Office roundup: S4 DVD news, S5 promos galore and a match made in heaven
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- August
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Season 4 of The Office comes out on DVD two weeks from tomorrow, and here’s an early review from someone luckier than me who got an advanced copy.
The writer is clearly a fan of the show, and she has me pumped for the release, like when he says…
The only thing cooler than watching Ryan the Toolish Former Temp descend into ruin is the overload of special features offered in the boxset. It’s an abundance of bonus material.
Of course she lost me when she said…
The “More You Know” segment is pure bliss, and the blooper reel is ridiculously overlong, but that’s why God gave you thumbs – you can press the stop button as soon as you get bored watching Jenna Fischer crack up. (To be fair, it took me a full 20 minutes to tire of it.)
That’s like complaining that you have too much ice cream or too many hundred dollar bills in your wallet. Anyway, let me complain once again about how much I hate how close to the new season these sets come out. I’d have spent the summer devouring every second of it, but now I’ll be lucky to make a dent before the Sept. 25 premiere.
Liz Lemon goes to Scranton
OK, well, not really. Not at all, actually. But Tina Fey is teaming up with Steve Carell.
Here’s my take on this news: So sometimes when you take two great things and put them together you get something exponentially greater. Peanut butter and chocolate comes to mind. Sometimes you get something funky, say barbecue shrimp and chocolate.
I’m thinking 30 Rock’s Fey and The Office’s Carell are more like a Reese’s than a prawn sundae. You follow?
Fey and Carell will team up to star in next year’s Date Night, about a couple whose routine date night becomes more than dinner and a movie. To that I say, who cares what it’s about. It’s going to rock! Funny person plus funny person equal super funny movie, right? OK, well maybe not necessarily, but I am stoked about this pairing of the stars of my two favorite shows.
And as fellow Access‘ory Chris Serico points out, the chemistry has got to be less creepy than the Carell-Anne Hathaway pairing in Get Smart.
Speaking of Fey, by the way, apparently her digs at rival SNL parody maker Aaron Sorkin haven’t inspired any grudges. Here’s what Sorkin, whose Studio 60 didn’t last quite as long as 30 Rock, told GQ about Fey…
I shook hands with her once. I know she’s had some fun at my expense, and that’s what she does for a living. If I’m going to take shots at whoever I want on my show, she gets to take shots at whoever she wants on her show. I have nothing but admiration for Tina Fey.
Don’t fast-forward: these ads are better than the Olympics
I don’t know if commercials count as news, but when they’re promos for the new season of The Office and they come in bunches, I figure they’re worth a mention.
This one has the distinction of opening with Jenna Fischer humming the NBC tones. This one, featuring a Michael Scott talking head, is funny enough to include in an episode. But this one, which tips its hat to the lost art of murderball, is my favorite. Excellent use of a Tom Petty tune, too.
And yes, that was a commercial before that commercial. Way to go, NBC. Here’s two longer compilations (not TV promos) to get you pumped for Season 5: Jim and Pam denied and Michael and Jan.
Turns out it isn’t just Office actors who made those promos happen. The writers got in on the fun too, as showrunner Greg Daniels explained to TV Week.
If our actors are doing the promos, then I think we as writers should have to pitch in, too. Besides, they were fun and have been seen by many times the audience for our episodes. These Olympic promos are probably the most widely seen pieces of entertainment I have ever been involved with, and I hope will be my legacy.
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm by Brian Howard.
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“That’s like complaining that you have too much ice cream or too many hundred dollar bills in your wallet.”
Agreed. Especially when it comes to blooper reels.