NBC announced today that Steve Carell has signed a deal to star in three more seasons of The Office. This, of course, fills me with glee. That’ll be a good seven years of this show, and assuming the next three are as good as the previous four, it’ll go down as one of the all-time greatest TV shows. The writers are top-notch, the cast is incredible talented and…
…waitaminute, this show has already been on the air for four seasons?
Man, it still feels like a new show to me, like something that has come out of nowhere to claim a place on my must-watch list. Has it really been four full seasons of antics from Dwight and Michael, of the sweet romance of Jim and Pam, of the insane ravings of Creed or bitter jealousy of Kelly? Well… okay, it hasn’t actually been four full seasons. The first year it was a mid-season replacement with a mere six episodes, and season four was severely truncated, a victim of the writer’s strike.
Still…
I remember once when Tim Allen signed a deal to extend his Home Improvement contract for three seasons, and ABC starting running ads like wild proclaiming the fact. Three whole seasons! It seemed like an eternity then. Now the best place to see Home Improvement is Nick at Nite.
TV has become quite the indicator of just how quickly time really does zip by. I’ll enjoy every minute of the next three years of The Office, but man, can’t somebody slow it down a bit?
Oh, and dig that YouTube video I dug up of great moments from the show. Especially if you’ve never seen it.
The answer is… no, it has not been four full years.
It’s been three full years, plus six episodes in early 2005. And those six episodes weren’t quite as good as the show would later be, but thankfully we’ve had so much Office goodness since, and more to come! In a day where sitcoms – frankly the only form of TV I care about, if it’s good – have come and gone without fanfare, the Office has proven to be one of the few with staying power.
And since I can’t edit my previous comment, I’ll point out here that as you know, I have a tendency to be a major smartass, and my first sentence there wasn’t meant to be arrogant or picky, just snarky and jokey.