The Office Scoop! A spoiler-filled chat with Greg Daniels and Rainn Wilson, Part I
-
- March
- 21
I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling the Office fever these past several weeks. It’s been so long since there’s been a new episode, and there wasn’t much in the way of cliffhangers that I was yearning to see resolved.
But spending an hour on the phone yesterday afternoon listening to showrunner Greg Daniels and Rainn “Dwight Schrute” Wilson wax eloquent on the best show on television (this side of Battlestar Galactica anyway—Dwight would agree) was good therapy.
I am now officially pumped for the April 10 return.
There’s so much good stuff to share that I’m going to break it up into two parts, one now and the second this afternoon. Be forewarned, this is the more spoilery of the two. As often as I can, I’ll relate what they had to say in their own words.
The questions were all over the map, so the topics are as well. (Check out my teaser post from last night.)
For starters, U.K. Office co-creator Stephen Merchant was supposed to direct a December episode of the show, plans that were dashed when the strike hit, but Daniels hopes to get him back next year.
No other British Office cameos are planned, though one by Mackenzie Crook, the actor who played Gareth Keenan, fell through a couple years ago due to scheduling conflicts. That would have been a sight.
Daniels said he doesn’t look too far into the future when it comes to plotting things like bringing Jim and Pam together.
“Well I don’t really see more than half a season ahead. That’s how far the headlights go on this bus,” he said. “Jim and Pam never were together before. This is the first time that they’ve gotten together. They were almost together, and certainly we didn’t have it planned in season one what was going to happen to them. I know what’s going to happen to them for maybe the next 10 episodes, but that’s as far as I can see.”
As for Karen Filippelli, she will be back as Dwight’s love interest in the season finale, according to Wilson, who totally made that up to freak out Jam fans and Karen haters alike. Actually, Daniels said a special arrangement with the makers of Rashida Jones’s current show, Unhitched, would allow him to bring her back for one more episode.
The writers strike kept them from doing everything they had planned for this season, Daniels said.
Not a lot of material was scrapped, though, because they weren’t far ahead in their shooting schedule. They did have to ditch the Christmas episode, for which a lot was written, but Daniels said some of that material will be salvaged for future episodes.
There’s precedent for that. Daniels revealed that he wrote a Season one episode called “Pet Day” that was never aired, and all the good parts were cannibalized for future episodes.
Disappointed that my name wasn’t closer to that of ex-temp Ryan Howard, Daniels nonetheless graciously answered my question about whether there are any plans to show the documentary that’s been filming in the offices of Dunder Mifflin Scranton the last three years.
Daniels said the idea has been discussed but the show isn’t there yet. He said he loves the idea as a “game-changing story move.”
“Hopefully when we do press that nuclear button it’ll be prepared for and everybody will think it’s worth it,” he said.
Wilson said that showing the cast the documentary could leave the writers withe nowhere to go because of the fallout that would result. But Daniels said there are things the writers keep in their back pockets in case ideas ever run short.
“Then we would say alright, time to scramble the world and see what comes out of that,” he said. “Time to shake the Boggle set.”
Speaking of game-changers, Angela Kinsey is extremely pregnant. Uptight accountant and Dwight Schrute love interest Angela Martin isn’t supposed to be.
Daniels didn’t rule out that a little Dwight Schrute or Andy Bernard might be on the way in real life, but within the confines of the show he was more circumspect.
Wilson said Kinsey looks like a little person who swallowed a watermelon and speculated that every one of her scenes would be shot with her behind the copier. Daniels suggested it could make a great drinking game: spot the belly.
An odd moment came when a question was asked about yesterday’s Schrute Space, the blog Wilson started at NBC.com a while back.
“I’m going to confess something,” he said, “that I have passed over the reins to Shrute Space to one of the staff writers this season, and he’s been coming up with some really great stuff.”
Wilson called blogs the first terrible creation of the 21st century, and said that while it was something Dwight would embrace he himself he was finding less and less time for it.
Asked whether love was in the cards for Dwight, Daniels recalled Wilson’s audition improvs, which included his imagining an ex-girlfriend who is a reservist stationed in Kuwait.
“I don’t know if that is coming into play, but ex-girlfriends, yeah,” he said. “I think we’ll be seeing a lot more sides, a lot more facets of Dwight when it comes to dating and women.”
Check back later today for the second half, when Wilson compares himself to Jim Halpert, Daniels reveals a planned Lost crossover and the competition that exists between The Office and Girls Gone Wild.
Photos courtesy NBC Universal
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 10:30 am by Brian Howard.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: del.icio.us Digg Reddit Google StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! | 
Print
| 
Email
Lucky guy! I really do hope they end up shooting an episode with that "Pet Day" idea. As if I wasn't excited to get the season back, reading all these goodies made me that much more excited!