'The Office' banks on a Merchant

One of the original minds behind The Office will be visiting the offices of Dunder Mifflin this fall.

Stephen Merchant, who co-created the British series with Ricky Gervais and directed all of its episodes, is going behind the camera for NBC this week. He was scheduled to begin shooting the show's Halloween episode Monday afternoon.

"He was in the writers room with us rewriting over the last several days," Office writer-producer-actor Paul Lieberstein said in a conference call with reporters Monday. "It was really exciting having him there."

Gervais and Merchant co-wrote an episode of the NBC series during the third season, but this will be the first time Merchant has directed for the American show. Lieberstein says Merchant has been strict about keeping the "integrity of the documentary," making sure that the show doesn't stray too far from the idea that a film crew is filming the lives of the characters.

"He calls us out every once in while -- like, 'How are they gonna do that with a little documentary?'" Lieberstein says of Merchant. "When we seem to go a little too far or get too personal with them or set a scene in the bathroom, he's like, 'Really? I don't think they follow them.' But he's extremely funny, and it's been great working with him."

Lieberstein's Toby, who departed for Costa Rica in last season's finale, won't be on camera for the first part of the season. But he'll eventually find his way back to Scranton (though he wouldn't say exactly under what circumstances, or how it would affect guest star Amy Ryan's Holly, who replaced Toby as the Dunder Mifflin HR rep).

"What brings him back is a failure to escape," Lieberstein says. "There was a friend of mine ... who about 10 years ago collected enough money to live poor in Hawaii. He was gonna just do it and surf, because he loved to surf. He made a big deal of it, had a going-away party, and he was back in two weeks. He was lonely, no one talked to him, he was robbed on the beach, and that was it. So that was our model."

The Office premieres with an hour-long episode on Thursday, Sept. 25.

For more on the new season, check out Zap2it's Fall TV Preview.

I so glad Merchant is keeping the US version in check on the documentary style!
While I enjoy the US version, my one major gripe is that there is no way a real documentary could do what the US version does. Four years is way too long for a crew to film an office. Where is this footage going? Why aren't the characters being recognized as C-list celebs (as Brent was in the Christmas Special)?