Eagle-Eyed The Office Fan Notices Series Might Be in Same Universe as Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Over on the subreddit for The Office, are not lying down on the job just because the show's [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Over on the subreddit for The Office, are not lying down on the job just because the show's streaming future is headed for an as-yet-unavailable platform. A new fan theory has emerged that links The Office with the veteran NBC comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which takes place in a police department about two hours southeast of the Dunder-Mifflin paper company's hometown of Scranton, PA. The evidence is kind of thin, but it's more than many popular fan theories are built on, and given the fact that NBC has both shows, it's entirely possible that they could have a shared universe in the same vein as the ones enjoyed by The CW's DC Comics adapations.

It would not, in fact, be the first time NBC had a shared universe among its shows. For instance, Cheers (which was produced by CBS's Paramount Television, but originally aired on NBC) shared a universe with St. Elsewhere, Wings, The Tortellis, and Frasier (the latter two being direct spinoffs, and the former two having had minor character crossovers with Cheers).

The claim here is, basically, that an identical coffee vending machine seen both at the office park depicted in The Office and in the police department at Brooklyn Nine-Nine suggests the shows exist in the same universe. Fans in the comments are more or less evenly split on those who think it's a fun coincidence and that they should run with the fan theory, versus those who say it's more or less meaningless because coffee makers like that are ubiquitous.

You can see the original image, as shared by Redditor TheUnknown1203, below.

the-office-brooklyn-99-coffee-machine

Certainly as someone who has spent a lot of time in office parks in the Northeast, coffee makers virtually identical to this one (plus/minus the actual graphic and text) are incredibly common. As noted in the comments, they spit out virtually flavorless, but scaldingly hot, coffee and hot chocolate. The identical graphic could mean that they are getting their coffee from the same distributor, and/or that the shows do exist in the same universe. It's also possible that coffee machines like that really are common in the area around both real-world locations, since The Office always made a point of bringing in regional food and props that were accurate to Scranton during its run.

The simpler answer, though, is likely that they were purchased from the same prop warehouse. That very machine is listed on the website for Air Designs Set Dressing & Prop Rentals, likely suggesting that the thing that the shows are sharing isn't a fictional universe, but a real-world buyer who helped dress both sets.

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