nbc.com

September 27, 10:51 PM

Goodnight and Thank You

Thanks Dave for joining me tonight. And thanks to everyone who posted. We are coming our with new original episodes for like ten weeks in a row or something, so I hope you guys watch and like them.

Kevin Monaghan, writers PA: You wrote "our" instead of "out."

Dave: Good catch, Kevin.

Greg; Imagine how many episodes we could produce this year if we had spellcheck.

September 27, 10:49 PM

Entertainment Weekly covers

Yes, the EW covers are totally cool. I am responding to your comment, Smart1.

Dave: You can also check out Dean Holland and I in the Editors' Guild magazine. Now online, and no longer on newstands everywhere.

Greg: Newsstands has two "s"es.

Dave: Shut it.

September 27, 10:44 PM

to the negative posters

Listen to Brigitte:

"You guys don't seem to follow any of the conventional television formulas, and it just blows my mind...how you make it all work...and how it's better than anything else on TV but it's like nothing else on TV! How do you do that?! Seriously.

BTW, you guys need to have an episode that takes place in an Art Van furnature store. Just trust me."

Greg: There. Need we say more.

Dave: She spelled "furniture" wrong.

Greg: Shut it.

Dave: Why am I here?

September 27, 10:39 PM

about camera setups

To Kelly:

We don't really set up reaction shots.

Dave: We should. Then maybe I won't have to go hunting through episodes from two seasons ago...

Greg: Shut it! Actually, our fantastic camerapeople Randall Einhorn and Matt Sohn swing around at will and follow the story on their own a lot. At least when I direct. Was I supposed to tell them where to point that thing?

September 27, 10:36 PM

Dunder Mifflin Infinity

Next week is another hour-long episode, very funny, written by Mose (Mike Schur.) The plot is Ryan's return, and he has a new website idea that he is pushing on his relentless rise to the top. Someone asked why Ryan could be promoted above Michael when he never made a sale. The answer is, he has an MBA. Look around you. Life is not fair in many ways.

Dave: I have an Emmy.

September 27, 10:34 PM

Who is that lady in the background sometimes?

Her name is Luanne, she is a background player. I go back and forth about her. Sometimes I think that it was more realistic to have some people you didn't know about in the office, but as the seasons progressed and we learned so much about everyone, it got increasingly weird to see this nice woman wandering through scenes.

Dave: What's the explanation then for her disappearing?

Greg: What?

Dave: I mean, in the continuity of the show...

Greg: Oh, look, another question just came in.

September 27, 10:31 PM

to the fifteen year old who preferred season 2 to season 3

Andrew,
Do you think that your youth will protect you from my anger? Season three made season two look like crap. No, I don't know, perhaps we are getting worse.

Dave: Except the editing.

Greg: Wait until you see how bad season four is.

September 27, 10:28 PM

The Office Convention in Scranton

The writing staff and I are going. There is a Halloween costume contest and an Office Olympics. A bunch of the cast are going -- I don't know who but I think around eight are confirmed. It's October 26 through 28 in Scranton PA. I think they are showing episodes in movie theaters around town. Should be a good time. Hopefully Triumph the Insult Comic Dog will come and make fun of us.

Dave: It should be better than Bionicon, which I went to this summer.

Greg: He's still angry about that. Lee Majors did not show up.

September 27, 10:26 PM

What are the chances we will see more Madge and Bob Vance?

To VickChick:

Are you thinking spin off? I'll make some calls.

September 27, 10:22 PM

Two different endings for The Job:

To Anthony:

Dave: Both endings did have Jim and Pam ending up together. One had Pam leaving and we hear her talking head about being okay as she's packing up for the day and riding in the elevator. When the doors opened up, Jim is there and surprises her. But it just didn't have the same oomph that the bursting in to the interview had. And Jenna's look at the end just says it all!

Greg: Jenna is the new Oomph Girl.

September 27, 10:19 PM

Gervais/Merchant

Stephen Merchant will be directing an episode in a few months. We are very excited to spend the week with him. He is an extremely funny and even taller man. Also, starting Monday, Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) starts directing an episode called "Local Ad" where Dunder Mifflin makes an ad and Michael gets very excited and hijacks the production.

September 27, 10:16 PM

Wading into iTunes controversy

I would like the show to be on iTunes. There is still a potential that this will happen. I would like to tell you that Unbox is a suitable replacement. I would like to tell you that. If you want some laughs, google Amazon Unbox reviews.

Please make watching the show on air more of a priority in your lives, that is all I can say.

September 27, 10:13 PM

Anger at death of cat

No cat was actually killed for this episode. It happened off-stage. I did run over a golden Lion tamarind on way to work this morning, though.

Dave: What the hell is a golden Lion tamarind?

Greg: It's a very rare marsupial. No real golden Lion tamarind was killed, however, for the joke I just made.

September 27, 10:10 PM

Adapting Extras

I would love to, but Stephen Colbert won't return my phone calls.

September 27, 10:07 PM

Question for Dave about his pets and Emmy

Dave: I do have a pet, but I don't really consider him a pet. He's more of a best friend and his name is Bryce. He is a border collie mix and he is the most significant thing in my life right now, with "The Office" at number two. I wish I knew what number three was. Probably my love of The Six Million Dollar Man...

Greg: Come on, this is supposed to be light and fun. Not sad and dark and hopeless.

Dave: Oh.

September 27, 10:05 PM

Worried the Office will become self-conscious

To Josh:
I worry constantly that we will start to suck. Dave tells me when anythign I do is less than perfect.

Dave: You spelled "anything" wrong.

September 27, 10:03 PM

Creed's hippy/home;less/dog eat dog lifestyle

to Omar Guc:

We do learn more about Creed, in fact more comes to light every couple days on his Creedthoughts blog.

Dave: We know everything there is to know about Creed, but like Lost, we are slowly revealing it to the audience.

Greg: See, I told you he would start contributing.

September 27, 09:57 PM

hour longs

To ds189:
We are starting the season off with four - 4 - hour long episodes. A huge undertaking. The way we produce them is actually to produce two episodes worth at our normal overrun, so that for instance next week's episode had a first editors' assembly length of 70 minutes. Dave here, who has to go through every take and pick the good ones, might have an opinion about our show length... Dave?

Dave:

Greg: Dave took too long to respond. He'll get the hang of this.

September 27, 09:46 PM

Welcome to season 4

Hi Bloggees,
Thanks for coming to this forum. I downloaded a bunch of your questions just now and they are really smart and nice. Nothing telling me where I can put anything so far, although the show has not finished airing on the east coast yet. To set the scene, I am at the writers room computer, at the end of a long table with five other monitors attached to this one so the writers can see what is on the screen. Pretty much everybody is gone for the day though except me and my special guest tonight, Dave Rogers, one of our two award-winning editors. We have spent all day in his editing room downstairs chopping time out of our third hour-long episode called "Launch Party" which airs in two weeks. The writers and actors are getting ready for our west-coast premiere party which is at a club or bar or something on Sunset Boulevard. So, anyway, I will be answering questions when this thing opens at 10pm EST. Hope you are enjoying the episode!
Greg

September 19, 11:30 PM

We're Looking Forward to Thursday (9/27)!

Please join us for an exciting live blog with The Office Executive Producer Greg Daniels and Emmy Winning Editor Dave Rogers tonight after the 1-hour season premiere at 10pm ET/7pm PT.

In the meantime, go ahead and leave your questions about the new season, the cast and characters or just general questions about the show right here in the comments, that way we'll have plenty of questions to get started with once we start blogging.

Important note: If at any time during the live blog you stop seeing updates, just click "Blog Home" in the left sidebar to return to the main page where the entries are being updated.

We look forward to talking with you soon!