TV with MeeVee: "The Office" Spinoff News. All Contradictory.

June 13, 2008

"The Office" Spinoff News. All Contradictory.

Please come to...Utica? Well, maybe. And maybe not. Kristin at E! Online reports rumors that Rashida Jones, who played Karen Filippelli, will sign on for the spinoff of "The Office" that we are all desperately hoping won't suck and make us hate them for doing it. One source says yes, one says no, but Jones does have a talent holding deal with Universal, which produces the show.

Meanwhile Variety reports this morning that Aziz Ansari of the MTV sketch comedy show "Human Giant" is the first cast member signed for the spinoff. Which may not be a spinoff at all. It may be a "companion show" of similar comic sensibility, or perhaps the kind of spinoff where new characters join "The Office" briefly and then go off on their own. Creator Greg Daniels and other producers are said to be still deciding on a concept for the show.

Jones joined "The Office" as Karen, the other woman in Jim Halpert's life, who came between him and Pam Beesly, thus threatening the best sitcom romance ever. As Kathy notes at GMMR, no one expected Jones to be popular with fans - it seems like a natural villain role. But she won over viewers before moving to the Utica office, and not just guys who noticed her hotness. So she might be a smart choice as one of the more normal characters on a spinoff - like the Jim or Pam of that show, surrounded by lunatics. Variety also says a Jones return to "The Office" is not out of the question, which ought to worry Jim-and-Pam 'shippers.

Life at a second branch of Dunder Mifflin would no doubt provide some laughs. But I still think that whatever comic alchemy makes "The Office" so special is unlikely to be duplicated successfully. So maybe a non-spinoff spinoff is a better idea.

Update: I just learned from TV Squad that Ansari is also slated to play one of the new interns on "Scrubs" in the fall. Busy guy. Here he is guesting on "Flight of the Conchords" as a fruit vendor with issues: