GreenVulture

I'm not excited for Abrams. It's just more of a general "Why do they keep hiring guest directors?" question.

Due to the way The Office is presented as a fake documentary (with certain rules they have to follow direction-wise) and the tightly scripted nature of television in general, it doesn't really allow an outsider to add their personal touches to the show. I think the non-famous directors are doing just fine on the show.

Wikipedia understands your frustration and has fixed the problem.

Groucho

Yeah, there's no reason to bring in these directors except its sweeps and they know all the fanboys will watch. "ZOMG JOSS *swoon*"

Draven

To be fair, I didn't know Joss Whedon was directing until I saw his name in the credits. I rarely read future info about the shows I watch. Takes the fun out of watching them.

Brent_MN

anyone find a link to the Rashida Jones pics in this weeks EW??

parker63

Kelly: "Oh, don't hurt it, it's a poor defenseless creature..."

(bat flys out of meeting room)

"...AHHHH! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!"

starman9000

Thanks, didn't realize wikipedia had such a good layout for TV shows.

Groucho

It depends on the show. Some have HUGE amounts of information, including the tiniest minutiae about each episode. Others have only one small article about the entire run of the show.

Luther Heggs

Regarding the deleted scenes - just what was Meredith's bleeped punchline? Also, real dick move from Filippelli there.

Matt

Yes, sir.

Justjared.com, by way of OfficeTally.com.



I'm a Pam/Jenna guy, but Karen/Rashida is awfully damn cute in these pics, I must say. . .

ScandalUMD

Does anyone know if Greg Daniels is still doing "King of the Hill," or if he has left that entirely for "The Office"?

Nefarious

Michael: "I wonder if he knows."

obscurelabel

"God, This is Angela Martin, please don't let that stupid thing come anywhere near me."



Thanks to elizabethdawn at the TWOP boards.

the big train

I didn't laugh as much as I usually do (Creed was funny as was Dwight with the garbage bag). I thought it was more sweet than funny, but I liked it just as much as any other episode.

Brent_MN

thank yooou!

Boot

Probably the top rewind moment for me this episode was when Dwight was at the water cooler, and the camera pulls back, and there's Jim standing right behind him looking at his neck and Dwight realizes he's there and does that cringe shoulder-roll away from him. That was classic.

Jay G.

Actually, the flat acting from Karen was great in this ep, and appropriate, since the character Karen was "acting" in this episode, playing along with Jim's prank. I think Rashida Jones is a much better actor than her character Karen is.

Jay G.

To be fair, I think there are many more real people in the world that believe in vampires than believe that Ben Franklin is still alive. Unless.... Ben Franklin is a vampire too! OMG, it all makes so much sense!

Jay G.

He was filming it during his character's vacation. If the Comedy Central show gets picked up for a second season, I'm thinking that Oscar may have to choose between the two shows.

pinata242

I don't think that'll be an issue. Oscar has already said he wouldn't mind another free vacation on the company's dime. They could easily work that into the series again and have it be really funny.

Jay G.

Actually, the director usually doesn't man the camera, that's the cinematographer's job, and it's not as easy as it looks.

As a self-proclaimed "Joss Whedon zombie," I'd just like to say that while I think it's super-cool he directed this episode, I didn't know before it aired, and had it not been pointed out in this thread, I probably still wouldn't have known. I think the direction was solid, but it was built on a solid cast and production team and great writing.

I personally don't see a problem with the guest directors. Looking at wikipedia, Amy Heckerling directed the last episode of the first season and nobody bitched about that. At worst it allows the cast and crew to hang out with some cool directors, who obviously are fans of the show.

Are they hyping the guest directors in ads for the show? Because I didn't even know that Harold Ramis directed the great "A Benihana Christmas" episode.

dhmac

Was Ryan's demotion to the Annex "really" done so he can appear in the show less and work as writer more behind-the-scenes?

I mean, everyone in the main office area has to be in the scene for a large an episode, even if they have no lines and are just in the background. While Kelly is played by a writer too and she's already in the Annex and appears in just a few scenes in each episode, but isn't seen for the rest of the time. So maybe moving Ryan is for the same reason.

Matt

That's 'cause Amy Heckerling doesn't have an annoying cult of zealots falling all over themselves about everything she ever does, all the time.

GreenVulture

Come on, dude. When was the last time you heard anybody talk about Heckerling? There's a big difference between people like Abrams and Whedon, who have successful TV shows and rabid Internet followings, to someone like Heckerling, whose glory days are long gone. According to IMDb, that one episode of The Office was her first directing job in 5 years. And anyways, Heckerling has a background in comedy, unlike Whedon and Abrams (yeah yeah, Buffy, Angel, Alias, Lost and Firefly all had/have their moments of humor, but I don't think anyone would call them comedies).

I could have imagined this, but I swear when they ran promos for this show or the Thursday night lineup, they had "DIRECTED BY [RAMIS/WHEDON]" in giant letters on the screen. But like I said, that could have been my imagination. I know back when Abrams guest-directed an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, they hyped it, along with the episode of Live directed by Quentin Tarantino. And Live nowhere near as big as The Office.

Precisely what I was trying to say in my earlier posts. What's the point of hiring him then if he doesn't bring anything new to the table? What's wrong with the other directors who have been there since day one of the show?

(Oh, and for the record, I am a fan of Whedon's stuff. And I didn't foam at the mouth or anything when I found out he was directing an episode. But he added nothing to the show, so I'm curious as to why he was hired. Shit, I'd be saying the exact same things if they hired my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, to helm an episode.)

Brent L

WallyOPD

Eh, it seems like the anti-Whedon folks have made a far bigger deal about it in this thread than the Whedon fanboys have.

Probably the best episode of an already top-notch season.