Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Paper” Season 1, Episode 1.
“The Paper” creators and executive producers Greg Daniels and Michael Koman admitted they initially opposed the idea of having the show move from a weekly release to a binge drop, all because the spinoff series’ predecessor “The Office” originally aired week-to-week when it first ran.
“For us, I think, we started off agitating for the drop, and partly it was because the original ‘Office’ was a weekly thing,” Daniels, who developed the U.S. version of “The Office,” told TheWrap. He further explained that the idea for a binge release “didn’t come from” him or Koman. “But then, [Peacock execs] had pointed out that most people who are big ‘Office’ fans probably binged it because they saw it on Netflix or Peacock. So that argument kind of evaporated.”
Daniels continued, “The company is smart and they have a lot of strategic thinking, and [I’m] not sure [of] everything behind it.” As for Koman, he said that he prefers to watch a show in a binge format because it doesn’t make him have to wait for the next episode.
“My personal viewing habits align much more with a binge release,” Koman shared. “I like being able to just decide, especially if I’m into something, I get impatient now.”
Daniels then chimed back in, noting that the binge release will also give the audience enough of the show to nibble on in order to make an informed decision about whether they’re a fan or not.
“I also like the idea that the audience can make up their own mind about the show without maybe seeing everything in promos over the course of a longer release,” he said.
Twelve years after “The Office” closed up shop after nine seasons, the same crew that documented the everyday happenings of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. have set their sights on a new group: the staff members of the newspaper, The Toledo Truth Teller.
At the beginning of the new pilot, we learn through Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration — one of two “The Office” stars we’ve seen thus far in the spinoff — that Dunder Mifflin has been “gone for a while,” though Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) and Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) still keep in touch. The only thing Bob knows is that an Ohio-based company called Enervate, which sells products made of paper, bought Dunder Mifflin in 2019. By the end of “The Office,” the Scranton branch was still open.
When it comes to Dunder Mifflin’s current existence, Daniels and Koman said the company could very well still be up and running, and as far as it being missing from its original location, it all has a purpose.
“It’s not in that location next to Vance Refrigeration, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other locations where it still exists as part of Enervate,” Daniels explained. “I think it was more … as sort of announcing that this new show was going to have to live or die on its own merits … that it wasn’t going to be propped up by constant guest appearances from the old show.”
He continued: “Maybe there’ll be more of that if we are a success, but we really felt very protective of the old show and not wanting to do anything to undo the beautiful ending from the finale, where all the characters were going in different directions. So the important thing to us was like, ‘Alright, let’s start this new crew and if you like it good, then maybe, maybe you’ll see more of that one.’”
“The important part was that the documentary crew launched on a journey to find where this had gone, and that’s how they found their new story,” Koman noted.
“The Paper” Season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.
