“I told Mr. Greg Daniels that if Oscar came back, he would probably be living in a more bustling, cosmopolitan city. Greg heard me and moved Oscar to Toledo, Ohio, which has three times the population of Scranton. So, it was nice to be heard,” Nuñez said at the NBCUniversal Upfronts presentation, attended by The A.V. Club. “Fans of The Office will be delighted to see that Oscar is back at work. And some older fans will look at me and be glad that Meredith is also coming back,” Nuñez’s co-star Domhnall Gleeson added. “That’s a red hair joke.”
In The Paper, “The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it.” As Gleeson described it, he, Nuñez, and fellow cast member Sabrina Impacciatore “are three members of a wonderful ensemble cast of underdog characters that are banding together to keep journalism alive.” Gleeson’s character, specifically, has an “unwavering optimistic belief that he can turn The Truth Teller to the glory of its heyday.”
Premise-wise, that actually sounds a bit more like Parks & Recreation than The Office; where the latter was a slice-of-life series that satirized the humdrum rhythms of the workplace, Parks was a mockumentary that actually believed in the value of the work it depicted. Gleeson’s character sounds a lot more like Leslie Knope than anybody on The Office. In any case, fans will likely welcome a throwback to that era of NBC, especially from a creative team helmed by Daniels and Michael Koman (Nathan For You). In addition to Gleeson, Impacciatore, and Nuñez, the series also stars Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, and Tim Key.
Additional reporting by Saloni Gajjar.
