Michael Scott Leaving: the World of Business Office Supplies Changed Forever

After seven seasons as the regional manager of Dunder-Mifflin Scranton and the face of the award-winning television show The Office, Steve Carell is calling it quits.

Carell has spent the last seven years portraying Michael Scott, the inept regional manager of Dunder-Mifflin paper. Despite using his relatable people-skills to become a top seller of discount office products, Scott fails constantly at managing people, and his success as a boss is limited. He is a perfect example of the Peter Principal, which states "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."

The fictional company of Dunder-Mifflin Inc. is a business office supplies and paper provider. The company is a division of Sabre Enterprises. According to their "official" website, the company has an "emphasis on servicing small-business clients (and) provides its customers quality office and information technology products, furniture, printing values and the expertise required for making informed buying choices."

In May, Carell mentioned in several interviews that he didn't see himself returning to the show following the completion of his seven-year contract this season.

Originally, many experts and TV critics interpreted Carell's announcement as a contract negotiating tactic. Fans of the The Office hoped it was nothing more than a publicity stunt. But on Tuesday, July 27th, NBCs President of Prime-Time entertainment Angela Bromstad made it clear the network had begun preparing for life without the King of wholesale office supplies.

Said Bromstad during an interview with the Associated Press, "We've been lucky to have had (Carell) as long as we've had these things happen when you have such a major movie star in a show." She later added "Not to diminish the departure of Steve, because that will impact the show, but we have tremendous faith in the writers and actors to keep it alive."

Carell, who's initial fame was initiated by early appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart segment entitled "Even Stephen," where he would go head-to-head in a comical debate against Stephen Colbert. His career skyrocketed, however, in 2005 as the star of The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Carell has been a super-star ever since, providing his headlining name to films such as Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, Horton Hears a Who!, Get Smart, Date Night, Despicable Me, and the recently released Dinner for Schmucks. He has maintained a flourishing Hollywood movie career without missing a single episode of The Office.

Tragically for The Office fans everywhere, that streak is soon to end.

As of now, no decision has been made as to who will replace the wholesale office supplies manager. "We're still talking about a lot of scenarios," claims Paul Lieberstein, an executive producer of The Office who also plays Scott's arch-nemesis Toby Flenderson.