From TVLine:
The Office will close its doors this May with a special one-hour farewell… the buzz is that the finale will air on Thursday, May 9.
… it’ll likely do so without Steve Carell’s original boss, Michael Scott. “I’m hopeful, but I don’t think [Steve] will be back,” NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt told reporters Sunday the the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena. “He left in the way that he wanted that character to leave.”
I hope it’s a proper sendoff. Jim and Pam better still be together!!
Keeping my fingers crossed for a Michael Scott cameo!
The finale should be Michael Scott’s wedding!!! He said that JAM’s wedding was the second best in the office, so now they better prove it!
It makes sense that Michael wouldn’t come back….there really would be no reason for him to leave Colorado to come back.
With respect, no, it doesn’t make sense for Michael not to return. The staff is going to be watching a documentary starring Michael without Michael. This documentary took seven years of Michael’s life. You’re telling me that he’s just going to stay in Colorado, while everyone else is in Scranton enjoying the big event? Come on, that doesn’t make sense.
I guess the documentary crew declined Michael’s request in Season 7: “Hey, will you guys let me know if this ever airs?”
It’ll be a real shame if Steve doesn’t at least come back for a cameo. Michael Scott always thought of his coworkers as friends and family. For him not to reappear is out of character. Hopefully Mr. Carell will do this for the fans.
Uh, people saying it doesn’t make sense for Michael to come back. Do they forget he said, let me know when this airs? …He would definitely come to watch it or at least be interviewed about it.
Michael Scott wouldn’t have to go to Scranton to be in the finale. Hell, Jim could have to go there on business and run into him and give him advice on something. That would be great!
The ball’s in Steve Carell’s court. If he wants to Michael to return in the series finale then it will happen. If he doesn’t, it won’t!
While it would be fantastic to have any Steve Carell return, and the final line from his goodbye would be a logical point for him to make a return when the documentary airs, it appears that the episode where the staff watches the documentary is going to take place before the series finale. Therefore, it doesn’t seem like that bit will sync up for Michael Scott to be in Scranton along the lines of what they’re going for in Season 9.
For the reasons Josh Armstrong and others said, there’s no way Michael won’t be back. I’m sure that Steve’s appearance was/will be highly secretive as to maintain a surprise for us. I’m going to choose to believe that the series finale will be the airing of the documentary and Michael comes back for the showing. And Holly will have to stay behind in CO because she can’t fly due to pregnancy! Hoorah!
Michael said in his last episode: “Will you let me know if this thing ever airs?” Just one reason why he’ll be back!
I hope at the least Michael makes a Skype video call appearance. Or even just hearing his voice on a phone call — maybe just someone on the crew calling him to say the documentary would finally air — would be great for the finale. That’s if his movie work really is too much for Steve to make an “in person” appearance.
I still remember Steve saying in interviews about his departure (perhaps naively?) that he was sure the show would continue “many” years without him. Well, it did make it two…
I’d think they’d be desperate for good finale ratings, so if they really knew Steve would appear, they’d want to promote it.
So glad to hear that the finale is going to be an hour – yay!
As for Michael Scott, I don’t need for him to come back in order to enjoy the rest of the show. Michael had his send-off already, and I don’t mind the idea of the final episodes being a chance to celebrate and say goodbye to the other characters, rather than focussing on “will he or won’t he.” Don’t get me wrong, I love Steve and if he does a cameo that’s great, but I’m just not going to be upset if he doesn’t. Can’t believe there are only 14 episodes left…
Steve Carell has said that he does not want to come back, even for a cameo. Maybe they are trying to keep a Michael appearance secret, but I really think people shouldn’t get their hopes up. If he doesn’t come back, then a lot of fans are going to be disappointed, instead of enjoying the finale on its own merits. Steve has said he thinks Michael’s exit was perfect and it would be ruined if he came back. He also said he prefers people to imagine what Michael and Holly are doing, rather than write something that might disappoint people. So for now, I choose to believe him rather than looking forward to something which will I think probably not happen. And if by some miracle he does come back, it’ll be a wonderful surprise.
If Michael was coming back it would not be kept a secret. Michael’s return would bring in HUGE ratings numbers; they would hype it up like crazy, not squander it on ‘surprising’ us loyal fans. Sadly, a special surprise like that does not make much sense from NBC’s standpoint.
If the series still carried its original tone, I would say the perfect way for the show to end would be for Michael to come back. Andy runs off with Erin leaving the office without a manager. David Wallace brings in the “only man for the job.”
In the final minutes Michael enters the office to take his old job back. Dwight asks if he can be Assistant Regional Manager again. Michael says he can be the Assistant to the Regional Manager. Phone rings. Since Erin is gone, Pam reluctantly answers the phone, “Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam.” And the final shot is everyone working as they were when we first were introduced to the office.
#11 Emily said it all for me: Michael comes back for the documentary showing. Holly can’t fly because she’s going to have a baby! Please — OT — if you have connections — let them know how much the fans love SC’s Michael. It will be all wrong if Michael doesn’t show his beautiful face in the finale!
@17Andrew
Love it! And the reason why Pam is even there is because Jim is too. They both realize that Scranton is where their home truly is, hence they don’t move to Philly. But what of Jim’s business? Easy. He realizes that his buddy and the investors have lost the spirit of the thing; they’ve altered the original vision so much that it’s no longer what it began as. Therefore Jim and Daryl start up their own company in Scranton which follows Jim’s actual idea.
[ from tanster: ooh, i like that idea! ]
I know that show talent and creators visit this site, and Tanster has a link (I believe) to them. REally, it comes down to Steve’s willingness, but in terms of the fiction and the storyline, JOSH ARMSTRONG NAILED IT: “With respect, no, it doesn’t make sense for Michael not to return. The staff is going to be watching a documentary starring Michael without Michael. This documentary took seven years of Michael’s life. You’re telling me that he’s just going to stay in Colorado, while everyone else is in Scranton enjoying the big event? Come on, that doesn’t make sense.”
As much as I love Steve, he really shouldn’t have let the writers give him the ‘documentary’ line if he didn’t want to be caught in a trap a bit later when that plot occurs. I suppose he figured the show would go on for five or six more years and he could at least fit in a cameo at that point, but according to the last time I checked Wikipedia, the dude is doing, like, nine movies right now.
Also, @17: I seriously wouldn’t mind that as a finale at all, except it looks like Jim and Pam are definitely running off, too (for different reasons).
If Michael Schur can take time to scream on the phone as Mose and Stephen Colbert can skype in for a song, surely Carell could manage SOMETHING to be a part of the final episode. Doesn’t even have to be in the finale, just SOMETHING to show/tell where he is now. He came back in disguise for a cameo in Trivia, but not as Scott and if that’s all we get I will be highly disappointed, at least with that aspect.
Of course Michael Scott will be in the final episode! They can easily create a valid reason for him to come back. He should come back and be an investor in Jim’s new sports company! I truly am going to miss this show though. So sad.
22, you realize that the rumor about Carell in “Trivia” was false, right?
Anway, I assume he’ll appear in some way, shape, or form. Maybe just a small cameo. Darn. I was kind of hoping he’d reappear for the whole episode.
1. Michael Scott should make his return on the NEXT TO LAST episode — in town to advance view the documentary. Then the last ep can be about the current cast of The Office.
2. The writers should leave an opening for a Office movie, possibly centered around the wedding of Michael and Holly. If there can be (two) Sex and The City movies, there can be a good Office movie.
3. The writers should try to do a spin off series with the Philly sports marketing firm, with JAM, Daryl and possibly Dwight. Sports humor worked for Arliss on HBO.
The final episode should be Michael and Holly’s wedding