Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

He's going to stay on until the end of the next season.

In my opinion, he's not the biggest problem - the writing on the show has completely gone downhill. This past season was unwatchable. There's plenty of funny people to replace Michael Scott, but if the writers don't put these people in position to succeed, the show will undoubtedly be canceled.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

The show still gets good ratings. I have a hard time understand a lot of backlash the show gets. I started watching it about the 3rd or 4th season and I still love it. I also think its ironic that people complain about the writing of the show yet rave about the writing on 30 Rock. Yet The Office is a consistent winner and 30 Rock is on the chopping block every year.

I think Carell leaving will be good for the show. They have had trouble incorporating his character with the advancing Jim, Dwight, and Andy. I think it will be interesting to see how the show decides to end Michael's time at Sabre.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

Well I think the problem is Carrell's character has kind of been painted into a box where he has to get more and more outrageous.
Call it the Homer Simpson effect. I actually think the show is excellent, but because it has to center around him, I think it holds back a lot of what they can do.

I'll be interested to see how the show does without him.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

The show went downhill when it got away from hijinks on sales calls and corporate training requirements and instead got into who was/wasn't dating each other.

A Jim / Dwight struggle to replace Michael seems inevitable. But if the writers want my suggestion, I think that when Michael leaves, the corporate folks put such an emphasis on cost control and financial performance of the branch that they put Kevin (the accountant) in charge.

As for Steve Carell, my wife was touring a work site with a developer a couple years ago. Developer is related to Carell and my wife mentioned that I was a big fan. Within a week, an autographed 8x10 arrived in my mailbox from Steve Carell.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

The Sam & Diane Effect.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I'll bet that the show gets shut down after 7 seasons. 7 seasons provides the magic number of episodes that studios find ideal for syndication. If it continues beyond that, the studio and network will likely have to start paying John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer and Rainn Wilson $1M/episode, like the cast of Friends got when that show's run was extended. NBC is no longer owned by a parent company that would be willing to throw that kind of money at a show.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

As each episode and season progressed, more and more people were sharing "executive producer" roles, and "director" roles, and "writer" roles. So many people have input to the show that it lost a lot of continuity that was there the first two seasons when fewer people had input.

Too many chefs in the kitchen.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

The original version was only two seasons (12 episodes) and a holiday finale. The writers believed their characters would get stale if they kept it going. I think the US version went flat once they ran out of material to plagiarize.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I think most shows struggle to run for this long thats why few do. I disagree with the theory that the focus on who is dating who is reason for the downfall. I think Jim and Pam were always a key part of the show from the start. As far as this past season there were some episodes that were below average but I thought the wedding and when Pam gave birth were great episodes. It will be interesting to see what happens without Michael Scott.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I have a Dunder-Mifflin shirt and the Dunder-Miflin board game. I loved the show. Like Taxi, Barney Miller, and a host of others, it's been a great run, but all things must come to an end. Some shows go long past their "funny" time, like Andy Griffith after Barney left.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I think there is a lot to this. Many of the best episodes were taken straight from the British version.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I own the British version on DVD and honestly, I simply do not find it funny in the slightest. I LOVE the US version.

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

much prefer the original. david brent and gareth were great characters

Re: Steve Carell Leaving The Office
 

I have yet to find a person who likes the UK version once they have already watched the US adaptation. I think it is more difficult to adjust from the outrageous antics of Michael Scott's Office to the more subtle absurdity of David Brent's Office than vice versa. This is my guess, anyway.