Those who fired up their Netflix subscriptions on March 1 to watch the Actor Awards were given quite the treat, from stunning red carpet fashion to lots of love for Sinners. For some, however, the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the sweet cast reunion that brought some of the stars of The Office together on stage, and apparently we’ve got Mindy Kaling to thank for that.
On Sunday night, Angela Kinsey, Ellie Kemper, Jenna Fischer and Mindy Kaling took the stage to present the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (The Studio took the honors), and according to Actor Awards executive producer Mark Bracco, that never would have happened without Kaling. The EP told Variety:
Mindy Kaling sort of became a pseudo talent booker for our show. We had reached out to her about being a presenter, and she came back with the idea of, ‘what if I did a reunion with all the women of The Office,‘ and we’re like, ‘yeah!’ Within like an hour, she had texted all of them, and she basically booked them all for us. So she had texted with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey and Ellie Kemper, and I’m not kidding, like, within 90 minutes, they were all booked, and presenting on the show.
It honestly speaks to how beloved the show is — by its fans and cast — that Mindy Kaling was able to secure the actresses in less than two hours. It’s fitting, too, that she would have the other Dunder Mifflin ladies there, too, since they were presenting an award for an ensemble.
The actors responsible for portraying Pam Beesly (Fischer), Angela Martin (Kinsey), Kelly Kapoor (Kaling) and Erin Hannon (Kemper) also used their platform to reflect on how much has changed since The Office wrapped in 2013, particularly the long seasons. They said:
- Mindy Kaling: We are women who survived 22-episode seasons.
- Angela Kinsey: There were no short orders.
- Ellie Kemper: You didn’t plan a season around a pregnancy.
- Kaling: Yeah, you just gave birth on camera and named the baby after a grip.
- Jenna Fischer: Then you came back the next week with another episode.
As grueling as the schedule was, the actresses admitted they were lucky to be employed from September to May for each season they appeared on. Their lampooning of one of the best sitcoms of all time continued:
- Fischer: It meant Christmas episodes and Valentine’s episodes and Super Bowl episodes…
- Kaling: And sometimes filler episodes that were kinda bad.
Sure, there are some episodes that didn’t have a chance at making the list of The Office’s best episodes ever, but with more than 200 episodes over nine seasons, there are bound to be a couple of clunkers. Those “filler episodes” didn’t hurt the mockumentary’s legacy, because it was still such a treat for fans to be able to see this reunion. So, our thanks goes out to Mindy Kaling.
You can watch The Office’s entire series — including the new Season 9 Superfan episodes — with a Peacock subscription.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
