The Office star Brian Baumgartner revealed that he pitched a romance between his character, Kevin Malone, and Ellie Kemper’s Erin Hannon to the writers of the NBC series. Baumgartner detailed his pitch to the writing staff during an episode of his podcast titled An Oral History of The Office.
Baumgartner portrayed the bumbling accountant Kevin Mallone on NBC’s The Office until the series concluded its nine-season run in 2013. Seven years later, Baumgartner launched a 12-episode podcast that provides a comprehensive history of the series featuring notable guests such as stars Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, and creator Greg Daniels. Kemper, who made her first appearance as Erin Hannon in the fifth season of The Office, guest-starred on the episode of the podcast where Baumgartner outlined his romance pitch to the writers, which she said would have been “reasonable.”
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“I went up to the writers’ room, and I said, ‘If Kevin could mature just a little, there was something about their energy that I thought was right.’ Their energies matched in a weird way,” Baumgartner explained. Kemper noted she loved Baumgartner’s idea and that it would have made sense. While the two characters did go on an ill-fated lunch date set up by Steve Carell’s Michael Scott in the sixth season of the series, a romance between the two was never explored. “Sadly, we never got to witness the great love story that Kevin and Erin could have been,” Baumgartner said of his unrealized idea.
Based on the British BBC series of the same name created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, NBC’s The Office depicted the work lives of the office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of a fictional paper company in a mockumentary format. While the first season of The Office received mixed reviews from critics, the series garnered more acclaim in subsequent seasons and won multiple awards over the course its run, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2006. While later seasons were criticized for a perceived decline in quality, particularly following Carell’s departure, the conclusion of the series was generally well-received and the final episode is estimated to have been seen by 5.69 million people.
While The Office has been off the air for over seven years, interest in the series hasn’t diminished and a reunion special does not appear to be outside the realm of possibility. The series also remains a favorite on streaming services; Nielsen data shows that The Office was the most-streamed series on Netflix back in July 2019.
Unfortunately for Netflix’s subscribers, NBC announced The Office will be leaving the streaming service at the end of 2020. The series will then become available exclusively on NBC’s own streaming platform, Peacock.
The Office is currently available on Netflix.
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Source: An Oral History of The Office