‘The Office’ and spin-off staff news

From Variety:

  • “Human Giant”‘s Aziz Ansari is the first confirmed cast hire for ‘The Office’ spin-off.
  • Greg Daniels and Mike Schur are executive producers of the spin-off.
  • Spin-off writers include Tucker Cawley, Dan Goor, and Alan Yang.
  • Three new members have been added to ‘The Office’ writing staff: Paul Feig, Aaron Shure, and Charlie Grandy.
  • Paul Lieberstein has been promoted to executive producer of ‘The Office.’

Link: Aziz Ansari hired for ‘Office’ spinoff

Tipster: George

51 comments

  1. I thought Paul Feig was already part of the writing staff? Or am I thinking something else? And yay for Paul Lieberstein for getting promoted! Does that mean Greg and Mike are going to not be working on The Office as much now that they’re starting on the spin-off?

  2. As soon as I heard the name “Aziz Ansari” I thought, hang on, is that the guy from the ‘Wil Arnett / Ashley & Mary-Kate Sex Tape’ that was on FunnyOrDie, and yes, it is.

    For one, that’s a solid casting. He could certainly be rival for Dwight or Andy’s sense of humour.. let’s see what else is coming..

  3. wow. I seriously love Aziz Ansari. Maybe this will pan out. Congrats Paul on making exc producer of the Office!!

  4. I’d like to see them do something bold and unrelated to DM, but I’d watch it anyway. Severed head or no.

  5. I am glad to see Greg and Mike attached to the spin-off.

    Congrats to Paul! You totally deserved being an executive producer after your scripts and writing yourself off.

  6. Ashley, Paul Feig has previously only been a director for the series, never a writer.

  7. Congrats to Paul, and I’m also excited to watch an episode written by Paul Feig, I bet he is hilarious :)

  8. Congrats to Paul Lieberstein on the promotion! And I can’t wait to see what all the new people bring to the show. *nodnod*

  9. Hey, I found a clip of Aziz and Ed Helms together. Must be fate :)

    I think this sounds like awesome good news. Can’t wait to hear more about it.

  10. this all sounds very promising. aziz is great, feig is great (freaks and geeks!), plus we have the office people behind it…i have high hopes!

  11. Freaks And Geeks is my all-time favorite television show, so Paul Feig being hired as a writer comes as amazing news for me. Something good came out of the spin-off after all!

  12. I’m so happy Aziz Ansari is going to be writing on the spin-off. I absolutely love Human Giant!

  13. Okay, as much as I didn’t want an Office spin-off…this is starting to sound good. Just please don’t take any of my original Dunder Mifflinites! Thank you for posting, Tanster!

  14. I love Aziz, maybe this will be good! He’s gonna wake up in a smoothie!

  15. Hmm… with Aziz on board, Will Arnett may not be too far away… Interesting.

  16. yeah, executive producer would take up too much time to be toby. :( but congrats on the promotion! and YES finally! an asian guy on some part of the office! (well south asian, but still).

  17. Yay for Paul!! It’s really great that he got the promotion…does that mean he’s the one actually leaving the show (as Toby)? I guess we’ll have to wait and see..

  18. Is it sad that I was in bed last night and got the twitter update about this post and was so curious that I got out of bed just to read it? Maybe.

    Anyway, it sounds like they’re moving in the right direction. Let’s hope it stays that way.

  19. Thank God they got more writers so they don’t have to split the entire Office writing staff. I was worried about that. And a big CONGRATS to Paul!

  20. Paul Feig is fantastic! Freaks and Geeks was epic! He will bring a wonderful aspect to the Office Spin-Off. The more I hear, the more faith i’m getting in the future of the Office Spin-off.

  21. Is Daniels still going to remain the showrunner for “The Office?” I’m of course going to give the spinoff a chance, but I can’t help but be nervous that the writing/ideas from “The Office” will suffer with people focusing on the spinoff.

  22. I noticed in the Variety article that they say Paul “doubles at Toby” – that’s the present tense, not the past tense. Maybe I’m just wishful thinking that he’s coming back in September? A girl can dream…

  23. If Rashida joins the cast then we can expect an office related show. But if not, maybe it will take place in a grocery store, or a post office. I think it will be a workplace show but without an actual office.

  24. Oh my GOSH! I am SOOOOOO excited to see Aziz in the spin-off. He has always been my favorite Human Giant, so this is going to be killer!

  25. I’m so excited!! I love Aziz. I went to see a live show of Flight of the Conchords and he warmed up for them and did a comedy act. He was HILARIOUS! I’m so happy he’s becoming part of the Office family!!

  26. Awesome! I love Human Giant, and his little stint on “Flight of the Conchords” was great.

    This morning I was thinking it’d be really cool if the spin-off was a show about the documentary crew that films “The Office.” We’re gonna be five seasons in at this point and it seems less believable that they’re making an actual documentary. It would be cool to have the spin-off be about the actual documentary crew, and there could be some great commentary about how people’s lives are affected by the fact that they’re being filmed.

  27. Wow, seeing this made me really excited! Aziz is hilarious on Human Giant, and I loved him on Flight Of the Conchords! And yay Paul Feig! Freaks and Geeks remains one of my favorite shows, and he is a very nice person! He came to my school two years ago to talk about The Office, and he couldn’t have been nicer or funnier! I can’t wait to see what kind of stuff he’ll write.

  28. It’s great the spin-off is finally starting to take shape with specific names attached to it. I haven’t seen any of Aziz’s work, but from the comments here he sounds hilarious. And that is beyond awesome that Paul Feig is becoming a regular writer for The Office.

  29. So it’s “unlikely” that any cast members from The Office will be drifting over to the spinoff, Aziz Ansari is the first hire, and they’ve gotten writers from Late Night and South Park. Although I’m still a tad bit worried about Greg and Mike’s attention being diverted away from The Office, I gotta say, I’m actually starting to get excited about this spinoff!

    Also – congrats to Paul, and welcome, new Office writers! :)

  30. i am such a huge freaks and geeks fan, this is great news.
    also, at the risk of tooting my own horn, so far all the news coming out about this spin off fits with my predictions: no one from the office will leave, it won’t be what we expect – a spin off in the traditional sense, it might not even be totally related to the office. and i still think that rashida’s contract is for her to return to the original office, not the spin-off, in the role of michael’s boss at corporate (aka jan/rayan).

  31. The announcement of the spinoff created a bad knot in my stomach. But these updates have actually made me look forward to it. Ever since it was revealed that original cast members weren’t leaving for it, each subsequent post keeps indicating that both shows are moving in the right direction.

  32. Whoa whoa. Congrats, Paul! And Paul, Aaron, and Charlie, welcome to Scranton!

  33. Aziz!!!!! That is wonderful news I know he will do
    a great job. I had some big worries about this but I am actually excited now.

  34. Does that mean that Greg and Michael will no longer be writing for the office?

  35. Totally love the Aziz casting.

    Isn’t Tucker Cawley the showrunner from Everybody Loves Raymond? I really hope the spin-off doesn’t drift toward to formulaic sitcom world that ELR was.

  36. Everybody loves Raymond was hilarious – formulaic or not. Of course, it probably appealed most to those who are married – with kids and in-laws.

  37. Wow, Aziz has a great agent. He’s in this AND the new season of Scrubs on ABC. Both should be airing around the same time. This is going to make him a high-profile comedy actor.

  38. Aziz is so funny! He was in an episode of “Flight of the Conchords” and it’s one of my favorites. :)

  39. has no one seriously even THOUGHT about the spinoff being the Utica branch???? it would be an obvious choice.

  40. way to go, paul!! i have always loved him, he deserves this. i’m very much looking forward to this spin-off, it looks like it’s coming together well

  41. tuna tuna tuna, i could not agree more! your predictions sound perfect!

    and i ADORE freaks and geeks. i borrowed the DVD set and watched it whenever i could. it was so great!

Leave a Reply