You shouldn’t, but it’s hard to resist comparing the original British version of The Office to its US counterpart. While Ricky Gervais’ creation was perfectly formed at a tiny 14 episodes, the version that starred Steve Carrell ran on to an enormous 201.
Though the first six seasons were some of the best TV comedy out there, the show lost a lot of its greatness when the tentpoles of the series started to change. Once Jim and Pam got together, for example, the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ element that had driven The Office for so long disappeared. Likewise, when Carell stepped down from the role of Michael Scott, it lost the linchpin that was holding it together.
To be fair, it still had a good ending, as it wrapped up various plot threads and character arcs when it finally concluded after nine seasons – it just wasn’t what it used to be. Still, it’s fondly remembered as one of the greatest comedies to ever grace the small screen and in this golden age of TV revivals and reboots, fans often wonder if they’ll ever see the folks of Dunder Mifflin make a return some day.
To date, nothing’s materialized on that front, but that doesn’t mean NBC isn’t interested in bringing the show back in some form. Speaking in a recent interview, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt revealed that the network has discussed doing more of The Office, but there isn’t anything happening at the moment.
We often talk about The Office, I’ve talked to Greg [Daniels] four times over the past few years. It’s always, ‘maybe some day but not now.’ There is certainly an open invitation but we don’t have anything happening right now. If he wants to do it, I’d like to do it.
As to how they would approach a revival, rumor has it that it would star a whole new cast, which would be an interesting if not a little risky approach. We’ve seen this route taken before with mixed results and when it comes to something like The Office, it could definitely backfire. After all, so much of the show’s magic came from its loveable characters and the incredible chemistry between the cast.
In fact, that’s why it suffered so much in later years, as too many of the originals left and we kept getting new, unlikeable characters who didn’t gel well with the rest of the group. So to start all over and give us a completely fresh cast would kind of take away a lot of the appeal of seeing a revival in the first place. At that point, you mise well just call the show something else, right?
But I digress. The fact that NBC is even entertaining the idea is certainly exciting and we can only hope that if they do end up bringing back The Office, that at least a few of the original cast members return for more. In other words, if there’s no Jim and Dwight, we riot.