On Saturday we joined 10,000 other fans of The Office in Scranton, PA to bid farewell to one of TV’s most popular series.
The show might be filmed in Los Angeles but it is set is Scranton and thanks to the diligence of the show’s production team some of The Electric City’s most famous landmarks, like Cooper’s Seafood House and Poor Richard’s Pub, have become household names.
The day-long “Wrap Party” included a downtown parade with the show’s cast, a concert with Scrantones (who perform the show’s theme song) and the cast belting out a variety of their favorite songs including ”Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” ”Don’t Stop Believin’,” and ”Roxanne”, and finally a Q & A/”Exit Interview” with the cast at Scranton’s newly completed PNC Field.
The biggest thrill for fans came when Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott on the show for 7 seasons, made a surprise appearance at PNC Field.
Andy Buckley (David Wallace) moderated the panel with Rainn Wilson, Ellie Kemper, Craig Robinson, Creed Bratton, Paul Lieberstein, Kate Flannery, Oscar Nunez, Phyllis Smith, Jenna Fischer, Brian Baumgartner, John Krasinski, Carell, and executive producer Greg Daniels.
The actors shared stories about their favorite scenes and thanked fans before showing a blooper reel of the past nine seasons and the first ten minutes of the show’s next episode. After they took their final bow, they all ran out the crowd and signs autographs, shook hands, and took photos before leaving the field.
Later, the cast headed back to the Backyard Ale House (where they hung out Friday night, too) to celebrate with local fans.
With that said, the day didn’t completely go off without a hitch. We heard a lot of complaints from fans who had paid for premium seating at PNC Field but, because it was general admission, ended up with a side-view of the cast (at best). Also, the fan questions didn’t seem to be vetted at all so everyone had to sit through a lot of awkward “can I have a hug?” requests from the audience. Then, there was the matter of a small fire created by the post-celebration fireworks but, luckily, they seemed to get that under control pretty quickly.
Check out a few of our photos from the event below and have a look photos from the 2007 Office Convention here, too.
