Posts with tag greg daniels
Posted Aug 10th 2008 10:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Office, Reality-Free

You know, I've always wondered about Creed's background. We know he was with the 1960's band The Grass Roots, he runs a fake I.D. business with a laminating machine stolen from the police department, he faked his own death so he could get benefits, he keeps bean sprouts in his desk, and he's been homeless.
Now maybe we'll get to learn even more about his background. In a major time-slot coup, it looks like a one-hour episode of
The Office will air
directly following the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, 2009. Exec producer
Paul Lieberstein said these longer eps offer a great opportunity to delve into the characters:
Continue reading The Office: Will we learn more about Creed's background?
Posted Jul 21st 2008 4:41PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Office, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

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.
Continue reading Poehler will not be in an Office spin-off, but Rashida Jones may reprise Karen - TCA Report
Posted Jun 13th 2008 12:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Scrubs, The Office, Casting, Reality-Free

Aziz Ansari seems to be the hottest name around Hollywood casting circles. According to
Variety, the stand-up comedian, who's also one-third of the MTV's acclaimed sketch team
Human Giant, has been c
ast in the upcoming Office spin-off. He's also signed a one-year talent hold deal with Universal Media Studios.
What's interesting about this news is that Ansari was also tapped to play
one of the new interns on the eighth season of Scrubs, which is produced by and will now air on ABC. What I'm guessing is that, since
Scrubs will finish shooting in August, this deal will start after his deal with the veteran medical comedy ends. If there happens to be
a ninth season of the show, as Bill Lawrence told me might happen, I'd imagine he'd come back after his Universal deal ends or they'll just replace him with someone else.
Continue reading Aziz Ansari cast on Office spin-off; is he still on Scrubs?
Posted Jul 16th 2007 7:41PM by Michael Maloney
Filed under: Programming, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, TCA Press Tour, Casting

NBC's press tour day continued with a panel on Sunday Night Football.
When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.
In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.
Sometimes press tour swag can be elusive.
Continue reading Free footballs and scoops from NBC's Thursday night sitcoms - TCA report
Posted Feb 26th 2007 8:43PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Industry, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Video, Web, The Office, Friday Night Lights

Sunday's edition of the Newark
Star-Ledger had
a good article about the relatively new phenomenon of online-viewable deleted scenes, and how show-runners have been utilizing them. Alan Sepinwall, the paper's TV critic, spoke to Greg Daniels of
The Office, Jason Katims of
Friday Night Lights, and Ronald D. Moore of
Battlestar Galactica, about how they've been able to throw in little plot or character details in the deleted scenes, knowing that the fanatical viewers of each show will see them on the web.
Continue reading Exploring the new world of online deleted scenes
Posted Dec 21st 2006 8:38AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: FOX, Programming, The Simpsons, American Dad, Animation, King of the Hill

Fox is giving
King of the Hill a great lead-in:
The Simpsons. The network announced that Hank and the gang are sliding back to the 8:30 pm timeslot on Sunday nights starting with the season premiere on January 28. The season premiere sounds pretty goofy. It's called "The Peggy Horror Picture Show" where Peggy befriends a woman with whom she can talk about her girl issues, such as not feeling feminine enough. Little does she know, her new friend has some issues of her own.
I often watch
King of the Hill reruns on FX in the evenings as I'm making dinner, but I forgot that it's actually still on. When it resumes next month, it will be season 11 for the animated series.
The move from 7:30 to 8:30 bumps
War at Home to Thursdays with unfunny
'Til Death.
American Dad slides into possible oblivion at 9:30 pm.
Posted Dec 17th 2006 2:05PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Web, The Office

I'm just catching up after the closest thing that I have ever seen to a hurricane blew through volcano country and knocked out the power for 30 hours, and my internet has just gone all Dunder Miflin on me. Anyway, there is
a good article over at the L.A. Times about writers as actors and what that means for comedy on television.
The focus is on
The Office as many of the members of the cast are also the writers of the show. Executive producer Greg Daniels (
The Simpsons) goes through his reasons for choosing to move people from the writers room in front of the camera. And it's not just because he's lazy. There is a method to his madness. Given the mockumentary style of the show, he feels that unpolished actors that may seem awkward at times add to the realism of the show.
They also touch on the character of Toby. Played by Paul Lieberstein, Toby was originally intended as a bit part. But when NBC President Kevin Reilly saw the character he responded, "He's funny. More of him." And Paul's acting career was born. The story for Mindy Kaling's character, Kelly, is much the same. Both of them say that they prefer writing to acting. Joel
talked with Kelly about this back in March as well. It's a good behind the scenes piece, and worth a look.
Posted Dec 8th 2006 9:31AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Battlestar Galactica, Gilmore Girls, Lost, Family Guy, Animation, The Office, Celebrities

This may come as a shock to you, readers, but the writers of scripted television programs hate reality TV. And, do you know what they hate even more than reality TV? Network censors. If you've been watching
Studio 60, you already know this. Those standards and practices people are such prudish little worrywarts - cowering in their offices, praying the FCC won't smack the network's hand for using the word "butt" in primetime.
This past Wednesday,
television's top showrunners got together for a
Hollywood Radio and Television Society luncheon where they got to grouse collectively about the twin evils of Mark Burnett and broadcast standards. Chiming in were
Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane,
The Office's Greg Daniels,
Lost's Damon Lindelof,
Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino and
Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore (pictured) among others. The discussion was facilitated by Jimmy Kimmel. How much would you have loved to be in that room? How much would I love to be working for any single person in that room - really, any of them?
Continue reading Radio and Television Society takes on censorship and reality TV
Posted Sep 6th 2006 4:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Retro Squad, Seinfeld

(S03E21) I'm the only person I know who actually drives in New York. The funny thing is, the only reason why I drive is because I live 30 miles away from the city, and I tend to find that sometimes driving is much faster than taking the train. But if I were actually
living there, I'd ditch my car in a nanosecond. Most people who live in New York don't own a car, because it's too tough to find parking and the subway can get them to just about anywhere they need to go.
So why are so many episodes of
Seinfeld so auto-centric? Jerry has a car. Kramer has a car. George doesn't have a car here but eventually gets a car. Thank goodness for Elaine; she never got a car (and we find out later in the series that she's an illness-inducing driver). But, really, that ratio should at least be reversed, if not doubled (8 non-drivers for every driver, if you don't feel like doing the math). Oh, well. At least most of the driving-related episodes, including this one, are pretty good.
Continue reading Seinfeld: The Parking Space