Cool Beans

America’s entertainment heads are stupid. They always know how to ruin a good thing. They look at what makes money, then milk the teat — over and over again — until all that’s coming out is powdered milk.

Last year, I wrote a column on how bad they’re becoming through their new trend of prolifically pumping out remakes (which is still going on). Well, it looks like they’re about to apply a new formula for beating dead horses: spin-offs.
Haven’t they learned yet that it doesn’t work? Isn’t the bitter taste of Joey still in everyone’s mouths? I guess not, because NBC is about to perform the coup de grace on one of its highest rated comedies – The Office.

When the original series of The Office stormed Britain with huge success, writers/actors Ricky Gervias and Stephen Merchant kept the usual BBC formatting for their show – two to three short seasons. They didn’t capitalize on their success by wearing out a good thing. NBC has some things to learn from the BBC.

The Office on BBC only ran two, six-episode seasons and a two-episode special (to give closure to the fans). That’s 14 episodes in total. Did it ever get old? No. Did they ever burn out their plotlines? No. Do people still love and admire BBC’s The Office. Without a doubt.

When NBC adapted The Office for U.S. audiences, they did a brilliant job at translating the characters and uncomfortable nature their carry. But they’ve burned it out. Now that Jim and Pam are together (which is something the BBC didn’t do until the last ten minutes of the very last episode), it’s lost a lot of its hype.

Last week, NBC announced that a spin-off of The Office will join fall’s Thursday night lineup. And that is how The Office will end.