“The Office” stars and director reveal why we never saw Dwight as a manager in the title sequence
Dwight Schrute finally made it to the top.
When a fan of The Office asks, stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, cohosts of the Office Ladies rewatch podcast, find them an answer.
On Wednesday's episode, they explained why Rainn Wilson's oddball character, Dwight K. Schrute, wasn't added to the final shot of the title sequence, as Steve Carrell's Michael Scott had previously been featured, even after Dwight finally achieved total domination in the paper company's Scranton branch in the ninth and final season.
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Fischer said they had gone straight to David "Dave" Rogers, who directed the episode that they were looking back on, titled "A.A.R.M."
"Dave said that there was discussion about adding a Dwight-as-manager shot at the end of this title sequence," Fischer said. "But, ultimately, they never filmed anything new for it, and here is why: The main reason was they wanted to use Pam and Jim kissing as the final image in the main title for several episodes because they felt that, at this point, the idea of who is his manager had been eclipsed by the character's personal lives, and they felt like the focus here of these final episodes was more about summing up Jim and Pam."
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As Office fans recall, the early part of the show teased whether salesman Jim (John Krasinski) and Fischer's Pam would get together. They eventually did and married in a two-part episode in the sixth season. Afterward, their life together — their kids and career plans outside the paper company — was a frequent storyline.
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"He said also they were really pressed for time, and they literally didn't have time to shoot a new little manager title with Dwight," Fischer said. "And also there was so much in this episode that they had to make the main titles really short anyway. So there were kind of three reasons."
Eleven years after the show aired its final episode, all of the characters receive plenty of air time, as reruns air daily on multiple channels and are available to stream on Peacock.
Fischer took a few minutes at the top of the podcast to share the health news that she previously posted on Instagram: She was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and, after undergoing treatment, has been found "cancer free."
"It all still feels very surreal," Fischer said. "Even as I'm saying this out loud, even after making this announcement, even after living through it, I can't believe it's true.... It's one of those things that you just never think is gonna happen to you."
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