The Office season 9, episode 16 – here's what's behind the actor's hilarious cameo on the show. Throughout its entire run, The Office was known for unexpected cameos and special appearances of both comedy stars, famous actors, and new faces that would later make their name in Hollywood. From Amy Adams to Jim Carrey, viewers could never anticipate who would show up in The Office – and almost every cameo had a curious story associated with it.
"Search Committee of The Office", the episode in which Jim Carrey briefly appears as one of the applicants for the manager position at Dunder Mifflin, was the beginning of The Office's difficult transition to an era without Michael Scott. Steve Carell's departure from the show and the consequential need for it to find Dunder Mifflin's new manager was also the birth of some of the biggest cameos and casting additions on the show, namely Will Ferrell as the tragic Deangelo Vickers and James Spader as the unique Robert California. It was in this post-Michael Scott era that one of The Office's funniest special appearances, Bob Odenkirk's, came to be.
As part of Jim and Pam's troubled relationship in The Office season 9, "Moving On" sees Pam considering finding a job in Philadelphia so that both she and her husband can live and work there. She goes on a job interview for a real estate firm, only to find a manager who acts and sounds almost exactly like Michael – Bob Odenkink's Mark. The unusual management style, the embarrassing sense of humor, and the constant teasing of the employees could not be more similar to Michael, something that Pam herself acknowledged. That cameo becomes even funnier considering that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy actor.
While Bob Odenkirk's character in The Office was a meta cameo clearly written to be an exact copy of Steve Carell's Michael Scott, what viewers saw on "Moving On" is not necessarily how the actor would have played The Office's main character had he gotten the job. In The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, it is revealed that while Odenkirk and Carell were the frontrunners for the role of Michael Scott in The Office, their takes on the characters were completely different. Instead of the more sweet, playful style of Carell, Odenkirk would have played a "tougher and meaner" version of Michael Scott – most likely closer to the UK version of The Office. What Odenkirk would have brought to the role will remain a mystery, but viewers at least got to see a glimpse of the Better Call Saul actor's unique comedy in The Office.
Despite the brief appearance, Bob Odenkirk managed to elevate the episode by bringing some hilarious moments. Pam decided not to take that job, perhaps because the memories of Michael Scott, and Bob Odenkirk's character in The Office never appeared again. Viewers would get to see more of Bob Odenkirk later that year in Breaking Bad's fifth and final season.