Good news for the paper peddlers at Dunder Mifflin, Scranton. Better news for the writers of The Office, Hollywood.
Production on NBC's Emmy-winning sitcom has shut down, with star and sometime scribe Steve Carell refusing to cross the increasingly actor-friendly picket line. The closure marks the first major network casualty of the Writers Guild of America's work stoppage.
While other series have managed to stockpile several episodes in anticipation of the labor action, Office executive producer Greg Daniels said that his show had only one in the can—after next week's outing, the show will default into reruns.
Carell, a card-carrying WGA member who has written a few Office episodes, stands in solidarity with several fellow Dunder Mifflin drones. Writer-actors B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling and Paul Lieberstein have been on the picket lines since the strike's start Monday. On that initial day, costar Rainn Wilson joined Carell on the sidelines by phoning in sick. Due to their absence, only two scenes managed to be shot.
The Office joins a growing list of series that have gone dark this week. CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory all halted production, as did Fox's Back to You and 'Til Death. Fox's Family Guy has only one more episode ready to go.
ABC's Desperate Housewives plans to shut down Thursday.
"We're the most high-profile writers in television," Housewives' creator Marc Cherry said. "If we all band together, we're sending a not so subtle message to the powers that be that without us, there is no TV. Period." Show star Eva Longoria handed out pizza to striking writers on Tuesday.
Ellen DeGeneres declined to work on her talk show Monday in support with the writers. But she has since returned to tape new episode, stressing it's only because of a stipulation of her contract not an allegiance with producers.
"I've got to say this is a strange show for me to do," she said during a taping Tuesday for a show that will air Friday. "Here's what the deal is: It's sweeps, which is a very important time in television. That's when you do your best shows, your funniest material, you pull out all the stops, and you're doing everything you can because you want everybody watching.
"I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honor of them today, I'm not going to do a monologue. I support them and hope that they get everything they're asking for. And I hope it works out soon."
Also throwing their support behind the writers is the Grey's Anatomy trifecta of Katherine Heigl, Sandra Oh and T.R. Knight. They took to the picket line Wednesday afternoon at Los Angeles' Prospect Studios, where their dramedy is filmed. Series creator and writer Shonda Rhimes has already stated that she has stopped writing new episodes and is refusing to edit those that have already been shot.
"I absolutely believed that I would edit our episode until a thought hit me: How can I walk a picket line and then continue to essentially work?" she wrote in an industry-circulated email. "How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror...and know that I did not have the courage of my convictions to stand up and put myself more at risk than anyone else?"
The sentiment was echoed in an email by Shield creator Shawn Ryan.
"The only thing I can do as a show runner is to do nothing," he wrote. "I obviously will not write on my shows. But I also will not edit, I will not cast, I will not look at location photos, I will not get on the phone with the network and studio, I will not prep directors, I will not review mixes...I am on strike and I am not working for them. PERIOD."
Fellow show runner Tina Fey was one of the first picketers to set up shop outside NBC's Rockefeller Center studios in New York Monday. The 30 Rock creator and star was joined by her former Saturday Night Live cohorts Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, the latter of whom is currently head writer on the late-night show.
In Los Angeles, Sally Field made like a modern-day Norma Rae, walking off the set of Brothers & Sisters to visit her series' writers on the picket line. Julia Louis-Dreyfus did the same Tuesday, picketing outside her Warner Bros. set, where she was joined by Curb Your Enthusiasm's Wanda Sykes. Larry David also announced plans to hit the picket line this week.
Danny Bonaduce, who as an unscripted reality star could potentially profit from a lengthy strike, was photographed doing the same.
While talks have yet to resume between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers—the key sticking point is over new media royalty rates—some companies are playing hardball.
At several late-night talk shows, which were among the first to go dark Monday, nonwriting staffers have been put on notice that they would be laid off in two weeks in the increasingly likely event the strike would last beyond two weeks. Included were employees at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman.
It's a different story on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, whose staffs will receive two weeks' pay from Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions.
Meanwhile, CBS has begun production on a new season of Big Brother to plug the expected hole on its schedule. The reality show would fills three prime-time hours a week once it's back on air.
Although writers have their share of support from the Hollywood community, not all high-profile players are in favor of the strike.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner blasted the scribes' walkout as "insanity" during an industry conference Wednesday morning.
"For a writer to give up today's money for a nonexistent piece of the future—they should do it in three years, shouldn't be doing it now—they are misguided and they should not have gone on the strike," he said. "I've seen stupid strikes, I've seen less stupid strikes, and this strike is just a stupid strike."