Here’s a Q&A between Greg Daniels and TheWrap. In it, Greg mainly discusses The Office. However, he answers fairly unique questions, such as the likelihood of The Office continuing with a mostly new cast and whether there’s any chance of a Parks and Recreation/Office crossover.
The Office is such a hit now, it’s easy to forget how close the show came to dying at birth. Was there a moment during that first season where you thought, “OK, we’re toast.”
I knew we had a lot of unusual features for an NBC comedy at the time, like no laugh track, the concept of the documentary, a pretty flawed main character, etc. — so I had prepared the executives for the reality that we weren’t going to be a hit out of the starting gate. The mid-level NBC and GE executives loved the show, though, and related to the absurdity of corporate life and supported us internally.How long would you like The Office to continue in its current incarnation? Could you see the show continuing with a mostly new cast, a la ER?
Mindy Kaling very early on made the comparison to ER, and I think it would be possible to keep bringing new characters in. Ed Helms’s Andy Bernard was introduced in season three, for example, and Ellie Kemper came on last year. In our premiere, we introduced three summer interns just for the episode, but by the end of it I was curious to see more of them.But it is hard to imagine the show without Steve and the current cast at its core. We are still several years away from having to think about it, and I have a good idea for a series finale episode, too.
Any chance of a Parks and Recreation/Office crossover? And how are things on the new show?
Things are great on the new show. Mike and I tinkered with things after our six-episode season one, and the reaction has been extremely positive. The show gets better and better every episode, which is tough for me as the pilot co-writer and director to admit. When we cast Rashida Jones on Parks and Recreation, though, I think we closed the door on a fictional crossover between the two worlds.
