The Onion is reporting that CBS will be airing its own version of The Office — an idea which I believe is sadly misguided.
“You can’t just take a show that good, throw in a new set of actors, and expect the same results,” said Jennie Tan, who runs a popular fansite for the NBC show. “CBS just has to accept that there will simply never be another character like Michael Scott, ever.”
You got that right, Onion. You got that right.
Source: CBS To Release Own Version Of NBC’s The Office
Full article: click the graphic below to see the full-sized version
Tipster: James
P.S. Ce n’est pas vrai, mes amis.
Um, we do know that The Onion is satire, right?
It’s a joke.
this is an awful horrible idea. i can’t even begin to describe it in words.
i cant believe this!!! this is crazy! i didnt think they could have two same show on two different networks??? well, it’s not gonna work.. The NBC Office is the best. They can’t compete with the Pam and Jim. Their love is true love, and only this Office will acurately portray it.
GO NBC “OFFICE”!!!!!
this is a joke right?
is it really joke?!!!! OMG i hope so!
Isnt this illegal somehow? Maybe copyright infringement? Also I dont know what they are thinking if they honestly beleive they can compete with the Original American Office. I hope this show fails miserably, maybe im just crazy (very very likely) but I feel personally offended that CBS would even consider this idea.
HAHAHA!! The Onion is a hilarious site. Imagine if that was actually true…David Spade, as good as Steve Carell? HAHAHAHAHAHA!
huh? Is this for real?? It makes me want to laugh and throw up at the same time.
So, seriously….is this a joke? I don’t know anything about The Onion but just the way the story reads, it sounds completely fake. Because this is a horrible, terrible, completely ridiculous idea.
Somebody, please help me out. This IS a joke, right?
*whew* thank GOD! at first i was going throw up.
Look up the Onion website somewhere, perhaps Wikipedia. Or read some of the other articles. All will be made clear
You do realize The Onion is a joke/satire site?
I admit I first had a WTF reaction but thankfully its The Onion. Hahaha nice, too funny. I love how even the people who think its real on here sound just like fans of the British Office when they said it would never work. Of course in this case, it’s true because the CBS idea is ridiculous.
how’d they make that picture with david spade? i know the onion is satire, but I really need to be absolutely sure this is fake before my heart is at ease
I almost had a “wha-wha-what?!?” moment until I saw it was from the Onion. Then it was absolutely hilarious. :)
It’s fake! It’s fake!
Just a joke, I assure you.
to qoute Jim Halpert…..”well done.”
The Onion is awesome. Tanster, did you really give that qoute for them? How did you get involved cuz thats awesome
Damian, no, that quote wasn’t something I actually said. They had contacted me a few weeks ago saying they wanted to use my name in an article they were writing about The Office. Cool, huh? :)
One of my favorite parts: “The budding romance between Jen and Tom is really the foundation of the show,” said director Howard Gatson, who has made their connection “more believable” by casting more traditionally attractive actors in the roles. “People are going to tune in every week to see if Jen will ever leave her fiancé to be with Tom. And they’ll be so relieved when she finally does in episode three.”
haha tanster, i loved that part too! episode 3?! haha!
I’m guessing that because some people aren’t sure that this is a joke that they aren’t familiar with the onion. Is the onion just a regional thing? I don’t think so, because I heard all of the writers work in new york.
Fun fact- the onion originated in good ol’ Madison, Wisconsin!
Oh, the onion. you truely are america’s finest news source.
Yeah, it has joke all over it.
They could have picked better actors to make this more realistic.
rofl, awesome article, that’s so cool that they got your name in there tanster! that is some dedicated fake news
Oh boy, I can’t wait to see how the Jom relationship turns out!!!
In the words of Jim Halpert:
“Look at that.”
Not the Onion’s funniest story, but definite points for skewering network TV. Lord knows it needs to be a bit more in touch with what everyone says about it.
At first I was thinking, “Wait…this can’t be an April Fool’s joke, it’s too late for that,” and then I saw that it was the Onion. Oh, so relieved :)
Hah!
“a laugh track has been added to fill in any painful, awkward pauses in dialogue that might slow down the show.”
I laughed until I was almost crying there!
#26: Jom! I love it. Although Jem would have also been acceptable. :)
The Onion is a joke site. This is not true. This is legal because the site is a parody site.
“Obviously we had to change some of the language and cultural references to things OUR audience will understand.” That was my favorite quote. The Onion is a joke.
LOVE IT!! Sorry that I just sent the article to you Tanster. I should have known you would have already had it up on OT. Anyone else feel like they are in the presence of greatness here. I mean THE ONION?!
Wait is this a joke or for real??
[from tanster: please proofread, and then re-post. thanks!]
Okay so I assume this is a joke now. The Onion website was clever to pull this stunt and I’m sure it will increase viewership for their website at the expense of shocked fans. I hope OT will never pull a ruse like that on us loyal fans :)
“They could have picked better actors to make this more realistic.”
Greg, the secondary joke (besides the parallel of the British-American translation) is that CBS’s version is terrible and screws up everything that makes The Office great. They put in “traditionally attractive” stars because Jim & Pam are played by actors who (by Hollywood standards) aren’t as drop-dead gorgeous, which helps us relate to them. CBS, on the other hand, just thinks you put in the hottest people you can find.
hee, i love it.
i can’t believe you landed yourself a fake quote in the onion! too awesome.
That’s so cool! Congratulations on being Onioned!
dawesome. for people who aren’t sure if this is a joke or not…replace all nbc references with the bbc equivalent and you will see the irony.
I think this is hilarious…I didn’t know anything about the Onion either so I thought this was true at first (I admit I hadn’t read the article at that point). Anyway, this proposal made me feel annoyed (how could they adapt a great show like The Office!!!???) and then I read the comments.
Man this makes me laugh so much, so many of these comments completely express the way so many of us felt when we heard the would be an American remake of a wonderful show. Oh the irony, now you know how we felt, hee hee.
Of course I love the US Office now and this was the second time I felt this way. Still pretty funny.
Very ramble-y I apologise.
And now I have read the article, laughed so much.
I have ONE WORD FOR THAT.
Pfft.
That’s right, you first heard it here!
A big fat PFFT!
People, The Onion is a fake newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin. They do great fake news that is hilarious. It is only in the midwest though, so east coasters and west coasters might have trouble picking up th fake news. They once did a piece in which Jesus gave a shout out to his homeboys.lol.
Wow, that is so exciting that the Onion “quoted” you, Tanster! (I’m very surprised by the amount of people who actually believed the Onion. I thought they were more popular than that. All the people who haven’t heard of it before should really check it out!)
You do all realize the Onion is making fun of the Office?? They are satirizing the fact that this is pretty much what the American version did to the UK version…..
(Not that I care…it’s still the best show ever made!)
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
I love The Onion.
hahaha!! Tanster, you’ve truly made it if the Onion has “quoted” you for a story…wow.
For a minute I thought it was serious, but then I realized that only Fox could do something that horrible.
:-)
Anyone else want to see how much of a train wreck this would be if they actually did this?? I say careful what you joke about Onion…the CW might just pick this up ;)
I was halfway into a tirade when I realized this was a joke. This would have been good for April Fools Day.
haha…this is definitely a joke, that’s all the onion is. that picture of david spade is a giveaway as well.
Attention to all: The Onion is a satire FAKE news website. This is obviously a fake story. So relax! :)
This is brilliant! Thanks for the link. I love that you got quoted on a fake news site!
Don’t feel bad if you were fooled! The Onion has ‘gotten’ many, many people through they years.
“You can’t just take a show that good, throw in a new set of actors, and expect the same results,” said Jennie Tan, who runs a popular fansite for the NBC show. “CBS just has to accept that there will simply never be another character like Michael Scott, ever.”
I thought the exact same thing when I heard that NBC was going to do a remake of the British version of The Office. Thankfully they’ve proven my initial fears to be for not. So maybe we should give the new CBS version a chance before rushing to judgment, ok?
Seriously though, that was hilarious. Along with OfficeTally, The Onion is one of the first websites I visit every day. That The Onion did such a hilarious article about The Office is awesome, and that they know their stuff so well that they include a quote from the creator of the best Office site around, that’s just extra awesone. Besides tanster’s (fake) quote, my favorite parts of the article were:
“The faux-documentary format has been dropped in favor of a traditional three-camera setup, and a laugh track has been added to fill in any painful, awkward pauses in dialogue that might slow down the show.”
“People are going to tune in every week to see if Jen will ever leave her fiancé to be with Tom. And they’ll be so relieved when she finally does in episode three.”
I almost believed this until they wrote: “Don’t get me wrong—Steve Carell is great, but David (Spade)’s combination of zippy one-liners and all-out zaniness just can’t be beat.”
THAT blew the whole thing. Nice one, Onion!
It’s like it was back in “Friends” heyday when you had all of those “Friends” clones, all of which were pretty much big failures. I expect the same here.
ummmmm……..no
does anyone even watch CBS???
The Onion article made me hurl with laughter so much, that I broke my lurk of silence and finally decided to post something. Well done, Onion! And kudos, Tanster! HILARIOUS!
pretty cool to be “quoted” in the Onion.
Tanster, you’ve clearly arrived!
HAHA my favorite part was about the new Pam and Jim FINALLY hooking up in episode 3.
The article was very well done though. It’s sad that a fake newspaper has better writers than many of the real ones out there.
Oh, man. That crazy Onion.
Gets me every time.
But seriously, if that really happened, I would just…cry. And die a little inside.
Great Onion article!
Can you imagine The Office with a laugh track?
You’re getting famouser and famouser, Ms. Tan!
Ok I was “got.”
Had to read it twice to realize it was an Onion article. Geezez, that elevated my heart rate WAY to early in the morning.
Bravo on your quote girl. Don’t ever do that to me again. Haha!
Haha! Great article! Thanks tanster and James for posting it! CBS’s Jim and Pam are creepy with their model good looks…yea…that would appeal to audiences. What a way to parody CBS’ approach to scripted shows…heh. Seriously, I think the last CBS show I really loved was “Northern Exposure”, and that was like a generation ago. That’s sad.
Oh, Onion. They’re so funny. I love the part about the 3 cameras and a laugh track. Good stuff.
LOL!!That article is awesome.
I think The Onion really loves The Office and it’s fans. Did anyone catch a really recent little blurb in their back pages where they stated something to the effect of how Onion readership goes up whenever an Office character appears in their newspaper? (I think that was a little bit of a response to the previous weeks Mindy Kahling article). So, The Onion decided that every week they would place random picture from The Office and that day featured a picture of Jim.
Oh, and btw, while The Onion originated in Madison (Yeah Wisconsin!), I think it has been re-located to New York a few years ago. I know that they at least have readers in NY, because I do remember seeing the newspaper there recently.
Hilarious! I thought this was serious for a moment, and I almost called CBS.
On a total sidenote, did anyone watch the Today show this morning and see the HUGE “Dunder Mifflin Paper Company” sign outside the window behind Meredith Viera’s head? What is that about? Still filming (hopefully) false ending to the season finale?
LOL!!! I actually kinda believed it until I saw the “P.S. It’s not true, my friends.” But I wish someone gave coupling another shot, another great U.K. show.
As soon as I saw “The Onion” I knew it was fake lol
It makes me sad how many people don’t know that the Onion is a satire site. Really really really sad….
I’m an idiot. I read that and spent the next few hours completely shocked until I came back here, read the comments, and realized it was a joke. I was getting ready to cry.
Ha Ha. I’d like to see David Spade play an inept manager. That would be hilarious. Certainly not a Michael Scott, but it would still be funny.
It looks to me like they Photoshop-ed David Spade’s head over top of Steve’s in the photo.
Is this a late April fools day prank or something?
ChilisManager–I saw the huge Dunder Mifflin sign too!! I thought perhaps someone was going to be a guest, so I kept watching until the end, but not one mention of it or why it was there…very peculiar indeed…
I’m glad we’re required to learn French here in Canada.
That was so funny! I haven’t read The Onion in years but it reminded me of why they’re so good.
Loved it!
See, if they did that, I would, just like the first commenter, die a little on the inside.
bwahahahah!!!! that was awesome. good one, Onion!
Holy cow…there are still people reading this that think it’s real? Please read the rest of the Onion articles, folks. They’re brilliant. The head writer left years ago to work on The Daily Show…and I think they’re making fun of of CBS rather than NBC. there have always been foreign imports here…aka Survivor, American Idol, etc. What would happen if “The Office” met “The World According to Jim” is the premise…
I’ve never posted here before, but I just wanted to say the only thing that is giving me more entertainment than the article itself (way to get in The Onion, Tanster!) is reading the reactions here!!!
For those of you that hadn’t heard of The Onion, bookmark it. You won’t regret it!
Some people seem to think that they are the only ones that noticed that this was poking fun at the NBC Office, you weren’t. So please stop “telling” people like they are idiots.
RE: post #83 Zorro
Yes, they are kind of making fun of NBC and our american version of The Office. That is very much a part of why it is so funny. We can laugh at the irony and ourselves. But the article also pokes fun of all uncreative and unoriginal copies of shows brought to us these days. The thing that is different about our beloved show is that the American version is successful because it understood the core of what the original was about, not just the surficial jokes. Thereby, The Office is still somewhat a creative individual piece of work. Unlike the CBS in this article(and all other tv shows that just copy other tv shows)that completely misses the point of the original version. (Hence all the changes that they planned to make that would literally strip the show of it’s essence).
So yes, this may be a satire of the NBC copying the BBC, but I think it is also an aknowledging nod to a job well done and a look back at how everything could have horribly gone wrong (if they had been like CBS). Furthermore, I think they would have been a little too late to only make fun of NBC, given that we are now near the end of our 3rd successful season.
I also truly believe that The Onion kinda loves The Office (see my previous post below).
Haha it’s funny ’cause I actually wouldn’t put it past these stupid Networks to do something this dumb.
so it seems that my four years of french in college paid off…
thanks for posting that…i had a good laugh!
[from tanster: please proofread and then re-post. thanks!]
“People are going to tune in every week to see if Jen will ever leave her fiancé to be with Tom. And they’ll be so relieved when she finally does in episode three.” Hilarious! I also like Dwight as an Iraq War veteran and the “laugh track to fill all those awkward pauses.”
“People are going to tune in every week to see if Jen will ever leave her fiancé to be with Tom. And they’ll be so relieved when she finally does in episode three.”
OMG Talk about Spoiler Warning!
Of course the Onion is fake, they did a good job.
I think it would be funny to watch and see all the comparisons. If anything, it would create publicity for NBC’s Office. Even if this was real I still wouldn’t care, why are people getting so angry and defensive?
yeah there will never been another character like Michael uh, his name is David Brent. who cares if CBS does a comedy like the office. it probably wont last and besides what made the office great is now dead.
Wow….maybe CSI: The Office was just too much for CBS
Hehe…I’m sorry, I’m giggling at the people who think this is real. To you people- Start reading The Onion. Every day. It will make your life happier.
wow, CBS maybe try coming up with your own ideas you sell outs
LOL. That was one of the best jokes I’ve heard from The Onion in a while.
[from tanster: please proofread and re-post. thanks!]
[from tanster: please proofread and re-post. thanks!]
haha, oh man…Somehow when I started reading this I skimmed over the whole “The Onion” part. So I was reading it, pretty confused for a while. Sadly it took me until the part that said they would add a laugh-track until I realized it was the Onion. Anyway, the article is pure genious!
The Onion is right on top of things, man. I wish other papers would report with same accuracy and depth as The Onion does.
It seems like a lot of these other papers just make stuff up.
You guys should also see the Onion report: “74% of All Compliments Sarcastic.” They’re brilliant
So this isn’t real is it? lol
Why does a fake newspaper need to quote a real person, such as Tanster? And while it’s kind of amusing, isn’t The Onion sort of a played out bit? Is it even all that funny? I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think this article or any article in The Onion is that great.
RIDICULOUS! All the stuff they’re changing is insane.
1. Making the Tom (Jim) and Jen (Pam) story “more believable” by casting more traditionally attractive actors in the roles: I assure you it won’t be more believable when she leaves her fiance in the 3rd ep, thanks for not letting it be a surprise by the way.
2. A laugh track has been added to fill in any painful, awkward pauses: this is exactly the opposite of why we love The Office
3. David Spade as the boss: he is no Steve Carrell! Doesn’t Spade’s his record speak for itself and I love how they said that Spade’s kind of comedy can’t be beat when they first offered the role to Ray Romano and Kevin James (both smart enough to say No)
4. Naming the show The Office: Morons, no one will be fooled into watching your show. You should call it, Probably Won’t Make It The Slotted 12 Episodes
Wait is this fake?
yup, I believe so…
this is freaking awesome. I can’t wait to watch this
the new Pam looks so hot!
It’s the Onion, a news parody site.
CBS will fail in this venture. They have CSI, what more do they need? It’s a compliment to Greg Daniels and the Office creators that they want to imitate it, very flattering, but The Office will reign supreme!
OMG! The Onion is a satire site, not real. OMG! As I was reading article I was like what the?? They are keeping the same name, same plot, same pilot and airing it at the SAME time as NBC? Then I read what The Onion really is – never heard of this site before. Okay, funny. Hardy-freakin-har! Ya got me!
oh my GOD, i thought for a moment that was real. and it was ridiculous.
seriously though, that picture of david spade is pretty authentic looking!
okay. that kinda scared me. good one. and pretty pathetic of me because I already knew what The Onion was.
This freaked me out! I read it and told people and everything, came back, read the comments and figured out it was fake. And then I had to go tell everybody I was just kidding!