Even though the show has been off the air for nearly seven years, we are learning a whole lot about NBC’s The Office thanks to a new book, Andy Greene’s The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s. Two stories have popped up that highlight bittersweet alternative Offices that never were.
The first story is about Steve Carell’s replacement. As you know, Carell was the lead of the show and undeniably the strongest aspect of it. But he left the show after seven seasons. His departure marks when most people — including yours truly — totally tuned the show out. The series was losing its core and comedic engine, it seemed impossible to recover from that. Not to brag but I was right: the show was markedly different after Carell left and markedly worse. But the show kept trying and, of course, they lured in a big star to replace Carell. That star was James Spader, who was met with mixed response. But it could have been someone better. It could have been James Gandolfini.
That’s according to Green’s book, who says “everyone found an actor they were really excited about: James Gandolfini.”
But the Sopranos star was more than just dream-casting by the crew, he was actually this close to taking the part. Here’s more from the book:
The fact that we never got the late Gandolfini on The Office will forever haunt me. While he was never able to show off his comedy chops enough (though he did — check out In The Loop) he was a funny dude! Plus he was just ridiculously talented. I think we have reached the point as a society where we can all agree that his work on The Sopranos is the single best performance from an actor — ever. It’s untouchable. Even if the man never did another damn thing, he would still be a legend.
Anyway, it’s a damn shame that the deal didn’t come together. Damn shame.
The other damn shame that we’re learning about regarding The Office is that Carell never had to leave at all. Yep, he could have stuck around a lot longer, possibly until the end of the show. That’s also according to Greene’s book, who cites multiple people who claim Carell was on board to return to the show for season eight and beyond but NBC never contacted him or initiated contract negotiations.
Here’s a choice quote:
Hairstylist Kim Ferry added this:
[Carell] was like, ‘Look, I told them I want to do it. I don’t want to leave. I don’t understand.’ It just is mind-boggling how that happened. And I feel bad because I think a lot of people think he did leave the show on his own merit and it’s absolutely not true. I’m telling you. I was there. I was there. He really wanted to stay. And it devastated all of us because he was the heart of our show.
So NBC could have had more of Carell but they didn’t even reach out to his team to make that happen. Were they playing hardball? Did they forget? Carell’s departure happened during a huge shake-up at NBC but, damn, someone should have picked up the phone. Instead, the network let Carell go and, with him, the heart and soul of the show disappeared. Damn shame. Damn, damn shame.