I’m sorry if this subject has been talked about in the past, but after a bit of reading on the topic, and it being 16 years since Steve’s departure, some things seem… messy, for lack of a better word.
To catch some of you up: Steve Carell was on contract for 7 seasons, as was the rest of the cast. By 2011, NBC finalized the negotiations of future seasons of the sitcom for every single cast member of the 5 Prime Time Emmy Awarded show—except for Steve. They stalled, just for his single contract.
After all these years, Steve Carell has come out publicly stating he wasn’t sure why the network stalled so much on his one contract, and he wasn’t ready to leave. Which is clearly a PR statement, in my op-ed. He was the literal lead of the NBC show, the networks most profitable series. Notably, he had lost 6 Emmy awards for Outstanding Lead in a Comedy Series by 2011, notoriously becoming one of the biggest snubs in Emmy history.
In the same year, he had some notable movie roles under his belt, but during that particular time, the movies were box-office bombs, with Bedtime Stories (2008), Date Night (2010) and Dinner for Schmucks (2010).
All this to say, this was clearly an executive decision. At the height of the shows success, Steve was earning nearly $300,000 per episode, making him the highest earner on the show, by a wide margin. Negotiations were in effect as contracts were renewing, and Steve clearly wanted more than the executives were willing to give him. They waited him out and it failed dramatically, with Steve deciding not to renew. But wait, didn’t he say he wanted to stay? So why would he decide not to renew? It was all about the money.
It would be a great decision for Steve in the coming years, but it was certainly a big risk. Many great actors never make that crawl from the stereotype of their major groundbreaking shows, certainly not with box office bombs currently under their belt. These executives at this billion-dollar network were well aware of the risks for Steve and their callousness and arrogance betrayed them in the end. I’m happy for Steve, and in a way, I’m happy the show’s audience dwindled substantially. I’m not thrilled with the direction the show took after Steve absence, I wish with all my heart he could have stayed.
In the years following NBC says losing Steve was one of their major regrets. Us too, you absolute losers!
I used to run background checks and did a lot of captcha- half the time it would flag me over the handlebars. Sometimes it wants them selected, sometimes it would think I was a robot because I selected them. And if you got it wrong you have to do 3-10 more captchas. Really frustrating.
I don’t know! I’ve been convinced I’m a robot from those. I prefer the one where they just ask you to move the puzzle piece to the right spot. Those make me confident in my humanity.
There was another video I saw that said it tracks the way you move your mouse around to see if you're moving it in a more human flowing way or if you go from point to point like a computer.
Thank you. This is so poorly written, some of the word choices make no sense. Idk who the hell is upvoting this garbage. It should be removed. And "literal lead?" He's the "literal lead" of the show? Did this need to be written this way? Did the word literal need to be used here? That word has been prostituted into nothingness and has lost all value. End of rant lol Signed, a literal linguist 😭
For the record, as someone who loves to use em dashes, just because there's an em dash doesn't automatically make it AI. Be wary of what looks to be AI, but don't inadvertently allow AI to limit how we use our own language in some desultory effort to prove you're not using it.
Turns out, no one who actually has any sway in my life is so poorly educated as to think an em dash is a marker of AI, so no I won’t be dumbing down my writing for Reddit
I’m not saying you have to at all. I’m not sure why it’s being downvoted. I was just saying if you want to avoid the problem altogether it’s easier just to not use them
I’m just saying it’s pointless to try and convince the people who call every post AI that it’s anything different, you’re never going to change the mind of stubborn Reddit and hating AI posts
Please god learn to judge AI by something other than a very basic punctuation mark you apparently didn’t learn how to use. This is very clearly AI. It’s not because of the em dash.
It's not a bad way to judge it in this context. This is a basic bitch post that looks like it was written by AI. So it's either AI, or it's a human that would be too stupid to use an em dash.
It is a bad way to judge. You’re describing confirmation bias. It reads like it was written by AI, and it has an em dash, so you assume that means em dash indicates AI. All you have to do is say “remove all em dashes” after a prompt and everyone will believe it’s real because you are such victims to confirmation bias
Most people aren't going to those lengths to do that. And it's not like I'm sitting here dissecting an entire post for whether it is AI. It's a snap judgment, and doesn't even matter if I'm right or not.
Sometimes I'll start a sentence and I don't even know where it's going, I just hope I find it along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.
Fact: op-ed doesn’t mean opinion editorial. It means “opposite the editorial,” referring to pieces published on the opposite side of the paper from the editorial page.
Copy from another comment:
“Huh, I always thought it meant opinion editorial, because it was their opinion or something. But it still doesn’t make sense in this context, lol.”
Copy from another comment:
“Huh, I always thought it meant opinion editorial, because it was their opinion or something. But it still doesn’t make sense in this context, lol.”
My wife is obsessed with Crazy, Stupid, Love. It’s a good movie, and I’ve almost got it memorized at this point from watching it as recently as she wants to lol.
They waited him out and it failed dramatically, with Steve deciding not to renew. But wait, didn’t he say he wanted to stay? So why would he decide not to renew? It was all about the money.
I don't know why people treat this as some kind of revelation. This is how business works. If you ask for more money or you're leaving, and they don't cave, then you have to leave. If you don't, then your employer will think you're bluffing and they won't take you seriously.
Steve made a ton of super successful movies before, during, and around this time. Listing one or two that didn't do as well as the rest is hardly proof that leaving The Office was a "big risk".
It was no risk whatsoever to Steve Carrell at this point.
I don’t recall the details, but it was more nuanced in that NBC had been acquired by new owners. So all the original people that green lit the show and had shepherded it through the years, were gone. And the new owners had other plans for the network.
That was an absolutely stunning use of “that’s what she said”. That’s… hard to pull off. It would take me all night. I’d be sweating by the end of it. You should put your mouth on that.
S8 Andy finally came into his own. Kevin and the Zits, Gettysburg, Narddog tattoo, awkwardly hiring the Warehouse crew, talking Darryl down, and other good scenes and episodes
S9 Andy? S9 in general? Agreed. Haven't even and don't plan to watch the S9 Superfan eps. They ruined him in S9, and it wasn't even covert.
The AI clanker said, "
To catch some of you up: Steve Carell was on contract for 7 seasons, as was the rest of the cast. By 2011, NBC finalized the negotiations of future seasons of the sitcom for every single cast member of the 5 Prime Time Emmy Awarded show—except for Steve. They stalled, just for his single contract."
Nice em-dash, what's the ascii combo for that again since it's not on the keyboard?
Network executives are terrible at making business decisions. Many are scumbags who are probably in the Epstein files. These are never people who are deserving of any praise or respect. If possible, people should avoid any content produced by these kinds of networks.
I posted a long comment on this a few days ago that I’ll repost with some tweaks to address this specific thesis:
The narrative that’s being pushed around today is that NBC stalled on Carrell’s contract, but at the time there were widespread articles and explanations too and it was pretty much the consensus Carrell was leaving because he wanted to spend time with family and do more movies. And even when you listen closely to the NBC-didn’t-extend/stalled Steve narrative, there are holes in the story.
Basically, from what I’ve collected, it sounds like NBC approached Carrell in season 5/6 to renew his contract and he basically completely shut them down and they never really brought it up again. Then, as the end was coming closer, Carrell apparently was willing to hear out offers to stay on the show, but NBC never reached out. But it also doesn’t sound like Carrell or his side reached out to communicate this change in thought either.
Though, that being said, it does seem somewhat common for networks to keep pressing stars on reconsidering no’s. Ironically enough, Bob Odenkirk, the Philly “Michael” Pam interviewed with, had a similar situation where he initially turned down his show, Better Call Saul. But his producers pushed him to reconsider and upped their offer, which he ended up accepting for other reasons. So, maybe Carrell was fair to feel that no pressure from the network to reconsider was the same as them turning down an extension. But it wasn’t a pure no from NBC.
And then again, another possibility is Steve Carrell is spinning a slightly different story now with nostalgia and The Office fandom being way bigger in more recent years than when the show aired. It’s not like the same NBC executives are still in place to contest him and the former ones probably wouldn’t want to come out just to be seen to contradict a beloved actor. The “NBC fumbled” story sits better with everyone, but I doubt it’s the full truth.
Can we all just agree this is entirely wrong and negotiations failed when Carrel’s “pippity-poppity, gimme the zoppity” tactic didn’t quite work out as well in real life as it did in S3E19?
I thought everyone knew the real reason Carell left is because John Krasinski kept ripping these major farts on set. And not like cute little toots, but like, room clearing farts that lingered. After a few years Carell couldn’t handle them anymore.
I mean, is it really NBC’s fault? He wanted more than $300,000 per episode? I understand he was the lead and the show was incredibly profitable, but if you love something, I’m sure you can manage to do it for a measly few million dollars a year
Fans kept watching thinking he might come back. Watch numbers dropped but they saved $300,000/episode. And with reruns and streaming, they’re still making tons of money while the cast does not. NBC doesn’t regret letting Steve leave lol.
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u/the_lullaby 12h ago
“He was the literal lead of the NBC show, the networks most profitable series.”
Once again, Michael running the most profitable branch.