The sign-in sheet for the first day of auditions for The Office in 2003, showcasing actors such as Alan Tudyk, Adam Scott and Anne Dudek trying out for various roles.
Tropes include:
- Paul Giamatti, Jeremy Piven and Philip Seymour Hoffman were originally approached for the role of Michael Scott before Steve Carell was cast.
- Martin Short, Hank Azaria and Bob Odenkirk were considered for the part of Michael Scott as well. As a Development Gag, Odenkirk showed up in the final season as a boss alarmingly similar to Michael, who interviews Pam for an office job.
- Alan Tudyk, Jason Segel, Ken Marino, Ben Falcone, Thomas Lennon, Enrico Colantoni, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Richter, Bill Chott and Louis C.K. also read for the role of Michael Scott before the casting of Carell.
- John Cho, Adam Scott and Hamish Linklater auditioned for the part of Jim Halpert before the casting of John Krasinski. Later becomes Hilarious in Hindsight as Jim plays a prank on Dwight by switching places with an Asian man.
- Anne Dudek, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Wiig, Ever Carradine, Stephanie Courtney and Mary Lynn Rajskub screen-tested for the role of Pam Beesly before Jenna Fischer was cast.
- Seth Rogen, Patton Oswalt, Matt Walsh, Matt Price, TJ Thyne, Robert Baker and Judah Friedlander auditioned for Dwight Schrute before the casting of Rainn Wilson.
- Eric Stonestreet and Jorge Garcia screen-tested for the part of Kevin Malone before Brian Baumgartner was cast.
- James Gandolfini was approached to play the new boss after Steve Carell left the show, and was quite enthusiastic. However, HBO executives were so worried that doing another major series role would impinge on the reputation of Tony Soprano that they gave him three million dollars not to do it.
- Although Ricky Gervais did appear on the show twice as his character David Brent from the original UK series, there had previously been plans for Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis to reprise their roles as Gareth, Tim, and Dawn for "The Convention" in Season 3, but scheduling conflicts prevented it and Gervais, who ironically wasn't planned to appear originally, was ultimately the only one who did.
- There were several plans for a Spin-Off. Parks and Recreation was originally conceived as an Office Spin-Off, but once they decided to cast Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins (which, since she'd been Karen Filippelli, effectively separated the two shows' universes), it turned into a Spiritual Successor. Greg Daniels wanted to do a Spin-Off that was a Mockumentary about a family, but then Modern Family got greenlighted. The Farm, focusing on Dwight running Schrute Farms and dealing with his extended family, at first seemed to be a likely pickup for NBC as an Aftershow, and they went ahead and filmed a Poorly Disguised Pilot for it in Season 9, but then the network passed on it. Had it been picked up, Dwight would've left the show halfway through the season (which would've led to a much different ending for the series). The idea of Clark and Pete getting spun off into their own series after Season 9 was also kicked around.
- Before Executive Meddling forced the pilot to be a remake of the UK version's pilot, Greg Daniels wanted the pilot to revolve around the Dundies, which of course would happen in season 2 episode one instead. The Dundies were still a presence in the show from the very beginning. Michael adjusts a Dundie on his desk at the end of the opening credits, and Season 1's "The Alliance" has a brief reference to Meredith winning some Dundies.
- During Season 9, the crew originally wanted to put a spin on the Credits Gag from late season 7 when Andy went on his boat trip: the final shot of Andy knocking his sailor statue off the desk would have been replaced with a shot of the manager's office from the same angle, but with nobody there, and stacks of paper on the desk that would be getting bigger and bigger. They ultimately decided to not focus on Andy's absence and simply removed the shot entirely.
- Had they been able to secure the rights to The Land of Hatchy Milatchy - a kids' show that once aired on local Scranton television - that would've been the show that Michael would've claimed to be the star of as a kid instead of the in-universe show Fundle Bundle.
- According to this article
, the "Niagara" two-parter had a subplot in which Roy would have crashed Jim and Pam's wedding riding on a horse to woo Pam. When he's rejected, Dwight would have tried to ride over Niagara Falls on the horse, on the logic that while people have died trying to go over the falls, a lot of animals managed to survive; at the last minute he drops out, and the horse is last seen falling behind Jim and Pam during the ceremony. However, Steve Carell (who served as a producer on a number of episodes and thus had a certain amount of creative input over the series) expressed concerns about the plot, saying he felt it was too morbid and absurd. This ultimately led to the idea being scrapped. - When Angela Kinsey became pregnant in season four, the original plan was to write it into the show as part of the Dwight/Andy/Angela Love Triangle plot line. Then the 2007 WGA Strike happened and the production gap made it impossible to do it, forcing them to employ Hide Your Pregnancy. The arc wasn't TOTALLY abandoned, however- Angela would eventually go on to bear a Schrute fruit in season 8 (while married to the Senator).
- According to this Entertainment Weekly article, the writers discussed several of their ideas for episodes that ultimately never went anywhere. These included a "Pet Day" at the office (in which we would have met Michael's pet parrot), a real-time episode in which the camera crew follows each character as they go on their respective lunch break, and a really out there one where Michael accidentally crucifies himself on his garage and later believes himself to be Christlike as a result (almost makes the rejected horse-going-over-Niagra-Falls plot mentioned above look perfectly sane!).
- In "The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s", Lee Eisenberg revealed there was a proposed episode where Michael and Jim would take a client golfing for a sales pitch. Michael would close the deal on the first hole then the rest of the plot would focus on Jim worrying about Michael blowing the deal on the remaining holes.
- Several side characters were created and later dropped during the very early stages of development including a female office worker named Kristen, described as an "irritating bland stupid nice girl with no depth", and Anton, a dwarf employee whom the producers considered asking Peter Dinklage to read for.
- An initial idea for the series Grand Finale was to present it as a Survivor-style reunion show, and Jeff Probst was even approached to host it, but he said no.
- Greg Daniels wanted a Real Song Theme Tune (which would have echoed the original's use of "Handbags and Gladrags"), and narrowed it down to a handful of songs which he asked the cast to vote on. They chose Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky", but then they learned it had already been used as the theme for the short-lived Heather Locklear drama LAX.
- Ed Helms was supposed to leave the show after his initial contract was up, with Andy supposed to be fired after punching the wall in "The Return". However, everyone on set and behind the scenes enjoyed working with him so much that they decided to rewrite the ending to Andy going to anger management before returning permanently. The creators also seriously considered extending this treatment to Rashida Jones and Karen, but ultimately Greg Daniels and Michael Schur decided to cast Jones in Parks and Recreation instead and Karen only returned for two episodes following Season 3.
- Season 3's arc with Roy trying to reform himself and reconcile with Pam wasn't fully worked out when the season began filming, and everyone was so impressed with the dimensions David Denman was adding to the character in his performance, that it was very briefly considered to have Pam and Roy end up as a permanent couple. In the Office Ladies podcast Jenna Fischer says she even approached Greg Daniels with this idea, and he found it intriguing, but felt that Jim and Pam were still the more likely pairing.
- Jim was supposed to have a moment in Season 8 where he would’ve cheated on Pam by making out with Cathy, but John Krasinski refused to shoot the scene, forcing it to be cut. Krasinski said it was the only time he could remember putting his foot down, as he felt that it would push the fans too far away and they would never come back.
- While the one time a date is set between Kevin and Erin is very awkward and doesn't work, Brian Baumgarter actually pitched to the writers making the two a couple, feeling they had similar energies and that it would also help develop his character.
- During an early rehearsal scene with Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson ad-libbed a bit where Dwight claimed that he had a girlfriend (named Regina) who was apparently in the military and stationed in Kuwait. The writers loved this concept and kept kicking around the possibility of Regina showing up in Scranton to challenge Angela for Dwight's affections. Wilson even recommended Katee Sackhoff for the role (a deliberate bit of Celebrity Paradox for Dwight's Battlestar Galactica (2003) obsession), but ultimately the idea never came to fruition.
- During production of Season 9, the writers were actually split on whether Erin would wind up with Andy or Pete. This means that Erin could been have paired up again with Andy by the show's end.
- A major plot twist for Season 9 nearly occured, which would have made the fans livid over the show's ending. Greg Daniels had envisioned that the Season 9 drama between Jim and Pam, would lead the couple to split up before the finale, but they would reconcile back together during the Finale. Thus, making the twist pointless and gimmicky.
