The Office Comic Con Panel: The Video and My Noteworthy Notes

NBC has graciously posted the San Diego Comic Con panel for The Office. You can view it at NBC.com, or just watch it below! I took notes as I watched it, so my observations and highlights are below. Feel free to discuss the show with me, or you can just read what I thought were the highlights if you don’t have time to watch the entire thing. (It runs approx. 50 minutes.)

For those who are jumping ahead to read my notes: Rainn Wilson was the MC of the event, and other writers were at the panel. This included B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, who you know as Ryan and Kelly on the show. It looks like the entire show has an amazing writing family.

Wilson was asked how he felt as the official sex symbol for The Office, and he said: “I feel great about that. Eat my shorts, John Krasinski!” Wilson let the writers do most of the rest of the talking. Which was great, because, as they write for a hilarious show – they’re all hilarious. Who knew? Psh!

B.J. Novak pointed out that he likes to write for Michael Scott because he, “has an interesting logical structure.” One of the fans said that she’s written college papers based on the show, saying that, “Michael is a good subject if you’re a psych student.” Amen! He is truly fascinating. Sometimes I wish I could be like him. Is that so wrong?

Greg Daniels said that in his real life he endured Dundies, only they were called Swampies. He also said he’s experienced office Olympics. So the writers do pull material from real life, yes. Greg was also asked how he found writers. He said that first he hired people who were writers and performers, but then he realized he needed some people that would be around, so he looked at writing samples. Novak chimed in to say that you should always work towards developing your creativity (paraphrasing him). He expanded on this answer, and finished up with a self-deprecating remark. Oh, how I love him.

On this same subject (finding writers, not self-deprecation), Rainn Wilson spoke of a friend who was depressed and after staying up and watching lots of TV, essentially said to himself, “I can write a better show than this.” So he did. He wrote a spec script, and now he writes for shows. Pretty awesome.

Mindy Kaling fielded the ‘will there be a musical?’ question by saying she’d love one, but that it isn’t feasible for a documentary to have one. She also talked about girly things she likes, and I think I’d love to go shopping with her. Kelly, on the show, is way too ‘ahhherwrwl!’ but Kaling seems genuinely likable – someone you can trust to tell you if you have spinach in your teeth. (Not that I ever eat spinach – gross.)

It was asked as to why Michael hates Toby, and if there was ever a specific incident that made this happen. The short answer is: no. I believe Michael would blink and answer this with, “Toby is the worst.” But really, I always assumed that Michael feuds with Toby because Toby’s job was to monitor the rules and make sure that Michael didn’t go too crazy. He was like, the babysitter.

One of the best questions near the end was about how Dwight would react to a robot invasion. It was decided that he’d say, “I told you so” – and then become assistant to the manger of robots. Maybe one day he’d get to become ‘assistant manger of robots’. One can dream. One can also go watch The Office on DVD while drinking Propel water and painting their nails. I think I will accept that mission.

For more Sirlinksalot: The Office

You can also watch the Heroes Comic Con panel! I’m watching it now!

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