Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Paper” Season 1.
And just like that, the first season of Greg Daniels and Michael Koman’s “The Paper,” which is set in the same universe as Daniels’ “The Office,” has arrived. Romances were built, “Office” fans got their fill of nostalgia and by the time the show premiered on Peacock Thursday, news that it was coming back for a second season was already hot off the presses.
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. set their sights on a new group: the staff members of The Toledo Truth Teller newspaper. Deciding to craft a new story within the “Office” universe wasn’t easy. But Daniels knew for certain that if it was going to be something, it most certainly wouldn’t be a reboot.
“There were many years when the show was No. 1 on Netflix, where people would be like, ‘When’s there going to be a reboot?’” Daniels told TheWrap, mentioning that there was some push for an “Office” reboot, particularly after NBC rebooted “Will & Grace.” “So I was always like, ‘It’s not going to be a reboot. I can’t get the whole cast back together, and we ended it in such a way that [the characters] were all going in different directions — I don’t want to undo that ending. It’s not going to be that kind of reboot where it’s the same characters with new actors because the original cast was too good. Nobody wants to see another person playing Dwight or Pam.”
Eventually, Daniels decided the new show would feature an all new cast, but that same film crew that documented the daily happenings of Michael Scott’s Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin would return to capture a new subject. But with limited space on this calendar due to working on his Prime Video series “Upload,” and still some apprehension, it wasn’t until getting encouragement from his old “Office” team that he decided to move forward with a spinoff.
“I talked to some of the original cast, and I kept saying to them, I would never do it. And they were like, ‘Well, what’s the big deal? you’re not going to hurt the original show. It’s so big.’ So then I started to get a little bit more open to it, and then I pitched this notion of the newspaper to Michael, and he got excited about it.
Despite Koman’s initial distaste for an “Office” spinoff, he liked the concept of a journalist trying to revive a failing newspaper.
“I just thought a documentary style set at a newspaper that was having a tough time, and somebody comes in and tries to breathe life into it again, was a premise that I really liked,” Koman explained. “Then we later kept talking about it and I found that …”
“I told [him] it was the spinoff of ‘The Office’ and then he was slightly less interested but still interested,” Daniels chimed in.
One of the next big tasks was assembling his stars.
Leading the cast as editor-in-chief is Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson. And making up his newsroom and the team at Softees — the neighboring paper-based company in their coworking space — are stars Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda Grand, Chelsea Frei as Mare Pritti, Tim Key as Ken Davies, Oscar Nuńez as Oscar Martinez, Ramona Young as Nicole Lee, Melvin Gregg as Detrick Moore, Alex Edelman as Adam Cooper, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adeola Olofin, Eric Rahill as Travis and Duane Shepard Sr. as Barry.
While there was fresh talent and a fresh story, Daniels went back into his “Office” roots when crafting his crew, including “The Office” executive producer-writer Paul Lieberstein, who also played Toby in the sitcom. Lieberstein notably wrote the Season 1 finale, in which Ned’s efforts lead the newspaper to land some prestigious awards and the relationship between him and Mare takes a romantic turn when the pair share a kiss in the final moments.
In a series of questions, Daniels, Koman and Gleeson open up about finding the right extension of “The Office” universe, the season finale and more.
These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. TheWrap interviewed Gleeson separately, and these conversations took place prior to the Season 2 news.
What were the conversations like with “The Office” cast about the spinoff?
Daniels: Many of them I had talked to when we did the finale. There was a moment there at the beginning of Season 9 where it was said, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t end the show. Maybe we should kind of bring in new characters and keep it going past all the casts and dates, when they were going to go off and do other things, and just keep it going like “Grey’s Anatomy” forever, with new people.’ And at that time, the cast and I said, “No, let’s give them an ending.”
Koman: As somebody who just loves the “Office,” to me, that’s one of the most important things a show can do, is if you end well.
Daniels: I don’t want the responsibility of having to open that box again and maybe blow it. I feel that’s just me, that’s just me.
How was it coming back together with Paul Lieberstein, especially with him writing and directing the Season 1 finale?
Koman: As a fan, it was one of the highlights of the year for me, was getting to work with Paul, who’s just one of the funniest people, and he’s a hilarious writer and really supportive guy.
Greg: Paul’s the best. I wanted to work with every person who would come back. So at least half our directors are from the old days. Both of our assistant directors, location manager, our editor Dave Rogers, who was an enormous part of the show and is also a director. Just keeping a lot of people from the original crew together was one of the joys of being able to do it again.
Michael: Jennifer Celotta, who’s a great ‘Office’ writer, directed one of our episodes. It was really fantastic having people who understand the creative DNA.
Greg: And could tell stories about how it was in the old days to the cast. The cast were really curious and they would always turn to Oscar for advice about, “am I looking into the camera too much?”
Something I’ve noticed, and not every showrunner or executive producer does it, but Greg you empower your writers to also star in the show — Eric Rahill and Alex Edelman. In what way does that impact the show or add value?
Greg: A couple of reasons. I’m a huge fan of Monty Python, and if you go all the way back to Monty Python, they were like a crew that wrote and also performed. And my earliest show biz experiences were often on projects where they kept the writers completely apart from the cast. When that happens, and there’s any sort of distrust between the writers and the cast, the cast sometimes refused to do what the writers say, and the writers try to write actor-proof jokes, and it’s not a good thing. You really need to coordinate the writing and the performing in order to get something that feels real and is about moments of behavior and not just about setting up jokes. So if that’s what your aim is, artistically, you’ve got to make them like each other and understand each other’s jobs. And to me, the best way is to have a few writer-performers.
Koman: That’s so true. My first job was at a place where the writers were in one building and the actors were in another. And so when you were filming things, there was nothing that would change because just everything was set in stone. When you have a mixture, it’s more fluid. So there’s a little, I think it becomes a little easier for everyone to accept the idea that the script does not have to be considered locked in stone or set in stone when it’s on the stage, we can still figure out a better way to do this. And I think just having people that are in both places and who think of themselves as a writer, and they’re also in that room just makes everything feel a little more like this is a collaboration and a continuous piece of work that’s going to evolve until we’re not allowed editing anymore.
Daniels: Less factory-made.
We’ve seen Bob Vance, we’ve got Oscar, I have to ask: Can fans expect more “Office” cameos/returns? Michael, would Ellie [Kemper] bring back Erin?
Koman: I still have to go through her people. I don’t mix.
Daniels: Our hope is that this show has juice and this cast, which I think is wonderful that we’ve assembled for the new show, all sorts of great people, starting with Domhnall [Gleeson] and Sabrina Impacciatore … I would be embarrassed to go talk to the original ‘Office’ cast from a position of, ‘We need you. We need you because the show isn’t working.’”
Ned is like the only real journalist at The Toledo Truth Teller and he falls for the only other real journalist Mare. How was it developing that relationship with Chelsea Frei through Greg and Michael’s vision?
Gleeson: I think it mattered to both of us that our characters’ main romance was with the paper, that what they have in common is their love of journalism, their their desire to be good journalists, to make the world a better place, and how exciting they find that, that’s actually the free zone. That’s the new romance in the show for both of them.
I think they’re real friends, and I think that also complicates everything else as well. Like, he’s her boss — that’s like a really strict boundary. All that, I think, just makes that dynamic really juicy and interesting, particularly the fact that it’s happening now. Chelsea is so wonderful in the show, she’s so great to work with, and that really helps everything, so that made it fun.
Have y’all started discussing Season 2 at all?
Daniels: We’ve discussed it. Hopefully people will like the show … and we’ll get to put some of our ideas into practice.
