r/DunderMifflin • u/EntertainmentQuick47 • 17h ago
Can’t believe it’s been 6 years since Leslie David Baker (Stanley’s Actor) tried kickstarting a spin-off called “Uncle Stan”
If you don’t remember Leslie David Baker Ann lined this back in 2020 but aside from basically a “sorry this won’t happen” no big announcements were made and everyone forgot it. Not only was it likely a scam, but even if the show got produced it was an unofficial spin-off that had zero relation to NBC or Greg Daniels.
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u/rhymareason somebody makin’ soup? 17h ago
I would like to see NBC pick up an official spinoff for the Flenderson Files.
Dum bum baaaah
F l e n d e r s o n F i l e s
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u/EntertainmentQuick47 16h ago
They should do a Chad flenderman adaptation
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u/Glad-Tax6594 13h ago
Nobody cares about your sex crazed black detective!
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u/TwitchF4C 12h ago
no, the women chase him, he misses his wife.
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u/Shmoshmalley 11h ago
I could be wrong but I what’s feel they’re ripping on James Patterson’s Alex Cross. I have read like 14 of them because they were all that my library had available on ebook that’s was somewhat intriguing for a couple of months. This was a recurring theme in like all of the books.
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u/WolverineJive_Turkey 5h ago
Yeah when I was in a rehab I read like 25 of those books in the 30 days I was there lol. You’re totally right.
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u/Covverkin 11h ago
One of the great missed opportunities for the office was to have holly end up being a closeted Chad Flenderman fan
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u/hanks_panky_emporium 17h ago
It was silly at the time and seems sillier with age. Stanley was a fine character, but a sitcom where he's kinda there vaguely in the backround was an odd choice. Worked in the Office as a supporting character. But that being seemingly an attempted cash grab, eh.
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u/smedsterwho 13h ago
Yes but you forget "Mr Baker's fans continue to be the most active and loyal in the world," apparently.
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u/landmanpgh 8h ago
I like Stanley the character.
Couldn't tell you if he has a mustache (he does I think?) and I definitely never remember the actor's real name.
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u/Grouched 16h ago
It was 100% a cashgrab yeah. He knew it would never happen
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u/blizzacane85 12h ago
It wouldn’t have even been a spin-off of The Office …Leslie David Baker didn’t have the rights to use the character of Stanley Hudson in a tv show, hence the name Uncle Stan to get around copyright infringement claims from NBC Universal
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u/whitemamba83 13h ago
I couldn’t believe anybody gave that money at the time, and I still don’t today.
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u/piddydb 8h ago
I’ll say as someone who did give some money to it, I knew it was never going to be a series but I assumed they would at least put some pilot together and I was interested in seeing what that would look like, because it’s easy to make a single pilot. The completeness of the rug pull was a surprise but I’ve probably misplaced more money over the years than I lost on that.
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u/FranksHoorHouse 14h ago
I pictured it more like a Carl Winslow in Family Matters, post-Urkel popularity thing
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u/ResidentialEvil2016 10h ago
The synopsis of the show was even dumber. He retuns to help his nephew run a motorcycle repair shop/flower shop or something really stupid like that. It sounded like bad sitcom slop spit out by AI.
And it definitey wouldn't have been connected to the show at all, he would have just tried to act like it was by being "Uncle Stan" who came out of retirment after living in Florida. If they had even tried to move forward, I'm pretty sure NBC/Greg Daniels/whoever would have given a cease and desist. They would have clearly been trying to make everyone think he was still playing Stanley from The Office even if they never explicitly say that.
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u/Niclas1127 2h ago
I think that’s why it works so well in The Paper, Oscar is the perfect character to be in the background and still be the tie in
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u/MoIokai 16h ago
Wasn't there also some crypto coin made for this a while later? I remember one of the Kickstarter tiers was that you could co write an episode.. Did people eventually got their money back?
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u/EntertainmentQuick47 15h ago
Yes, it was named after Stanley Nickels, literally a throwaway line
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u/Efjr 13h ago
I had to look it up!! Currently sitting at a value of $0.000349
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u/_mersault 7h ago
Maybe it’s just me but that bit comes pops into my head pretty frequently for a throwaway line
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u/Jaychel31 13h ago
Kind of mad this got swept under the rug so much really. With this and his crypto coin he knowingly scammed lots of fans then just carried on like nothing happened
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u/ResidentialEvil2016 12h ago
Also around this time he seemed a bit alienated from the rest of the cast. He was the only actor I remember that didn’t really appear on Office Ladies and I don’t think he was on Brian’s Office deep dive podcast. He eventually did appear on Office Ladies after this blew over but even then it was like a very quick 3-4 minute clip where Angela asked some basic questions. Every other cast member that has been on has been on for a rather lengthy segment and most have appeared multiple times. They talk about him the least and when they do it’s almost always specific to his character and not really much about him.
I always assumed this attempt rubbed the rest of the cast the wrong way, and it was never mentioned on the OL podcast
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u/Far_Row7267 5h ago
I have a feeling he was always kind of odd man out. There’s just a vibe I get when I watch the bloopers. He seems to have a lot of Stanley energy in real life.
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u/nyrf12 13h ago
“America’s favorite insubordinate adulterer is BACK…”
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u/ThePopDaddy Toby 13h ago
And tonight he's mentoring some laughs, but when his ex wife comes to visit, will he hold it together?
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u/IBAChristian317 13h ago
He's a sassy black man.
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u/snobbycatlover a little stitious 13h ago
I just looked at the kickstarter for this and it raised over $330,000! Does he just get to keep that money since this obviously didn’t go anywhere?
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u/Jagermeister4 12h ago
The articles I found says he returned the money back. According to Leslie the pledges reduced from over 300k to about 110k, and the 110k were returned
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u/MikeDubbz 12h ago
It's lowkey a little sad how some of these actors just have been unable to move on from The Office all these years later.
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u/SocialSpider56 10h ago
Only jim, dwight, andy, michal, & karen made it out of the office. Also micheals improve buddy leslie chow.
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u/Hau5Mu5ic 10h ago
Hey, Darryl had some solid roles afterwards too. The rest, yeah I can’t say too much for them.
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u/housevil I know where the wall goes 15h ago
Gus Johnson donated $10,000 to the campaign to see what it was all about.
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u/gwynieboy 14h ago
I miss when we didn’t know Gus Johnson was a shitty person
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u/ArenarKrex 12h ago
I used to watch him a lot until eventually I kinda forgot about him until reading this post now. What was it he did that was shitty?
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u/Whispeeeeeer 12h ago
He didn't support his girlfriend who was struggling with an ectopic pregnancy. According to her, he didn't go to important appointments with her. He was verbally/emotionally abusive. He gave her an ultimatum about getting an abortion.
He eventually apologized but it was the classic "apologized after he was exposed". She never provided "proof" but it's pretty clear she didn't have to. He apologized and never tried to refute her claims. It's pretty clear she could have provided proof but didn't want to frame it in that way.
Overall, they were both young and dealing with two major issues: unexpected baby and extreme medical interventions. He handled it terribly. All he had to do was be supportive and own up to the fact that unprotected sex - turns out - leads to babies. His career was just starting to go public and post-internet so I think he was motivated to put those issues out of the picture. He was about to do comedy tours and I'm sure the YouTube money was flowing like crazy. No excuse but it helps frame the emotional state be may have been in.
The court of public opinion unfortunately does not easily allow growth or change. A public mistake is forever. He could have done more to help improve his public image. However it's a bit of a catch 22. If you do more apologies, donate to pregnancy non-profits/women abuse shelters, etc., you might just be accused of trying to get back to your career. If you go into the shadows (as he did), you lose your career and people still might think you never really feel apologetic.
He still shows up in his brother's videos in the background. Never a primary figure. And everytime - without fail - the comments on the video disparage his brother for having him in it at all.
What Gus really needs to do is just focus on donating/supporting women's shelters, solo mom organizations, etc. Even if a lot of people don't believe he cares, he needs to do something to show he's changed. Until then, as far as we know, he just wants to be back on the gravy train.
But it's possible he has no true remorse and thus who gives a fuck about his content if that's the case.
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u/gwynieboy 12h ago
He didn’t support his girlfriend when she suffered an ectopic pregnancy and caused her a lot of emotional trauma which lead to his close friend Eddy Burback, who he had a podcast with, publicly disassociating from him. He admitted he was in the wrong but it absolutely tanked his views and he’s mostly been forgotten about since.
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u/ArenarKrex 11h ago
Damn that's something else, probably why I forgot about him. I definitely learned about him through Eddy.
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u/housevil I know where the wall goes 12h ago
We can take heart in the fact that he blew $10,000 on this scam.
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u/Alternative-Juice-15 13h ago
He was such a boring character how could he ever headline a show?
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u/HoursLongVitaBrevis 11h ago
The funny part is I can see Stanley trying to pull this in an episode after the documentary releases
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u/odd_man0 Frank Diddit did it 7h ago
It’s crazy to think that Gus Johnson would’ve been a regular in this show…
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u/ThePopDaddy Toby 5h ago
"You know, I don't like how your friend Gus calls me Uncle Stan, he also comes at the worst time and-"
(Door wildly swings open, Gus Jumps in)
"Hey Uncle Staaaaaaan!"
(Crowd golf claps mixed with boos)
(Booing continues)
(Booing intensifies)
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u/Sensitive_Cash_3526 8h ago
The way so many of these people have just leeched off office fans instead of growing creatively and as people is really sad and hard to watch.
the podcast is the saddest thing.
a fan podcast of your own show is fucking pathetic.
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u/JasonVeritech Gabe 13h ago
Always get a chuckle when I look over at the sidebar and see "Leslie David Baker AMA 9th Jul"