The Office's Brian Baumgartner says he pitched Kevin and Erin as a couple: 'The great love story'
Plenty of characters got together throughout The Office's nine seasons, but fans were deprived of the perfect couple — Kevin and Erin.
On his podcast, An Oral History of The Office, Brian Baumgartner, who played the bumbling Kevin Malone on the NBC series, revealed that he proposed for his character to date receptionist Erin Hannon, played by Ellie Kemper.
“Do you know that I pitched Kevin and Erin getting together?” Baumgartner asked Kemper, who served a guest on Tuesday's podcast episode.
“I think that would be a pretty reasonable relationship," she responded.
Baumgartner said he felt the two oddballs' personalities made them compatible "in a weird way."
"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,'" he recounted. "Their energies matched in a weird way."
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“That actually makes perfect sense to me. I love that pitch,” Kemper said.
"Sadly, we never got to witness the great love story that Kevin and Erin could have been," Baumgartner added.
Kemper also talked about her character's relationship with Andy Bernard, portrayed by Ed Helms, and said she "never thought" Erin and Andy belonged together.
"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."
In season 6, Kevin and Erin did actually go on a lunch date set up by boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), but it did not go well. However, we could see the pair hitting it off in a different setting — maybe if Kevin makes her his world-famous chili, or after Erin asks for "another alcohol." The two were never Dunder Mifflin's sharpest employees, but their silly and innocent personas still endeared them to audiences.
Erin and boyfriend Pete Miller (Jake Lacy) were still going strong in the series finale, and while Kevin didn't end up with anyone at the end of the show, it wasn't for lack of trying. We learned in the series that the accountant has proposed to not one, not two, but four different women, and he had a girlfriend named Lynn in season 5.
Baumgartner's 12-episode podcast debuted exclusively on Spotify on July 14, featuring interviews with Carell, John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly), Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin) and more.
Listen to the full episode below:
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