| Robert California | |
|---|---|
| The Office character | |
James Spader as Robert California. |
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| First appearance | "Search Committee" |
| Created by | Paul Lieberstein |
| Portrayed by | James Spader |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch; Later CEO of Sabre. |
| Family | Bert (Son) |
| Spouse(s) | Susan (Ex-Wife) Two other unnamed Ex-Spouses |
Robert California is a fictional character on The Office, played by James Spader. He has no counterpart on the original British version of the series.
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Robert is currently the new CEO of Dunder Mifflin Sabre. A rather mysterious person, he is often inspiring to the workers in the office. But he also seems to have developed a reputation, according to Jim Halpert, as finding an employee within the office, zeroing in on them and having these really intense conversations that you don't, and do want to have with him as evident in "The List". He has been married three times, with his last wife, Susan, leaving him after the events of "Mrs. California". He also has a young son named Bert, presumably with Susan. He is shown to have somewhat of a fascination with Sesame Street, and a dislike for the explorer Christopher Columbus, due to the fact that he and his legions committed genocide against an entire civilization of Native Americans.
He also dislikes The Black Eyed Peas, as revealed in the episode "Christmas Wishes," saying "It's Rock and Roll for people who don't like Rock and Roll. It's Rap for people who don't like Rap. It's Pop for people who don't like Pop."
California first appeared in the season 7 finale "Search Committee" as an interviewee for the Scranton branch manager's job. During his job interview, he is asked by Toby how his experience selling refinery equipment translates to Dunder Mifflin's smaller scale. Robert answers with, "it does not make a difference whether a man wants a hundred dollars worth of paper or a hundred million dollars of deep sea drilling equipment, what he wants is respect," because, according to him, "there is no such thing as a product; only sex." Gabe voices that he's concerned Robert might be overly qualified, and asks him if he thinks that he might be, only for Robert to ask him if he looks like a person who would waste his own time. After he leaves the interview, Jim admits that while Robert creeps him out, he believes he might be a genius.
After the interview, he stops by Dwight's Caffeine Corner in the lobby, and attempts to sabotage Merv Bronte (Ray Romano), who is on his way up for his interview by telling him that the people in the office act like they're in prison. When Dwight questions Robert why he feels qualified to judge a place after a mere interview, he studies Dwight for a moment. Dwight tells him to stop, but Robert states he's already "figured him out". Dwight then asks him if he even knows anything about paper, to which Robert responds to by saying he saw an episode of how they make paper on Sesame Street. Dwight, disgusted, orders him to leave.
Later, in a talking-head interview held in the parking lot, Robert tells the camera he is sure he will be offered the job, as it is a call he has received many times.[1]
In "The List", it is revealed that Robert was hired as the branch manager over the summer, but quickly drives to Florida and convinces Sabre CEO Jo Bennett to give him her job. He appoints Andy Bernard as the regional manager. Jim notes that Robert spends half his time working out of the conference room, and occasionally wanders around the office picking random people to have strange conversations with, an experience that Jim describes as simultaneously terrifying and highly desirable. Robert makes a list of the people in the office, dividing them between perceived "winners" and "losers"; he takes the winners out to lunch. When confronted about the list, he states that those are his impressions, and they could change, challenging the office with: "winners: prove me right; losers: prove me wrong". Andy later imposes on Robert and makes up a new list, perceiving Robert's losers as Andy's winners. Robert quietly seems to respect Andy for it.[2]
During "The Incentive", Andy tries to get on Robert's good side by picking out a tie that he thinks will impress him. Robert challenges Andy to get the branch to double their sales with a motivational speech. Upon why he chose Andy for the job, he says of Andy that he is "all surface...uncomplicated, what you see is what you get" and that causes people to rally behind him, because he is an underdog. Robert later says, even if it's an underdog to unexceptional people. He also detects that Erin is attracted to Andy and tells Andy that he's aware of it, before saying he's already lost interest in that little tidbit of information.
Andy organizes a garden party at Schrute Farms during "Garden Party", to impress Robert. When he arrives, various employees make attempts to kiss up to him, most notably Ryan and Gabe, who offer their jackets. Robert also discusses the possibility of holding his birthday party at Schrute Farms, with Dwight.[3]
In "Spooked", Robert tries to figure out everyone's deepest fears in order to tell a ghost story that simultaneously frightens the entire office, itself a conscious effort to prevent the staff from allowing fear to run their lives.[4]
During "Doomsday", Robert is unhappy after discovering that an accounting error allowed a billed order to go to a client for free. He orders Andy to correct the error and Andy turns to Dwight, who uses a system nicknamed "the doomsday device". The device will count the number of errors made in the office and will generate an email report to Robert. Dwight also reveals several emails that are unflattering of Robert, including Jim, Oscar and Kelly that all discuss his creepiness. When the staff initiates an error email report to Robert, Andy tasks Jim with intercepting him at his squash session. The ploy is successful, particularly when Dwight decides to stop sending the report after a crisis of conscience. Although Jim plays quite poorly against Robert, who is particularly skilled at the game.[5]
In "Pam's Replacement", Robert joins Andy, Darryl and Kevin's band with a surprising talent for the harmonica but it gradually appears that when Robert's musically talented friends come to play, the original trio are phased out.[6]
When Andy takes much of the staff to visit "Gettysburg", Robert is elated to see those who stayed behind and calls them the "free thinkers" and has a staff meeting where they'll present all their best ideas. While many of the ideas are shot down by Robert, he takes a shine to Kevin's cookie idea with the vending machine. Although he perceives Kevin's simple ideas as metaphors, he eventually realizes that Kevin is literally speaking. This is made when Ryan , who's been trying to make a good impression on Robert, exposes one of Kevin's ideas as being nothing more than a simple idea.[7]
In the episode "Mrs. California," Robert's wife, Susan (Maura Tierney) comes to the office looking for a job, something Robert does not want, though he pretends to help her out. Andy ends up giving her a job with accounting, enraging Robert. Andy then gets the staff to be mean to her to urge her to quit. She catches on and confronts Andy and Robert. Susan later asks Jim if Robert didn't want her working in the office. Though he does not answer, Jim says he loves working with his wife Pam. Andy and Jim then leave the conference room as Robert and Susan sit and talk afterward. The episode ends with Susan talking to Andy later and asking him on a date.[8]
During "Christmas Wishes", it's revealed that Robert's marriage is ending in divorce, prompting him to become quite despondent and lonely. He arrives at the branch Christmas party in a track suit, despite wearing his normal dark blazer with hopes of being cheered up by the party, after the Sabre party is a bland affair. Robert becomes a bartender for the party and notices early on, that Erin is visibly unhappy over Andy's new girlfriend. He assigns Oscar to take over and ends up comforting Erin, who ended up drunk and arguing with Andy. Robert drives her home, hugs her and gives her advice on how to cure her hangover, much to the relief of Andy who trails them in Meredith's car as her designated driver.[9]
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