After 12 years, The Office has finally released its first spin-off show, The Paper.
Following the same documentary crew from The Office, they are now covering a failing midwestern newspaper company.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson as a naively optimistic new editor of the paper, called The Toledo Truth Teller, the show’s sole returning cast member from The Office, Oscar Nunez, issued a message to fans recently, urging them to give the show a chance.
Whilst both Nunez and Gleeson have reiterated that The Paper is a very different show to The Office, creator Greg Daniels has still managed to fit in a number of references and Easter eggs that fans of the original show will love.
The Paper’s opening scene kills off Dunder Mifflin and features a fun cameo
The office from The Office and Dunder Mifflin are both gone (NBC)
In the opening scene of the TV show’s first episode, the documentary crew head back to the iconic Scranton Office to catch up with the Dunder Mifflin crew.
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After arriving, the crews meet Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration, who sees the return of Robert R. Schafer in the role.
When asked by the crew, he says Dunder Mifflin has been ‘gone a while’, saying that his wife Phyllis stays in touch with Stanley, but that’s about it.
They then show that the office space is now a laser specialist and that Dunder Mifflin was shut down after it was purchased by a company called ‘Enervate’.
The company then moves to Toledo, partially inspiring the documentary crew’s move to the Toledo Truth Teller.
A sweet reference to a beloved character appears in The Paper, as well as an iconic meme from The Office
While Nunez returns to the show as Oscar Martinez, the only returning character outside of Bob Vance from the show, he references another character from The Office in a sweet Easter egg.
In the second episode, the team sets out to create the first issue of the revamped Toledo Truth Teller, struggling to gather enough content to fill it out.
One member of the staff anonymously leaves a Sudoku they made on the desk of Gleeson’s Ned, the Editor, which makes it in.
Later in the episode, it is revealed that Oscar made the Sudoku and got it in the paper as he calls someone to ask if they found it too easy before saying: “Maybe too easy for you, Stanley!”
This sweet reference to Stanley Hudson, the Sudoku-loving grump from The Office, is one of only two major references.
The other sees Oscar giving Ned a pep talk in the finale in a scene slightly too spoiler-filled to fully explain.
What is most important, however, is that in trying to gee up Ned, he tells him that someone once said that you ‘miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’.
This is a clear reference to the moment from The Office in which Michael Scott puts the Wayne Gretzky quote on a whiteboard, then credits himself with saying it.
Ultimately, though, while Michael Scott is far more lovable by the end of The Office, Oscar is unable to avoid taking a swipe.
He tells Ned that someone once said the quote, as well as ‘an idiot he used to work with’.
Whilst The Paper marks a clear distinction from The Office, mega fans tuning in will be sure to love the little nods to the show.
Topics: The Office, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin