The Office became such a huge series by the end of its run that it was almost hard to remember the early days, when some of the key actors were fairly young and largely unknown. John Krasinski only had a handful of small roles to his name back when The Office came together, and it turns out that he didn't have too much faith that his new project would last very long. He had a request of the NBC crew that's pretty hilarious in hindsight. Krasinski told this story about the first season of The Office:
We weren't even supposed to be picked up to keep going. So when you're an underdog like that, we all just did the show because we thought it was incredible and we thought, 'Oh, if no one sees this, at least we have it.' I actually asked for a DVD from one of the NBC guys of the first six episodes, I still have it. I was like, 'Can I just have a DVD of it to show my mom because these will never air?' Turned out I was wrong.
He sure was wrong. The Office would eventually run for nine seasons, and John Krasinski would be a highlight as Jim Halpert from start to finish. Still, it's hard to blame him for having doubts. The first season consisted of only six half-hour episodes that debuted in March and concluded in April, missing both February and May sweeps periods for ratings. It was a remake of a British series, and it didn't get off to the greatest start on the American side of the pond. The series premiere was almost exactly the same as the series premiere of the British series, and audiences just didn't respond to it.
Luckily, Season 1 improved as it went along, scoring the show a renewal order that launched Jim and Co. into its stellar Season 2, and the rest is history. John Krasinski went on to reveal in his chat with The Huffington Post that he'd be on board for an Office reunion if the stars aligned, so we may not have seen our last of Jim or the saga of Jim and Pam. I do wonder if Mrs. Krasinski ever got to see her son's DVD of Season 1. If not, she can always hop on Netflix to catch the entire series. She'll presumably swoon less than I did at Jim in the Season 2 finale.
John Krasinski has kept busy over the years since The Office came to an end in 2013. He was part of the star-studded cast of the film Aloha in 2015, then starred in Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi in early 2016. Krasinski is currently promoting a movie called The Hollars, on which he served as star, director, and producer. He lent his voice to a couple episodes of the Netflix series BoJack Horseman, and he had a hand in the development of Lip Sync Battle for Spike. None of his accomplishments over the past couple of years likely would have happened if The Office hadn't survived those first six episodes. We can all be glad that NBC gave the show a chance.
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