The Joys of Knowing Your Show is being Cancelled

A showrunner’s perspective:

THE OFFICE’s Greg Daniels

Executive Producer of ‘The Office’ Announces the End of the Series

The executive producer of NBC’s highest-rated scripted series, “The Office,” has taken the wraps off plans to wind down the comedy series, Deadline.com reports.

Greg Daniels revealed that the show’s upcoming ninth season will be its last. Daniels, who ran the series during its first five seasons and has returned for season nine, made the announcement during a conference call this morning, the story reports.

“It was a hard decision but this is going to be a real gangbuster season,” Daniels said. He said the main reason for ending the series at this time is to ensure creative closure.

“This year feels like the last chance” for the show to have “an artistic ending,” Daniels said, according to the report.

The report notes: “With ‘The Office’ still ranking as NBC’s highest-rated scripted series, Daniels said he feared the network might want to ‘cling to it’ when he approached NBC executives with the idea of ending the show.”

Daniels added: “It’s actually a big surprise to me that NBC was so supportive of this decision. We all had a lot of passion for it and persuaded them.”

Daniels revealed that a number of plot lines will be wrapped up — and that the identity of the documentary camera crew will be revealed.

“Now that we know we have an end date, we can take some chances and blow things up,” he said.

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So what this means is that Daniels and the show’s writing staff can go balls out and write like there’s no tomorrow – because there isn’t. If you’re an OFFICE fan you’re in for quite a ride this coming season. It will either be the best one in the series’ history…or the worst. ‘Cuz, you know, freedom can be a blessing, or a curse….

Good luck, Greg. Give us hell!

EDITED TO ADD: Meanwhile, another THE OFFICE producer, Justin Spitzer, just made a deal with NBC for an as yet unnamed ensemble sitcom about a group of friends whose lives are changed as they head for a wedding. In the words of everybody reading this new development: WTF?

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