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New Office plan: 24 episodes and one-hour specials

by Bob Sassone, posted May 11th 2007 3:02PM

Rainn WilsonI recently posted news that producers of NBC's The Office were seriously thinking about extending the show to an hour every week next season. Some of you loved that idea and some of you hated it. Well, looks like we have a compromise.

According to Kristin over at E! Online, the show will have four, one-hour specials next season, as well as 24 episodes total. That's really good news, in this new age where many "full seasons" of shows often don't even hit 22 episodes. I was watching some old comedies on DVD the other day and noted that they often had 25 or 30 episodes a season back then.

Speaking of one hour, The Office one-hour season finale airs next Thursday at 8.

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Britta

I think the idea behind shorter seasons is obvious-a lot of time you don't need so many episodes to tell a story. Look at cable shows-many of them have shorter seasons.

May 17 2007 at 11:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kyle Beasley

Truly great news. Glorious even.

http://kylebeabo.blogspot.com/

May 12 2007 at 11:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FeatureCreep

"Gilligan's Island" blah, blah, blah...
"The Munsters" blah, blah, blah...

Yeah. TV was MUCH better then.

I'll take the here and now, thank you. Sixteen episodes of a big budget, well-acted drama beats 40 episodes of garbage anyday!

May 11 2007 at 11:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Machine

The Munsters first season... 38 episodes!

May 11 2007 at 5:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Machine

I think shorter and shorter season runs of shows probably has to do with the massive salary demands made by the stards of the show coupled with a lack of interesting stories to tell.

Season One of Gilligan's island was 36 (!) episodes... while Lost has been renewed through 2010 and will be coming out with a paltry 16 episodes per year because ABC wants to milk the story as long as possible.

May 11 2007 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Porchland

This makes sense with Ausiello reporting that "Scrubs" will be back and running a slightly shortened season. Thursday would stay:

"Earl"
"Office"
"30 Rock"
"Scrubs"
"ER"

NBC can bump "Scrubs" for occasional one-hour eps of "Office" and still have new eps of everything for all the sweeps months.

BTW, I LOVE the ABC schedule as rumored by Deadline Hollywood Daily. Out with stupid comedy. In with smart dramas. "Boston Legal" and "Brothers & Sisters" keeping their timeslots.

I have a feeling "Football Wives" after "Grey's Anatomy" on Thursday will be one of the top-rated new shows on any network; "Dynasty" for the 2000s. I'll still hoping "October Road" won't get picked up.

May 11 2007 at 5:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rick

Why doesn't NBC make "super-sizing" permanent. It seems like every third week this season The Office was running 40 minutes (or 30 minutes of actual programming). An hour actually seems a bit long for a comedy, but 22 minutes doesn't really cut it either.

Plus, it's not like anyone is actually watching these shows when they air anymore (thanks, DVR!!).

May 11 2007 at 3:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Clint

Awesome news indeed. Hopefully the hour long episodes will help further the much needed stories that I think were lack this year.
Also, can we have it guaranteed that Greg Daniels writes the hour long episodes? He is far and away the best writer on the show and yesterday proved it. A comedic genius.

http://www.tvdeuce.com

May 11 2007 at 3:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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