Comic-Con in San Diego had many of the networks representing, and NBC had their comedy "The Office," host a panel in Room 6A.
05/12/2008 - Rainn Wilson - The 2008 NBC Universal Experience Upfronts - Arrivals - Rockefeller Center - New York City, NY, USA © Anthony G. Moore / PR Photos
"The Office" panel was moderated by beet loving Dwight, aka Rainn Wilson who was joined by showrunner Greg Daniels and the writing staff Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak.
The fifth season of the show was teased in bits and bobs thanks to great questions from the SRO audience.
Regarding Ryan Howard, who went from sales person to NYC hot shot to criminal. "Ryan turned into the biggest d-bag of all time," Mindy said. B.J. shared he loves writing for Steve Carell (Michael Scott). "He has such an interesting logical structure." John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), is behind the opening shots of Scranton. Greg said Jim went over to Scranton with pals and filmed the scenes with his camcorder.
A big topic covered was various inspirations for the show. The staff noted the cast's collective shared office experiences to set the right tone for the show.
The staff's TV inspirations: Those noted were "Seinfeld," "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Mentioned were the classic TV couples arcs (Sam and Diane, Ross and Rachel, etc) that were studied by the writers for inspiration on the Jim and Pam story.
Watch the Panel :
Your Talkback on this Story