Thursday, March 22, 2012

TRUMP SHOWS UP IN THE FINAL EPISODE TO FIRE THEM ALL: With news that Paul Lieberstein wants out as showrunner (to focus on the Schrute-centric spinoff), that Ed Helms is guesting on Mindy Kaling's Fox comedy pilot (along with Bill Hader and Richard Schiff), which seems guaranteed a pickup to be a companion to New Girl, and the first article's revelation that negotiations for Helms, Krasinski, Novak, and Fischer to return are "stalled for the moment," it more and more seems to me like The Office should come to an end this year. Unfortunately, because of NBC's dire straits, I can't imagine them doing that unless the Schrute pilot can be ready for the fall, and even if it could be, that'd be dicey. My biggest fear? In their search for a new showrunner, they throw a ton of money at Mike Schur to return, and since Schur doesn't want to run two shows, this leads to the cancellation of Parks & Rec. More likely is that they have to throw big money at a few of them (likely Fischer, Krasinski, and Helms), and maybe do an abbreviated/split season next year.

24 comments:

  1. Marsha10:35 AM

    I will be exceedingly pissed if the desire to keep The Office alive (despite it now being brain-dead) kills Parks & Rec. That would be a bad, bad decision.

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  2. Meghan11:13 AM

    It's time.  I have enjoyed The Office but it's well past its prime.  Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and Up All Night are funnier shows and could keep a solid Thursday night line-up (at least to my mind).  

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  3. Adam C.11:13 AM

    Just end it.  I don't even care at this point if the narrative is wrapped up any any sort of tidy fashion.  It's been rudderless all season, and I can't imagine a series finale that could tie things together as well as last year's Carell departure episode already did.

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  4. Stop giving NBC ideas.  If they kill Parks & Rec to keep the pathetic shell of The Office that's left, I'll never forgive them.

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  5. Anonymous11:58 AM

    Schur better call their bluff and demand the 9 pm slot for Parks & Rec.

    --bd

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  6. The Office doesn't need an "ending."  The whole point of the show is that these folks will pretty much be there forever.

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  7. Adam C.12:42 PM

    Wasn't even thinking so much of a classic series finale that involves people going elsewhere and saying their goodbyes, but you make a very good point.

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  8. Abby G12:57 PM

    I just hope a Hellmouth opens up underneath.  I used to love the show but it's been difficult to watch.

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  9. Anonymous12:58 PM

    It's time to just give up the ghost. The show lost any sort of creative energy a while ago.

    This goes for the Schrute spin-off also. Who thinks that sounds like an interesting idea?

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  10. Andrew1:12 PM

    It's pretty obvious that the show should have ended with Carrell's departure and Michael leaving. Every time I watch the show, it saddens me because it's a tired shell of a show that I absolutely loved.

    And taking advantage of The Office going out on a high point (even though it was in decline, Carrell's departure itself was notable), I would have used the spring to push Parks & Rec at 9:30 and then replace the Office with television's best comedy at 9:00. It fits in with the sensibilities of the Office and I bet its ratings wouldn't be too far off.

    Instead, NBC will ride The Office to the point where it's getting the same ratings as Community and 30 Rock and the entire night is a disaster.

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  11. The show has been painful to watch since Spader became a regular character, and I like James Spader. The problem with a character that's hard for the other characters to read and react to is that the audience will inevitably feel the same way. At least with Michael, when he did something that made no sense, the employees would call him on it. I hate the Robert California character.

    I wanted the show to go on when Carell left, but in hindsight, perhaps it would have been best to take a bow then.

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  12. Andrew1:23 PM

    Interestingly, NBC isn't running The Office tonight, but instead back to back 30 Rocks at 8:30 and 9. If the 9:00 numbers aren't far off from the partially reanimated corpse of The Office, perhaps that might edge NBC towards having faith in Parks and Rec (which tends to have higher ratings generally than 30 Rock.)

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  13. They're doing that because 30 Rock has a ton of new episodes to burn through--it has a 22-episode order even though it came back at midseason, and they want to keep their comedy night "all new" as much as possible, since the shows do even worse in repeats than they do in first run.  I think they've managed to pull enough scheduling shennanigans that there won't be a single repeat on the schedule on Thursdays the rest of the season.  (Up All Night will finish its season and then get replaced by Parks and Rec in May, and I think several weeks will feature double-pumped 30 Rock and/or Community.)

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  14. Jordan2:05 PM

    In the last episode (or second to last) someone made a comment and Pam responded "well I like working here." Or something along those lines.  No.  No you don't.  You want to be an artist.  Jim wants to be a sportswriter.  At best, you've accepted your fate.  But no, you don't enjoy it.  It was the kind of scene that allows them to carry the series on for a long long time, but the reason they shouldn't.  The Office used to have a sadness of failed-to-acheive ambition written under the surface.  Now it's all for laughs.

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  15. I think there is an ending just as there was in the British show--unlike most other single-camera shows, the documentary crew is clearly filming for a purpose (and we were reminded of that in "Goodbye, Michael," when, after he took off his mike to get on the plane, he said "let me know if this ever airs").  The British show did a "two years later" special which showed what the impact of the footage airing was on these people and gave them closure.  I think that's an interesting idea for at least a few episodes, particularly if they go with a 13 episode "final season," and has a couple of other plusses:

    1.  It provides a very easy gateway for them to launch the Schrute spinoff.
    2.  Like the alleged "new season" of Arrested Development, each episode could focus on one or two cast members, who might not appear in the other episodes.  Krasinski and Fischer could appear in 4-5 episodes this way, and there's comedy to be dug out of things like "Kevin responds to fame."

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  16. spacewoman2:49 PM

    I can think of almost nothing I'd rather watch less than a Dwight spinoff. 

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  17. Adam C.3:05 PM

    I would hope that Rainn Wilson agrees with you.

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  18. Eric J.3:32 PM

    The final shot needs to be Mose, sitting on the floor, staring into a snow globe.

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  19. Eric J.3:33 PM

    I've probably noted this here before, but go to You Tube and look up the Season One opening credits, then compare them to the Season 5 or current opening credits. That's all you need to know about how the show has changed.

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  20. spacewoman10:22 PM

    Are you saying that I got it backwards?  That sounds like me.  To be clear: I hate Dwight.  Ugh.

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  21. Adam C.1:03 AM

    No, just saying/hoping that if, say, Wilson thought he had better things to do than ride this particular character straight into the ground, then the question of a Dwight spinoff (hate him or not) would be academic.

    Put another way, shouldn't there be a pretty clear takeaway from Joey?

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  22. Marsha10:53 AM

    <span>No one ever thinks their spin-off will be Joey. They all think it will be Frasier.</span>

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  23. Adam C.3:16 PM

    Of course, they are wrong. (And YMMV on Frasier - mine sure did after a while.)

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  24. spacewoman6:43 PM

    Joey at least had a shot because he was a lovable character.  Dwight has always been the worst thing about The Office, and he's probably tied with Ann Curry for the worst thing about NBC.  I can't imagine how anyone could have thought this was a good idea, let alone enough people to get it into production.

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