After seven seasons of laughs, Steve Carell is ready to leave his position as Dunder Mifflin/Sabre’s Office boss.  But you knew that already.  What you didn’t know is that the producers have planned an exit strategy that involves Carell leaving the show earlier than you might have expected.  “Steve is leaving earlier than the [season finale],” reveals executive producer Greg Daniels.  “The big ‘Goodbye, Steve’ thing will be before [May] sweeps.”  He continues, “Our basic plan is to see the jockeying and interviewing [for Michael’s job], and not have that happen off-camera and suddenly present America with the choice. We’d rather play out the stories of the various characters who want that seat, and show them fight for it.”

Although Carell won’t hang on until the season finale, Daniels is excited about the episodes leading up to it.  “It’s kind of a fun situation, and the chaos is creatively exciting. Whenever something with big stakes happens, it leads to good episodes — and we will have a lot of significant things happening.”

Kathy Bates, who plays Sabre CEO Jo Bennett with mighty fine ‘tude, is coming back. “We’re going to play out the whole [replacement] process in a realistic way,” says Daniels. “And it’s always great to have Kathy here.”

The season finale, which will run an hour long and is expected to be written by Carell himself, will reveal Michael Scott’s successor and the immediate reaction from the employees.  “They’re all different people with strong personalities,” Daniels says, “so they each have a lot invested in who’s their new boss.”

It’s so sad to know these are the final episodes of The Office with Carell; it’s still hard for me to fathom how the show will go on without him.  It’s true, the ensemble cast is terrific, but he’s the backbone of it all.  At least we can expect some grade-A stories to come out of the build up leading to the big reveal at season’s end.  I’m really rooting for Amy Ryan’s Holly Flax to scoop Michael up and they live happily ever after.

Update: With Michael Scott leaving The Office, this opens up more story opportunities for the other main characters and you can expect the import of new characters.  “We’re trying to take Steve’s departure as an opportunity to shake things up and add some new characters,” says Daniels.  One of these new characters?  They are currently casting Stanley’s never-before-seen adult daughter to fill “a recurring (and potentially series regular)” role, according to TVLine.  She will be “one of several new characters” joining the show later this season.  Daniels continues, “They’ve been playing with this dynamic for so long… you kind of know how the stories are going to go. For Michael not to take up the A story in every episode means that a lot of them are getting the A stories now.”

[Via TVLine, here & here]