Reviving shows and/or movies is commonplace these days. Over the last couple of years, a handful of shows (or movies) have been revived, including Arrested Development, Wet Hot American Summer, Gilmore Girls, Full House, Will and Grace, TRL, Hawaii Five-0, and Miami Vice.
To keep the trend going, NBC is reportedly considering bringing back award winning comedies The Office and 30 Rock.
Plain and simple, that’s a bad idea.
The news comes from Deadline, who reported that over the last couple of weeks, NBC has been contemplating reviving The Office and 30 Rock. While word is they may make a comeback, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt poured cold water on the rumors.
“We often talk about The Office, I’ve talked to (showrunner Greg Daniels) four times over the past few years. It’s always, ‘maybe some day but not now’,” Greenblatt told Deadline. “There is certainly an open invitation but we don’t have anything happening right now. If he wants to do it, I would do it.”
As for 30 Rock…
“I’d say to Tina (Fey) ‘Hey, you think some more 30 Rock makes any sense?’ She’d say, I don’t know maybe,” Greenblatt said.
So really, NBC is just thinking about reviving the two comedies because they were such beloved, and isn’t seriously pursuing a return quite yet. Then again, what’s to say Greenblatt and Daniels and/or Fey haven’t already struck a deal?
“If Tina called and said ‘I’d do 30 Rock,’ I’d do it in a heartbeat, even for a limited run. The same about The Office,” Greenblatt added.
Still, even if Daniels and Fey did approach NBC about rebooting the two famous franchises, they shouldn’t. To me, the sole reason why either series would be brought back is for money.
As someone who has watched every episode of The Office at least three times and more than my fair share of 30 Rock (but not all of it), I can tell you why they shouldn’t return.
The final two seasons of The Office were good. They weren’t great like the first seven for one simple reason: no Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell). If The Office were to be revived, the amount of money and time NBC would need to spend to bring everyone (but at the very least, Carell) back into the fold would be ridiculous. As a result, my guess is the revival wouldn’t have a bunch of the main characters.
If The Office were to come back and not feature characters like Phyllis and Stanley, some fans might not care much, but a lot would. To not have one single member of Dunder Mifflin would go a long way and based on how the show ended, it would be nearly impossible to bring everyone back unless they didn’t pick up where the show left off.
Let’s just look at how the characters dispersed at the end of season 9:
- Jim and Pam Halpert, Darryl Philbin – All three moved to Austin.
- Stanley Hudson – He retired to Florida.
- Kevin Malone – He owns a bar in town.
- Andy Bernard – He now works at Cornell.
- Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor – While the two were largely absent towards the end, they eloped at the end of season 9.
- Toby Flenderson – He moved to New York City.
- Michael Scott – He moved to Denver at the end of season 7.
Look at how much of that cast no longer works at Dunder Mifflin. If the show made a comeback, they couldn’t really pick up where they left off unless they just focused on the trio in Austin, or Dwight’s farm, or the people left at Dunder Mifflin.
That’s just the story reason why The Office and 30 Rock shouldn’t come back. Another big reason is the shows ended for a reason: they hit their peak and were on the decline.
Don’t bring them back and let them rest in peace. Like Andy said in the finale of The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ‘ol days before you’ve actually left them.” The good ‘ol days for The Office and 30 Rock are long gone, so there’s no need to replicate, and possibly ruin, them.
[Deadline]
