The Office (NBC) TV Show • Page 78

Yep. And that’s the only reason the Esther plotline gets any closure. NBC nixed the spin-off pretty quickly so once they knew it wasn’t going forward they rewrote the ending and closed out the Esther story. Had it been picked up, the plan was for Dwight to leave The Office shortly afer the Farm episode and the ending to The Office would have been completely different. It makes me especially grateful they canned The Farm so fast. The Dwight and Angela reunion never would have happened and Dwight would not have become manager. The scenes between him, Jim and Pam in the last couple episodes are some of my favorites.

 

Boy that would've sucked if the ending had changed. Can't believe they thought that Farm idea would go anywhere just because it had Dwight.

 

Yeah and this is why I typically skip The Farm whenever I do a rewatch. It’s so awkward and forced. I think it’s my least watched episode of the entire series.

 

I think Rainn was the only one willing to reprise his character full time for a new show and obviously he can't work at Dunder Mifflin unless they swap out every employee so they chose to give him a new location, ie Frasier moving from Boston to Seattle when he got his spinoff

 

Yeah that makes sense. Just took their only shot they had at keeping it going I guess

 

I’ve always assumed Angela would have become the Lillith to Dwight’s Frasier and she would have shown up every now and then to throw a wrench in the works, which is not nearly as satisfying as the ending we got with them on The Office.

 

I enjoyed The Farm.

 

The b-plot of the episode has always felt to me like they tacked it on after they were told NBC had passed on the spin-off. There was an interview I recall with Larry King where Rainn said (this was during the final season’s run) that despite NBC passing on the spin-off you’d still get to see “most of” what they shot in a reworked episode. So I’ve also assumed that once they got a hard no they shot the stuff with Todd Packer, threw it in there, cut down more of the Farm plot and did their best to make it still feel like an episode of The Office rather than a complete spin-off.

Edit: actually looking it up confirms that. It was originally an hour long pilot before NBC passed on it.

 

Wow, thank you for all this information. Super grateful they passed on it. I feel like I wouldn't be able to look fondly back on the end of The Office if they decided to order The Farm.

 

I've been slowly doing a rewatch over the last like year (basically when I have nothing else to do, not an active watchthrough) and I liked S8 a lot more than I remembered and S9 a lot less than I remembered. Haven't gotten to the end yet though, I know it ends really strong

 

That’s because Robert California is good

 

I finished my 4th or 5th rewatch recently, and trying to keep myself from going right back to S1E01. I don't know if it's because of what's going on in my personal life, but this show is the equivalent of comfort food. I put it on, and it feels better. Even the bad episodes make me laugh and turn my brain off. I've been watching other stuff, but I just think to myself "The Office would be more satisfying".

 

Same! Comfort food is a good way of putting it. If I'm in a bad mood or sick or just tired, I put it on and can actually relax, it's crazy. I wish all the Simpsons episodes were on netflix or hulu because that would be my other go-to.

 

omg has anybody listened to billie eilish’s “my strange addiction” lmao

 

Yes

 

I’m on an amtrak trying not to laugh out loud in a quiet car

 

K

 

Same. I remembered liking season 9 more than 8, but after a few re-watches... not so much. The only redeeming episodes in season 9 are the last 3.

 

Yeah Andy’s entire season 9 arc and the Brian stuff are awful. AARM is an all-timer, Finale is great and Work Bus is sneaky awesome, but overall 9 was bad.

 

Work Bus is great

 

The first half of 9 is hard to get through. My first watch of this show was a full on binge until 9 which I had to force myself to watch and it took me a while to finish the series

 

i like the beginning and end of S9, i usually watch the first few episodes then skip right to like the last 4-5 episodes. I really think the series ends strong, with the only flaw in the final run of episodes being the Brian stuff.

 

I like Clark a lot.

 

Imagine if they were desperate to spin it off and the whole last season was individual backdoor pilots for each character lol