I am – Hercules!!
Night one of Los Angeles’ Museum of Television and Radio Paley Fest was “American Idol.” (We got one report suggesting that, though “Idol” was indeed a sell-out, there were a lot of empty seats at the event!) Tonight some of the AICN Jedi Council and myself are attending the Paley Fest’s George Lucas event. (Hopefully he’ll spend less time with fond rememberances of “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” and more time telling us about his new “Star Wars” series is going to be about. Yesterday’s Paley event was the sprawling “Office” panel, and “Mr. Paisley” has a report!

Hey Herc, I was lucky enough to attend the Museum of Television and Radio's annual Paley festival featuring "The Office" last night and wanted to try and pass along any info I could remember for those who couldn't make it. The evening began with a showing of "Cocktails," the episode from a couple of weeks ago directed by JJ Abrams. They then showed a rough cut of an upcoming episode revolving around Michael getting negotiation tips from Wikipedia and then using them in salary meetings. It's a very funny episode. Nice to see something a little rough. It wasn't completely finished, but it's going to be a good one. Darryl, from the warehouse, is prominently featured and is hilarious. The last thing they showed before the Q&A was a gag and blooper reel. Although it wasn't very funny, I'm glad it was included. The cast genuinely seems to enjoy what they do and enjoy each other. It looks like a great set to work on. After the screening, the cast and some of the crew were brought onstage for the panel. Moderated by one of the senior editors at the Hollywood Reporter, the panel was supposedly the biggest they've had at Paley, eclipsing Even Lost. Every cast member on the show was in attendance, with the exception of John Krasinski, who according to Rainn Wilson was "Oh yeah, working on that big George Clooney movie!" And although he wasn't scheduled to appear, Steve Carrell was in attendance the entire night as well. Of the crew, the two that spoke most were Greg Daniels, the executive producer, and Randall Einhorn, the cinematographer. Daniels spoke mostly about the process of doing the show week after week. He said that in the off-season, they plot out the major story arcs, and come into production with 5 or 6 solid episodes to shoot, but after that, things tend to stray quite a bit, but keeping the major plot arcs intact. Einhorn spoke of the way they approach shooting the show. Before The Office, he had shot a lot for National Geographic and Survivor, and that those techniques have been employed in the office. He spoke about the difficultly in trying to balance making something look good enough for HDTV, but oppressive enough to convey a typical office. He also is the person that holds the camera most of the time, in which Daniels said becomes sort of another character. And that a lot of the comedy is brought from Einhorn's great timing in moving from character to character. As for the cast, I'll try to remember bits and pieces. There were many, many people onstage and a lot of questions asked and answered. Steve Carrell spoke about playing Michael Scott as someone who just really hasn't been exposed to a lot of things. It's not that he's racist, or homophobic, it's that he doesn't know how to react to things like that as he's never been involved with it. He also think Michael is someone who ultimately believes in what he's doing. He takes his job seriously, and he works on his jokes at night before coming to the office the next day. Rainn Wilson spoke about Dwight and how to approach him. He said he didn't want to play Dwight as a villain and that when he first started, Greg Daniels wrote out a mission statement for him explaining Dwight and his past. One of the things Wilson mentioned that was on the list was that Dwight grew fond of hierarchies as a teenager. And Wilson said that whenever he starts to lose focus, he thinks of that list. He also said he did an appearance at the Mall in Scranton and the entire town showed up to meet him. The mayor picked him up and drove him around in a limo, and that kids at the mall had Dwight haircut. They also made him a police deputy. Jenna Fischer (Pam) said that after she shot the initial 6 episodes, she went home and cried for two days because she thought it may be over and that she'd miss the people she had met. She also said that she wanted to shoot a small resolution to Jim & Pam after episode 12 so if they got cancelled, the fans wouldn't be left hanging. They didn't end up shooting it, because they didn't want to get jinxed. The last thing she said was that the writers are very inclusive to the actors in the creative process. The night before the pilot, Daniels called her and asked her to think of some stories that Pam would tell, and that in her testimonial shots, some of the stories Pam tells are things that Fischer has thought of. Also, she had told BJ Novak a story about a Choose Your Own Adventure story and that he wrote it into a Pam storyline. Daniels joked that it was all part of his plan to make the actors do everything. Quick bites: Oscar Nunez (Oscar) said he didn't know Steve Carrell was going to fully kiss him in the season premiere and that it was uncomfortable. And that Carrell had an erection, jokingly. Many of the actors have worked in mundane offices, Angela Kinsey (Angela) worked for a telesales company for two years and Leslie David Baker (Stanley) said that he worked in an office where he'd come in Monday morning and think, "Damn, no one died." Rashida Jones, who plays Karen, said that she was very worried about taking the role. Before she started, she was a big fan of the show and was rooting for Jim and Pam. She said she was worried about having eggs thrown in her face after the season started and said she's so thankful for fans who have enjoyed her. Daniels said there is definitely going to be a "Super Size" episode that is a bit longer than the others and that the season finale is one hour long. That's all I can remember for now. Hopefully this panel will make it to DVD, the same way the Lost panel did. I have tickets for the George Lucas, Heroes, and Simpsons panels as well and will try and send in what I can. Until then, Mr. Paisley

For the record, I encourage anyone who attends any of the Paley events to send in their recollections. Even for the George Lucas event; even though I’m attending that one, I don’t have the best memory (or hearing or note-taking skills). Find more on the Paley fest here. Purchase the few remaining Paley tickets via Ticketmaster here.





Past Paley For Sale!!

$19.95 Paley Festival: “Boston Legal” $19.95 Paley Festival: “Desperate Housewives” $19.95 Paley Festival: “Lost”