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

Spin-offs aren’t at all times a good suggestion. For each “Frasier” or “Younger Sheldon,” which originated from “Cheers” and “The Huge Bang Concept” respectively, there is a “Joey,” the follow-up to “Associates” that spectacularly crashed and burned. “The Workplace” did not get a spin-off instantly after it led to 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 will have screwed up the joyful ending between important characters Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey).

The seventeenth episode of the ninth and remaining season of “The Workplace,” merely titled “The Farm,” was meant as a backdoor pilot — a seemingly bygone apply the place showrunners would middle an episode round characters and situations that they hope will lead to a spin-off later. Within the episode because it aired, Dwight goes again to Schrute Farms for his Aunt Shirley’s funeral and reunites along 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 became 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?

Although Rainn Wilson solely unique signed onto 13 episodes of season 9 of “The Workplace” to accomodate transferring 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 challenge died. Wilson introduced this information on-line, based on The Hollywood Reporter; in a put up on X (often known as Twitter on the time), the actor wrote, “‘Farm’ Replace: NBC has handed on transferring 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 elements that have been applicable for a pilot of a brand new present,” Daniels mentioned on the time. “We will shoot a little bit further materials to make it match into the season extra.”

Frankly, this was most likely for the very best — and in the event you do not imagine me, perhaps you may imagine 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 e-book “The Workplace: The Untold Story of the Biggest Sitcom of the 2000s,” was fairly blunt about your complete factor. 

“Everybody I spoke to felt it was a foul 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 folks which are his whole 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 decide 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” fairly than given its personal timeslot on NBC was a great factor for a lot of causes, and chief amongst them is that if “The Farm” had turn into a TV present, the sequence finale of “The Workplace” might need ended up being type of unhealthy!

Here is what occurs within the finale if we utterly ignore that “The Farm” was ever going to be a present (one thing I am joyful 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 remaining 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 little one. Due to the setting of a marriage, the episode is ready to deliver 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 embody a “that is what she mentioned” joke, Steve Carell, who left “The Workplace” in season 7, reappears as former supervisor Michael Scott to be Dwight’s finest 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” critically dipped in high quality in its later seasons, so let’s all be grateful that “The Farm” did not find yourself occurring. 

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