Watching The Office

Off to spend a long weekend. Be back Monday…

According to Knoxnews, production to Season 5 begins in Los Angeles today as the show prepares for its new season premiere in September 25th.

Episode 1 to Season 5 will be an hour long episode, which includes some flashbacks to what happened at the office during the summer.

Also, expect a weight challenge in the storyline.

Watch this video of how the writers from The Office were introduced to the crowd at the Comic Con panel. Fun! —

The Office Comic Con Panel was moderated by Rainn Wilson but this apparently was Greg Daniel’s first time at such event. Also in attendance were Michael Schur, B.J. Novak, Gene Stupinsky, Jennifer Celotta, Mindy Kaling, Lester Lewis, Lee Eisenberg, Anthony Ferrel, Justin Spitzer and Ryan Koh. These all the other writers for the series.

If anyone was looking for scoops for the next season, the panel apparently had little to give but based on these videos are courtesy of Mahalo everyone seemed to have such a great, fun time at The Office panel. Those writers are really funny and Rainn Wilson did a great job keeping the pace and moderating.

NBC also has a special section set up for this year’s Comic Con and you can check for more videos and tidbits there.

The Office’s Phyllis hints at payback for the BIG secret.

The Office’s Melora Hardin is back for the season premier.

Thanks to Lauren!

According to Variety, BBC Worldwide has given license to a Russian edition of The Office. It is set to have 24 episodes and will be aired on Russia’s Channel One, under the production company called Red Square.

Under the editorial supervision of BBC Worldwide’s executive producer Duncan Cooper, the broadcaster has the rights to develop new storylines around local characters, beyond the original 13 scripts, in order to make a longer running series.

“Russia is an important territory for us,” said Ben Donald, BBC Worldwide’s head of sales for the country. “We’ve had much success with other formats such as ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ ‘Junior Mastermind’ and most recently ‘Great Russians,’ which is causing huge debate in the media.”

The comedy series, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, is airing in more than seventy countries and has five versions —- Britain, France, US, Canada and Chile.

Speaking of the Chilean version, take a look at their website patterned after the US version. Their show will debut in Chile next month.

Angela Kinsey is scheduled to appear on Monk’s 100th episode (the show has been on that long already?).

Paul Leiberstein’s marriage to one Janine Poreba was in The New York Times.

Melora Hardin dishes on what’s ahead for the very pregnant Jan on The Office. She also talks about Holly Flax.

Phyllis’ knowledge of Dwight and Angela hooking up, will she or won’t she use it against them? And what about Stanley, is he going to call on Michael’s behavior again? Watch this video.

And what does Dwight have to say about a baby Dwangela?

Speaking of Dwight, I mean, Rainn Wilson, listen to his radio interview with Philly’s Rock Station 94WYSP while promoting The Rocker.

Ed Helms was on The Daily Show last night! I missed this one.

I also have not seen this before, but watch Steve Carell talk about his son, Jack, on Letterman.

How did The Office game with Mindy Kaling in Scranton turn out?

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It doesn’t seem NBC has an idea about what it wants to happen to The Office spin-off or Amy Poehler for that matter. No, wait…let me correct that. It seems like they have TONS of ideas in mind and can’t decide on what to deal with first.

Initially, news came out that Amy Poehler was going to leave SNL and head to the spin-off. Then immediately after that news went to press it turns out that the real story is — she’s heading to an entirely different show managed by the same people running The Office (headed by Greg Daniels); and it won’t be a spin-off after all. And the other day we find out, NBC wants to do both:

NBC co-chair Ben Silverman says the network is not only doing a Greg Daniels comedy starring Amy Poehler, but is also still pursuing a separate “Office” spinoff.

“They came up with two ideas,” Silverman says. “One that is totally a spinoff and planted in ‘The Office’ and may involved characters from ‘The Office.’ The other is a new concept that’s set stylistically similar to ‘The Office.’ We decided to put all our energy into getting Amy. We literally pursued her the entire year and it is incredible we were able to land her. Amy will never appear in the world of ‘The Office.’ The show is not a spinoff. It does not come directly from the world of ‘The Office.’”

That said, “We are also going to be continue to pursue the spinoff as well,” Silverman says.

Is your head already spinning?

Let me sum it up for you:

• Amy Poehler = Leaving SNL. For new primetime show on NBC. Thought to be the The Office spin-off. Not anymore. It will, however, have the “sensibilities” of The Office.
• Office Writers (Greg Daniels and Michael Schur) = Still with The Office. Going to work on the new Amy Poehler show. Will still work on The Office spin-off.

With the writers from The Office dividing their time between the main show, Amy Poehler’s comedy and the still-in-the-plans spin-off…hmmm, it doesn’t seem like a grand idea. One show is definitely going to suffer in quality. Everyone knows how good the writers and the show runner for The Office are, but does NBC realize they are not super human?

Also, with the spin-off talks, no one has made mention of this guy again. Is he still in the plans?

With Microsoft’s gaming console partnership with Netflix and NBC Universal, shows like Heroes and The Office will be available for streaming via the Xbox 360 real soon.

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The biggest news related to anything The Office over the weekend was Amy Poehler’s confirmation that she is indeed going to be in the planned spin-off. And since we’ve had some site issues a few days ago and I was out sick, I only had the chance to provide the update today.

Anyway…so, yes Amy Poehler has confirmed with The Associated Press — she is heading to primetime. The earlier rumor that she’s leaving Saturday Night Live (SNL) to do the new show which will be a mid-season replacement, is true. But more developments about the spinoff have come into play since. And apparently, it isn’t so much a spinoff, but rather, it’s a new show altogether.

Nikki Finke from Deadline Hollywood Daily has reported that showrunner Greg Daniels and NBC had different concepts to where the spinoff should head to. Eventually, Daniels won over his boss and will instead take Poehler and the new show to “an unrelated series with an ‘Office’-like tone and vision.”

Incidentally, Amy Poehler is the very first SNL performer to ever earn an Emmy Nomination (Best Supporting Actress) for playing Hillary Clinton. She and husband Will Arnett celebrated her nomination with Ice Cream shots, keeping away from any alcohol as the actress is currently pregnant with their first child (I’m telling you, that baby is good luck!).

Amy is due to give birth in October but the couple still has no idea what the baby’s gender will be.

Here are videos of Rainn Wilson keeping his summer busy “working” at CNN and at a local Fox affiliate, both as a weatherman and a traffic announcer.

These are actually promo stunts for his upcoming movie, The Rocker, which comes to theaters August 20th.

This is the complete number of Emmy nominations The Office has earned for this year’s TV awards season:

• Outstanding Comedy Series: The Office
• Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series : Steve Carell
• Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series: Rainn Wilson
• Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series: ‘Money,’ Paul Lieberstein
• Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series: ‘Goodbye, Toby,’ Paul Feig
• Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series: ‘Dinner Party,’ Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky
• Outstanding Picture Editing For A Comedy Series: ‘Goodbye, Toby,’ Dave Rogers and Dean Holland
• Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series: ‘Local Ad,’ Ben Patrick, John W. Cook II, Peter J. Nusbaum

The results will be announced in a ceremony slated on September 21st which will be aired on ABC.

The Emmy Nominations was announced only minutes ago by Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth. For The Office, the show gets an Emmy Nod for Best Comedy, while Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson are both nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting actor respectively.

The show also picked a nomination for Best Writing (Comedy).

The rest of the nominees are:

Best Drama:
Boston Legal
Mad Men
Dexter
House
Lost
Damages

Best Actress, Drama:
Glenn Close (Damages)
Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters)
Marishka Hargitay (Law and Order SVU)
Holly Hunter (Saving Grace)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

Best Actor, Drama:
Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
James Spader (Boston Legal)
Hugh Laurie (House, MD)

Best Supporting Actor, Drama:
William Shatner (Boston Legal)
Ted Danson (Damages)
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Zeljko Ivanek (Damages)
Michael Emerson (Lost)

Best Supporting Actress, Drama:
Candace Bergen (Boston Legal)
Rachel Griffiths (Brothers and Sisters)
Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy)
Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)
Dianne Wiest (In Treatment)

Best Reality Competition:
Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
Top Chef
Project Runway

Best Comedy:
30 Rock
The Office
Entourage
Two and a Half Men
Curb Your Enthusiasm

Best Actress, Comedy:
Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty)
Mary Louise-Parker (Weeds)

Best Actor, Comedy:
Steve Carell (The Office)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies)
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)
Charlie Sheen (Two and A Half Men)

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy:
Jeremy Piven (Entourage)
Kevin Dillon (Entourage)
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)
Rainn Wilson (The Office)

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy:
Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies)
Jean Smart (Samantha Who?)
Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live)
Holland Taylor (Two and A Half Men)
Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty)

While The Office is on hiatus, Craig Robinson, who plays Darryl on the show, will be seen performing at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal (July 18th) and Toronto (July 26).

He has been recently featured on Digital Journal.

On what his audience should expect at his stand-up show: “It’s like you’re in a basement chilling with friends and family. Like a picnic. Hey, you might as well bring some watermelon.”

On his most memorable Office moment: In the episode where Michael is researching on Wikipedia on how to fire employees, Robinson’s character Darryl chats with the boss about the online encyclopedia. “For the first two takes, I was deadpan, I didn’t laugh,” Robinson remembers. “But Steve was too funny, making faces and what not, and I was cracking up. If you look closely at the episode, you’ll see me smiling a bit.”

On working with Seth Rogen in "Pinapple Express": “His improve skills are amazing. You truly got to be on your game working with him.”

On working with Kevin Smith’s movie "Zack and Miri Make a Porno": “He’s laid back and knows exactly what he wants. He is truly one of the coolest dudes ever. Kevin isn’t the type of director who’s going to be out of there as soon as the shoot is over. We went out for dinner, went bowling, it was great.”

Craig Robinson is also in the cast of the upcoming sequel "Night at the Museum 2" and has appeared on other TV shows like Friends, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Bernie Mac Show.

Are you going to like this news?

THR reveals that Amy Poehler’s name has been thrown and linked to talks about the spinoff last April but the rumor has since fizzled out. It’s now back on again, especially after the success of her movie with Tina Fey, "Baby Mama". 

But certain issues have yet to be considered, such as her presence on Saturday Night Live and the fact that she is to give birth in the fall.

The report is after the cut…

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