The Office BFFs Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have been open about their time on the NBC sitcom, with their podcast, Office Ladies, revealing several on-set tales. But there’s been one thing they’ve never tackled: why did the series end after Season 9? Now the Office alums have finally spilled what led to the comedy finishing its run.
Their candid takes on why the seminal workplace comedy called it quits after Season 9 comes straight from the real-life besties’ book The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There (via Entertainment Weekly). According to the co-stars, producer Greg Daniels informed the cast the network wanted two more seasons. Unfortunately, the news came at a turning point for the series as the cast’s contracts had expired, and most of the writing room, including Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak, had moved on to other projects. Kinsey opened up about the moment Daniels approached the actors about the proposed Season 10 and 11:
I obviously can't speak for Greg, but I know… [there] was a very thoughtful decision of, 'Well, what is the show without possibly the core cast?' I think it really points to the collaborative bond and trust that we all had as a creative collective, that Greg even made us a part of this conversation the way he did. And that we had the kind of trust between us that we could all talk about this really openly and come to a decision that we all felt really good about and were excited about.
As Angela Kinsey noted, it was important for Greg Daniels to include the entire cast of The Office in this major decision. The production had built a family-like relationship over nine years, which is obvious by their cast reunions. Having the original cast replaced with new castmates didn’t feel right, as Jenna Fischer explained:
I mean, the idea of slowly kind of losing people. … it just felt like, I don't know. It just felt sad and wrong.
Of course, the Splitting Up Together actor wouldn’t agree to move on without her work family. Coordinating with her onscreen-turned-real-life friend, Angela Kinsey expanded on Jenna Fischer’s take, saying,
It felt wrong. It felt wrong and like it would just ruin the [Office] world to slowly make up excuses of why people are leaving. One of the things I loved and we all got excited about was being able to know what the end was.
Eventually, the actors and producers decided to end with Season 9. Doing so allowed the cast, writers, and producers to craft a fitting farewell for viewers. According to Angela Kinsey, Greg Daniels allowed the cast members to pitch character storylines for the final run of episodes. Thankfully, everyone chose to end the series with most of the original core cast intact. If the NBC comedy had moved on with a new cast, the show might’ve changed in tone and chemistry.
Spilling the behind-the-scenes tea was nothing new for the Office alums. The two actresses opened up about how dangerous it was filming the Season 9 episode “Work Bus.” Everything that could go wrong went wrong filming the mobile episode. An AC unit slowly poisoned the cast and crew and props burying various cast members were just some of the problems. All this took place while poor Bryan Cranston was directing the episode.
The Office secrets have been coming out in recent months, including Zooey Deschanel almost starring on the NBC sitcom, the reason late comedian Patrice O’Neal disappears after only a few episodes, and revelations of a scrapped scene resolving the Scranton Strangler theory in the series finale.
If you wish to binge all nine seasons of The Office and revisit all of the history, you can watch every single episode with a Peacock subscription.
