Leslie, Rainn and BJ Talk to TV Guide About Superbowl Episode

Happy Holidays From Bob Vance!!

Our friend, Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance - Vance Refrigeration), sent in this link for a Christmas gift to the fans! Enjoy!

"Leslie Baker (Stanley Hudson) gives Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration) a tour of the The Office Cast & Crew Christmas Tree, 2008."

Who would YOU hire?

CareerBuilder.com has posted a new essay entitled "Three Tips on How to Find the Best Salesperson" using characters from The Office as examples. The best Dundee choice, according to Mary Ross, a corporate recruiter with CareerBuilder.com, is... I'm not going to tell you, silly! Just go read the article! You can even vote for your favorite and view the results!

Stanley Stepping Out

Recently NBC had its "All Star" Press Convention in Hollywood. Our man Leslie David Baker showed up! Here he is with some of the lovely ladies from "Friday Night Lights" and other NBC Stars!

(L to R)Connie Britton; Adrianne Palicki; Leslie David Baker; Minka Kelly; Christian Slater; Selma Blair; Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC

Also: Kate and Oscar were a part of the agenda...

3:30-4 p.m.: Kate Flannery and Oscar Nunez from "The Office" host a combination smoothie break and demonstration of the new "Office" trivia game.
Read the whole thing HERE.

[NBC Photo: Trae Patton]

NEW WEBISODES!!

I've seen the Webisodes and will do a full review of them closer to the release date. They are HILARIOUS!

In "Kevin’s Loan," the second series of "The Office" webisodes, Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) pursues a unique solution in an effort to pay back his looming gambling debts. This installment also stars Oscar Nunez, Leslie David Baker and Craig Robinson.

NBC.com, the Emmy Award-winning broadcast network website, is a leading online and mobile destination for television and interactive entertainment. With both derivative and web-exclusive programming, NBC.com pioneered the "360" experience with "Heroes 360," which gave viewers a way to extend their entertainment experience beyond the broadcast, and the first weekly social networking experience attached to a primetime entertainment program with "Dunder Mifflin Infinity." The site offers full episode streaming of many NBC Entertainment shows as well as short clips, interactive games and social networking, including user-generated content. NBC.com continually develops new ways for consumers to experience entertainment content on both existing and emerging platforms. The site is the recipient of multiple Emmy and Webby awards for its content and applications. Please log on to www.nbc.com to learn more.

Adventures with Angela - Leslie's Baby Names

New Webisodes Info!

NBC Digital Entertainment today announced plans to premiere fan-favorite webisodes in July, vastly increased mobile streaming video offerings, the well-timed "SNL" Political Site and more community based features. The announcements were made by Vivi Zigler, Executive Vice President, NBC Digital Entertainment.

"We've learned a lot in the past few seasons about what the fans enjoy and we are building on that base," said Zigler. "Our experimentation with ground-breaking storytelling, new functionality and platform offerings will really pay off for the fans of our shows in the months and season to come. We are rolling out more original content from the shows they love, more community around those shows and more top of mind content in the case of the 'SNL' political site."

In the second series of "The Office" webisodes, which premieres on NBC.com, Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) pursues a unique solution in an effort to pay back his looming gambling debts. This installment also stars Oscar Nunez, Leslie David Baker and Craig Robinson.

To Angela's Baby - Love Rainn Wilson

Leslie David Baker Thanks Teachers

Business Wire has this nice article about the California teacher of the year and how Leslie David Baker helped to celebrate her.

"Andee Aceves isn’t your typical third grade school teacher. She doesn’t come from a family of teachers and she didn’t decide to become a teacher until she was in her 30s. Now she is one of California’s Teachers of the Year for 2008.

The award was presented to Aceves by actor Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley Hudson on the hit sit-com, “The Office.” Baker, a former teacher, said while presenting the award, he is thankful that there are teachers like Andee Aceves and that the children in her classroom are lucky to have her to show them the way."

Belated...

Here is what we missed while we were gone...

- Happy Birthday Jenna Fischer!

- New Creed Thoughts!

- Kevin Malone Blogs!

- New Adventures with Angela!

- Leslie David Baker interviewed by FanCast!

- Steve Carell on MySpace, Regis and Kelly, and The Today Show.

- And how could we forget that Jenna was featured in Playboy!! (An article - she didn't "pose", calm down.)

Happy Birthday...

to Leslie David Baker!!

The Manly behind Stanley the Manly is celebrating his birthday today!

Happy Birthday Leslie! It HAS to be more fun than Preztel Day!

More "The Office" Stars on the Red Carpet at SAG Awards

This is video of TBS' behind the scenes Red Carpet show that was online. Some of the cast of "The Office" stopped in to chat.

Click HERE for the video.

Ed Helms and B.J. Novak around the 27:00 minute mark.

Leslie David Baker is around the 31:00 minute mark.

Angela Kinsey and Brian Baumgartner at the 34:00 minute mark.

Jenna Fischer around the 35:00 minute mark.

Ricky Gervais around the 38:00 minute mark.

John Krasinski around the 53:00 minute mark.

Rainn Wilson around the 88:00 minute mark.

The Office Stars at Luxury Lounge...

The Luxury Lounge had give aways for the celebrities in town for the 2008 Sag Awards and some of our favorites showed up to take advantage!

Ricky Gervais, Leslie David Baker, Mindy Kaling, Briam Baumgartner, Kate Flannery & Angela Kinsey, Melora Hardin, and Creed Bratton.

Stanley Ran a Roller Coaster?

Ok, well, not Stanley - but Leslie David Baker did!

According to the Sun-Sentinal.com's list of celebrity first jobs, our favorite pretzel lover was surrounded by cotton candy often.

"LESLIE DAVID BAKER (The Office): "When I was in high school I worked at an amusement park operating a roller coaster, out in the blistering heat all day. ... Some street gang came in one day and decided they wanted to take over the amusement park. I showed them how to work the roller coaster and I got in the car and went home.""

You can click HERE to read the whole list.

Jenna Fischer's Friends Support Her

Jenna Fischer had the "Walk Hard" premiere in Hollywood and a lot of her Office friends showed up to show their support.

IFMagazine just published some exclusive shots of their arrivals.

Leslie David Baker, David Denman, Kate Flannery and Brian Baumgartner all showed up to lend their support.



Click HERE to see all the photos.

Scranton Story - Cast Q&A

An enormous crowd was spilling into the University of Scranton's gymnasium. We were at the very end of this throng and I didn't know how far away we would be sitting. Lord beer me strength if I need to sit in the back of this place.

One glance at my Corporate ID and I'm led to the front seats. We end us third row, just off center of the stage. We are about an hour away from the cast arriving and are treated to the song stylings of the Univ of Scranton Jazz Ensemble. They did a great job of playing upbeat songs while we all waited.

Finally the magic hour of 5pm hits and the large jumbo tron goes into the video that the people in Scranton made and sent to Greg Daniels and company at The Office to convince them to come. Big applause. However the real treat was a 10 minute video clip of bloopers from this current season! I'm already excited for the season 4 DVD now!

Finally Matt Smith and the local Scranton Weather man take to the stage to introduce us to our cast! Andy Buckley (CFO David Wallace) leads the charge with his hand up in the air. He's followed by Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis), Creed Bratton (Creed), Oscar Nunez (Oscar), Kate Flannery (Meredith), Craig Robinson (Darryl), Mindy Kaling (Kelly), Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Melora Hardin (Jan), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), Angela Kinsey (Angela), Ed Helms (Andy) and Greg Daniels (Executive Producer).

The cast spoke for almost 2 hours. Questions were pre-submitted via the internet and were read to the cast, and then they opened it up to the fans in the house to ask questions.

Here are some great questions and answers we got:

- Greg Daniels stated that Angela is probably least like her character while Mindy chimed in that BJ was most like Ryan!

- A fan yelled out Rid it dit di doo! And Ed Helms answered back and broke into Andy's version of Drift Away from the Product Recall episode.

- Ed feels that The Office is different than the Daily Show because he gets to play a character, not just a super swarmy version of himself.

- Angela was the first to get "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID" yelled at her by the fans AND cast when she said preparing to be mean as Angela is "pretty hard". TWSS was mentioned a ton of times over the course of the panel.

- Brian was asked to recreate the Kool-Aid Man facial expression and he complied.

- Melora enjoys the dance she gets to do between domestic Jan and vixen Jan. She said the character has a lot of meat to sink her teeth into. That's what she said!

- Leslie was seen smiling ear to ear over the entire course of the Convention. He's one of the happiest people I've ever seen. A fan asked how he keeps so straight faced as Stanley and Leslie replied that he does a lot of biting his tongue to keep from cracking up. He thinks about dead pets and such.

- Mindy can't pick between Writing and Acting, likening it to having to choose which parent you want to go with after a divorce. She said that both are "Awesome".

- Craig stated that he hopes we'll see more Darryl and when about his relationship with Kelly he answered by leaning over and kissing Mindy Kaling. Ed answered with Rid it dit di doo!

- Kate didn't think she could top that and Oscar said - WATCH! He leaned over to move in for a kiss with a very confused Creed. He stopped and pointed at the crowd as if to say "Don't start!" Kate said she believes one of Meredith's ex husbands was a serial killer or something dark like that. She also loved that everyone in Scranton thought she was beautiful, and I must say, she really is in person!

- Oscar said that improv really helps with comedic acting. He suggested that if anyone was thinking of being a doctor or lawyer or something that they should quit school and join an improv troupe.

- Creed was asked how closely related he is with his character on the show. Creed launched into a character story involving Ed Truck, bus rides to Scranton in the 60s, etc. Ed mentioned that Creed doesn't really know it's a TV show at all.

- Phyllis thanks all the cast members she read with as a casting director in helping to cultivate her skills as an actress.

- Bobby believes that Bob Vance should get Phyllis an Escalade with spinners for their anniversary that's coming up! Poor Bobby had lost his voice and had to whisper his answers to Phyllis for the rest of the time.

- All smiles, Andy Buckely was fast becoming a crowd favorite as chants of CFO CFO were erupting from the crowd whenever he was asked a question.

- A fan asked Greg how close MASH is to the Office and he answered, not at all. Angela said that some have compared Dwight and Angela to Frank Burns and Hotlips from MASH however.

- Ed and Brian went to high school together.

- Angela loves the idea of her character being with Dwight but thinks she'll try out Nardog (Andy Bernard) for a while.

- Brian doesn't know how to play the drums and was taught by Paul Lieberstein (Toby) how to for the Phyllis's Wedding episode.

- Mindy likens to the Kelly of recent seasons to a mallrat.

- Craig answered his next question by kissing Mindy again.

- Kate was so happy to be able to do her own stunt of jumping on Michael's car in the Fun Run episode. Kent Zbornak did it first to prove to Kate it would be ok.

- Melora told the crowd that Andy Buckley is actually a stock broker for Merryl Lynch and he comes down to do his scenes on days off from his real job.

- Ed is asked to sing Rainbow Connection and he does. Then mentioned that it should really be answered by Craig and Mindy kissing - and they do again. To which Mindy said Rid it dit di doo!(Watch Video)

- Ed was prompted by the cast to do Tom Brokaw and Al Gore impressions. They were spot on.

- Melora was asked how they achieved Jan's new breasts and Melora said it's a strap on - THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID! Ed followed up with, yes, that is what she said, she just said it.

- Mindy said that The Injury is the favorite episode she's written.

- Phyllis has a broken ankle and according to Melora, Phyllis used to be a professional dancer.

- The audience asked Ed to sing Take A Chance on Me. One of the people on the phone in the episode was John Michael Higgins (Best in Show, The Breakup, etc). Ed did sing Take A Chance and the cast backed him up. (Watch Video)

- Ed was asked to finish "Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that..." Ed answered Football Cream. Then the girl said she brought him a KitKat bar and Ed said that was nice but he didn't know what that had to do with anything. The man is very quick on his feet with the funny. Actually, they all were.

- If Creed was an animal he'd be a duck billed platypus.

- Greg Daniels was friends with people named Jim Halpert and Andy Bernard in high school. He also blamed being lazy for using the actors names for their characters (i.e. Angela, Oscar, Creed).

- Legend states a UFO landed in Carbondale, the next town over. Look for this to be mentioned in a future Dwight storyline. They all seemed intrigued about his.

- Craig (after kissing Mindy a last time until she mentioned her boyfriend was somewhere in the audience) said that they all are in awe of how they are being treated this weekend. He said it was "beautiful" and "overwhelming".

- Brian spoke about meeting people who came from IRELAND to attend the Convention.

- Melora called this event surreal and Leslie said it was historical and ground breaking. Angela said nothing will ever compare with this. Ed called it Dawesome.

This was one of the greatest moments of the entire Convention. The cast enjoyed being up there with each other as much as we enjoyed watching them. They were all laughing all the time. Just like us. I'm SURE it will be on a future DVD!

Back to the hotel to change yet again. All this wasn't even CLOSE to the end of the day! But that's another story...

Cast Q&A Photos

-Back to the Scranton Story Main Menu-

Scranton Story - Street Festival / Autograph Signings

Up bright and early on Saturday morning we head out to Downtown Scranton and back to our favorite parking garage.

Scranton has closed off a few of the main roads and set up a Street Festival which is open to the public. Tents were everywhere, which is good because it was POURING buckets of rain. Our umbrellas were barely holding up to the rain. We sloshed our way down the main road and turned back up another.

Standing there in front of us was the Main Stage all set up for concerts and the ribbon cutting and the Office Olympics. Due to the rain nothing was started yet and so we headed over to the large tents set up for today's registration. Also under these two tents were the Dunder Mifflin Infinity tables, the NBC store and the upcoming autograph tables. We meet up with Tucker still has no passes for us. The color printer just isn't working.

We wait in the line for a long time at the NBC Store. NP needs a poncho and I'm looking at those two-tone Dunder Mifflin hats to help keep the rain out of my eyes. The major problem over here today (aside from the rain all around) is the lack of power in the tents. No registration printing, no laptops for DMI and no cash registers for the store. We finally get power about an hour later and poncho and hat in hand, we head off into the rain to see what else is going on.

We head off down to the food tents of the street festival and see familiar names to the show. Names like Farley's, Poor Richard's Pub and Cooper's. We get some crab bisque in a bread bowl from the Cooper's booth and some potato pancakes from a booth called Nice's. Very tasty on this gloomy day. The Olmpics have been postponed and we can't find them.

After eating up a bit we head back to the registration tent and start to wait in line for the 12pm autograph session. Here is how the autograph sessions worked. VIP were guaranteed one autograph ticket and everyone else had chances to get them. Every hour 2 stars of the show would be at table A and 2 stars would be at table B. We wait in line and NP gets Leslie David Baker (Stanley) and Craig Robinson (Darryl) to sign our souveneir program, she hands it off to me, standing in line B so I can get Oscar and Creed on the program too.

The lines for registration, NBC Store, autographs have now all intertwined under these two little tents and it's a bit crowded. To keep the crowd happy, Craig starts signing mini candy bars and throwing them into the crowd.

As soon as we get our autographs we take off back down the road. We are a few hours away from the Dunder Mifflin Uncommon Stock Holder's convention. It's at the Steamtown Mall, so off to the Mall we go. But that's another story...

Street Festival Photos
Autograph Session Photos

-Back to the Scranton Story Main Menu-

Convention Cast Member Announcements!

According to the Scranton Times-Tribune...

"Planners for the event confirmed today that actors Creed Bratton (Creed), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis), Mindy Kaling (Kelly), Leslie David Baker (Stanley) and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin) will be appearing at the Oct. 26-28 fan fest in downtown Scranton. .... Several other members from the cast are also expected to attend."

Read it HERE.

Stanley Speaks on Diversity

Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley, is featured in the video plea for this contest.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 28, 2007!

Your challenge:
Produce a 15-30 second TV promo for NBC that embraces diversity.

Your tools:

You may choose to create a promo for NBC’s Heroes, 30 Rock, or The Office. On this site you will be provided with elements from the show you select which you must include in your promo. The rest of the material will come from you. You will select your actors, write your script, shoot and edit the promo yourself.

Check out the site Here!

2008 SAG Photos of "The Office" - Part 4