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Amy Poehler's Show Has a Lot of Funny People (But No Title)

BuzzSugar — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:35:23 -0800

Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, and writers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur just got the room laughing here at the TCA press tour in their first session for their new show. (Seriously, go here to hear about Poehler's Jason Bourne connection.)The show's still untitled, but we now know a little bit about the plot: Poehler plays Leslie, a mid-level local government operative who partners with Jones's character to help get a park built. Ansari plays a schmoozing networker who's most interested in his own rise. Here's some of what we learned:

Despite Poehler's role as a woman in local politics who believes she could one day rise to the top, we shouldn't look at the show as a satire of any recent political events. "It really doesn't specifically deal in any way with tapping into any of those women," Poehler said. "But [Leslie] certainly looks at a lot of the women in media and politics right now as her heroes. They're sort of her Cal Ripkins."
More about Leslie: "Leslie is an optimist, and she's really ambitious," Poehler said. "She's really kind of hoping that the place she is now is not the place she's going to stay. So she really is struggling to find her way in a man's world, to kind of make her mark. Along the way, she's deluded." She's nice, but not too nice: "it's going to be very easy to humiliate and be mean to me in the show."
About that title: Daniels said they just haven't found the right words to sum up the show yet - but they kind of spoof their own difficulties in the pilot with a section about finding the perfect name for their public works project.
The realm of local politics isn't new to Poehler: "My parents watch town council metings on their TV," she said. "They sit and wtch them and care, obviously, about what is next to them - what is being built, or are they going to put a prison where the muffin shop used to be."

To find out why Poehler took the job and whether there will ever be a proper Office spinoff, read more.

Poehler took the job because she wanted to work with Schur and Daniels, and she also "was excited at the idea of being able to turn the volume down a little bit and sit with a character for a while."
The project started out being described as an Office spinoff mostly because at the time, "we didn't have any ideas," Daniels said. They considered ideas both spinning directly off Dunder Mifflin and ones outside, but "as we thought of different ideas, the ideas that were set in the paper industry or something like that, it felt hard to get far enough away from The Office that you would consider it justified for a whole different show," he said.
That said, there is now another idea for a true spinoff involving some Office characters that could materialize someday. No details on that, though.
No plans at this time for any actual politicians to show up on this show - but "anybody who's the hot comptroller could come on," Poehler cracked.

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Rainn Wilson, Greg Daniels Talk About Returning to The Office

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:38:03 -0700

Guess what's back with a new episode tonight: The Office! I recently sat in on a conference call with writer/executive producer Greg Daniels and Rainn Wilson and got the lowdown on everything from where Greg Daniels gets his inspiration for Dwight's character (the Discovery channel), to how they'll handle Angela's swollen belly, to which character the writers would like to write more stories about. Also, Rainn gives a heartwarming description of the first day back on the job.

Of course, all of this only managed to pump me up more for tonight's new episode. Check it out:

On what we might see in upcoming episodes:
Greg: Well, [in the "Dinner Party" episode, airing tonight], that’s a very charged situation where Michael has been asking Pam and Jim to come have dinner with him and Jan over and over and over again. And he finally manages this. . . and it just happens to be after the previous episode which is when he went to New York to try and help Jan with her deposition and he kind of blew her sort of wrongful termination lawsuit. So, there's a lot of tension between them in that episode. And then coming up we have some episodes that, you know, follow off on that.

Some of them involve the character of Ryan whose website initiative started the season off and is kind of crumbling underneath him and has, for some reason, become infested with sexual predators. Which is just one of the problems his website has. And we have episodes coming up where Dwight and Michael are going to have joined Ryan in some of his club-hopping New York partying and, you know, try to. . . get involved in his life a little bit more. But there’s some cool, weird things happening that I can’t talk about and you’ll just have to see it to truly enjoy all the twists and turns.

For more of Greg and Rainn's thoughts, read more.

On the topic of Dwight's love life:
Greg: I think, you know, it's part of his character that he has some exes out there. So…
Rainn: I think we’ll be seeing a lot more sides, a lot more facets of Dwight when it comes to dating and women.

On whether there's hope of reconciliation for Dwight and Angela:
Greg: Where there’s life, there’s hope.

Speaking of life. . .Angela Kinsey is hugely pregnant in real life.
Rainn: I think all of her scenes from here on out are going to be staged with her behind the copy machine.
Greg: I think it’s going to be a nice drinking game for people to see if they can see the belly.
Rainn: Spot the fetus.
Greg: Yeah.

On Greg's favorite character to write for:
Greg: I do love the Dwight character, I have to say, and especially writing the Talking Heads, you know, the interview segments with Dwight. Basically I look at every survival guide as it’s published. And my wife just got me, you know, what would MacGyver do, some book about that. So, there is something of that character that I really respond to. There was this special on the Discovery Channel, I think, a couple of weeks ago which I spent, you know, an hour taking notes on and being really fascinated by which was the ten greatest threats to the world, you know, from robots that come alive to the mega volcano, to new diseases and everything. And it was so great. And eventually this will filter its way into Dwight’s brain, I think.
Rainn: I think the writers would like to write for Creed a lot more. My sense is that Creed works best in some little doses here and there. But I think the writers really get off on how crazy that man’s brain is.

On the first day back to the job after the strike:
Rainn: You know, it has been a huge love fest. It’s kind of crazy. It doesn’t make for great print journalism, but I will say that everyone. . . it’s like our other family and we, our other family, got together, like at a big family reunion and it’s been really, really fun. We’ve had a blast these first two weeks. It is great to see everyone again and batteries were definitely recharged.

On getting back into the character of Dwight after a long break:
Rainn: There’s like ten minutes when it’s like OK, wait, who is this guy again, right? And then, you know, I just put on the calculator watch and the glasses, and just be all, you know, inappropriate. And then it just works out fine.

Photo courtesy of NBC

The Office Convention Just Keeps Getting Cooler

BuzzSugar — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:30:54 -0700

Have you booked your tickets to Scranton yet? The Office Convention is now less than two weeks away, and the lineup of visiting guests is making this event a must-attend for serious Dunder Mifflin-heads.

As of today, almost the entire supporting cast of is scheduled to attend the Oct. 26-28 events, from Creed Bratton to Angela Kinsey to Mindy Kaling (Kelly). Executive producer Greg Daniels will also be in attendance, bringing with him writers Paul Lieberstein (Toby) and Craig Robinson (Darryl). So far, it's not looking like any of the big four (Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski) will make the trip - but who needs them when you've got Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration?

The organizers have put together a truly inspired schedule of events, including a live Today Show broadcast with Al Roker, a character look-alike contest, the Office Olympics, and, yes, a Casino Night. Tickets range from $25 ("the intern") to $250 ("corporate"), with varying numbers of events, cast appearances and VIP parties included in each.

So, who's going to be Buzz's Electric City correspondent for the weekend?

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