8 /10 1 Votes
Genre Mockumentary
Comedy Country of origin United States First episode date 13 July 2006 Network NBC Number of episodes 10 | 8/10 IMDb Directed by Randall Einhorn Original language(s) English Final episode date 7 September 2006 Number of seasons 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Written by Michael Schur
Paul Lieberstein Starring Brian Baumgartner
Oscar Nunez
Angela Kinsey Cast Angela Kinsey, Brian Baumgartner, Oscar Nunez Similar The Office, The Office: Subtle Sexuality, Halfway Home, The Tom Show, Secrets of Midland Heights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Office: The Accountants is an American comedy web series, spin-off from the television show The Office. The series depicts office accountants in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company trying to find $3,000 missing from the office budget. The webisodes generally became available as they were uploaded onto NBC's website for free streaming on Thursdays from July to September 2006, and were later included as a special feature in the second season's DVD releases.
Contents
The project was announced in March 2006. The series was shot over two days in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, and produced by the same crew with the same cast as the television series. The series won an Emmy Award in 2007.
Development
In March 2006, while the second season of The Office was airing, NBC announced that 10 webisodes were expected to be produced.
It took two days to film the series.
Release
A new webisode would generally become available each Thursday on NBC's website. The webisodes were later released as special features on the DVD sets of The Office – Season Two in the second half of 2006.
In November 2007, the webisodes became a point of argument for the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as none of the writers or actors featured in the webisodes received residuals for their work. Greg Daniels and many of the cast members who double as writers posted a video to YouTube shortly after the strike began, particularly upset that they weren't compensated for The Accountants, which NBC considered promotional material despite the embedded commercials.
Crew
The Accountants was produced by NBC. The Office director Randall Einhorn directed each webisode, with writing duties divided between producers, screenwriters and actors Michael Schur and Paul Lieberstein.
Cast and characters
The Accountants retained many of the cast members from the television series. Brian Baumgartner plays Kevin Malone, who is based upon Keith Bishop. Oscar Nuñez acts as Oscar Martinez. Angela Kinsey portrays Angela Martin, the uptight Head of the Accounting Department, Office Safety Officer and Head of the Party Planning Committee.
Guest stars Melora Hardin, Phyllis Smith, Kate Flannery, Leslie David Baker, David Denman and Rainn Wilson reprise their roles of Jan Levinson, Phyllis Lapin, Meredith Palmer, Stanley Hudson, Roy Anderson and Dwight Schrute, respectively.
Reception
The series won an Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Broadband Program – Comedy" category at the 34th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2007. Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly graded the series with an "A-" and wrote, "While we miss Jim and Pam (not to mention star Steve Carell), these shorts prove that spending time with their excessively awkward co-workers can be just as sweet."