13 Years Ago, The Office Wannabe Was Axed by NBC After Just 1 Season
Fair or not, it’s a must-watch for the show’s enjoyers.
Airing from 2005 to 2013, NBC’s The Office has become one of the most beloved sitcoms not only on the network, but rather in the overall TV shows’ history. Millions of fans around the world constantly revise the adventures of the Dunder Mifflin employees.
However, few of them know that, back in 2010, NBC released a similar show about the hilarious office workers and the difficulties of managing them. Some Reddit users still hail it and complain about its rapid conclusion after one 22-episode season.
The series’ plot revolves around Todd Dempsy, an executive manager at Mid American Novelties, a company that sells novelty items of various degrees of uselessness. His calm life is turned upside down when he’s relocated to India to run an outsourced call center.
There Todd realizes that the employees are completely unaware of American popular culture, while he himself struggles to get used to Indian one. Thus, the show offers a great number of awkward interactions between people of the two opposite cultures.
Starring Ben Rappaport (Mr. Robot), Rizwan Manji (Schitt's Creek), Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who ) and Rebecca Hazlewood (The Good Place ), it became the first American sitcom set in an Indian workplace. It wasn’t intended to mock any nation, but rather to show that all of us are quite ignorant about each other’s cultures.
Disappointingly, even in spite of the fans’ campaign requesting its renewal for the follow-up, it was canceled the day after the first season concluded, on May 13, 2011.
Titled Outsourced and based on the 2006 film of the same name, which gained much recognition from both critics and the audience, it wasn’t forgotten by fans at all.
“I always wish this show lasted. I remember it vividly,” says Redditor @mikeb31588.
Nevertheless, some NBC veterans claim it was not so entertaining and even racist against everyone. It’s not clear if it was the reason why it was cut or not, but the executives decided to continue Community and Parks and Recreation instead.
If you’re a fan of The Office and still haven’t seen Outsourced, you should definitely give it a try, as this show is now available on Prime and Apple TV+ .