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Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: rainn wilson, the office
The Office: Rainn Wilson Believes NBC Missed Out on Dwight Spinoff
The Office star Rainn Wilson on some of the show's humor aging poorly and how NBC "dropped the ball" on the scrapped Dwight spinoff.
Article Summary
- Rainn Wilson reflects on The Office's legacy and how some jokes haven’t aged well in today’s climate.
- Wilson believes NBC missed a huge opportunity by not greenlighting the Dwight Schrute spinoff, The Farm.
- Original series humor would need big updates for any potential The Office revival or reboot.
- Peacock’s The Paper is the franchise’s first true spinoff, with Oscar Nuñez the only returning cast member.
As Peacock released the first season of The Paper, the first true spinoff of The Office that wasn't a regional remake, original star Rainn Wilson, who played fan favorite Dwight Schrute in the NBC series, reflected on the series' legacy on The Daily Beast's The Last Laugh podcast. The Office was created by Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, and Stephen Merchant, with the latter two forming the UK original, and Daniels developing the adaptation for NBC. While promoting his work on the Aura action comedy Code 3, Wilson, who played the character for all 188 episodes across nine seasons from 2005-2013, spoke about were how some of the humor of the series didn't age well, how it would need to change if a reboot/revival were to happen, and the money left on the table on the scrapped Dwight spinoff.
The Office Star Rainn Wilson on Why Original Series Jokes Aged Poorly and Changes Would Have to Be Made for a Revival/Reboot; And Why NBC Dropped the Ball on Dwight Spinoff
As far as an episode of The Office that's on the controversial side, Wilson cites the season three episode "A Benihana Christmas," which was directed by the late Harold Ramis. "Listen, you know, the Benihana Christmas episode where Michael (Steve Carell) and Andy (Ed Helms) draw with a Sharpie on one of the Asian women that they've brought back to the Christmas party is jaw-droppingly kind of horrific," Wilson told host Matt Wilstein. "And it's a tricky conversation, you know? They're clueless and in their cluelessness, they're racist and insensitive, and they're always saying the wrong thing. And that's Michael, Dwight, and Andy — and Kevin for that matter. So it's a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways."
Wilson adds how he could see it being done today, "You want to encourage it, because it's funny as hell, and it also kind of skewers a particular American sensibility. But it definitely goes pretty far if you dig deep. Could it happen today? I think it would have to be very, very different if it were made in this environment."
The actor, who's reunited with most of his castmates recently, promoting AT&T, brought up his spinoff, The Farm, which The Office already had a backdoor pilot before NBC opted not to pick it up. "NBC at that time had a new regime that came in, and they wanted to do big, bright, flashy, splashy shows that were multi-cams and going back to 'Friends' kind of thing," Wilson said, noting he feels the network never understood the show. "And they were just not interested at all in 'Office' spinoffs at the time. Had they taken 'The Farm,' they'd probably have another billion dollars in the bank. Even now, all the people who have seen 'The Office' 20 times they're going to watch 'The Farm' at least once or twice. Would it have been as good as 'The Office'? No. No way. Not even close. Would it have been good? Would it have been solid? Would it have been a good, solid comedy? Yeah, it would have, and we would've done some really cool stuff. And I think they really missed out."
The rationale does make sense since the series's first spinoff, The Paper, is a streamer exclusive, not on the mothership network, but its streaming counterpart, Peacock. At the very least, the series has been renewed before its season one was dropped all at once for bingeing. "Honestly, it was like five years after ['The Office'] was over, when all of a sudden it started being watched in the billions of minutes on Netflix, that NBC was like, wait a minute, this is kind of a cash cow. This is actually a really good show, and it's got some legs."
Daniels, along with co-creator Michael Koman, distinguished The Paper separately creatively as much as possible with its original cast and only Oscar Nuñez as the lone holdover, reprising his role as accountant Oscar Martinez. The series follows the same documentary crew, retaining the franchise's traditional mockumentary format, as they initially attempted to follow up on Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, PA, before discovering it's no longer there. Their journey takes them to Toledo, Ohio, at the forwarded address, where a different paper company, which also happens to be the corporate owner of The Truth Teller, a once proud local newspaper that's fallen on the wayside as operations scaled to spendthrift levels. New editor-in-chief Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) tries to bring it back to prominence with an all-volunteer staff, most already fulfilling other roles at the company. For more on Wilson's career and his The Office future, you can check out the entire interview.
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