The Best Sitcom Might Get A Reboot Series
Both NBC and creator Greg Daniels are interested in a reboot of The Office.
It’s a rare sort of sitcom that still gets referenced and quoted a decade after it goes off the air. The Office just so happens to be one of those sitcoms. Now, thanks to a Hollywood Reporter interview with NBCUniversal chairman of entertainment content Susan Rovner, we know that there’s a possibility that The Office might come back — if creator Greg Daniels is willing to make it.
This willingness to recreate The Office comes in stark contrast to Rovner’s other statements about revamping content for the NBC streaming service Peacock. She said that comedies such as Punky Brewster and Saved by the Bell underperformed at Peacock because comedy was not the right genre to lean into for the fledgling service. However, now that the service has matured, the time might be right for revivals — as seen by the success of the Night Court reboot that began this January.
However, it’s been clear for a long time that Daniels would welcome a reboot of the much-loved show. In a 2021 interview with Deadline, Susan Rovner mentioned that they’re willing to make a reboot as soon as Graig Daniels approaches them about it.
One of the things keeping creator Greg Daniels from rebooting The Office is the sheer number of projects he’s already working on. He’s recently produced My Mom, Your Dad, Space Force, and Upload, and is working on a King of the Hill revival, an Exploding Kittens TV series, an animated comedy called Praise Petey, and another animation called Best Buds.
The Office was an unexpected hit for NBC, lasting for nine seasons from 2005 until 2013. The mockumentary-styled sitcom followed the goings-on at the office of Dunder Mifflin, a fictitious office supply company that sells wholesale office supplies — a less-than-exciting workplace led by an overly-enthusiastic boss (Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell) with a knack for sticking his foot in his mouth.
Part of what made the series work so well was the chemistry between its cast members. From Rainn Wilson’s abrasively loyal Dwight Schrute to the office prankster Jim Halpert (played by John Krasinski) to dim-witted Kevin Malone (played by Brian Baumgartner), the series found a groove where the characters’ clashing personalities were allowed to bounce off each other in an environment that was all too familiar for American workers.
Unfortunately for fans of the characters, however, creator Greg Daniels has said that, if he does end up being a reboot, it won’t follow the same cast as the original series. Rather, in a 2022 interview with Collider, he said it would be more like a spin-off in the same universe as The Office. He compared the idea to The Mandalorian, which takes place in the same universe as the main Star Wars storyline but is mostly separate from the characters in the original films.
Daniels admitted that he’s not sure whether people would want to see such a show, however, and it’s not hard to see why. The Office is not like Star Wars — it’s a small-scale show with believable (if unusual) characters, meaning that its extended universe might not feel much different from the real world. It’d be hard to see how a spin-off with new characters would differentiate itself from any other sitcom out there, save for its name.
