who took michael's place on the office
The Office (U.S. season 8) The series was renewed for an eighth season on March 17, 2011,[9] began filming on July 25, 2011,[10] and the season concluded filming on March 9, 2012.[11] Jenna Fischer's pregnancy was written into the show, and Pam was again pregnant at the start of the season with a boy as she was in real life.[12] Unlike the sixth season, there was no episode focusing on the baby's birth; it was instead announced on a blog.[13] In an interview, executive producer Lieberstein stated that, with the departure of Michael Scott, the writers would explore further into the other characters on the show, such as centering on a specific character for an episode.[14] On January 25, 2012, news broke that NBC was planning a spin-off series starring Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, that would be set at Schrute Farms, Dwight's bed-and-breakfast and beet farm.[15] The spin-off would be created by Wilson and executive producer Paul Lieberstein, but Office developer Greg Daniels would not be involved.[15] Due to his initial involvement in the spin-off, Lieberstein stepped down as showrunner of The Office.[16] On October 29, 2012, it was revealed that NBC was not going forward with the proposed spin-off, although the original backdoor pilot, "The Farm" aired later in the ninth season.[17]