You could definitely feel the love at Friday night's (March 2) tribute to NBC's sitcom The Office. In fact, it was natural, nay, even a foregone conclusion for the evening to culminate in a homoerotic kiss that delighted fans.

As an "appe-teaser" to the night's events, the Museum of Television and Radio pawed through its archives to present an office-themed clip called "Moaning Minnie," starring Emma Thompson as the whiny, bespectacled office assistant, Stephen Frye as her boss and John Cleese as the genie.

That was followed by the full episode of the recently aired "Cocktails" directed by J.J. Abrams and a sneak peek at half of the upcoming episode "Labor Negotiations," in which Michael Scott (Steve Carell) schemes to deny Darryl (Craig Robinson) a raise using negotiation tactics gleaned from Wikipedia.

With a 23-strong panel that surpassed even the panel Paley had assembled for Lost a couple years ago, the fans' throats became hoarse after the endless cheering as wave after wave of Dunder-Mifflin employees entered the jam-packed auditorium. Conspicuously missing was John Krasinski, who was filming the George Clooney-directed football flick Leatherheads.

SCRIBE FIGHT

With so many of the writers having parts on the show itself (e.g. Paul Lieberstein as Toby, B.J. Novak as Ryan, Mindy Kaling as Kelly and Mike Schur as Mose Schrute), director Greg Daniels added that the regular actors were just as active creating their own dialogue, especially during the "talking heads" portions. Although a script is provided, most of the actors come up with their own stuff. Apparently, Rainn Wilson has "never not given an alternate version" of a take.

During another porint Kaling admitted how she was surprised that Daniels saw the ditzy Kelly in her and then made a goof by inadvertently insulting Ben Affleck.

Novak: You are the worst at interviews.
Schur: (sarcastic) How did he see a ditzy girl in you?
Kaling: How did he see a mute Amish guy in you?

WHEN MICHAEL MET OSCAR

In the "pantheon of doofuses" that Carell has played, he feels that Michael Scott "clearly lacks self-awareness. If he even caught a glimpse of who he really is, his head would explode ... He's not mean, just confused about things. [The episode] 'Gay Witch Hunt' spoke to the fact that Michael is not a homophobe, he just doesn't understand the world."

This naturally led to the evening's most unexpected event, when Carell stood up, walked over to Oscar Nunez's chair, embraced him and planted a kiss on him.

According to Lieberstein, the liplock was never scripted, only a kiss on the cheek, but Carell took it upon himself to take that extra little step: "Steve gets closer and closer, and it gets so creepy. We were just sitting there."

Nunez adds that when he realized Carell wouldn't let him turn away, he thought "That a**hole. He's reached the point of no return. Oh yeah, he's doing it." He added, "He was wearing this linen suit, and I could feel his ... " at this point, Nunez "conveniently" let his lapel mic fall off while he gesticulated wildly and pointed at his leg. "... I remember it well," he resumed, "on my right thigh."

FOR THE LOVE OF DWIGHT

Wilson once sought reassurance from Daniels that the character Dwight Schrute wasn't just going to be the annoying villain in the office, and Daniels sent back a page-long testimony about Dwight and the importance of his role at Dunder-Mifflin. Apparently Dwight has an "adolescent love of hierarchies."

Wilson observed, "Dwight would have been an excellent Nazi," and then added when the audience was audibly shocked, "What? Oscar got to do his thing."

Although Dwight is reviled in the office, he's worshipped in the real-life Scranton. On a visit, Wilson was driven around in a stretch Hummer with the city's mayor, the mall offered $6 Dwight haircut specials (which at least six guys had done) and he was made an honorary sheriff's deputy, police officer and mall security guard. "I felt like Justin Timberlake."

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS/INFO

- The aforementioned "Labor Negotiations" episode will be supersized, and the season finale will be an hour long.
- Creed Bratton described his duties as a Quality Assurance rep: "People call about the quality of the paper, and I assure them that it's great."
- Angela Kinsey identified with the oppression one feels at an office: "I worked at 1-800-DENTIST for two years: In the call center, in the mail room and in customer service. And it sucks."
- After the first six episodes were aired and received less-than-stellar ratings, Jenna Fischer cried because she was sad that she wouldn't be working with the cast anymore.
- Leslie David Baker felt it's fortunate that he works with such a great cast and crew because in a usual office situation, he claimed in a very Stanley-like way, that you would get to work, look around and think, "Damn, nobody died on the way here."
- Before joining the cast, Rashida Jones was "terrified. I had anxiety that people would launch eggs at my face. I was a huge fan [of the show]. I was rooting for Pam and Jim ... but they made my character likable. Thank you whoever supported me [and Team Karen]."

THE TRUE TEST

The evening ended with Daniels announcing a trivia contest, questions of various difficulty levels. "Some of these are hard and some of these are medium hard," he said, to which someone promptly added, "That's what she said."

Here are the questions without answers provided. I have faith that our readers can answer them easily.

1) What is Andy's Call of Duty handle?
2) What is Michael Scott's favorite sandwich?
3) What was Dwight's birthday present to Michael and what was written on it?
4) What was the name of Michael's screenplay?
5) What is Karen's screen name?
6) What is the certificate say on Michael's wall?

Comments

The moderator was TERRIBLE. The cast was friendly and they were truly awesome to see. It was overall a good Paley Festival.

KMA | Mar 5, 2007 12:09:38 PM | #

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So when are you posting the answers? I'm a fan from day one but don't know any of those.

SS | Mar 5, 2007 1:28:31 PM | #

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I was there. I answered question #3 and got a really cool prize pack. Thanks office!

Paul | Mar 6, 2007 3:53:10 PM | #

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bitch

| Dec 11, 2007 11:07:17 AM | #

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