Is Will Ferrell the Great Pretender to Steve Carell's Throne?

My kids are "Office" purists. For as much as my houseful of "Office" fans have debated the exodus of Michael Scott, ahem, I mean Steve Carell, and who will fill the boss's desk chair, they never saw Will Ferrell coming and are not at all pleased.

Don't get me wrong; they love gangly, puerile Will Ferrell. Since "Elf" and on through "Anchorman" Ron Burgundy (with Steve Carell, incidently), and even into the quasi-serious "Stranger than Fiction" (with no less a personage than Brit heavy-weight Emma Thompson), 43-year-old Ferrell keeps it coming.

Oh sure, the SNL frat-packer has had a few failed-to-ignite" roles along the way: Blades of Glory (with "Napoleon Dynamite" Jon Heder) and "Bewitched" (Ferrell was nominated for a Razzie Worst Actor). And Ferrell's smirking prepubescent persona does cling like Saran Wrap.

But that's all to the good for a spot in "The Office". Juvenalia is Dunder-Mifflin/ Sabre- Scranton branch's stock in trade. Without the snark factor, "The Office" would be just, well, another office. I mean look at Carell and Ferrell side by side: they even look somewhat alike. Same charming delusions of grandeur, same simple-minded, Mona Lisa smile.

Be all that as it may, my "Office" fanatics can't seem to process the Carell-Ferrell merger. With the same energy that they like Will, they are equally and oppositely against him as a contender to Michael Scott. It's like some kind of collective existential crisis. I asked them, "Would you rather a stranger sat in Michael's chair?" The unilateral reply was "duh!". They act like Ferrell is a Pretender to the Throne, a usurper.

To juxtapose Ferrell against Michael's canine devotee Dwight Shrute (Rainn Wilson), anal Angela, porcine Kevin, schizophrenic Kelli, is not as great a leap of faith for me. Maybe I don't understand because I'm not addicted to "The Office" menage. Maybe my outsider view is clearer than their prejudiced one. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt.

I did find NBC Exec Paul Lieberstein's take on the Ferrell coup rather funny. "We are proud to continue The Office's tradition of discovering famous talent, and we hope that once America gets a good look at Will, they'll see what we see: tremendous raw sexuality."

Anyway, that's what she said. For more one movies and television, check out my linked blogs.