The Workplace’s Canceled Spin-Off Would Have Ruined The Present’s Blissful Ending

Spin-offs aren’t all the time a good suggestion. For each “Frasier” or “Younger Sheldon,” which originated from “Cheers” and “The Large Bang Principle” respectively, there is a “Joey,” the follow-up to “Pals” that spectacularly crashed and burned. “The Workplace” did not get a spin-off instantly after it resulted in 2013, but it surely nearly did — and one of many present’s final episodes was a backdoor pilot for the spin-off that by no means was. It is a good factor it by no means got here to fruition, frankly … as a result of it might have screwed up the blissful ending between predominant characters Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey).

The seventeenth episode of the ninth and last season of “The Workplace,” merely titled “The Farm,” was meant as a backdoor pilot — a seemingly bygone follow the place showrunners would heart an episode round characters and situations that they hope will end in a spin-off later. Within the episode because it aired, Dwight goes again to Schrute Farms for his Aunt Shirley’s funeral and reunites together with his household, together with his brother Jeb (Thomas Middleditch) and sister Fannie (Majandra Delfino). Nora Kirkpatrick, who performs Dwight’s girlfriend Esther all through season 9 of “The Workplace,” additionally seems within the episode, which appears to point that, had “The Farm” ever made it to sequence, Esther and Dwight would have remained concerned. 

As all of us now know, “The Farm” by no means changed into a full-fledged sequence, and within the sequence finale of “The Workplace,” Esther is out of the image and Dwight and Angela lastly tie the knot. So what occurred with “The Farm” ultimately?

Even supposing Rainn Wilson solely unique signed onto 13 episodes of season 9 of “The Workplace” to accomodate shifting over to “The Farm” — and author and showrunner Paul Lieberstein, who performed Toby Flenderson on “The Workplace,” jumped over to assist launch the enterprise — NBC declined to choose “The Farm” up as a full sequence, and the venture died. Wilson introduced this information on-line, in keeping with The Hollywood Reporter; in a submit on X (often called Twitter on the time), the actor wrote, “‘Farm’ Replace: NBC has handed on shifting ahead with ‘The Farm’ TV present. Had a blast making the pilot – onwards & upwards!” One of many present’s unique creators, Greg Daniels, weighed in on the entire thing in dialog with TVLine, and as he put it, the episode was merely retooled and reworked to suit into the ultimate season of “The Workplace.” “We’re not going to air precisely what it was, as a result of it has sure points that have been acceptable for a pilot of a brand new present,” Daniels stated on the time. “We will shoot a bit of further materials to make it match into the season extra.”

Frankly, this was most likely for one of the best — and if you happen to do not consider me, perhaps you may consider a author who occurs to be one of many foremost “Workplace” consultants. In an interview on Medium with Jeremy Roberts, Andy Greene, who wrote the 2020 guide “The Workplace: The Untold Story of the Best Sitcom of the 2000s,” was fairly blunt about your complete factor. 

“Everybody I spoke to felt it was a nasty thought. I agree. You do not need to spend that a lot time with Dwight on the farm. He is humorous at an workplace with individuals which are his complete opposites. ‘The Farm’ is a salvaged failed pilot that they chopped up into an everyday episode as a result of NBC did not need to choose it up. The entire thing was only a colossally wrong-headed thought and one of many worst Workplace episodes ever.”

The truth that “The Farm” was merely slotted into the ultimate season of “The Workplace” relatively than given its personal timeslot on NBC was an excellent factor for a lot of causes, and chief amongst them is that if “The Farm” had grow to be a TV present, the sequence finale of “The Workplace” may need ended up being kind of unhealthy!

This is what occurs within the finale if we utterly ignore that “The Farm” was ever going to be a present (one thing I am blissful to do). After a number of seasons of an on-again, off-again love affair, Dwight and Angela lastly tie the knot — and in one of many present’s last episodes, Angela tells Dwight that her son, whom he believed was fathered by her ex-husband Senator Robert Lipton (Jack Coleman), is definitely Dwight’s youngster. Because of the setting of a marriage, the episode is ready to carry again a number of dearly departed characters, together with Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak’s poisonous lovers Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard, and in essentially the most emotionally resonant scene to ever embrace a “that is what she stated” joke, Steve Carell, who left “The Workplace” in season 7, reappears as former supervisor Michael Scott to be Dwight’s greatest man (or, as Dwight and John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert name it, “bestest mensch”).

Watching Angela and Dwight get married and produce all of their family members collectively within the course of makes for a genuinely good sequence finale, particularly when you think about that “The Workplace” significantly dipped in high quality in its later seasons, so let’s all be grateful that “The Farm” did not find yourself taking place. 

As for “The Workplace,” that whole sequence is streaming on Peacock now.