“The Office” but in a dying newsroom

I’m sure this will be wildly successful.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/the-office-spinoff-peacock-plot-details-1235996108/

 

Broadcast networks have been feasting on their own carcasses for years now - I get it, reboot a beloved show, maybe goose the streaming library of the original - CSI, LA Law, Law and Order, Will and Grace....but c'mon.

I thought Hulu's "Reboot" was the funniest show I'd seen on "broadcast-ish" TV in years. One and done - go figure.

 

Yeah, it goes three episodes, and then everyone gets laid off and marched out. ... Then what?

 

But I would definitely watch this newsroom spinoff if they used the entire cast of "Justified."

Mags Bennett (evil HR manager) and Dewey Crowe (deranged sports agatologist) in epic side roles, just for starters ...

 

That was such a great season - Limehouse, Loretta.

 

Loved The Office and I'm a big fan of Ricky Gervais (though I'm unclear of what he might have to do with this other than continue to rake in cash).

But man, it would have to be extra fucking funny for me to not find this premise depressing and worthy of avoidance.

Been there. Lived it. Really don't find the death of local journalism and the hands of greedy, incompetent corporate fuckwits all that funny.

 

I'll watch, just so I can sit there and with every ridiculous, far-fetched premise and over-the-top character, say, "Yep, worked with him, knew her, went through that!"

 

Every newsroom I've worked in (and their extended company departments) could have made a good sitcom.

Each newsroom and company was a constant, evolving, revolving door of quirky, obsessed characters at every turn.

 

I actually don't see much comedy potential in a dying newsroom. Now if they set it in the early '90s, when newspapers didn't realize the threat the Internet posed - THEN you'd have something. A mid-size Gannett daily - with a few veterans who talk about the "old days" and how great they were, the fresh out of J-school types on a "timeline" to get to the NY Times, the four-times divorced Sports editor, the features editor who doesn't exactly have his or her finger on the pulse of pop culture, who has to deal with the staffers no other department wants, the editors who are "excited" about all the new initiatives being shoved down papers throats. The photographer who wants to make "art." The copy desker having difficulty with the new computer system, wondering what was wrong with the last computers.

 

I dont know, Dunder Mifflin was “dying” too but in a funny haha way not a march to the gallows way. It can be done.

 

One of the great things about shows and movies about newspapers (specifically) is the "ticking clock" of the daily deadline, and fear of getting beat by another news outlet - the Internet (and ridiculous deadlines and sporadic publishing schedules) have kind of killed that. Not to mention how many reporters now work from home. I'm glad I worked in a "classic" newsroom, where the editor could yell something on the floor - and 90 percent of the news staff would hear them. And it was a staff of about 50. News, all the local beats, sports, features.
For some reason, graphics and OP/ed were always down the hall or something.