‘The Office’ Guest Stars: Remembering the Best and Worst

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Fans of the U.S. version of the hit comedy “The Office” became concerned when news broke that Steve Carell was exiting the show. But the show went on after his departure and fans continued watching due to the complexity of its characters, great storylines and numerous guest stars.

In addition to the series’ original and lovable cast, the guest stars brought their own quirky characteristics, which kept the show up and running for two seasons after Carell’s departure.

  

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Dwight and Jim’s ongoing love/hate relationship and clever pranks are reason enough to a marathon of “The Office.” Add to that:

• Angela’s obsessive addiction to cats and watching her and Dwight rekindle their love while she was engaged to Andy
• Meredith’s alcoholism that heightens her grossly inappropriate sexual behavior
• Kevin’s simple-minded tenderness
• Stanley’s grumpy, “I really don’t care about any of you” demeanor
• Waiting for Jim and Pam’s deep-seated love to reach full bloom
• Jim’s sarcasm
• The on and off again relationship of chatty Kelly and “I’ll always be better than you” Ryan
• Watching for the crickets jumping around in Toby’s brain to exit through his ears
• Creepy and secretive Creed

Between tuning in for your weekly Sunday ticket, viewers can watch “The Office” reruns online and on demand from DirecTV.

Guest Stars From Worst to Best

The Worst

1. Will Ferrell – Deangelo Vickers

Once Michael and Holly move to Colorado together, Deangelo Vickers steps in to temporarily take Michael’s place as branch manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton Branch. Deangelo was only present for four episodes. He is allergic to peanuts, childish and he can professionally juggle invisible juggling balls. He exits the show following a basketball challenge with Jim where the hoop falls on him, and he is hospitalized.

This character was too shallow for The Office. He needed more depth. Maybe there was just not enough time to get to know him in the four short episodes he was in.

Photo by Eva Rinaldi via Wikimedia Commons

2. Jim Carrey – Finger Lakes Guy

Finger Lakes Guy applied for the Regional Manager position at Scranton. Toby, Jim and Gabe interviewed him. Jim tells Jo that he feels Finger Lakes Guy is a good candidate for the job, while joking about how he continued to tell them he needed to get back to the Finger Lakes.

Finger Lakes Guy later admits to the cameras that he abandoned his family at Finger Lakes to drive to Scranton. He continued with “and people disappear up there.”

Such a small part for an amazing actor like Jim Carrey, his talent was wasted on this role.

Photo by Ian Smith via Wikimedia Commons

The Best

1. David Koechner – Todd Packer (Packer)

Packer is one of the outside sales representatives at Dunder Mifflin. He is rude, promiscuous and an alcoholic. He always has an obscene, disrespectful joke to share, which usually offends those around him. Michael Scott considers Packer his best friend, but Packer does not seem to feel the same. He just uses Michael as his audience and sometimes the target for his offensive jokes.

Photo by theNerdPatrol via Flickr

2. Amy Ryan – Holly Flax

Holly enters the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin as a replacement for human resources representative, Toby. Dwight and Michael decide to welcome her to Scranton by hazing her. Once Michael realizes that she too despises Toby, he begins to fall in love with her. Holly and Michael connect with their bad imitations of Master Thespian and Yoda.

Photo by Viva Vivanista via Flickr

3. James Spader – Robert California (Dunder Mifflin CEO)

Robert is an uber confident, sexually charged man who was hired during the summer. Amazingly, within mere hours he is promoted to CEO. He is the type of person you love to hate. He clearly believes that everything revolves around sex, and he considers this thought pattern as the universal truth. He does not seem to realize how inappropriate he behaves at times. He becomes enamored with Nellie (played by fellow guest star Catherine Tate), which allows her to continue her unprofessional and irrational behaviors.

4. Catherine Tate – Nellie Bertram

Nellie is an absurd, rude, insensitive, and socially and professionally incompetent woman. The only reason Nellie gets her position at Dunder Mifflin is that she is friends with the company’s CEO at the time. Although Nellie works hard to maintain a tough appearance, she is quite vulnerable. She knows that Robert is captivated with her and uses it to her advantage. As a manipulative ploy, she implies that she is attracted to him. She eventually admits to Pam that Robert repulses her.

Photo by Joeylamb88 via Wikimedia Commons