TVSquad

One of the more interesting things to come out of the Silverman-Graboff executive session (which I promise will be up later today ... probably this evening) is that, though Amy Poehler has been signed to be in a show produced by The Office's Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, that show will not be an Office spin-off. It'll have the same comic sensibility and style as The Office, but the characters won't be part of the Office universe. However, a real Office spin-off is still in play, and there's potential for Rashida Jones to be a part of it.

Got that? Neither did the critics, who repeatedly asked mostly Silverman to clarify the situation during both the panel and the scrum that followed.

According to Silverman and Graboff, the goal was to have the Poehler show debut directly after the Super Bowl in February, which NBC is broadcasting this year. But Poehler's pregnancy, and the fact that she's going to be participating on SNL and its various specials through the election, made that difficult. For now, the show will likely air in March, and there are no current plans for what will be done in that coveted spot after the big game.

As for the multiple ideas from Daniels and Schur, Silverman said that "they came up with two ideas, one which is totally a spinoff which they're pursuing planted inside, using Office characters, and there was a parallel concept that's stylistically like The Office, but not part of the Office world." They and Poehler thought she was a better fit with the latter, so that's where the concentration of Daniels and Schur is at the moment.

But it doesn' t mean that the direct spin-off is dead. When asked about Aziz Ansari and Rashida Jones during the post-panel scrum, Silverman mentioned that they're both part of what he said are the "Greg Daniels players," and said that Jones in particular would likely come back in the direct spin-off. That means we'll probably see more of Karen Filippelli. Does that mean we're going to see the workings of the Dunder-Mifflin Utica branch, where she landed the job as the regional manager? Or will she be somewhere else? Only time will tell.