Steve Carell's Last Season on "The Office" | "It's a Good Time to Move On" (That's What He Said)

http://tvwatch.people.com/2010/06/28/steve-carell-leaving-office-nbc/

Steve Carell Says ‘It’s Time’ to Leave The Office

June 28, 2010 | People

It looks like Dunder Mifflin may soon have to hire a new boss for its Scranton branch.

After more than half a dozen seasons on The Office, Steve Carell hints to E! News that he may not be returning to the hit NBC comedy after its seventh season wraps next year.

“I just think it’s time,” he said at the premiere of his new movie, Despicable Me, Sunday in L.A. “When I first signed on I had a contract for seven seasons, and this coming year is my seventh. I just thought it was time for my character to go.”

But Carell, 47, who plays regional manager Michael Scott on the show, says fans shouldn’t get too worried -– the show will do just fine, maybe even better than before.

“[This might] add some new life and some new energy to the show,” he says about leaving a role that earned him multiple Emmy nominations. “I certainly didn’t anticipate any hubbub over it. I didn’t see it as a huge deal.”

“[The writers],” he adds, “have incorporated so many new characters and so many new, great storylines that I have no doubt it’ll continue as strong if not stronger than ever.”

When reached, NBC had no comment.

–Eunice Oh

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/06/steve-carell-...

Jun 28, 2010
Steve Carell confirms he's leaving 'The Office'

03:11 PM - USA Today

Michael Scott fans, say farewell to your leader. Actor Steve Carell tells E! that he will leave the hit NBC comedy this season when his contract is up.

"I just think it's time," Carell said from the Despicable Me red carpet. "I want to fulfill my contract. When I first signed on I had a contract for seven seasons, and this coming year is my seventh. I just thought it was time for my character to go."

And there's no telling if he's being falsely modest, or delusional, but Carell also says his departure won't be a big deal and that the show could continue fine without him.

"I didn't see it as a huge thing and I certainly didn't anticipate any sort of hubbub over it. I'm just not going to extend my contract, but I didn't see it as a huge deal. And the show is great, and the ensemble is so strong, and the writers are great, so it's just one part of that ensemble drifting off. They've incorporated so many new characters and so many new, great story lines that I have no doubt it'll continue as strong, if not stronger, than ever."

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/28/steve-carell-its-a-good-thing-charlie-sheen-c...

Steve Carell: It’s a Good Thing Charlie Sheen Can’t Replace Him

by Jaime Weinman on Monday, June 28, 2010 5:05pm

So, it turns out that when Steve Carell said he was thinking of leaving The Office after the upcoming season, he wasn’t just playing hardball for more money: he really wants to leave when his contract is up, and the writers will presumably have a year to figure out how to write him off and lay the groundwork for a Michael Scott-less season. Even if they don’t ultimately decide to move Jim into the permanent boss role, all the “Jim is the new Michael” storylines they’ve done are certainly going to come in handy in a spot like this.

The show will likely go on if Carell leaves (even Carell has been trying to emphasize this in its interviews). For one thing NBC doesn’t have another comedy that’s even remotely successful. Even if, as is likely, the ratings go down without Carell, what else does the network have? Outsourced? NBC has a long tradition of putting itself in this position, where they don’t have any popular new comedies and have to hang on to their old hits as long as they can; The Office is no Friends in terms of success, but the network will still want to keep it around until it comes up with some new mainstream hits… which should happen around 2015 at this rate.

(I’ll add that this news further calls into question NBC’s decision to schedule Community at 8 o’clock. That show isn’t yet popular enough to lead off a night, but it does have more growth potential than 30 Rock or even Parks and Recreation, and by placing it in the most vulnerable time slot — leading off Thursdays and smack up against Big Bang Theory — NBC is pretty much dooming it. It would make more sense to put it after The Office and see if it can get strong enough to hold up its own end in 2011-2.)

And for another thing, this coming season will only be the sixth full season, plus the first mini-season; I doubt the writers, actors or network are ready to move on to projects that probably won’t be as good.

So it’ll go on, but it’s not as common as I might have thought for ensemble shows to go on without the lead. I would have thought, offhand, that an ensemble show — particularly one about a workplace, where people come and go — can survive the loss of almost anybody. (Whereas if Roseanne were to leave Roseanne, that would pretty much be it.) But in practice there’s usually one essential star that the show cannot survive without. M*A*S*H had to have Alan Alda; Cheers had to have Ted Danson. When those guys didn’t want to do it any more, the shows couldn’t go on. The difference is that they left after 10 years, so the show could reasonably be retired with them; Carell is planning to leave at a point where the show can’t afford to end just because he’s going away.

Happy Days, the show that somehow managed to incorporate every single “Trope” (sorry, I know some commenters hate that word, and I even understand why), actually managed to improve its ratings after Ron Howard left, but that was because Howard was essentially the second lead in all but billing, and had been for years. I don’t think The Office has a character who can be The Star the way Carell is. However, Happy Days also filled the Howard gap by playing up the romance of Joanie and Chachi, so prepare for lots more Jim and Pam action — maybe a separation followed by multiple reunions, something like that.

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/the-office/steve-carell-confirms-hes-leav-37431....

Steve Carell Confirms He's Leaving 'The Office,' Can/Should It Survive Without Him?
Monday, June 28, 2010

Meghan Carlson
Senior Writer, BuddyTV

Get ready to say goodbye to Michael Scott. Steve Carell has confirmed that this coming season, The Office's seventh, will be his last.

"I just think it's time," Steve told E! News last night as the premiere of his new animated film Despicable Me. "I want to fulfill my contract. When I first signed on I had a contract for seven seasons, and this coming year is my seventh. I just thought it was time for my character to go."

If Steve thinks it's time to send off the main character of the series, wouldn't it follow that it's time to close the doors on The Office too? Not necessarily, according to Carell:

"It doesn't certainly mean the end of the show. I think it's just a dynamic change to the show, which could be a good thing, actually. Add some new life and some new energy...I see it as a positive in general for the show. [...] They've incorporated so many new characters and so many new, great storylines that I have no doubt it'll continue as strong if not stronger than ever."

With all due respect to Mr. Carell, who is just doing his job as a gracious, supportive actor and all-around nice guy: No. No Michael Scott, no Office--at least not how I'd like to remember the show.

While fans have a right to demand more of The Office, and to be hopeful that its clever writers could find a way to re-energize the concept without Carell, Carell's departure reads like the appropriate fatal blow to a series that, for all its memorable moments in the sixth season, is also suffering under signs of age. Jim's pranks on Dwight now seem like nostalgic call-backs to the good ol' days. At times when we once would have cringed at Michael's public displays of ignorance, we smile--it's just "classic Michael." And it's hard not to watch Andy and Erin's blooming romance without muttering under your breath, "Jim and Pam did it better." We're in the Office golden years. Which means that sending away Michael, the central character, feels like the fitting conclusion, not the beginning of a new chapter.

The sixth season brings the US version a full four seasons beyond the three established by the UK series starring Ricky Gervais, which notably wrapped up in a way the US version seems unwilling or incapable of doing: by releasing the documentary in which the office workers had participated. It was a beautifully choreographed finale that summed up the series without resorting to highlight reels and let everyone, especially the seminal character David Brent (Ricky Gervais), deal with the aftermath and move on.

Those Brits know how to do closure. We Americans have a harder time letting go, even when we know it's for the best. We invented the term "jumping the shark," after all.

But with this much advance notice of Carell's departure, the US Office writers now have the chance to plot their own ending and go out on a high note--with their main star. And despite the many Hollywood paychecks that argue otherwise, there's something to be said about wrapping up a series when it's going still strong. Sitcoms have their dignity to protect, too.

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Steve-Carell-Confirms-Plans-To-Leave-The-O...

Steve Carell Confirms Plans To Leave The Office, Wants Surprising End For Michael Scott

By Katey Rich: 2010-06-28 09:36:41
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Steve Carell Confirms Plans To Leave The Office, Wants Surprising End For Michael Scott Steve Carell is totally surprised to hear that anyone cared when he hinted back in April that next season of The Office might be his last. Though Michael Scott has long been the centerpiece of the show and Carell is by far the biggest star in the cast, he claimed with typical modesty (via Crave Online) that "it’s the show and the ensemble [to me] is what’s always been important" and "I was actually surprised that anybody thought it was a big deal."

While making the publicity rounds for the animated film Despicable Me, though, Carell has all but confirmed that he won't be renewing his Office contract at the end of Season 7. "My contract has always been for 7 seasons and I just feel like now is the time for my character to move ahead. I have no doubt that the show will continue and continue to be really strong." Talking to Access Hollywood, he even speculated about what kind of ending he'd like to see for Michael Scott. “I always like when the show surprises people, because [a party] may be what you expect when he leaves,” Steve said. “Maybe not tie everything up in a really pretty bow. I like that grey area of life.”

Holly Flax fans may need to start worrying too. When the Access Hollywood interviewer mentioned that pretty much everyone wants to see Michael and the character played by Amy Ryan get together in the end, Carell seemed to suggest that would be too easy an ending for the frequently dark Office:

“I totally agree, but wouldn’t it be great to disappoint the audience at large, and have you longing?” Steve joked. “‘Wow, this guy’s life is really not turning out well, and now we’re not going to know what happens,’ because you know what? That’s art!”

Much as Carell's star power has helped boost The Office over the years, and much as we may miss that man-child Michael Scott, Carell's departure at this point could only be a good thing for the show. One of the chief problems of making show about mundane, realistic lives is the writers frequently wind up spinning their wheels, struggling to come up with believable conflict that doesn't just involve Dwight and Angela getting together again for the hundredth time. Not only would Michael's departure shake up the dynamics of Dunder Mifflin as a whole, it would give them even more opportunity to bring in new talent. So long as the rest of the central cast doesn't follow Carell's lead and bail, there are a lot of promising directions this could go.