By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
The Office plans to go out with a bang in a one-hour, May 16
finale that also will mark the NBC comedy's 200th episode, the network
announced Thursday.
The Emmy- and Peabody-winning series, in its
ninth season, has recently been advancing story lines leading up to the
finale, such as revealing members of the documentary crew who have been
filming the lives of the Dunder Mifflin paper company's employees.
During
a recent on-set interview, Rainn Wilson, who has played assistant to
the regional manager Dwight Schrute since the show's beginning, said he
didn't expect this kind of longevity when the show started.
"I had
no idea it would be lasting 200 episodes," he said. "I really thought
we would do six or 10 or 12 or 17, be something like Freaks and Geeks or Arrested Development and have a season or two and have it live on DVD. No idea it would go on nine years."