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Posts tagged as the farm

Brilliantly Canceled

'The Farm': Why 'The Office's Backdoor Pilot Didn't Work

by | March 18th, 2013

Sometimes TV shows drag their unfunny feet across our living rooms for years. “Who let this happen?” we cry in vain. Other times, the powers that be get things right. That’s where “Brilliantly Canceled” comes in and looks at the shows that didn’t make it past their first episode and saved us all a ton of grief.

After nine seasons of The Office, a spinoff seemed inevitable. The show’s overwhelming success and incredibly popular characters were too good to lose, especially for the flailing peacock. Of the show’s original cast, few characters rose higher than Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute. As Michael Scott’s loyal assistant to the regional manager, Dwight [...]

Networks

NBC President Talks Comedy Changes: 'The Farm,' 'Parks and Rec,' 'Community'

by | November 14th, 2012

This has been a transitional season for NBC's comedy department, with the network seemingly abandoning developing hip young shows like Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and Community to focus on more traditional, broadly-appealing sitcoms like Go On and The New Normal (with much better results, ratings-wise). NBC Entertainment Jennifer Salke spoke to TV Guide today about the changes to the network's comedy strategy:

"We just want a different brand. We don't want a narrow brand in the sense of some of those shows that we inherited here, which we're huge fans of, [but] have a very narrow audience… It would be easy if we hated those shows, but we actually [...]

MOSE!

Mose to Live (and Die?) on 'The Farm'

by | August 31st, 2012

MOSE!!! TV's greatest character ever to have a name that rhymes with "hose" is officially going to be on The Farm. While The Farm was filling out its so far great cast, everyone was wondering: "What about Mose?" Mike Schur (Parks & Recreation showrunner/Mose) explained that Mose is coming back because Paul Lieberstein loves how bad of an actor he is:

"Paul Lieberstein is mostly the driving force behind keeping Mose alive because he loves torturing me. There was one time where I had a whole real scene with Jim and Pam — it was the night they stayed at the Schrute B&B — and [...]

Casting Notices

Dwight Schrute Has a Sister

by | August 20th, 2012

This is Majandra Delfino, the actress cast to play Fannie Schrute on The Farm. Fannie is Dwight's "pseudo-intellectual lefty" younger sister. She had previously left the farm to live in Boston, a place crawling with other "pseudo-intellectual lefty" younger sisters. Delfino is probably best known for playing one of the leads on Roswell 10 years ago. Considering her lack of comedic background, one would guess she is going to be playing the heavy/straight man more often than not. I wonder what her relationship is like with Mose. #MoreMose2012

spin-offs

'The Office's Abandoned Dwight Spin-off 'The Farm' Is Airing This Thursday

by | March 11th, 2013

If you've ever wondered what a show centered on The Office's Dwight Schrute would look like, you'll get your chance to find out this Thursday. Last year, NBC ordered an episode of The Office that would double as the a pilot for a Dwight spin-off called The Farm, but then decided not to make the show. The episode will air this Thursday and will introduce you to Schrute relatives living on the family beet farm like Dwight's stoner brother Jeb (Thomas Middleditch, The Campaign), cousin Zeke (Matt Jones, Breaking Bad), Nazi grandfather Henrich Manheim (Tom Bower, Die Hard 2), and lefty sister Fannie (Majandra Delfino, Roswell). Rainn Wilson wrote the [...]

spin-offs

NBC Doesn't Buy 'The Farm'; The Dwight Schrute 'Office' Spin-Off Is Dead

by | October 30th, 2012

Rainn Wilson announced yesterday via Twitter that NBC has opted not to pick-up The Farm, the spin-off of The Office based around his character Dwight Schrute. A pilot episode was filmed, as a standalone episode of The Office that introduces Dwight's family, and the episode will still air sometime in early 2013, giving us a glimpse of what the Dwight spin-off would have looked like. This means that Rainn Wilson will be sticking around for the rest of The Office's final season, instead of leaving for his own show, which'll make for a more fulfilling finale for fans in May.

The Farm was created by Paul Lieberstein (the [...]

Casting

Dwight's Family Continues to Grow

by | August 27th, 2012

Tom Bower has been cast to play the Schrute's great uncle Heinrich on The Farm. He is described as charming and manipulative and possibly a former Nazi. Not like a metaphoric Nazi, like how a child might describe a particularly mean lunch-lady, but like an actual Nazi. This is somewhat typecasting for old Tom Bower as he was previously seen playing Pop Pop, the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia gang's Nazi grandfather.

Matt Jones, who's best known for playing Badger on Breaking Bad, has also joined the cast. He'll play Dwight's cousin Zeke. The word is that originally Zeke was supposed to be a minor recurring character but [...]

spin-offs

Meet the Schrutes

by | July 2nd, 2012

They've begun casting for The Farm, the new Dwight Office spin-off. TVLine has learned the show will have a test-run as an episode in the next season of The Office. The Farm will focus on Dwight inheriting a large farm/bed-and-breakfast that he must convince his siblings into helping him with. Siblings?!? The show will introduce new family members because Mose has moved to LA to run a TV show about a fictional local Indiana government. After the jump, read the descriptions of Dwight's relatives. Which one do you think sounds like Drea de Matteo?

spin-offs

'The Office's Dwight Spin-off Is Confirmed to Air This Season as an Episode of 'The Office'

by | January 3rd, 2013

A couple months ago, Rainn Wilson announced that NBC wasn't moving ahead with The Farm, the spin-off of The Office based around his character Dwight Schrute and his wacky family's wacky beet farm. The pilot for The Farm was film as a regular episode of The Office, and we reported that the episode would be still be airing later this season, despite NBC's decision not to pick up the show.  Now, Office head honcho Greg Daniels officially confirms this info to TV Line, referring to the nixed spin-off as "a very good episode" and saying, "We're not going to air exactly what it was, because it has certain aspects that were [...]

reddit

Highlights from Rainn Wilson's Reddit AMA: Mistakes on Last Season of 'The Office', 'The Farm', and Mindy Kaling

by | October 16th, 2012

The Office's Rainn Wilson logged onto Reddit for an AMA question-and-answer session with fans yesterday. In it, he reflected honestly on The Office's post-Steve Carell era, shared some details about the upcoming spin-off The Farm, and revealed that he was the first person to ever audition for the US Office. Here are the highlights from the AMA:

On The Office, post-Steve Carell:

I think some mistakes were made in the Office last season creatively. That being said I think some of the best, most interesting and funniest stuff we've ever done was last season. The Talahassee stuff was pretty sublime I thought. The Episode when I had an appendectamy [...]

Casting

Thomas Middleditch to Play Dwight's Younger Bro

by | August 24th, 2012

Thomas Middleditch, who recently can be seen doing a Southern accent in The Campaign has a very extensive improv background, performing at IO, Second City, and UCB, and was named one of Variety's "10 Comics to Watch" in 2011. Late last night, Middleditch was officially cast to play Jeb Schrute, Dwight's laidback younger brother, on The Office spinoff, The Farm. He's joining Majandra Delfino who was cast earlier this week as sister Fannie Schrute. Jeb has had many zany careers: worm farmer, Bigfoot hunter, successfully running a Northern California pot farm, and he once made a workout video of things you can do with a knife and [...]

TV

Dwight's Spinoff & Mindy Kaling's Pilot Are Taking Their Toll on The Office

by | March 22nd, 2012

Big shakeups are about to hit Dunder Mifflin. Paul Lieberstein will likely exit as showrunner next year, the better to focus on the Dwight-centric spinoff. Meanwhile, Mindy Kaling's absence to work on her new series seems inevitable after the casting of Ed Helms, Bill Hader, and Richard Schiff in the pilot. So in theory, next year could see the loss of: the showrunner, an influential writer, Dwight, Andy, Toby, and Kelly. That'd make for an empty Scranton office, all right. I know this show is good at adapting, but isn't it kind of time to close things out already?

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