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Cautiously Optimistic

Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Is Getting An Office Spin-Off

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:03 am, January 26th

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What is going on? What are you doing?! NBC is giving Dwight Schrute his own spin-off from The Office in 2013. Ok, no, we’re actually really excited about this, we just wanted to use those quotes. And this one. Bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica.

Although no deals have been closed yet, Deadline is reporting that Dwight will get his own spinoff starring Rainn Wilson for a possible midseason 2013 launch. They describe the show as “a family comedy, which was the brainchild of Wilson and The Office executive producer/showrunner Paul Lieberstein. It will have Dwight (Wilson) living at the Schrute family beet farm and bed & breakfast, which have been featured on the show several times, including in an episode where Jim and Pam visited Dwight there.”

The spinoff is apparently set to be introduced in an upcoming Office episode that features the farm. “Paul and Rainn have been joking for years about Dwight’s life on the farm, his family and how ill-suited he is to run a B&B,” a source close to The Office told Deadline. “A while ago, it started to feel like a show to them. NBC agreed, it’s been further developed to include multiple generations, many cousins and neighbors. (It is unclear if that would include cousin Mose who has been featured on the show, played by Office alum and Parks & Recreation co-creator Mike Schur.) At its base it will be about a family farm struggling to survive and a family trying to stay together.”

You may also remember our report on Wilson’s co-star Mindy Kaling getting her own deal with NBC to write, executive produce, and star in an animated comedy about a girls high-school volleyball team. NBC had also considered an Office spinoff a few years back but that eventually became the Amy Poehler starring Parks & Recreation. But fans of the show shouldn’t worry, just because Dwight is getting his own show doesn’t mean he’ll be gone from The Office for good. Deadline writes, “If the veteran comedy is renewed for a ninth season as many expect, Wilson will return in the fall before segueing to the new series in mideason.” They also liken it to Kelsey Grammer’s change from Cheers to Fraiser, going from a workplace to family format.

What do you think? Would you watch a TV show about Dwight and his family?

(via IGN)

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  • http://nakedhobo.com/blog Glenn Buettner

    I’m not entirely sure if it can work.  I think a big part of what makes the character of Dwight work is having people to play off of.  Maybe if they go kind of Fawlty Towers with it, maybe, but I see it becoming too much of Dwight.  

  • http://twitter.com/Baal_does_Tweet Rafael A. Valera R.

    But without Jim who would annoy Dwight into insanity?

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, great idea! They should also make a spin-off of M.A.S.H. and call it Aftermash, get it , AfterM.A.S.H.? Oh, forget it. No wait, how about a spin off of Friends with Matt LeBlanc as Joey and…Damn, forget that one too!

  • Anonymous

    I’d watch Dwight anywhere!  But I agree a great deal of his personality seems to work and appear particularly…special when it bounces off Jim’s humour and normalcy.

  • Anonymous

    Keep in mind this is still early in the discussion stages. The only thing we know mostly for sure is that there will be a backdoor pilot sometime later this season.

    I don’t think it’ll work. The pilot episode would have to be amazing, and show Dwight in a completely different light than he’s seen on The Office now. He’s not likable enough to hold the lead in a family-style comedy.

    Now this is just off the top of my head, but I think this would be a much better idea: Remember that Dwight owns the building that the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin is housed in. I could see Dwight not renewing Dunder-Mifflin’s lease or buying another building, and focusing on the landlord element of Dwight’s character as he fights with his tennants.

  • http://twitter.com/Ligbi Kira

    This could be like Scrubs: Med School. You can end the real show, start a new one that no one asked for and then it can die after 12 episodes. I like it.
    Because 8 seasons has already been too much. A ninth AND a spin-off? Let it die NBC.
    Let it die.

  • Anonymous

    I would watch this.  Though I do agree with the previous posters, he needs someone to play off.  Also, they’d have to have Mose.