TheOffice-related stories
Posted Jul 3rd 2009 2:00PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Upfronts, Reality-Free
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like
Life and
Medium, and
My Name is Earl. The fact that they're replacing these shows with
not one but two medical shows, isn't exactly a confidence booster. NBC hasn't sent screeners of all their pilots yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. But I have gotten a taste of both their comedy and drama offerings with
Community, a comedy starring
The Soup's Joel McHale, and
Trauma, one of the aforementioned medical dramas.
Going into this, I didn't have high hopes for
Trauma, and while I wanted to like
Community, I had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be the vehicle that would change Joel McHale from cute host of a basic cable show to primetime star. Now, after seeing both of them, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by one.
Continue reading TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
Posted Jul 1st 2009 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free, British TV
The creator of the world's most popular sitcom franchise,
The Office, should be beyond the reach of critics anywhere. But, Ricky Gervais is preemptively telling reviewers to lay off his new movie,
The Invention of Lying.
The comedy Gervais co-wrote and directed with Matthew Robinson explores a world where no one has ever lied until a writer seizes the opportunity for personal gain.
Gervais doesn't want critics to expect too much. On his blog, he wrote, "Dear critics (everyone), when judging the film, please remember that it is a high concept, PG-13 romantic comedy. It's not
Schindler's List or
The Godfather."
Continue reading The Office's Ricky Gervais defends his Invention of Lying
Posted Jun 27th 2009 9:03AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Spoilers Anonymous, Reality-Free
This is
Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at
TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our
tips form or by emailing us at
tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at
(775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
Note that over the summer,
Spoilers Anonymous will be published every two weeks due to production hiatus for most TV series. Weekly columns will resume in August.
This week we have spoilers for:
90210, Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, Greek, Grey's Anatomy, House, NCIS: Los Angeles, One Tree Hill, Scrubs, Smallville, The Office and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous
Posted Jun 20th 2009 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free, British TV
Ricky Gervais of
The Office and
Extras fame is going to design a man purse -- but it's for a good cause.
The
U.K.'s Prostrate Cancer Charity (part of the Charity Aids Foundation) asked television stars and other celebrities to design a man's handbag for
The Manbag Company. Each unique design will be auctioned off to fight prostate cancer.
Of course, Gervais is a funny man and a cool, self-effacing celeb. But, it'll be interesting to see if even he can make something as inherently uncool as a man purse into swag a guy will want to spend money on -- cancer be damned.
Continue reading The Office's Gervais will design Manbag for charity
Posted Jun 18th 2009 6:07PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Lost, Video, The Office, Reality-Free
Lost fanatics, rejoice! We may still have, oh, more than half a year left before we get cheerfully dumped with a load of new episodes (::drool::), but in the meantime, we have DVD's,
abc.com, repeats on
SyFy, and
YouTube!
Yes,
YouTube.
Well, technically, we can't get our fix of full episodes on "the Tubez," but the site still provides us with plenty of fodder; fan dedications, clip montages, and music videos galore. Let's face it: people love their Hurley birds, smoke monsters, and everlasting, cancer-conquering romances. And why shouldn't they?
Continue reading What if Lost were a sitcom from the nineties?
Posted Jun 9th 2009 11:19AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Interviews, The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free
The last few years have been very good for Amy Ryan. She's had a recurring role in
The Wire, nabbed an Oscar nomination for her role as a drug-addicted mother in
Gone Baby Gone, co-starred in
The Changeling and helped Matt Damon find WMDs in the upcoming Iraq-themed action pic
Green Zone.
But if you show most people a picture of the veteran actor, who's also been nominated for Tonys for her stage work, they'll just go, "Oh, that's Holly." Ryan's role Holly Flax on
The Office not only represented a soul mate for Steve Carell's Michael Scott, but she was surprisingly adept at channeling her inner dork for the role. She has no idea if she'll be back next year, but she I can't imagine Greg Daniels and his minions won't think of some way to work her in again.
Ryan recently wrapped up production of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's first directorial effort,
Jack Goes Boating, and was taking a welcome break when I spoke to her in late May. But at least she did something nice for our mid-morning interview, as you'll see after the jump.
Continue reading Amy Ryan: The TV Squad Interview
Posted May 28th 2009 3:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Interviews, The Office, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
This morning, I had a really fun interview with Amy Ryan, who's taking a little time off after a busy couple of years. During the conversation, which mostly revolved around her fantastic guest turn on
The Office as Michael Scott's soulmate Holly Flax, I had to ask her the question most
Office fans have been wondering about since the season finale: Is she coming back?
Your guess is as good as hers. "They keep that (the plans for Holly) under wraps, if they are indeed thinking of it. There's no plan there." When I asked her if she was under contract for any episodes next season, she said she wasn't.
What is she hoping Greg Daniels and company do with Holly in the coming years? "The viewer in me, the fan of the show, hopes that they (Michael and Holly) get together. The actor in me would love to see that there's still conflict along the way. That's where it's fun."
I'll have the complete interview with Ryan next week.
Posted May 15th 2009 1:34AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E26) Driving home tonight, I got a text from my wife: "Wow wow wow
Office... just wow! Rivals 'Casino Night!'"
That kind of praise has the potential to ruin what would normally be a very good episode, if only because you're prepared for something extraordinary. So far, only three things in my life have ever lived up to the hype: Heath Ledger in
The Dark Knight, sex, and Cadbury Flake bars. Everything else has been kind of a letdown.
I was worried, then, that my wife's words would condemn tonight's
Office to be more meh than magnificent. After all, we're not at the end of a grand storyline like we have been the last few season finales -- part of what made "Casino Night" so special was that it was the culmination of two years of Jim's pining away for Pam.
I just didn't think "Company Picnic" would be able to pull off that kind of greatness as a standalone episode ...
Continue reading The Office: Company Picnic (season finale)
Posted May 14th 2009 5:27PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free, British TV
Remember that
American version of Absolutely Fabulous that Fox was so high on? Well, they are high no more.
Fox has passed on AbFab after viewing the pilot. Now while I am not the kind of person to be happy about someone else's failure, this is an instance in which I'm thrilled that this show is going nowhere.
After seeing how some UK shows have been mangled in the American adaptation --
Life on Mars (although it had its fans),
Worst Week,
Coupling,
Eleventh Hour -- I am glad that the only
Ab/Fab I will ever have to savor will be the original.
Continue reading Fox says "no, sweetie darling" to US AbFab
Posted May 8th 2009 12:55AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E25) About midway through tonight's show, I was prepared to write about how disappointed I was that only one week out from the conclusion of the Michael Scott Paper Company arc, we were subjected to such a throwaway episode.
Here's what I would have written: "How many times can we see Michael be disappointed that no one wants to join him in his crazy shenanigans? This is a 'go-to' plotline that I wish they would stop going to!" I would have then nodded solemnly at the screen, content that I had proved once again that blogging about TV is the most important job a person can have.
But before I had the chance to craft the rest of that review, something awesome happened. Like most awesome things, it started with two hot girls dancing with each other ...
Continue reading The Office: Cafe Disco
Posted May 6th 2009 5:35PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Industry, The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free
NBC hearts Mindy Kaling, the actor-writer-producer who plays the insecure Kelly Kapoor on
The Office. The network has
offered her a deal to create and star in her own NBC series. And who could blame them?
Kaling's a talented writer who has penned some great
Office eps, including "Golden Ticket," "Diwali" and "Frame Toby." She's also a memorable character actor. Kelly is a great character, and I won't soon forget her brief appearance as Paul Rudd's ex-girlfriend in
The 40 year Old Virgi
n.
Kaling will continue to appear and work on
The Office next season while developing the new show. She's currently kicking around ideas.
Continue reading The Office's Mindy Kaling is developing her own show
Posted May 1st 2009 7:01PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Spoilers Anonymous, Reality-Free
This is
Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at
TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our
tips form or by emailing us at
tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at
(775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
This week we are doing things a bit differently and offering a run down of what will happen during May for the series listed after the semi colon; note that some spoilers may have been posted in previous columns:
24, 30 Rock, 90210, Bones, Brothers & Sisters, Castle, Desperate Housewives, Fringe, Ghost Whisperer, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, House, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, NCIS, Numb3rs, Prison Break, Smallville, Supernatural, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, The Office and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous: May Sweeps Edition
Posted May 1st 2009 12:44AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E24) I liked this episode a lot, so the following criticism is an admitted nitpick:
To my knowledge, this is the first time we've seen a "casual Friday" on the show. We've had several episodes take place on Fridays, and the cast
always dressed normally.
I can't stand when shows do this. To revolve a plot around something that we haven't seen previously and probably won't ever see again ... it just feels so
sitcommy.
Don't get me wrong, it was funny (especially when Meredith's boob, butt, and "other" fell out), but I expect more from
The Office than common sitcom tropes. What's next? A laugh track? Replacing John Krasinksi with Dick Sargent? Finding out that Michael Scott is
really Armin Tamzarian? Blech.
Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest. Now, on to the rest of the review...
Continue reading The Office: Casual Friday
Posted Apr 29th 2009 7:07PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, The Office, Reality-Free
Here's another reason to love Adult Swim. Cartoon Network's late night brand -- home to some of the best animated fare on TV, like
The Venture Bros. and the awesome
G.I. Joe Resolute -- will begin
airing the original BBC version of The Office starting this summer.
The network will air both seasons of the British comedy, produced by Ricky Gervais, plus the Christmas special. This is great news for U.S. comedy nerds dying to introduce the show to their friends (and don't feel like buying all three DVD box sets). Hopefully they'll air it in between
Aqua Teen and
Tim and Eric -- and not at 4 a.m.!
I love this show, and I love the NBC version. I won't even try to compare the two here, since the NBC version has evolved into such a completely different show. But there's one thing the NBC version is missing -- Ricky Gervais. I'm aware of Gervais' producing role on the show, but I've always wanted to see him make a cameo as David Brent -- the UK version of Michael Scott.
Continue reading BBC's The Office to air on Adult Swim this summer
Posted Apr 24th 2009 12:37AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E23) About half a dozen episodes ago, I started to worry about
The Office. They had several episodes in a row that really didn't do much for me, and that's not something that has ever happened with this show before. So when I heard that Michael Scott may be quitting Dunder Mifflin, I was dubious. It seemed like a cheap stunt that wouldn't amount to much. Instead, we ended up with some of the best episodes of the season.
I have loved everything they've done with The Michael Scott Paper Company: From putting Pam in sales, to bringing Ryan back, to having Michael actually manage to wrestle away some of Dunder Mifflin's clients. Of course, it couldn't last forever, so it's no surprise that it had to come to an end tonight.
Continue reading The Office: Broke
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