Many fans of The Office have their questions on the show: Who was the best character? When did it start going downhill? Why is Toby the way that he is? There’s also, Could the show be made in this decade? Mindy Kaling, who played pop culture-obsessed Kelly Kapoor as part of the SAG-winning ensemble on NBC’s The Office, doesn’t think so.
“That show is so inappropriate now,” said Kaling. “The writers who I’m still in touch with now, we always talk about how so much of that show we probably couldn’t make now…Tastes have changed, and honestly what offends people has changed so much now. I think that actually is one of the reasons the show is popular, because people feel like there’s something kind of fearless about it or taboo that it talks about on the show.”
Building on this, Kaling–who also wrote more than 20 episodes of The Office–said, “Most of the characters on that show would be canceled by now.”
Just to cite a few examples from The Office, there was the barrage of comments and behavior in season two’s “Sexual Harrassment” (which lent to a point, but it doesn’t quite stick); season three’s “Gay Witch Hunt”, which found Michael outing Oscar as gay; and Michael’s inability to tell the difference between two Asian girls in “Benihana Christmas”, resulting in him marking one of their arms. You know what? A lot of this has to do with Michael Scott. But writers couldn’t just nix him–we all saw how that turned out…
But Mindy Kaling may be off a bit. The Office may not fly as it is on NBC, but it could definitely have a place on a network like FX.
The Office was nominated for more than two dozen Emmys during its run, with a few wins, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series.
What do you think? Could The Office make it in today’s climate? Or would it be canceled in more ways than one?