As an Office fan and a writer, today’s Comic-Con panel featuring the writers of The Office, moderated by Rainn Wilson was a dream come true. Anyone looking for juicy plot tidbits were out of luck. It was mostly a playful discussion of how The Office is written. It’s nice to see some of the face to put to the names. This was writer/creator Greg Daniels first time at Comic-Con, and he was loving it. Rainn Wilson did a great job moderating, and kept things moving along, injecting some jokes where needed, and all in all presenting a relaxed and fun atmosphere.
In a cool panel cameo, director Paul Feig introduced a video clip showing all of the writers’ cameos on the shows. The best, obviously, is Michael Schur playing the unforgettable Mose Schrute. The panel consisted of Rainn Wilson, creator/writer Greg Daniels, and writers Jennifer Celotta, Michael Schur, B.J. Novak, Lester Lewis, Gene Stupinsky, Lee Eisenberg, Mindy Kaling, Anthony Ferrell, Justin Spitzer and Ryan Koh.
Rainn Wilson introduced the panel, saying, “Look at their gorgeous, gorgeous writer bodies.”
There were all the typical questions. Is there improvisation allowed on The Office? Yeah, but not much. Where does the writing staff come from? All over. What are your inspirations for the story lines? Too various to list.
As I said above, there wasn’t much in the way of new information at the panel, just a fun time. Greg Daniels refused to let anything loose regarding Jim and Pam, for instance. One thing I found remarkable was how random the backgrounds of the writers are. As much as people like to say how difficult it is to break into Hollywood, it’s a totally quality-based hiring system for writers. Your background, your school, your previous jobs don’t matter – as long as your spec scripts are good, you’ll get hired.
B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling sat next to each other, which was funny. They had a couple of faux-bickering moments that make one nostalgic for the halcyon days of Ryan and Kelly. Most of the writers were pretty quiet, as you generally expect writers to be. Greg Daniels, Michael Schur and Jennifer Celotta did most of the talking.
We don’t know much more about the new season, or anything about the non-spinoff spinoff. Maybe a little disappointing, but I guarantee that everyone who attended had a good time.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
