That was quick. At up-fronts an “Office” spin-off was announced. Just this week it broke (she even confirmed it herself) that Amy Poehle would be staring in the show. But turns out now that the show’s producer refuses to do an actual “spin-off” and is instead making a show with the similar tone.

How is this for a return-scoop: Amy Poehler has signed to star in the spin-off of “The Office.” She’ll play Micheal Scott’s counterpart at her branch and the show will premier after next year’s Superbowl. Pretty much all other details are either being kept secret or haven’t even been decided by the producers.

This is the Japanese version of “The Office” from last weekend’s “Saturday Night Live.”

NBC is now selling Serenity by Jan candles:

Nothing says ‘’serenity” quite like Wide Awake, and Bonfire, just two of the four scents that make up Jan’s Serenity Candles, Volume 1. Cinnamon Kiss and New Milk round out the set.

NBC announced their full primetime schedule today. Biggest changes include SNL doing a Thursday night political show, “the office” spin-off, and “Knight Rider” airing on Wednesdays. I’ve posted the full line-up after the break… (Read on …)

The trades are reporting that NBC has officially green-lit a spin-off of “The Office.”

The project has been ordered straight to series. An underground NBC schedule floating around Monday morning shows the spinoff possibly launching after NBC’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on February 1. According to news reports in the fall, NBC had been developing an episode of the hit comedy to serve as a backdoor pilot for a spinoff.

A 360-degree tour of the Office set has been posted at NBC.com (via Pop Candy).

I miss the “The Office.”

I’m hearing through the grapevine that NBC requested for “34” episodes of “The Office” for the 2008-2009 TV season. The producers fell that amount is too many and currently it looks like we’ll get 30 half-hour episodes of the show. Again no official word yet, but I’m hearing this is a pretty much done deal. Also when the show returns in a few weeks the first episode will pick up where we left off, but then the show is going to jump ahead several months.

“The Office” is on hiatus because of the strike, but that isn’t stopping Steve Carell from being productive. Starting today, he’s doing jury duty where he’s being paid $15 a day to listen to an employment dispute case where both sides are non-English speaking Koreans. This soooo makes me want to watch an episode of “The Office” where Michael Scott gets jury duty.

Just a warning… Tomorrow’s “The Office” is the last one we will see until after the strike. So if there isn’t a quick resolution, then we won’t get more time with the Dunder Mifflin crew until next fall.

The office cast/writers talk about the WGA Strike. Out of all the TV writers, “The Office” staff has probably been screwed over the most since the show has succeeded so well with iTunes and the internet. For example, the show has been downloaded more than 7 million times on iTunes. At $1.99 that’s $13,930,000 in profits that the writers received no residuals from.

I’m so mad I didn’t get to go to this, but in Scranton Pennsylvanian they held a “The Office” convention. Every cast member, except for Steve Carnell, was at the event which lasted three days. Pop Candy went to the event and covers it:

I happened to walk in at the exact moment Creed Bratton stepped in as singer for The Scrantones, and he was a sight to behold. Shortly thereafter, Craig Robinson (Darryl) grabbed the mic and belted out I Will Survive. He may not have Bratton’s musical chops — Creed was a member of ’60s band The Grass Roots — but what he lacked in skill he made up for in spirit.

Whit is supposed to do a longer write up of it (including interviews) later in the week. Updated@2:52pm: Man’s she’s quick. She already posted a more detailed summary of the convention here.

Remember last week’s episode of “The Office” (which was sorta on the serious side) and how Jim and Pam stayed at Shrute Farms? Remember how Dwight was obsessed with his tripadvisor rating? Well it seems you can actually go to tripadvisor and see what visitors had to say about their visit.

Schrute Farms is the number one beet-related agrotourism destination in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We offer the finest accommodations for the casual traveler and/or beet enthusiast. Come join us and experience majestic Schrute Farms. ROOM AMENITIES: -Three Themed Rooms: America, Irrigation, and Night-time…-Handmade mattresses… -Beds do not conform to traditional sizes; closest is twin.PROPERTY AMENITIES:-We cater to the elderly…-Field and barn tours…-Side car Rides…-Table-making demonstrations…-Tractor Mosey…-Homemade Beet Jam demonstration…POLICIES:-Check in time: After 5:30pm on weekdays, 3pm on weekends…-Check out time: Before 9:00am, 11am on weekends.

Oh my god! Joss Whedon is doing another episode of “The Office.” The episode will either be the 6^th or 10^th episode (the first 4 episodes are hour long and no one can figure out if they count as 4 episodes or 8 episodes). Even cooler is that Whedon has this to say about the episode he’s directing:

“I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about it, but I can say that… Jim kills Pam, which I thought was weird,” Whedon says, tongue firmly planted cheek (I think). “I probably shouldn’t have revealed that. It’s gruesome, but not without a bit of wry humor. It’s territory I’m familiar with and I’m excited about it.”

…oh the picture above is from “Blades of Glory” and is just a hot picture of Jenna Fischer.

So what happens with our beloved dunder Mifflin staff during their season premier? Find out after the break. (Read on …)

In the immortal words of Dwight K. Shrute, “Summer is over. It’s time to get back to work.” NBC has posted a clip on You Tube called “The Office Summer Vacation” where it touches base with all the cast members and asks them what they did for the summer. If you’re a fan of the show you KNOW you have to check it out (Thanks Pop Candy for pointing out the video). Also did you know that when the show returns on Sept 24th the first four episodes will all be an hour long!

In other news, I may* have a place to live in DC. I don’t want to say too much until I’ve actually signed a lease and its officially mine. Beside that there is some family drama going on, but hopefully I’ll be moving at the beginning of next week. Which means normal posting will start once I have internet hooked up (assuming I do actually move).

“The Office” has really made it. The show went from the verge of cancellation (multiple times) to signing a syndication deal valued at more than $130 million.

NBC Universal’s syndication wing has orchestrated an unusual deal to sell the rerun rights to the Peacock’s Emmy-winning comedy “The Office” to TBS in cable and to 10 Fox O&O stations in a shared-window deal valued at more than $130 million.

Thee pact for “Office” is notable for giving TBS an early window on running repeats of the show twice a week in primetime starting this fall, a full two years before the Monday-Friday strip-rerun rights kick in for both TBS and the Fox O&Os in fall 2009. The granting of that early-syndie window to TBS on “The Office” is a first for a comedy series, though it happens often in syndie deals for dramas, including Lifetime with Disney’s “Desperate Housewives” and TNT with NBC U’s “Las Vegas.”

The first three seasons of “The Office” will start re-aring this fall on TBS. Even though I’m happy for the cast and crew, I’m sort of Jealous. I feel like syndication means new people will watch the show, but for some reason, I just don’t want to share it with anyone else new!

Variety reports that the video game rights to “The Office” have been sold and that a game is already in the works:

In a rare deal to turn a network live-action sitcom into a videogame, casual gamemaker MumboJumbo has licensed rights to “The Office” from NBC Universal. Peacock net comedy will be the first-ever Hollywood license for the publisher, which makes inexpensive arcade-style games. It plans to turn “The Office” into a humorous game in which players have to handle jobs and play pranks at Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch.

The game will come out this fall for the DS, PSP, and PC and even though I’m a total “The Office”-slut… I have a feeling I won’t even bother with this. Chance are it won’t be anything special and since the cast isn’t doing voice work and none of the show’s writers are involved, its probably going to feel like a crappy licensing deal being done for money.

Ewwww Cockroaches have memory!

Cockroaches have a memory and can be taught to salivate in response to neutral stimuli in the way that Pavlov’s dogs would do when the famed Russian doctor rang his bell, Japanese researchers say. Such “conditioning” can only take place when there is memory and learning, and this salivating response had only previously been proven in humans and dogs.

See I started reading the article thinking “eww gross, that’s why they are such a pain, they remember things.” But then I couldn’t stop thinking about how Jim trained Dwight to salivate every time he restarted his computer. God I miss new episodes of “The Office.”

Conversion to Schrutebucks: 1 stanley nickel = (1 schrutebuck * 1 leprechaun)/ 1 unicorn

Cash Value: � � � 1 stanley nickel = $ (1 leprechaun/1000)/ 1 unicorn