Why The Office’s backdoor pilot The Farm failed to win over fans and NBC executives 

The ninth and final season of The Office went down as a fitting conclusion to arguably one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. However, despite this accomplishment, there's another reason that the ninth season of The Office is noteworthy: it contained the episode titled The Farm.

Featuring a remarkably different backdrop, The Farm was originally supposed to serve as a backdoor pilot episode to a The Office spin-off show that almost got made, but was cancelled after the episode generated adverse reviews and the network didn't seem to quite like it. Here's everything that you need to know.

The Farm proved to be the worst episode on The Office

Everything about The Farm seemed to be off right from the outset. For starters, it was focused on Dwight, following the death of his Aunt Shirley, and introduced several new members of his family to the audience, viz., Jeb, Fannie, Cammy, his sister, nephew, and the like. However, in a surprising departure from convention, this particular episode wasn't set in the familiar environment of Dunder Mifflin and was set against a completely different backdrop.

While the showrunners could have salvaged some interest for the episode by hyping up interactions with Dwight's family members, the tonal variation in the episode resulted in the unfortunate reality of it coming across as something that didn't belong in the same universe as the rest of the show.

Dwight seemed to be out of his element in a new setting and his only narrative function seemed to be relating tales about his family members who themselves came across as two-dimensional as they had been poorly developed, which is uncharacteristic of a show of such fine caliber.

The Farm might have originated from an impressive concept, i.e., the bygone custom of a backdoor pilot heralding a spin-off show, but its execution fell flat on its face. After going through the pilot, NBC decided to scrap the proposed spin-off altogether, and the footage was then repurposed and along with additional shots and sequences, was passed off as an episode on the final season of the show.

Andy Greene speaks about The Office spin-off

Andy Greene happens to be an Office superfan and has penned the book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s. During an interview with Medium, Greene remarked about the spinoff:

"Everyone I spoke to felt it was a bad idea. I agree. You don't want to spend that much time with Dwight on the farm. He's funny at an office with people that are his total opposites. 'The Farm' is a salvaged failed pilot that they chopped up into a regular episode because NBC didn't want to pick it up. The whole thing was just a colossally wrong-headed idea and one of the worst Office episodes ever."

The Office is available on Peacock.

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