[Request] The Office. How has filming gone on this long?

Ten years.

In 1949, the world was still in shock and awe from a Second World War, that had followed just a generation on the heels of the Great War, now called the First World War, that had slain millions. Europe had been ravaged, and even now, atrocities leaking from within the German and Polish heartland lined the newspapers. It was in this climate that Robert Dunder, the scion of the moneyed Dunder family from Connecticut, and Robert Mifflin, the impoverished, last son of the Mifflin family, who had suffered dearly under the Reich, came together to forge their business relationship. They founded Dunder-Mifflin.

Robert Mifflin was, to many, annoying. He had an exhausting zest for life that many people, sceptical and shaken after the first half of the 20th century, just couldn't handle. Cheery, loving, romantic, whimsical, Mifflin was more like a child than a business man, though, for whatever reason, Dunder-Mifflin thrived under his stewardship. (Dunder funded the start-up, but Robert Mifflin was always the boots on the ground, opening shop from 5am to 5pm every day.) Robert Mifflin had always believed that work should be fun, that coworkers should be more like family, and that people should be afraid of how much they loved one another.

Unfortunately, his co-founder, Robert Dunder, as well as their co-workers and employees, disagreed. Hell, the entire world did. At best, people tolerate one another. But at their worst, humanity could be cold and violent and downright evil to one another. Mifflin himself had seen that at Auschwitz-Dakau...

Nevertheless, Robert Mifflin had always been an optimist, a humanitarian. Some might even say he was a godly man. He believed that humans, at their core, were good, and that something had gone awry in how we interacted with one another.

Soon, however, Dunder and Mifflin came to an impasse. History seems to have forgotten what it was about, but Robert Mifflin's daughter has a faint memory of their last argument. "You're a fool, Mifflin," Dunder had spat in the kitchen. "You think the world is sunshine and puppies, but its not. You're a child. You'd do this to protect, who? Our employees? A bunch of weirdos and sycophants and alcoholics?"

"Perhaps if you spent any amount of time with them, you'd love them as dearly as I do."

"Spare me, Mifflin. You fire them, or I will. Dunder Mifflin is over."

The next day, Robert Mifflin was found in his car, his head blown to pieces by a high-calibre gun.

30 years later, Happy Man Productions was founded and began filming their first production, "The Office." The project would go to take 10 years. No one knew how the company stayed afloat, but everyone seemed to get paid, and the subject of the documentary production, Dunder-Mifflin Scranton, seemed to thrive under the eyes of the camera, even despite heartbreaks and scandals.

When the 10 year project was finally aired, however, something incredible seemed to happen. The world fell in love with these dozen or so people in Scranton, PA. Despite their quirks and idiosyncrasies, their needs and wants and demands, the "cast" of The Office came to be beloved by America, and, indeed, the world.

But why? The show wasn't "about" anything, other than lower-middle class workers in small American town.

People loved The Office because, at their core, people will love one another. The audience saw Jim's humour, Michael's joy and love and desire for belonging, Pam's insecurity and selflessness, Dwight's zest for life, in themselves and, more importantly, in their friends and family and co-workers... In one another. They smiled at Erin's child-like innocence, winced with Andy as he faced hurdle after hurdle and still sang. They raised their glasses with Meredith, put their feet up with Stanley, and maybe got a little weird with Creed. They saw Oscar's pretentiousness, but rather than dislike him for it, empathized; Oscar had the same need as all of them, as Michael whom he seemed to despise at moments; the need for community, to belong to something. Audiences saw the flaws and faults, vices and virtues, of these people, these paper company employees who, otherwise, might have been written off as "nobodies" and, in them, saw themselves and one another.

In 2023, The Office, after spending 10 years in production and 10 years on the air, ended. Audiences everywhere mourned the loss of their favourite programme. As the credits for the finale finished rolling, Robert Mifflin, now over 90 years of age, appeared on the screen.

"I hope you have enjoyed viewing my life's work as much as I have. As some of you may know, I spent my teen years in a Concentration Camp. I know, first-hand, the evil that men can wreak on one another. But what none of you know is that I had been to Auschwitz before, as a child. It was still called Oświęcim then. I remember eating sweets on the front step of an old village bakery with my parents and siblings on a cool, Autumn day.

"There was nothing intrinsically evil about Oświęcim. It became what it was because man forgot how to love his fellow man. As I watched my friends and family die, I had hate in my heart. But then, when American soldiers liberated that camp, boys my age really, I knew I could not hate. Instead, I must create a world where hate is antithetical to man's nature. I must not let any other Oświęcim's turn into Auschwitz

"So I sank money, I cannot say how much for I did not bother to count, into this program. I wanted to world to see how easily they could connect, could care for, could love even the most simple, common man if they took the time to get to know them.

"I am not a naive man. I know I cannot, alone, defeat evil. But if there is ever a time where some government or creed or leader tells you to do something that is against your conscience, that is against charity and love, then I pray you will remember these people whose lives you have shared. I pray you will remember your own Scranton. Your own Oświęcim, wherever it may be.

"Thank you, and goodnight."

The Office, the show you watch, is the documentary. Clearly it's been successful enough to warrant continued filming.

The pitch, the editing, and the lawyers.

The makers of the Office (the in-show show) have probably been shopping around for a host network a long time. The pitch is probably rough: "It's about people in an office! They sell paper and sometimes it gets crazy." I'm not surprised it's taken this long to air.

And when they first start sending it around, editing is probably killing it. I mean, it features more than a dozen people working for a 9 hour day, during which almost nothing funny happens. The episodes are highly edited to produce the humor.

There have probably also been protracted legal battles. Think, for instance, of the woman Michael dated who was having an affair with him while married. Do you think she wants this all over TV? The production company probably paid big money to keep her stuff in the show. Not to mention all the sex that has happened on company property and on film, the negative portrayals of almost everyone, and the wildly unethical behavior many of the stars engage in. Remember how Pam scammed her way into her current job?

I'm surprised NBC would ever be able to let this show air, let alone actually want it to.

. I see it as the office is starting to air as filming ends, that is the audience in the show will see episode 1 as it ends. The popup was advertising the new show finally airing. It's been done filming for 10 years, last episode will be a reflective/catch up piece. See where everyone as been since filming ended.

Government funded sociological study.

Governments have no problem funding long-term projects for research purposes. The production company pitched the idea as a workplace study that examines the effects of work and personal lives on the productivity of the American worker. This is why Dunder Mifflin is the perfect place to study the workforce. It has white collar and blue collar workers in constant contact. They are selling a product everyone can relate to. There are flashes of corporate interaction on a regular basis in order to show how workers react to drastic changes in company policy.

While we haven't seen the footage yet, a bureaucrat in the Department of Labor has been watching for years. Now with the deepening recession and budget cuts all around the project is coming to a halt and the documentary is being cut down for mass consumption.

I think this also explains all of the Office clones around the world; the British study revealed fascinating results and now countries everywhere are racing to see what their own workforce is doing.

Collecting 10 years worth of footage doesn't bother me that much. In fact, some popular nature shows that air on the Discovery Channel take around 5 years to complete.

What bothers me about The Office from a more real world point of view is that they are going through the trouble of shooting for 10 years not knowing if people will watch it. Think of it this way, if you were to forget everything you know about The Office, and you hear about a show that documents the lives of the employees of a paper company, would you watch it?

They are likely recording for a huge network and have received a lot of funding. especially since the advert popped up on the computer, it is probably very widespread and likely to have a lot of people watching also brian told pam and jim that they are mainly interested in the workers, and not the company.

I always thought that we were watching the documentary in the future.

Not the far future, but some time has passed and the documentary has been released and we're watching it as it's set back a couple years.

That's why they don't make any crazy modern references.

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They say in an early episode of Season 9 that they're just following "them" which is never specified as the people in the office or Jim and Pam.After his Pam says that now that they're married there won't be anything interesting, causing Jim to contact his friend from college who's staring a sports marketing agency.