‘The Office’ Actor Returns $110K of Fan Donations for Stalled Stanley Hudson Spinoff
Leslie David Baker — the actor best known for playing Stanley Hudson on The Office — is returning donations to fans who supported his proposed Stanley spinoff series.
“Hello Uncle Stan Family, we apologize about the delay in updates, we have been working behind the scenes to get everything on track and rewards fulfilled,” Baker, 65, wrote in a statement via Instagram on Tuesday, August 1. “We are just as excited as all of you to get this project out and truly appreciate all of your patience and support.”
The spinoff show, which was titled Uncle Stan, was set to follow Stanley as he comes out of retirement in Florida and moves to Los Angeles to help his nephew with a failing business. According to the project’s Kickstarter page, the fundraiser kicked off in 2020 and in the past three years raised more than $300,000 — but seemingly no progress had been made on actually producing the show. Fans began to question on social media what was causing the delay.
“The project took longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control. Initial delays were caused because of the Covid lockdowns and pushed us back further than expected,” Baker explained in his Instagram post. “As things started returning to normal and we commenced reward fulfillment and preproduction, the WGA strike was announced causing us to put things on hold again. As you are all aware, SAG is now on strike and we will continue to hold indefinitely until an agreement is reached.”
Baker then announced that he and his team have decided to issue refunds to all donors — including those who had already received their promised perks such as a digital copy of the show’s script and personal phone call from Baker. However, Baker revealed the amount of money to be refunded is significantly less than the official Kickstarter dollar amount.
“Although the total funded amount shown on our Kickstarter campaign page was stated as $336,450.53, that was not the actual final amount we received,” Baker wrote. “A large portion of backers’ pledges were lowered or completely dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed. The final amount we received from Kickstarter was exactly $110,629.81.”
Despite the difference in numbers, Baker said/wrote that the funds received from fans were “never used for any purposes other than reward fulfillment and backer refunds.” He stated that the rest of the money “remained accounted for and untouched.”
Baker portrayed Stanley on The Office for nine seasons. Since the show ended in 2013, Baker has appeared in several shows and movies including Still the King, Raven's Home, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, and The Happytime Murders. In 2020, he also starred in commercials for Honey Nut Cheerios.
