‘The Office’ gets his sequel with ‘The Paper’ – Don’t call it reboot

A few years ago, Greg Daniels was looking for a partner to help executive to produce ‘the newspaper’, his new mockumentary that describes the Chubbeltic drones that was responsible for saving a dying newspaper Toledo, Ohio. But when he threw the idea of ​​the “Saturday Night Live” Alum Michael Koman, he omitted a particularly important fact: the show would be a sequel to “The Office”.

“When Greg brought the idea of ​​a documentary about this newspaper, I just thought it was a good idea. I only knew later that it would be connected to ‘the office’!” Koman says. This is what makes it even funnier: Koman is married to actress Ellie Kemper, who worked with Daniels as one of the stars of ‘The Office’.

“I didn’t want to scare Michael,” Daniels explains. “The idea of ​​doing some follow -up of ‘The Office’ is, I think, very loaded with danger. The fans are so protective and I am super aware of that.”

With good reason. “The Office” was a considerable hit during his nine season run on NBC (2005-13), starting as an American interpretation of the original British series by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant before developing his own identity. And then the sample success of the show came in streaming. “The Office” repetitions became a Juggernaut on Netflix (and later, Peacock), where several generations have all 201 – episodes split – again and again. Ask a gene Z-fan how often they have viewed the entire series ‘The office’ on their phones and you might get a double digits.

So yes, a new show in the ‘Office’ universe is a big problem. And it is also something on the wish lists of others. Executive producer Ben Silverman, who played an important role in bringing “the office” to the US, says that over the years he became frustrated as other shows, commercials and memes imitated the mockumentary format.

‘I could say’ scammed ‘, but we were continuous honored In all the media you can imagine, “he says.” Imitation is a genuine form of flattery, but why not We Also make a stitch? We kept circling a bit: “Well, we can’t do anything that makes the fans upset.” Everything we do may have a comparative lens. Greg did not want to do that again, so how do we approach it? “

But Daniels makes it clear: “the paper” is not a “office” restart. “I knew that this would not have to rearrange the show ‘The Office’,” he says, “or keep the same characters, but with a new cast that would be compared to the original and fails. If it were to happen completely, it would be the same documentary crew who find a different story to talk about.”

Daniels had thought of the state of newspapers around the same time that he started kicking ways to breathe new life into the ‘office’ universe. “There are these great historic newspapers such as the Cleveland Plain dealer,” he says. “And I remember that I heard about what a ‘ghost newspaper’ is: when a regional newspaper is purchased by Private Equity or something, they will lose all reporters and just go on wire stories. But they keep the advertisers, the accountants, the truck drivers and all support staff.”

Then Daniels’ ideas came together. The original “office” took place in the SCRANTON offices of fictional paper manufacturer Dundern Mifflin; What if the parent company Enervate – which specializes in all kinds of industries related to paper – also had a failing newspaper in a small midwest town like Toledo? Then came the hook: what if the documentaries that the employees followed bees in the original “office” decided to return to Scranton for an update? It appears that the office is closed, but the filmmakers hear that Enervate is trying to breathe new life into the Toledo newspaper by switching to a seller of his toilet papier division. And so the new film project starts.

“That felt like a documentary that I would actually look at,” says Koman.

Daniels explained this for the first time for NBCU’s Pearrena Igbokwe, while they went through the Universal Studios Backlot at the beginning of 2020. While it started to rain, Igbokwe was invested in such a way that she was not about to interrupt the field of Daniels, even when they got steeped in.

“We must have walked for 45 minutes to an hour while he was downloading the story,” says Igbokwe, chairman of TV Studios, NBC Entertainment and Peacock Scripted. “He had a clear vision … he was just a bit wary of making it look like it was immediately related to ‘the office’. For Greg it was about making a show that stands in itself, which is just as strong with different characters, but certainly a bit of that connective tissue for fans.

We can call it a ‘spin -off’, thanks to the return of supporting actor Oscar Nuñez as office accountant Oscar Martinez.

Towards the end of the run of “The Office”, most actors had started to continue their lives. Daniels was disgusting to pack the SCRANTON excavations with new characters and to drag the show. But with the character of Oscar, whose private life as a closed gay man was slowly revealed in the course of the series, Daniels had the feeling that there was more to say.

“Oscar Martinez had always been one of the most private people, who always seemed the most reluctant to share, and had the most dignity,” says Daniels about the character. “He didn’t really end up so differently than where he started, and it felt like there was more he could respond to.”

So the idea is that when DundER Mifflin’s Scranton Office closes, Enervate Oscar moves to his newspaper Toledo.

Nuñez was there from the beginning, but further casting and production continued, because Daniels was busy with his own Amazon Prime series, “Upload”, as well as the well-received revival of “King of the Hill” with Mike Judge. Behind the scenes, “The Office” alums such as writer Paul Lieberstein (who also played Toby) and director Ken Kwapis brought more of that institutional knowledge to help Daniels and Koman build “The Paper”.

Eventually Daniels and Koman found their new lead in Domhnall Gleeson (“Run”, “The Patient”), who plays the leading role as Ned Sampson, an idealist who went to J-school but when it became a superstar seller in the toilet paper company of Enervate. Now he has been given the task by his business bosses to breathe new life into the Toledo Truth counter – with a staff who knows nothing about journalism.

But again, this is not ‘the office’. Where the boss of that show (played by Steve Carell) was a bit of an inappropriate fool, the character of Gleeson is more idealistic. “If Michael Scott was a particularly awkward leader, I like the idea that Ned Sampson could possibly inspire his staff,” says Daniels. “And the issue is not that he is socially incompetent; the issue is that he has a huge task, and people are enthusiastic about it, but it will be a risk for their personal career to follow him. Is he able to do it?”

The story starts on both Ned’s and the first day of the documentary crew at The Truth Teller. “It is an interesting place to set a show,” says Gleeson, who prepared for “The Paper” by spending time in Ohio and shadowing local journalists in Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. “It was clear, talking to Greg and Michael, that the reason they looked at this world of journalism – which was threatened a lot – was because they gave a lot about it.”

After he moved to Toledo, Oscar is shocked and not happy to see the Doc crew again. Beyond him, Gleeson’s Ned has to fight with a cast of characters who are each eccentric in their own way (and yet different from the personality types that ‘the office’ populated). This includes Esmerelda (Sabrina Impacciatore), an Italian woman who was satisfied with the running of wire copy about celebrities in the Truth Teller and the most important film of the show, because she undermines the high-quality plans of Ned. Supporting characters are played by Ramona Young, Melvin Gregg, Tim Key, Alex Edelman and Gbemisola Ikumelo; The last two are also in the writing team of the show. And then there is mare (Chelsea Frei), the only real reporter in the staff. Mare has usually given up her dreams and is in a cynical place when Ned arrives. Don’t call them Jim and Pam, but yes, they are the potential love interests to look at.

“I think they are dynamic,” says Frei about Ned and Mare. “They are such foils for each other in many ways. But they want the same thing, which always creates a nice conflict. They bring out the best and worst in each other.”

In a last-minute change of plans, Peacock released all 10 episodes of season 1 as a Binge on 4 September. Igbokwe says they made the switch as soon as they realized that after a decade on that “The Office” binges, that’s just how fans consume the universe of the show. And they want to ensure that viewers stay until the end, where there is a pretty cliffhanger.

“These are characters that you just grow from and appreciate what they do in the show,” she says. “I think they are doing incredible work the season. So I am very hopeful and optimistic that the audience will feel the same.”

On 3 September, “The Paper” received a company season 2 renewal, after strong reviews and early buzz. “We absolutely have ideas,” says Daniels about continuing the show. He and Koman are not against more episodes next time. But for now Daniels admits that he is Antsy. He remembers how much the fans of the UK ‘The Office’ thought he was a fool to try to tackle a new version for the American audience.

“I am deleted for tons of negativity,” he says. “Only because it’s my personality. But you have to go through it. I have the feeling that there is some grumbling in the beginning, but hopefully this will really be made for people who love the office.”