I have been told by a friend that is an executive at NBC that a new show called “The Office: Boulder” is in the planning stages. Steve Carrell, who played the boss Michael Scott, will play a sales person at a dysfunctional office that manages an herbal tea business set in Boulder, Colorado. Steve Carrell will not be the boss in this show but will still be the main character. NBC is jealous of the success that CBS has had with its various CSI franchises such as CSI: Miami and CSI: NY and wants to do something similar with The Office. NBC has had some success with Law and Order: Los Angeles and hopes to have similar success with The Office: Boulder. The Office is actually a transplant itself! The Office started in Britain under the auspices of BBC and the concept was transplanted to the US. The same concept as also had some success as German and French remakes.
Steve Carrell was apparently tempted into doing the new show with promises of more input into production including more writing and directing duties on the show. The same mocumentary style will be followed and the explanation is that the same company that filmed him in Scranton found him so amusing they decided to send a new second new crew to follow his travails in Boulder. Steve
Carrell also wanted The Office Boulder to be more edgy than the original The
Office and deal with current issues like unemployment.
Steve Carrell also wants to add a philosophical dimension to the new version of The Office concept, and in his words, “explore the lost summer of love”. The new show will explore the hippie counterculture elements that exist in the real life Boulder. The original founder of the company is a self styled hippie that doesn’t want, as the character puts it, “to sell out” but comically is the worst example of corporate greed Michael Scott has ever seen. The new show will explore the disconnect between American idealism and American corporate behavior. Also, in the words of Steve Carrell, “The show will provide a valuable analysis of the American Dream and educate as well as entertain”.
If The Office: Boulder is a success then The Office: Los Angeles may follow and the main character may be Charlie Sheen who will essentially play himself and play a boss that is running a casting agency in LA. Cindy Lohan may or may not be involved in the project. The idea is that both these actors will attract viewers regardless of their personal problems. There is a concern that Cindy Lohan is too unstable and unmanageble even when compared to Charlie Sheen. The idea of poaching and successfully managing a major star from the CBS show Two
and a Half Men pleases the executives at NBC who have lost substantial market share to CBS in the last few years. The current philosophy at NBC is that they need to take more chances in order to survive. The Charlie Sheen idea is extremely controversial at NBC and another actor may be chosen for The Office: Los Angeles.
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