page_title: The Farm (The Office)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Farm (The Office) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Actress Majandra Delfino at the ATX TV Festival 2014 for the TV show Roswell
context_page_description: "The Farm" is the seventeenth episode of the ninth season of the American comedy television series The Office and the 193rd overall. It originally aired on NBC on March 14, 2013. The episode guest stars Majandra Delfino, Matt Jones, Thomas Middleditch, Blake Garrett Rosenthal, David Koechner, Allan Havey, Nora Kirkpatrick, Mary Gillis, and Michael Schur.
  The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The episode revolves around Dwight Schrute attending the funeral of his Aunt Shirley at Schrute Farms, where his family reunites. Meanwhile, Todd Packer returns to the office claiming to be a reformed man.
  "The Farm" was produced to serve as a backdoor pilot for a proposed spin-off series starring Wilson as Dwight, which NBC ultimately did not pick up. The episode received mostly negative reviews from television critics, with many criticizing Dwight's farm storyline and some critics calling it a "Frankenstein episode". The episode was viewed by 3.54 million viewers and received a 1.9/5 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.
context_section_description: The episode was written and directed by executive producer and former showrunner Paul Lieberstein, marking his thirteenth writing credit, sixth directorial credit and fourth dual credit. "The Farm" was the fifth episode produced, but was the seventeenth aired, as noted by its production number. It was originally supposed to act as a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series, also called The Farm starring Wilson and focusing on Dwight. As such, Wilson was initially slated to appear in only 13 episodes of The Office's ninth season before leaving for the spin-off. Paul Lieberstein, the showrunner for The Office for seasons five through eight, stepped down at the start of season nine in order to focus more energy on the potential spin-off. However, upon review, the spin-off was not picked up by NBC. Executive producer Greg Daniels revealed that the episode would have additional material shot so that it fits better into the season, as the original version contained "certain aspects that were appropriate for a pilot of a new show".
  The episode guest stars Majandra Delfino, Blake Garrett Rosenthal, Thomas Middleditch and Matt Jones as members of Dwight's family, who were intended to form the main cast of The Farm with Wilson; Delfino plays Dwight's sister Fannie, Rosenthal plays Dwight's nephew Cammy, Middleditch portrays Dwight's brother Jeb, and Jones portrays Dwight's cousin Zeke. Tom Bower appears as Dwight's great uncle Heinrich in a deleted scene only, although he retains his credit in the broadcast episode. Jones had previously appeared in the ninth season entry, "Junior Salesman".
caption: Majandra Delfino guest starred as Dwight's sister.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T3i", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:10:26 20:14:56", "Image Artist": "Dominick Dusseault", "Image Copyright": "iDominick Visual Media", "Image ExifOffset": "280", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "970", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10303", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:08 10:46:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:08 10:46:26", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "163", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Dominick Dusseault", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "132155001290", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[55, 250, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000356f42"}