Category: Greg Daniels

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NBC presents Office ‘newpeats’

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

In an unusual experiment aimed at improving ratings for reruns, NBC next week plans to air two previously seen half-hour episodes of “The Office” that have been re-edited into a new hour-long show. Some scenes will be cut so producers can weave in unaired footage that introduces a new storyline into the older episodes.

Producers of “The Office” say re-editing the episodes is a way to keep the program’s rabid fan base from moving on … “Their loyalty must be rewarded somehow, and we don’t have the budget to send out 10 million muffin baskets,” says Executive Producer Greg Daniels.

This would be next week’s airings of Traveling Salesmen and The Return.

Greg did mention at Paley Fest last weekend that an additional four minutes of new footage would be added to next week’s episodes. (Did I get that right, Kath?)

Shouldn’t every Office rerun be a ‘newpeat’? Clap your hands say yeah.

Link: NBC Remixes ‘The Office’; Reruns Become ‘Newpeats’ (subscription required)

Tipster: John

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Do deleted scenes ‘count’?

A few weeks ago, the post for Business School deleted scenes generated an interesting debate on whether these scenes “counted” in Dunder Mifflin reality, even though they never officially aired.

Well, according to Office show runner Greg Daniels, yes, Virginia, deleted scenes are canon:

Daniels is rare among producers in his belief that the deleted scenes have as much validity as the ones that made it to air, explaining, “For the writers, in our minds, those scenes have happened. We wrote them, we shot them, and at the last minute, I cut them in the editing room, but we’re relying on them anyway for the mythology of the show.”

Link: On the Web, a new life for deleted scenes (link no longer available)

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Office wins Writers Guild awards

The Office writing staff has won TWO 2007 Writers Guild awards!

  • COMEDY SERIES: The Office, Written by Steve Carell, Jennifer Celotta, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Ricky Gervais, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein, Stephen Merchant, B.J. Novak, Michael Schur, Justin Spitzer, Gene Stupnitsky
  • EPISODIC COMEDY – any length – one airing time: Casino Night (The Office), Written by Steve Carell

Woo-hoo! Congratulations to everybody!

Read a complete list of winners here.

From Variety:

Steve Carell won a second trophy for “The Office” in top comedy episode for writing the “Casino Night” segment … Upon accepting his award, Carell evoked a big laugh by saying tongue-in-cheek, “The other writers did not help me, so I celebrate me.”

Tipster: _bales

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TV Guide interviews Greg Daniels

Greg Daniels talks to TV Guide about the success of the show:

TVGuide.com: At the recent TV-critics press tour, we heard a lot of producers reacting to what’s said about their shows on the Web. There is a lot of online chatting about your show. Does it make producers crazy after a while?

Daniels: The people online are usually real purists. They often support the creator on the more creative decisions over the business-y decisions, I think. Anytime I get any piece of information, I pick and choose whether it supports what I want. The same with the executives — if an executive doesn’t like a show, and they do focus-group testing, they’re going to say, “These guys didn’t like it.” But the focus group is usually [made up of] people who aren’t into the stuff. They are grabbed out of a mall. But the online community is the focus-group viewer you’d love to have. Everybody is super into the show.

Sign me up for any focus group. Any time.

Link: Office Max

Tipster: LazyScranton

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Online ‘Office’ enriches viewer experience

Here’s an interesting article in Variety about the producer’s cut of ‘The Return’:

“When I’m locking the (broadcast) cut,” [Greg] Daniels said, “I call up (the network), and I say, ‘Can you give me any extra time?’ And sometimes they can; sometimes they’ve got an extra 15 seconds or an extra 30 seconds.”

For the Jan. 18 episode, entitled “The Return,” no such luck.

“The tag (would have) answered the question of where (Andy) went, but you can still enjoy the show without the tag, and I didn’t know how to take another 36 seconds out of the show.”

Every second counts …

Link: Online ‘Office’ enriches viewer experience

Tipster: Vish

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Greg Daniels trains other showrunners

From Variety:

The Writers Guild of America West has launched its second annual Showrunner Training Program to train two dozen writer-producers.

The six-session program launched Saturday with remarks from WGA West president Patric M. Verrone, John Wells (“ER,” “The West Wing”), Touchstone Television President Mark Pedowitz, Jeff Melvoin (“Alias”) and Phil Rosenthal (“Everybody Loves Raymond”).

The opening session, entitled “From Writer to Manager,” included a panel discussion with Tim Kring (” Heroes”), Greg Daniels (“The Office”) and Greg Garcia (“My Name Is Earl”).

Link: Guild begins Showrunner program

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Office nominated for 2007 Writers Guild Awards

The Office has received three nominations for the 2007 Writers Guild Awards:

  • COMEDY SERIES. The Office, written by Steve Carell, Jennifer Celotta, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Ricky Gervais, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein, Stephen Merchant, B.J. Novak, Michael Schur, Justin Spitzer, Gene Stupnitsky
  • EPISODIC COMEDY, any length, one airing time. Casino Night (The Office), written by Steve Carell
  • EPISODIC COMEDY, any length, one airing time. The Coup (The Office), written by Paul Lieberstein

Read the full list of nominees here.

The awards will be presented on February 11 in Los Angeles.

Congratulations to Steve, Paul, and the rest of the writing staff!