Leslie David Baker portrayed “The Office’s” crossword-playing, pretzel-loving curmudgeon, Stanley Hudson. Originally a background player, his character grew in prominence and became a fan favorite. The series concluded in 2013 with Stanley happily retired in Florida. But in 2020, Baker announced that that wasn’t the end of the story.
“After having gone and done a lot of personal appearances at sporting events and Comic-Cons, I kept getting the question of, ‘What happened to Stanley after his retirement?’” Baker told ET’s Lauren Zima. “And after several years I said, ‘You know what? There is a life for this character after “The Office.” So let’s explore that, let’s look at it and see what he’s doing.’”
His decision to revisit the character was no surprise. That year, “The Office” was the most-streamed show in the country and several of his former castmates were capitalizing on the show’s continued popularity. Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly) and Angela Kinsely (Angela Martin) started the hit podcast, “Office Ladies,” just a year prior and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone) opened a Cameo account where he would make over $1M by year’s end selling personalized video messages. If there was ever a time for Stanley (and Baker) to shine, this was it.
That July, Baker and his business partner, Sardar Khan, launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce a pilot for an unlicensed spinoff to “The Office” called “Uncle Stan.” Despite the project’s dubious legality…
