Got questions for ‘The Office’ writers panel?
Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | 178 comments
I have the crazy honor of moderating The Office writers panel at the Paley Center in L.A. next week.
I’ll be asking questions of the panel; if you have one, submit it in a comment below! Make sure to include your first name (or screename) and city, so I can introduce each question like “This next question comes from Carly in New York, and she asks …”
Scheduled to appear: Charlie Grandy, Ryan Koh, Anthony Farrell, Justin Spitzer, Brent Forrester, Lester Lewis, Aaron Shure, Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein, Jennifer Celotta, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels
If you have a question for a specific writer, that’s cool, too!
DEADLINE: I’m closing this post to new questions tonight. I’m holing up at the library tomorrow to pick questions and prepare …
Am I nervous and excited? You have no idea. :)
P.S.: Yes, Paley will film the event; unfortunately, they usually put only a small clip of the event online, and you’ll have to physically go to the Paley Center in L.A. to view the event in its entirety. I won’t be able to “cover” this event the way I normally would if I were an audience member; I’m hoping some of you will be there to take notes and file reports for OfficeTally later! :)
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Has Michael heard the good news about Toby’s broken neck?
Sean from Nebraska
Oh, sorry Tanster! That would be Stacey from Centreville, Virginia! =p
Hey Office writers! Hey Tanster!!
Just one question that’s been on my mind for awhile (and this is for any of the writers, in a perfect world I’d like to know each of their responses):
Can you possibly sum up this experience? What has it meant for you as a creative person to be a part of something so iconic to the American people?
Sorry, one more question, from Washington, DC:
For those writers who keep blogs or MySpaces, especially Mindy, will you be updating those soon because us fans would really like that?
Thanks!
@ 156 Jessica and 159 Michelle
Someone asked Greg that question at the Writers Block panel at The Convention. He acknowledged the confusion, but says he thinks Pam started first based on Jim’s talking head in The Client’s deleted scenes.
You can watch him say that at around 6:27 here: Link
Have fun at Paley, Tanster!!
Here’s a question for the writers that I’ve wondered about for a long time:
Do you ever get tired of being asked: “How much of what we see on-air is just the actors improvising?” Is it a compliment, like the dialogue seems so natural, or an insult, like the implication is that if it’s funny, it must have been the actors idea?
Rebecca from IL
By far, who was your favorite guest star or recurring minor character?
Thanks!
Emma from Long Island, NY
They may get this question often but I never feel like I’ve gotten a satisfying answer: is the idea of Stephen Colbert playing Gould still viable over there? Because I literally think that would be the best and funniest thing I have ever seen. They actually NEED to do that. Are they going to do it, or is it just an idea they play around with?
This is for Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg:
How did you get your career start (big break) as writers?
From Carly in Jacksonville, FL.
Did the timing of the writers strike change the direction of how you took the Jim/Pam story-line? In what way?
-Phoebe from NYC
GOOD LUCK TANSTER!
Approximately how much time does it take to write an episode? Has this time line varied from season to season (recognizing that Season One was derived primarily from its British counterpart)? What is the most considerable constraint faced in terms of writing an average episode?
Good luck with your preparation tomorrow Tanster. It cannot be easy to find new ground that hasn’t been covered in other panels or in the excellent episode Q&As with the writers that you provide.
Who among the writers has the weirdest taste in snacks?
Edward from Texas
One more!
Stefanie in Illinois:
In a perfect world, The Office would never end and there would always be that same band of crazies in Scranton. Alas, someday (far from now, I hope!), this fantastic show will have to come to an end. Do you as writers know how the show will end (a ‘master plan story arch,’ if you will), and if so, is it difficult to pace the show to reach that end?
Will you please please pretty pretty please ask them if we’ll ever get to see another Dundies Award?
/Anna, Sweden
Stefanie from Illinois:
It has been said that there is always extra footage left on the editing room floor that usually turns into deleted scenes on the season DVD or available online. Do you as writers enjoy the half-hour format, or would you rather be writing for a full hour of The Office?
I loved the inclusion of Kendall, the H.R. rep that David Wallace hates, in the latest episode. I hate him too! Is David Wallace a good boss surrounded by idiots, or a diabolical genius who hires people who are bad at their job to make him look better?
-Angela from Tampa
Woops, forgot to put Wendy from Atlanta in message below. Sorry!
Do you ever read “Office” related message boards after an episode to see how fans reacted to the show? If so, does fan reaction ever influence the direction of the show?
from berry in Annapolis, MD
Jennifer and Mindy,
What is it like being the only woman writers? Is it weird? Are there things the guys do where you both are like “how could they do that!” Or is it all pretty balanced in retrospect?
I just want to say that I think Jessica’s (156) question is really good… I knew I wanted to ask the same thing, but completely forgot what I was going to ask, haha