In 2002, BBC comedy show “The Office” was released in England and spanned for two seasons. The show ended one year later, but “The Office” was not done. The American version of the show released its pilot episode on NBC on Mar. 24, 2005. It spanned nine seasons and eight years, with its last episode airing on May 16, 2013.
Both versions of the shows are set in a paper company and are filmed as a mockumentary — a fake documentary. Since the American version is based on the original, there are lots of similarities between characters and storylines. As the American version of “The Office” continued on, the storyline unraveled and soon became entirely different from its parent show.
On Sept. 4, 2025 “The Paper,” was released on Peacock. “The Paper” is a spinoff with an almost-new set of characters and plotlines. The “film crew” that followed around the employees of Dunder Mifflin for eight years are now back, following a new group of people who — instead of a paper company in Scranton, PA — work at a local newspaper called Toledo Truth Teller in Toledo, Ohio.
“The Office” character Oscar Martinez, played by Oscar Nuñez, is a returning character for the new show. Oscar works at the newspaper, and is a character who connects “The Paper” back to the show “The Office”. Bob Vance, played by Robert R. Shafer, makes a cameo at the very beginning of the show, and characters like Phyllis and Stanley are mentioned. Actor and producer Paul Lieberstein has also returned, not as his former character Toby, but as “Marv.”
“I like the little easter [eggs], but I also hope they don’t rely too heavily on that, because I think it should be its own thing.” FHS American Literature Honors and ELD teacher Stephanie Fujii said.
Because “The Paper” is a spinoff and not a copy of “The Office,” similar plotlines will not be followed in the first season, but it is unknown what direction the second season will take. The show has been renewed for a second season by Peacock, but a specific date has not been announced.
“It feels like [eight seasons] is pretty rare in today’s [media] — there’s a lot more turnover, and people don’t stick with things in the same way that they did.” Fujii said, “So I mean, I would guess [“The Paper” would run for] probably half of that, maybe four or five seasons.”
While there are about nine characters that the show really focuses on, there seem to be a few characters that lean toward the title of “main character.” Domhnall Gleeson plays the character Ned Sampson, the new Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, and Sabrina Impacciatore plays the character Esmerelda Grand, an Editor who is not the biggest fan of Ned.
“I feel like the actors in ‘The Office’, a lot of them were also random, and that kind of played into the fun,” FHS junior Hosea Dimaya said.
With new characters and stories, “The Paper” is not replacing “The Office,” but simply giving a familiar but new story to fans of the older show and an introduction to the world of “The Office” for newcomers.
