The Office
James Gandolfini Was Reportedly Paid $3 Million to Decline a Role in The Office
For fans of The Sopranos, the podcast Talking Sopranos has unveiled a number of interesting details about one of the country’s most beloved crime dramas. A recent episode alleges that HBO paid Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, a cool $3 million so that he would turn down a role on the US version of The Office. The topic came up during a chat with co-hosts Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa and their guest, Ricky Gervais, who created the UK Office. Evidently, after Steve Carell departed The Office, NBC was scouring for their next regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. “You know, they talked about having Gandolfini at one point replace him,” Imperioli said. Schirripa explained that a few years after The Sopranos ended, NBC had offered Gandolfini $4 million for one season of The Of...
R.I.P. Mark York, Actor on The Office Dead at 55
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-25T01:37:51+00:00“>May 24, 2021 | 9:37pm ET Mark York, the actor known for playing Billy Merchant in early seasons of The Office, has died at the age of 55. While the exact cause has not been disclosed, his sickness was “unexpected” and “brief,” according to the obituary at the Kreitzer Funeral Home. He passed May 19th at Miami Valley Hospital, less than an hour’s drive from where he graduated high school in Arcanum, OH. Paraplegic since 1988, York led a varied life that included a successful run as an inventor and two patents. He also guest-starred or co-starred in shows such as CSI: NY, 8 Simple Rules, and Mind of Mencia, while booking smaller part...
The Office Shares Previously Unreleased Matrix Prank From the Finale: Watch
When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, The Office officially switched over from Netflix to Peacock, NBC’s new streaming platform. That transition may have come as a shock to some fans, but it also comes with plenty of welcome surprises. Case and point: NBC has shared a previously unreleased cold open from The Office’s finale that sees Dwight falling for a ridiculous prank. In the clip, which lasts nearly five minutes, Jim and Pam join forces to trick Dwight into thinking he’s living in the real-world version of The Matrix. He witnesses the same cat run by twice, his computer spontaneously produces a prompt with that iconic green font, and two mysterious men in sunglasses appear in the Dunder Mifflin office. Unsurprisingly, Dwight geeks out and runs away as ordered — and str...
What’s Streaming on Netflix in December 2020
Netflix is unwrapping some big gifts in December 2020. The shiniest box under the proverbial tree is David Fincher’s Mank. The filmmaker’s first feature in six years stars Oscar winner Gary Oldman as legendary Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the drama that surrounded his work on Citizen Kane. Another star-studded feature is Ryan Murphy’s The Prom, a fish-out-of-water comedy that finds Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Keegan-Michael Key putting on a Broadway production in a small town. That should keep the family business. Elsewhere, there’s the highly anticipated Selena: The Series, the fourth season of Big Mouth, the fourth and final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the de facto seasonal docuseries The Holiday Movies That Made Us. EditorsR...
31 Halloween TV Specials to Stream and Scream Over
Every October, television wears a costume. As the sun shifts and the leaves litter our neighborhood streets, living rooms across the world similarly take on a new glow. First, the ghoulish commercials arrive, then the networks roll out their creepy programming, and soon enough all you can see is orange, purple, and green across every station. Looking around, it doesn’t take a die-hard horror fan to relish this part of the year. After all, with Halloween comes an easy excuse to indulge in the sweet part of life. This could be a bite-sized Reese’s Pumpkin, a breezy walk through an autumn day, or simply seeing your favorite characters dropped into a completely perfunctory, spooky situation. By now, the Halloween Episode is a TV tradition. Hell, even the most serious shows find a way to carve ...
Billie Eilish Guests on Kevin Malone’s Oral History of The Office Podcast: Stream
Earlier this summer, Brian Baumgartner, a.k.a. Kevin Malone, marked the 15th anniversary of The Office by launching a podcast on Spotify. Titled An Oral History of The Office, the 12-episode series is coming to a close today, and its finale features an appropriate send-off from one of the TV show’s biggest fans: Billie Eilish. Our 2019 Artist of the Year has spoken extensively about her love for all things The Office, and was even “quizzed” on Office trivia by Mr. Beets, Bears, and Battlestar Galactica himself, Rainn Wilson. It’s no surprise, then, how giddy Eilish was to appear on An Oral History. “This is crazy!” gushed the pop megastar, who joined Baumgartner and Steve Carell (Michael Scott) via FaceTime mere days after sweeping the Grammys. In a discussion about it...
The Office’s Stanley Shares Racist Backlash He Got After Announcing Spin-Off Series
Last month, The Office actor Leslie David Baker launched a Kickstarter to produce Uncle Stan: Coming out of Retirement, a spin-off series about his character Stanley Hudson. The announcement was met with excitement and praise, but Baker has revealed that it’s not all sunshine and pretzels. In an Instagram post, he revealed some racist messages he’s received since announcing the planned show. “For those of you who don’t believe racism is still alive in the world… here’s the proof,” he wrote. The screenshots Baker shared are Instagram DMs and Reddit comments by various strangers. They use racial slurs, feature lynching photos, and accuse Baker of stealing the Kickstarter money for personal profit. “Our goal has simply been to entertain and give the fans a quality series,” wrote Baker in his ...
The Office Gets Super Cute Fisher-Price Toy Set
Indeed, The Office is getting a new reboot — from Fisher-Price. As Bleeding Cool points out, the iconic toy company has taken a few familiar faces from Dunder-Mifflin and brought them down to their size for their Little People line. More specifically, they’ve turned Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert, and Pam Beesly into 2.5-inch figurines for your youngster to chew on as you binge the series over long days and sleepless nights. As you can see above, each character has been turned into little munchkins with all their trademark attributes, giving new meaning to Scott’s tots. Here’s the official listing: “Bring the shenanigans of the Dunder-Mifflin paper company to your home with this Little People Collector The Office figure set by Fisher-Price! This set features a set of four figur...
Kevin Malone Tells the Oral History of The Office in New Podcast Series
This year marks the 15th anniversary of The Office, so what better way to celebrate than with a new podcast that explores the entire history of the beloved show? Enter An Oral History of The Office, a 12-episode series hosted by Brian Baumgartner, a.k.a. Kevin Malone, Dundler Mifflin’s resident chili expert (and klutz). Exclusive to Spotify, the podcast promises to cover everything an Office diehard could possibly dream of — from the first meetings held by co-creator Ben Silverman and UK Office creator Ricky Gervais and the unique search for cast members to the best bits and most memorable cold opens. Sweetening the chili pot for fans is Baumgartner’s list of special guests, some of whom might just be familiar: Steve Carell (Michael Scott), John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Rainn Wilson (Dwigh...
The Office Removes Scene, Community Pulls Episode over Blackface
Two more beloved NBC comedies — The Office and Community — are either removing or altering episodes due to blackface. For The Office, the scene in question appears in the Season 9 episode, “Dwight Christmas”, which originally aired on December 6th, 2012. The moment occurs as Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute is portraying the German Christmas folklore character Belsnickel. It’s revealed that Belsnickel is often accompanied by Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter, a character described as “a slave boy often portrayed in colorful pantaloons and blackface.” When his colleagues object to the concept, Dwight shoots a text to Nate (Mark Proksch). The scene cuts to Nate outside, dressed as Black Pete was described, who turns away before entering the party. Rather than pull the episode altogether, the sce...
Tier Drop Ranks The Office Characters on Twitch
Last week, the cast of The Office reunited to bring us all some good news — but mainly superfans John and Susan, who got to watch John Krasinski, Steve Carell, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, and more do the infamous wedding dance to celebrate their surprise nuptials. This past Saturday also happened to be the anniversary of the classic sitcom’s series finale. In light of all of this, we’re heading to Scranton, the Electric City, to rank the characters of The Office on our Twitch show Tier Drop. It’s rare for a primary cast to feature so many characters that could easily be fan-favorites. Sure, there’s the Michael Scotts, Jim Halperns, Jim Halperts, Pam Beeslys, and Dwight Schrutes, who center much of the show’s story. But swipe that ruler across the desk and you’re bound to bump into a ...
John Krasinski Reunites The Office Cast for Amazing Virtual Wedding: Watch
As the coronavirus pandemic has dragged on, John Krasinski’s Some Good News has slowly gone from passively reporting on inspiring stories to actively making people’s lives better. Last month, he held a virtual prom for the class of 2020, and this week he hosted a virtual wedding for a pair of The Office superfans — although at the time, they didn’t know it would be their wedding. Nor did they expect that Zac Brown would perform their wedding song, nor that the cast of The Office would reunite to help them celebrate. The story began a few days ago. John Lush’s proposal to Susan Hedrick had echoed an iconic The Office moment, when Jim got down on one knee outside of a convenience store, telling Pam “I can’t wait any longer.” Afterwards, Krasinski invited them onto&nb...
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