There’s been a lot of talk about the new spin-off of The Office lately, so over the next few weeks at Big Diction, we’ll all be picking our favorite Office spin-off stars, and speculating on the show that might develop around them. Now, Mark Topel on Phyl and Bob.

We all love The Office. Over the last three years, it has proven to be one of the best and most consistent sitcoms on television. However, there have been some serious flaws in plot elements that, to the dismay of violently disgruntled fans, have never been addressed by the writers, the most notable of these blemishes being the tedious and uninteresting love triangle between Jim (John Krasinksi), Pam (Jenna Fischer), and Roy (David Denman).

Really, I think we had enough after the brief first season, but this lazy and unimaginative crutch allowed the writers to limp through the second and third seasons, completely ignoring the more interesting romance that had begun midway through the second season. No, not Dwight and Angela. That’s right, the forbidden romance between Phyllis Lapin and Bob Vance (Vance Refrigeration), played by Phyllis Smith and Robert Shafer, respectively.

Finally in the fourth and current season, Jim and Pam are together and Roy is out of the picture. It’s about damn time too because, like many of you, I was probably going to stop watching if every episode was going to be about the sexual tension between these two characters. Yes, John Krasinski is cool if you’re into handsome and funny guys, and I guess Jenna Fischer is okay if really talented and ridiculously attractive women are your thing, but I’m guessing the attention given to these two throughout the series has bothered you as much as it has bothered me.

After only brief mentions of their relationship and a single-episode story arc of their wedding, it’s my guess that NBC has finally gotten wise to what fans really want and have given Phyl and Bob their own show. The possibilities seem endless.