Chuck's Dad, the Super Office, and More From NBC

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:45:02 -0800

News on the Gossip Girl spinoff and Amy Poehler show was just the start of the good stuff to come out of NBC's TCA session yesterday. I also got some news on Chuck and the post-Super Bowl episode of The Office. Read on for details:

Yes, Chuck's dad will be found - and he'll be played by Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap! "[Executive producer] Chris Fedak and I were huge Quantum Leap fans," Executive Producer Josh Schwartz said. "We watched it religiously."
Does finding dear daddy mean there could be wedding bells for Ellie and Awesome before the season's up? "Very possibly," Schwartz said. "That is why Chuck said, 'I'm going to go find dad,' so he can be there to walk her down the aisle."
Also, we'll see Jeff shirtless and in 3D before the season's up - but not at the same time. "We felt like that was going to be too much for America," Schwartz said. For the record, Fedak worships Jeff; Schwartz worships Lester.
Another thing he's excited about: the upcoming guest appearance by Chevy Chase. "We are like psycho Chevy Chase fans on the show, and we've talked about Fletch and Spies Like Us, and we have all of these Spies Like Us references inside of our show," Schwartz said. He'll play the head of a company that's sort of Apple-ish, "real visionary in the software game," and he'll be a little edgier than we've seen from Chase before.

To get some info about The Office, just read more.

The post-Super Bowl episode of The Office will be a little more stand-alone than a typical installment because of all the new viewers it could attract, said Paul Lieberstein (who plays Toby but is also a writer and producer on the show). But the plot still sounds very Office-ish: "Dwight, in an effort to do extreme disaster training because he's frustrated with the way people have responded to it in the past, locks everyone in the office and sets fire to it," he said. "And then Michael has to help everyone."
Finding out The Office would be on after the Super Bowl was both intimidating and exciting. "There was certainly a sense of, 'This could take over the year,'" Lieberstein said. "In a way it felt like we were writing a pilot."
As for what Idris Elba will be doing on the show: He'll be playing a character who gets promoted to Jan's old job over Michael (who naturally thinks he's a lock for the position). "Michael doesn't handle it well," Lieberstein said. "There's quite a lot of tension with a presence that imposing and a guy like Michael Scott who just can't get it together."
Unlike in the BBC version of The Office, we may never see the documentary that the crew has supposedly been filming all these years. "I don't know if it's going to be the most satisfying way to see Michael Scott grow as a person," Lieberstein said. "You know, just to kind of become a horrible ex-reality star."

Are you excited to meet Chuck's dad? See Big Mike eat a doughnut in 3-D? Watch Dwight try to burn Dunder Mifflin down?

Source

The Office's HR Folks Dish on Season Five

BuzzSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:30:26 -0700

Some of the best news I heard all Summer was that Amy Ryan would be returning to The Office as new human resources representative Holly Flax. So when NBC offered up a chance to talk to the Oscar-nominated actress - and her HR predecessor and Office writer Paul Lieberstein - I couldn't say no. The two chatted with reporters yesterday, sharing some of their favorite on-set moments and spilling a few details on the upcoming season. Some highlights:

Michael Scott and Holly Flax: a love story for the rest of us? Ryan wouldn't say much about what's coming up for Holly and Michael, but she said Michael gets a lot of credit for trying. "I think that it gives us all hope that there’s a lid for every pot - or, I like to say, there’s a lid for every cracked pot out there," Ryan said. "Everyone has a chance at some form of love."
Toby's not gone forever. "I think what brings him back is failure to escape," Lieberstein said. And if he were to tell Pam a story to impress her about his time away? "Maybe the time his camera was stolen by a monkey, or the time he was attacked by a monkey in Costa Rica, or the time when a monkey took his wallet," he said. "Probably one of those three."
The show is getting some Brit flavor this season. Stephen Merchant of the original British series will direct the Halloween episode. "He brings . . . kind of that initial integrity of the documentary that the British had," Lieberstein said. "And so he calls us out every once in a while - he’s like, 'How are they going to do that with a little documentary?' You know, when we seem to go a little too far or get too personal with them. We’ll set a scene in the bathroom and he’s like 'Really, I don’t think they follow them in there.'"
Also directing: Jason Reitman. Yay!

To hear why the writers' strike was actually good for The Office, what the fate of Andy and Angela could be, and how Amy Ryan had an on-set breakdown, just read more.

The writers' strike had an upside. "I think in the Spring came a group of our strongest episodes," Lieberstein said. "It let us do two groups of 12 instead of this giant block where we have to kind of guess how things are going to come out."
Sometimes, it's hard not to laugh. "One of my favorite things was almost to see who’s going to go first" when it came to breaking down with laughter in the middle of a scene, Ryan said. "And the day that I went first I was mortified. I was like, 'That’s just not done with the new kid. You can’t do that!' But I laughed so hard at one point that it turned into just bawling tears. So I’m not sure where the laughter began and sorrow took over, but makeup had to come in and reapply . . . I’m trying to hide behind my hair and just my shoulders are convulsing. And Steve [Carell] just carried on like, you know, no bother. I couldn’t believe it."
Toby's not a real threat to Jim and Pam. "Pam’s going to take an internship in New York and they’re going to try long-distance dating," Lieberstein said. "And that’s going to be, you know, the source of obstacles for them . . . Toby is less of a threat than the price of gas for Pam."
Will Andy and Angela make it to the altar? "They will make it to an altar of sorts," Lieberstein said. "But probably not what you’re thinking or in the way you’re thinking." Hmm . . .
The office will throw Jan a baby shower! There's also an ethics training episode coming up that I can only hope is as good as "Diversity Day" and other episodes of that ilk.
There's going to be a Toby bobblehead. And when the reporter who asked the question joked to Lieberstein that he'd then be able to play with himself, Ryan responded with a perfectly timed "That's what she said."

Photo courtesy of NBC