants to capitalize on The Office’s popularity to rake in some more cash. I know it’s the bottom line in television, but when content goes completely by the wayside, well, that’s bad news. I think this is destined to fail.
Well…now we all see why the original office only lasted two seasons. Face it, the Office has peaked, and this is just another ploy for NBC to make as much money off of the enterprise before the rest of the country (read: less intelligent viewers) realizes that the show is going downhill.
I agree that there might be a chance that Rashida Jones could possibly hold a spinoff–really, if her newest show gets picked up, that’s sad news for a lot of reasons.
But I’m nervous as well. I feel like the popularity behind The Office is making people feel that there might be a security blanket behind the name. I guess we’ll just have to see!
I totally echo the sentiments of other people who have posted and after really thinking about what scenarios I could even possibly get behind, following another branch is the only one. I like the dynamics of The Office as is.
Although, and I know this is random, but there is a guy I’ve been seeing in commercials lately that I just REALLY want to see on The Office–it’s that guy who photocopies his butt instead of a receipt for his fattening burger, and he’s also in a Verizon commercial where he embarasses his daughter who is in a basketball uniform. I just picture him on The Office and love it.
But yeah, I have seriously low expectations for a spin-off, which might end up being a good thing, and maybe it’ll be better than I expect, which is seriously not much. I have a feeling that the success of Private Practice didn’t help the case for “no spin-off”. Grey’s Anatomy, ruining my life once again. I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I hate that stupid show. And once again, that was random.
So, I’m a few days late to post on here…
I’m really hoping that the “spin-off” is a spin-off in the loosest sense of the word. I think it would be fun for the Scranton documentary crew to start a similar thing in another local business – like “The School” or “The Bar”. We might see characters from the original Office (especially if Poor Richards was the bar setting, or it was the high school that Dunder Mifflin supplys paper for), but they wouldn’t have to be the main characters.
I’m just imagining having Office-esque conference room banter in the teacher’s lounge, etc. Or, at the Bar, there could be some un-requited love b/w the bartender and one of his customers (too cliche’?).
Vance Refrigeration. Why would anyone complain about GDaniels & Co. getting one hour of network time to tell jokes?
Y’know, everyone was giving Greg Daniels and Co. grief about making this show in the first place, and now it’s a huge critical hit. I would give them the benefit of the doubt here. I think that you can make a case for more than 22 minutes of the Office every week. They certainly have done wonders making extremely watchable charactors out of actors that no one has ever heard of and are not only fairly unattractive but downright ugly in some cases.
I don’t think Utica is the way to go – they certainly have set up the Jim and Pam go to NY storyline – Pam goes to school and Jim replaces Ryan who’s been arrested, opening up more screen time for the Scranton gang. The new HR person and Michael would take over the main romantic storyline.
What I would do is totally different – I would make the spinoff about the documentary crew. At some point, doesn’t this show need to get aired? And what kind of legal battle could be going on between D-M Corporate and the doc crew? This would give you all new charactors and crossover opportunities via “the footage”.
ahhaha I love the picture. What is cool to note is that amy made an announcement on SNL from what I’ve seen
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