Is it Time for B.J. Novak to Give His Office Opening Credit to Ed Helms?

Even in episodes where he's relegated to a C-plot or worse, Helms seems to have the most lines on the show for someone not named Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, or Jenna Fischer -- bump him up to a B-plot, in fact, and he might get more to say than the latter two. It's clear that the writers (which include Novak) are delighted to write for Helms's blowhard Andy, and they've even given him a plotline wooing Dunder-Mifflin's new receptionist that reads like a punchy parody of the early days of Jim and Pam. By contrast, even in the rare episode or two a season where Novak's Ryan figures prominently, he still has awfully little to do and say; it's entirely possible that in a Ryan-heavy episode, he'll have less lines than Phyllis, Oscar, or a visiting guest star from corporate.

Producers for The Office haven't tinkered with the opening sequence since the show premiered, and that's their prerogative (even if the lighting has changed, the characters are no longer in the jobs they're shown in, and Steve Carell's mock hairplugs were zapped in a network note between Seasons One and Two). At this point, though, Novak's credit seems like they're practically mocking his meager amount of screen time. I'm reminded of Inglourious Basterds, where Novak filled much the same function as his Office character: he stood around in the background for most of the running time, then snagged a few lines near the end when Quentin Tarantino apparently forgot about his fellow soldiers. But hey, he got a great screen credit and a fun European trip out of his eleventh billing. Seems fair, doesn't it?

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