WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS forward for The Paper season 1, episode 1.
The sequence premiere of The Paper wastes no time in revealing what occurred to the Dunder Mifflin paper firm from The Workplace, the place Michael Scott and his staff labored for almost all of the celebrated comedy sequence.
The Paper premiered solely on Peacock on Thursday, September 4, 2025, and has acquired a powerful Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 86%. Whereas it was initially thought that Oscar Martinez would be the only character returning in The Office spin-off, Bob Vance, the husband of Phyllis, makes a shock look in episode 1 to elucidate what occurred to Dunder Mifflin that led to a Toledo-based newspaper.
Bob Vance Confirms That Dunder Mifflin Hasn’t Been In Operation Since 2019
The Paper sequence premiere chilly opens with a scene exterior the Dunder Mifflin workplace in Scranton, Pennsylvania, twenty years later – however with one key twist. Vance Refrigeration, owned by Bob Vance, Phyllis’s husband, remains to be working at Scranton Enterprise Park, however Dunder Mifflin is lengthy gone.
Bob was a supporting character within the authentic sequence who appeared in 25 episodes, the final of which was the sequence finale on the finish of The Workplace season 9. He tells the digital camera crew in The Paper’s opening scene that Dunder Mifflin has been “gone for some time,“ though Phyllis and Stanley nonetheless keep up a correspondence. A laser eye surgical procedure and tattoo removing firm known as One and Completed now operates within the workplace house the place Dunder Mifflin as soon as was.
Dunder Mifflin Was Purchased By A Firm Based mostly In Toledo
Bob helps the digital camera crew determine what occurred to Dunder Mifflin on the Chamber of Commerce web site. He discovers that Dunder Mifflin was bought by a paper firm primarily based out of Toledo, Ohio, known as Enervate in 2019. This leads the digital camera crew to the Reality Teller Tower in Toledo, the place a technique exec named Ken explains that Enervate produces all kinds of paper merchandise, starting from newspapers to rest room paper.
Considered one of Enervate’s paper merchandise is the Toledo Reality Teller, a as soon as respected newspaper whose CEO is Marv Putnam. The ninth flooring of Reality Teller Tower holds the workplaces of one other Enervate model, Softees rest room paper, in addition to the Toledo Reality Teller. The newspaper is evidently not what it was again in its pre-Web heyday, most importantly as a result of rise of on-line journalism and social media.
Following Bob’s introduction into the world of the Toledo Reality Teller, following the demise of Dunder Mifflin, the remainder of the premiere episode focuses on the brand new slate of characters, led by new Editor-in-Chief Ned Sampson. Ned beforehand labored in gross sales for Softees however transitioned to the journalism facet of issues at Enervate with the ambition of turning the struggling newspaper round in The Paper.
