Years after Steve Carell left the cast of The Office, some fans remain divided over whether the show was better or worse after his departure.
Rainn Wilson recently recalled what it was like behind the scenes of the NBC mockumentary sitcom following the exit of Carell’s foolhardy Dunder Mifflin branch manager character Michael Scott after Season 7 in 2011.
“When Steve left, then it was a little bit chaotic of trying to figure out the tone of the show and who’s the lead and, how are we telling these stories without, you know, the comic engine of the show, which is Michael Scott?” explained Wilson on the Good Guys podcast.
Noting Carell was “such a big movie star at the time,” Wilson explained the cast wasn’t surprised by his departure. “We knew it was coming for a long time,” he said.
Co-star Jenna Fischer, who played receptionist and struggling artist Pam Beesly, previously argued the show was “really good the whole time,” adding that some of her “favorite episodes were in Seasons 8 and 9 after Steve had left. There were still these amazing storylines.”
Carell starred as Michael Scott from the show’s premiere in 2005 until 2011, when a rotating guest spot replaced the supervisor, including Will Ferrell, James Spader and Catherine Tate.
Wilson played Dunder Mifflin salesman and assistant manager Dwight Schrute for the entirety of the show’s nine-season run, which concluded in 2013.
In series creator Greg Daniels’ upcoming Peacock spin-off The Paper, the same documentary crew follows Domhnall Gleeson as the eager publisher of The Truth Teller, a struggling Toledo, Ohio newspaper, which he tries to revive with the help of volunteer reporters.
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