The Office will be entering its 9th season on NBC and some more familiar faces may be gone. Steve Carell left after season 7 and some more changes are in place for the long running sitcom. Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly Kapoor and has been a writer and director on the show since the beginning, has left to star in her own promising sitcom on FOX, The Mindy Project. Why didn't NBC pick that up? Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby, is also leaving as executive producer. He may still be playing Toby though.
Now its been announced that BJ Novak will be leaving as a full time member of the show. He'll still apparently make some appearances on it though. It does make sense there would be less of Ryan without on-again off-again love interest Kelly. I wonder if they'll make any note in the season premiere of their absence?
Season 8 episodes were hit or miss, and it was the weakest season of the bunch. Towards the end it did improve though, and the addition of Catherine Tate full time in season 9 should help. She developed a stronger character during the final few episodes. The show also looks to be returning to more episodes inside the Dunder Mifflin office. They were taken out of it too often in season 8. I do see the show ending in the near future, but I have doubts it will be with the 9th season. It definitely has the staying power to make it to a 10th season.
First, The Office. I knew we wouldn't be finding out who the next manager is until next season. I would have to say the most likely person seems to be Catherine Tate. She played Nellie Bertram and is known to be Jo's friend. So they did manage a little back story with her. Her interview was also the funniest of the bunch. If not her then I think Ricky Gervais is fairly possible to bring his character from the original British version, David Brent, as the manager. Gervais also helped with the script for this episode. Still, Tate seems like the front runner if it's not one of the current cast members. I was hoping we'd see a return from Jan for an interview, but we didn't. We did find out that Erin is not Phyllis' daughter that she gave up as a teen, but Phyllis isn't telling her that yet. And Angela got engaged to her secretly gay senator boyfriend! That is obviously going to be a big theme during next season. Angela is one of the better characters, so her having more screen time is a good thing.
Parks and Recreation dealt with the funeral of Li'l Sebastian, everyone's favorite mini horse. Megan Mullally was back as Tammy Swanson, or Tammy Two. We find out from Donna that Ron's first wife, Tammy One is also there, but we didn't see her, thus leaving a good cliffhanger for next season. It does cause Tammy Two to run away in fear though. At the memorial for Li'l Sebastian, Andy's band Mouse Rat is given the task to create a song five thousand times better than Elton John's "Candle in the Wind." The result: "Five Thousand Candles in the Wind." The great Jean-Ralphio was back as well, and should definitely become a regular character next season.
The Dundies returned on last night's episode of The Office, the final episode before Steve Carell's farewell next week. This episode was perfect from start to finish. It managed to blend tons of comedy with a funny, yet emotional ending. This may go down as the best episode of the season, and one of the greatest episodes of all time. It was that good! The episode was written and directed by Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly Kapoor on the show for those who don't know. So props to her for a perfect episode!
The cold open was one of the best we've seen in a while. It had Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers (Will Ferrell) going to people's houses early in the morning to tell them they've been nominated for Dundie Awards. First was Jim & Pam's house, then Stanley's. Stanley of course threatened to call the cops if they didn't leave. The best was Meredith's house, which Deangelo remarked that it "Reminds me of Katrina." It was complete with barbed wire and an open door, then with Meredith walking up the driveway looking like she just got back from a drunken night at the club. It concluded with Michael hilariously throwing eggs at Toby's house. The Dundies themselves were as funny as the first time, way back in 2005. Watch a bit of them here, and see Michael's impersonations of Angela, Jim and Phyllis:
The rest of the episode was just as funny, and by now you should be going to the NBC website to watch! It concluded with the entire Office singing a special version of the "Seasons of Love" song from Rent - 9 million 986 thousand minutes . You can watch the clip here, it's a must see:
This set up Michael's farewell very well. Next week is sure to be bittersweet, with the special 50 minute episode titled Goodbye, Michael. For more of The Office, visit Life In The Office and Office Tally.
