LMR's The Office: An American Workplace Page - Related Articles and Web Sites
LMR's The Office: An American Workplace Page
Articles and web sites relating to NBC's comedy The Office
September 2007
The Office: An American Workplace - Main Page
John Krasinski's Back in 'The Office' After Some Movie Moonlighting
By Gerri Miller - Special to Hollywood.com
September 29, 2007
As good-guy salesman Jim Halpert, he's navigating the tricky waters of a workplace relationship with Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) on NBC's The Office. Off screen, John Krasinski is reaping the benefits of being on a popular, critically acclaimed, award-winning show: a higher Hollywood profile and the roles that come with it.
Not only has he landed both leading and choice supporting parts in recent and upcoming films, he was able to secure backing for his directorial debut, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, from a screenplay he based on stories by David Foster Wallace starring Julianne Nicholson, Will Forte, Christopher Meloni and Office castmate Rashida Jones.
Krasinski, in fact, is no stranger to scripts. He graduated from Brown University in 2002 with honors in playwriting and a degree in English Literature and subsequently studied at the National Theater Institute. Then the native of Newton, Mass.,--who grew up playing Little League with Office mate B.J. Novak, who in high school wrote the first play Krasinski acted in--worked as a writing intern on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
The actor most recently in the summer comedy License to Wed with Robin Williams and Mandy Moore, and blockbuster Shrek the Third as the voice of Lancelot. Both will be out this fall on DVD, following The Office's third season set, just released. In November, Krasinski also plays as a football star whose fiancée (Renee Zellweger) falls for his coach (George Clooney, who also directs) in the 1920s-set Leatherheads, and will appear alongside Adam Brody and Anna Faris in director Gregg Araki's comedy Smiley Face, an independent film awaiting release.
Meanwhile, the 27-year-old actor is gearing up for The Office's fourth season--and he brought us up to date on his return to the Dunder-Miflin cubicle.
Hollywood.com: What's the scoop on Jim and Pam this season?
John Krasinski: I don't know. The writers are committed to doing a real relationship and so what I keep saying is that as long as it's something that people can go, ""Yeah, I've been down that road "" or ""I know someone who's been down that road,"" that's our goal. As soon as it starts getting out of control and we start dressing up in weird clothes or going to Disneyland on dates it won't make sense.
HW: Are you concerned about jumping the shark?
JK: I don't actually think that there'll be an opportunity to jump the shark this season because--I always bring this up--but in the ""Booze Cruise"" episode it was so dramatic and so weighted about what Jim was going to say and then he said nothing. I honestly didn't know that was coming and so I don't know how anyone else can know. When you have writers who are coming up with ideas like that, that's very real, because I've been there and I don't always know what to say either.
HW: You've been doing a lot of movies lately. How are you balancing The Office and your film career?
JK: To be honest, I attribute it all to the show. The only reason someone like Robin Williams or George Clooney even know who I am is because of the show. So it's really fun to bring that energy and they liked the show and they wanted to add that element to the movies.
HW: You've got Leatherheads coming up and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Can you talk about those?
JK: I directed and wrote Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and I play a small part in that, and Leatherheads is George Clooney's movie that's coming out is about the beginning of football, how the NFL got started. It comes out Dec. 7.
HW: You play a jock in that?
JK: I am the jock. I'm the best player in the country. So, thank you, George Clooney.
HW: Are you athletic off screen?
JK: I run a little bit and I do a push up here and there, but as you can tell I'm not necessarily the pillar of exercise.
HW: How good a football player are you?
JK: I played all my life, but never organized football. It was just playing everyday after school and things like that. But the fact that you're doing it on film means that you can't screw up and do another play. You've got to do that play over and over. So when the play was that I had to run a hundred yards down the whole field, I think that George started doing a few extra takes to get a little amusement.
HW: How is Clooney as a director?
JK: Fantastic. He's totally different from anyone that I've worked with. He knows exactly what he wants every time and yet still somehow maintains a feeling of freedom and enjoyment. I was taking notes on everything that he did from directing to eating lunch to talking to the crew. Pretty much everything he does is the right way to do it. I had a great time.
HW: NBC is promoting a green-living initiative in its programming coming up in November. What do you personally do that's eco-friendly?
JK: I drive a hybrid, the Lexus hybrid. On the set we are coming up with ideas all the time like collecting all the old scripts and stuff like that, which is really cool because no one is asking us to do it.
HW: The Office is a TiVo show for a lot of people. What's on your TiVo?
JK: A lot of documentaries, Frontline. I was out of town for a while and it was nice to come back and learn about the world again.
'Office' back to work
By Josh McAuliffe – Staff Writer
The Scranton Times-Tribune
September 27, 2007
The employees at Scranton's Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. are without question a quirky lot, from head honcho Michael Scott on down.
But quirky cannot begin to describe the inspired lunacy of quality assurance representative Creed Bratton, by far the weirdest of all the cubicle dwellers on NBC's "The Office."
In fact, Creed is so weird that many fans of the show have great difficulty separating the character from the man who plays him, Creed Bratton.
"They (fans on blogs) say, 'Creed can't act. He comes in stoned.' And that I ad-lib," Mr. Bratton said during a recent phone interview. "It's all scripted, kids. It's insulting to the writers if they thought it was all ad-libbed.
"If it was all me, I'd be arrested."
Well, thankfully that's not the case, because Mr. Bratton has become one of the more reliably uproarious supporting players on "The Office," which begins its fourth season tonight with an hourlong episode starting at 9.
Mr. Bratton first found fame more than 40 years ago as a member of the 1960s rock group The Grass Roots, known best for the hit "Midnight Confessions." While with the band, Mr. Bratton had a reputation for mischief making, whether fishing for sharks from a Seattle hotel window, dropping acid on the stage of the legendary Fillmore Theater or regularly running in the nude alongside the band's tour bus, according to his official Web site, www.CreedBratton.com.
The Grass Roots eventually broke up and Mr. Bratton turned his attention to acting. A few years back, he was doing a bit part on "The Bernie Mac Show" when he met director Ken Kwapis, who was about to direct the pilot for the American version of the acclaimed British comedy "The Office."
"I said, 'God, I'd love to get on that thing,'" Mr. Bratton recalled. "He said, 'Well, come by, you're quirky enough, maybe we can work you in."
Audition time:
When Mr. Bratton arrived on the show's set and saw how many actors he'd be vying with for screen time, he decided "to do something drastic to get noticed." So, he wrote and recorded his own "talking head" scene in which an "Office" character speaks directly to the camera.
Mr. Bratton passed the tape on to the show's writers, and "a couple days later, they called back and said, 'You know, Creed, you're a funny guy,'" he recalled.
Still, he didn't get much to do that first season beyond lingering in the background and providing the voice of the man who educates Michael (Steve Carell) on the workings of the Lackawanna County Coal Mine Tour.
Worth the wait:
A self-described "very optimistic cat," Mr. Bratton hung in there and got his chance during the infamous Halloween episode from Season 2 in which Michael had to fire an employee. He eventually decides on Creed, but when the two sit down for their talk, Creed weasels his way out of it by convincing Michael to terminate another colleague.
"I had my acting muscles going. I could do that script backward and forward," Mr. Bratton said. "I was ready and I knew this was my one shot. If I didn't do this, we wouldn't be talking now."
Ever since that episode, Mr. Bratton has been stealing scenes left and right. Creed, the character, is something of a conniving, drug-addled derelict who frequents soup kitchens, steals things, catches fish with his bare hands and can't remember the names of his colleagues. In a memorable episode last season, Creed gets a woman from a Dunder Mifflin supplier fired to cover up his culpability for a shipment of paper that goes out to the public watermarked with two well-known cartoon characters having sex.
Creed, the character, who has a bizarrely hilarious blog called "Creed's Thoughts" on "The Office's" NBC Web site, is also a former guitarist for The Grass Roots. However, Mr. Bratton insists he only bears a passing resemblance to his crazed alter ego.
Still, there are other similarities. Asked if he's ever been to Scranton, which he'll visit the weekend of Oct. 26-28 for "The Office" Convention, Mr. Bratton replied, no.
Then, after a pause, he said, "Unless I was there in the '60s and I wouldn't remember.”
Palo Alto woman's site pivotal in success of 'The Office'
By Mark de la Vina
San Jose Mercury News
September 27, 2007
For the millions of viewers who will tune into the season premiere of "The Office" at 9 tonight on NBC, the show's closing credits will signal the end of the audience's weekly encounter with the employees of the Dunder Mifflin paper company.
But for Jennie Tan of Palo Alto, the evening will just begin to kick into high gear.
That's when the fortysomething creator of OfficeTally.com, a Web site devoted to the documentary-style comedy, starts monitoring comments posted by the hundreds of "Office" aficionados itching to address everything from the cast members' experimentation with facial hair to any romantic developments between receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski). Tan, a technical writer at Intuit, moderates every comment, ensuring that they stay civil and obscenity-free.
When the commenting frenzy dies down, she transcribes memorable quotes and posts them on the site.
"I don't go to bed until 1 in the morning," Tan says. "I know it's crazy. It's ridiculous."
NBC encourages such sleep deprivation. The fourth-place network counts sites like OfficeTally.com as pivotal in helping the show maintain a healthy audience. The show attracts about 8.3 million viewers a week.
"The Office" co-executive producer Kent Zbornak says Tan's site was an "instrumental force" in helping the show stay afloat in its first ratings-challenged season in 2005. The Internet might well have saved the program because the combined interest generated by OfficeTally.com and downloads at iTunes (www.itunes.com) helped expand its fledgling audience.
Tan and "The Office" cast and crew members have taken it to another level: Most have been in contact with Tan through e-mails, blogs and phone calls. Producers "digest and dissect" feedback from her online forums and other Web pages to gauge the likes and dislikes of viewers, Zbornak says.
"OfficeTally and Jennie have brought power to the voice of our audience," Zbornak says. "All of us consider Jennie to be on Team Dunder Mifflin - she's an integral part to keeping us true to our documentary format."
Tan started the Web site in February 2006 for viewers to rank their favorite episodes. Slowly, she cultivated an online community of "Office" fans on OfficeTally.com, which averages 800,000 monthly visitors when the network airs new episodes.
After she fired off an e-mail complimenting cast member-writer B.J. Novak about his script for "The Fire" in 2006, she was shocked when he responded. This encouraged her to write to other cast and crew members. Today, Tan is in regular contact with producers, writers and actors Fischer, Angela Kinsey and Kate Flannery. Tan's familiarity with the show's staff prompted them to invite her to the set last February, when she detailed her behind-the-camera adventures on OfficeTally.com.
Tan's dedication - she estimates she spends up to 50 hours a week managing the site - gets a special acknowledgment this weekend when cast member Kinsey, who plays the uptight, cat-loving accountant Angela Martin, meets with Tan during an NBC-sanctioned promotional tour of the Bay Area. The two plan to dine together Friday. Kinsey, whom the network will equip with a video camera, says she might hit tourist hot spots with Tan and film unsuspecting passers-by asked to weigh in on the show. The video clips will appear on NBC.com.
"What Jennie has done for us is truly a gift because she's given people a home base for information about the show," Kinsey says. "The Internet is huge for our following, and she's such a big part of it."
So big, in fact, that when Tan's boyfriend, Sandy Skees, met Kinsey at her Los Angeles performance, he jokingly introduced himself as an "Office" widower.
But Tan says she recognizes that this wild ride will one day end.
"I'll never have a fan site again," she says. "All the stars and planets lined up for this and we're never going to have this kind of magic again. Plus, I'll be so exhausted by this show when it goes off the air that I won't be able to do anything else."
recordonline.com - 'The Office' fanatic's guide to Scranton
The Office Swag At Target
By Jane Louise Boursaw
TV Blend
September 18, 2007
When NBC’s The Office returns for Season Four on September 27, you can be right in style with cool Office supplies. You won't find them on Target.com, but check out the $1 bins at Target stores across the U.S., from San Diego to Wichita to my home town, Traverse City, Michigan. (You can bet I’ll be heading there tomorrow to stock up.)
Dry erase boards, magnets, sticky notes, legal pads, magnetic list pads, mouse pads, stress balls, post-it notes, mechanical pencils, and quote pens – all sporting The Office characters and quotes – are just a few of the Very Cool Items available.
Word is spreading like cyber-wildfire across Internet blogs and chat rooms about what’s available and where. One author on Office Tally.com wrote that the cashier who checked them out at the Van Nuys, California, store said Steve Carell himself was in that very same Target just a few days earlier, with his wife and kids, buying Halloween items.
Don’t wait. Scamper down to your nearest Target store and stock up on “World’s Best Boss” legal pads, stress balls shaped like Dwight’s head, and Dunder Mifflin sticky notes. For yourself and, ok, your friends, too. You’ll have to buy the Jello separately, though.
Emmys awarded to The Office:
Writing, Comedy Series: "The Office: Gay Witch Hunt," NBC
Single-Camera Picture Editing, Comedy Series: "The Office: The Job," NBC
“The Office” Scores Emmy “Witch Hunt” Writing Win
By Gabriela Isabel Chavez
Hollywood Today
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/17/07 – Heavily favored film and TV star Steve Carell was upset at the Emmy Awards last night by “Extra’s” Ricky Gervais – oddly enough one of the creators, writers and executive producers of “The Office.”
Even if Carell didn’t corral a statue, series creator and writer Greg Daniels nabbed an Emmy for “Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series” for the tongue-in-cheek episode titled, “Gay Witch Hunt.” Actress Melora Hardin, who plays Steve Carell’s love interest and boss in “The Office” described Daniels as the “heart and soul” of the show and a true “visionary” for “Office.”
NBC’s “The Office” received 9 Emmy nominations this year including, “Office” head and big screen comedian Steve Carell’s second year nod for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series,” for which he was shut out a second time around losing to Brit Ricky Gervais from HBO’s “Extras.” Interestingly enough, Gervais wrote the BBC series of “The Office” and is now executive producer/co-writer for NBC’s “Office,” thus contributing to the Emmy winning episode titled, “Gay Witch Hunt” which won last night. “The Office” was also the 2006 defending champ for “Outstanding Comedy Series,” beat out last night by Tina Fey’s brainchild and newcomer “30 Rock,” showing us a new funny.
NBC’s comedy heavyweight “The Office” first aired in March 2005 as a remake to the popular BBC TV series by the same name. “The Office” takes on a mockumentary-style view on the daily happenings or moreover mishaps in the workplace of the Dunder-Mifflin paper supply company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The central figure and head of Dunder-Mifflin is Michael Scott played by “40 Year Old Virgin” and Frat Pack funny guy Steve Carell. In “The Office,” Carell takes us on an escapade of both the outrageous and the oblivious as he tries to put his own spin on the company, ultimately subjecting his employees to utter embarrassment. Carell is joined in “The Office” by an array of eclectic characters like head assistant and neurotic kiss-up Dwight Schrute, talented but mischievous salesman Jim, offbeat receptionist Pam and lackluster temp Ryan.
“The Office” will be entering its fourth season next week on Sept. 27 with its premiere episode titled “Fun Run.” One can only laugh and imagine what Carell, the cast and writer Daniels have up their sleeves in the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary daily exploits of “The Office.”
'Office' Star Jenna Fischer, Filmmaker Husband Split
Actress and James Gunn have been married almost seven years
Zap2it.com
September 5, 2007
Jenna Fischer, who plays the oft-heartbroken Pam on "The Office," has had her own real-life romance go sour.
The 33-year-old actress and her filmmaker husband James Gunn announced Wednesday, Sept. 5 on their respective MySpace pages that they have separated.
Their identical statements read:
"We (James and Jenna) need to announce that we have chosen to separate. We are sorry for any pain this causes family and friends. The enthusiasm we have expressed for each other's lives, spirits, and careers is real –- we have been each other's cheerleader and friend during the past six years and continue to be so now and in the future.
"And a special note for our MySpace fans –- We appreciate your support over the years, and would be overjoyed to have you continue supporting us both. You might be tempted to make one of us "feel better" by putting the other one down in a post. Please don't -– we still have the utmost respect for one another, and we'd have to delete you. We aren't taking questions or doing interviews about this particular aspect of our lives. We're also avoiding reading any press on the subject, so don't send us any clippings or links about the split. Thank you in advance for respecting our privacy."
Fischer first met Gunn through his brother, actor Sean Gunn (Kirk on "Gilmore Girls"), a lifelong friend with whom she took acting classes as children. The couple married in October 2000.
James Gunn, 37, is a screenwriter who wrote "Scooby-Doo," "Scooby-Doo 2," "Dawn of the Dead" and "Slither," which he also directed.
Fischer is nominated for her role as the lovelorn Pam Beesly on NBC's "The Office." In May, Fischer fractured her back in New York at an upfront party, and Gunn had flown out to be by her side. She has since recovered enough to work.
Her film credits include "Blades of Glory," "The Brothers Solomon" (in theaters Sept. 7) and the upcoming "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," opposite John C. Reilly.
Soul Survivor
Craig Robinson of 'The Office' charms with musical comedy.
By Brooke O'Neill – Back Stage.com
September 5, 2007
Thank goodness Craig Robinson is such a ladies' man. Best known for his role as world-weary Dunder Mifflin warehouse manager Darryl Philbin on NBC's The Office, Robinson began his comedy career, at least in part, because of a girl. It all started at a small New Year's Eve party more than a decade ago. When Robinson mentioned to other guests that he wanted to try standup, the hostess urged him to hit an open-mike night at a local Chicago nightclub called All Jokes Aside. "I couldn't really back down from it, 'cause there was this beautiful girl there I was trying to impress," he remembers. "So all of a sudden, I'm forced into doing it…without being totally prepared. I didn't have any jokes."
Since then, he's come up with plenty of material. "Comedy chose me," Robinson says. "I just felt the need to be up there doing it." That impulse has led him from stage to silver screen, where his credits range from Byron, an outrageous rapper in Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, to a scene-stealing cameo as a conflicted bouncer in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up.
Robinson even brings humor to his action-fantasy debut, Dragon Wars: D-War, premiering in the United States on Sept. 14. The CGI-intensive film, headed by Korean director Shim Hyung-rae, opened Aug. 1 in South Korea and set box office records as the most-watched release in the country's history. Based on Korean mythology, the film tells of an ancient serpent that attacks Los Angeles. Robinson's character, Bruce, is a wise-cracking news cameraman sent out with TV reporter Ethan (Jason Behr) to cover the incursion. "I'm sort of the comic relief/support-my-boy-through- whatever- he's-going-through-but-give-him-shit-about-it-kinda dude," says Robinson, who filmed the pic three years ago. Like comedy, slaying dragons -- i.e., acting against a green screen -- required impeccable timing. Shim would give the actors two takes to run and scream at just the right moment. "You either got it or you didn't," Robinson says.
Rhythm and Blues
Fortunately, be it in an action flick or a standup gig, Chicago native Robinson knows how to deliver a line -- and a tune. A talented keyboardist and vocalist, he was raised in a family of musicians and grew up singing in church choirs. (Office fans may remember him manning the synthesizer during Kevin's rendition of the Alanis Morissette scorned-lover ballad "You Oughta Know" in last season's Christmas episode.) After graduating from Illinois State University, he quickly distinguished himself on the national club circuit with his irreverent James Brown-style crooning.
A self-professed romantic ("I love to be in love -- when it's convenient," he jokes), Robinson woos live audiences by baring his sensitive side. "Fellas, I want you to look at your lady," he urges in a sultry baritone. "Touch her hand, touch her hair…go to that place you haven't been in a long time…. I want you to look at your lady and tell her these words…." He pauses. " 'Take your panties off.' " The soul-infused panty ballad that follows captures perfectly the comedian's blend of naughty and nice.
Such musical stylings won Robinson critical attention at the 1998 Oakland Comedy Competition and Montreal's Just for Laughs, where he caught the eye of a Fox development executive. A deal he forged at the network eventually expired without bearing fruit, but by 2003 he had appeared as a guest performer on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and Real Time With Bill Maher, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and NBC's Comedy Showcase. That year, he landed a role as a compulsive Vegas gambler on the FX comedy series Lucky, with John Corbett. Lauded for its fresh humor, the show was nominated for an Emmy -- then was canceled two weeks later due to low ratings.
It was the kind of Hollywood twist actors dread, but Robinson's performance hadn't gone unnoticed. Hailing his character, Mutha Legendre, as one of TV's funniest sidekicks, an Entertainment Weekly review of the show found its way onto the desk of Office writer-director Greg Daniels -- the same week Robinson read for the role of Jim. Shortly afterward, Robinson received a call that they had created a part for him in the warehouse. "I'm glad it worked out like it did," he says. "I'm a huge Office fan."
Mr. Robinson's Acting School
Things may have panned out well at Dunder Mifflin, but like the hard-working Darryl, Robinson is hardly one to rest on laurels. This summer he filmed Mr. Robinson's Driving School, a series of 16 short webisodes www.drivingschool.msn.com about two rival driving instructors who compete for a retiring instructor's driving empire. In December he will appear in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, starring John C. Reilly, and in August 2008 he'll hit screens in the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg-Judd Apatow stoner comedy The Pineapple Express. Other upcoming roles include a gig in Step Brothers, Will Ferrell's new project directed by Adam McKay.
Even with such a full plate, Robinson knows the importance of staying hungry. "You'd better want it," he advises aspiring actors and comedians. "If you want it, you'll go get it. A lot of people think it's handed to you, but it's so not." Asked whether there are any types of roles he wouldn't take, he pauses for a second, then laughs, admitting, "No, I'm game for pretty much anything." His only caveat: "The less prosthetics, the better."
As his popularity continues to grow, Robinson draws on his standup roots to keep him grounded. He still books gigs at local stages, including a recent series of jam sessions with his group, the Craig Robinson Band, at Pasadena's Ice House comedy club. Seeing him on stage is the ultimate way to get familiar with Robinson's signature humor -- and his insecurities. At an Ice House performance this spring, he revealed the one thing that can shake his confidence: Barry White. "Barry's the only man I've ever been jealous of," Robinson confessed to the audience. "He can make anything sound sexy."
