The Office star reveals the pitched romance that never was
Brian Baumgartner had hopes for a potential relationship between Kevin and Erin.
The Office (US) star Brian Baumgartner has revealed that his character Kevin Malone almost had a romantic storyline with Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) after he had pitched that the pair should get together.
Baumgartner had Kemper on as a guest on the most recent episode of his podcast, An Oral History of The Office, when he divulged the information.
He said, "Do you know that I pitched Kevin and Erin getting together?” to which Kemper responded that she though a relationship between the two characters would have been "pretty reasonable".
Baumgartner added, "I went up to the writers’ room, and I said, ‘If Kevin could mature just a little, there was something about their energy that I thought was right.' Their energies matched in a weird way."
After Kemper said she loved that pitch and it made sense to her, Baumgartner concluded, "Sadly, we never got to witness the great love story that Kevin and Erin could have been."
Of course, while a romantic relationship between the pair never developed, a season six episode of the show did see Kevin and Erin go on a lunch date that had been set up by Michael Scott (Steve Carell) - but it did not go well.
Meanwhile, Kemper's appearance on the podcast also saw her discuss her character's relationship with Andy Bernard, who was played by Ed Helms.
She said, "I felt like Andy was a bit too childish," the actress said. "He wasn’t ready to take care of Erin. Erin was ready to take care of Andy, but I felt that it was uneven in that respect."
Baumgartner's 12-episode podcast looks back on the popular US remake of the beloved sitcom, which ran for nine seasons between 2005 and 2013.
The podcast debuted exclusively on Spotify last month, with the episodes including appearances with some of the biggest stars from the show including with Carell, John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly), Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin).
All nine seasons of The Office US are available on Amazon Prime Video. Sign up for Amazon Prime for £7.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. Find out what else to watch with our TV Guide.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.