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Why Andy Bernard Replaced Michael Scott

Nette — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:12:01 +0000

NYMag:

In his first interview since the promotion was made public, Office showrunner Paul Lieberstein tells Vulture that Andy shared one trait with Michael that ultimately made him best suited for the role: They’re both people persons.

“The Andy character is very different from Michael, but one of the things they have in common is that they both put people first and relationships first,” says Lieberstein (who also plays HR chief Toby Flenderson). “And at the end of it, that’s why he won the day.” Andy’s need to be pals with his co-workers was clear in Thursday’s season opener: In his meeting with Robert California, he was most concerned with getting approval for a four-day Columbus Day holiday. “His last priority in the meeting was the fact that [the branch] had lost its biggest client,” Lieberstein says, adding that Helms has been having a good time in his new post. “He’s been doing some hilarious stuff on set, just killing it,” he says.

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Paul Lieberstein Signs Contract with NBC

Nette — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:53:33 +0000

While the fate of the on-screen boss on NBC’s flagship comedy series The Office is still in limbo, the near future of show’s behind-the-scenes boss is set: The Office showrunner/executive producer Paul Lieberstein has signed a three-year overall deal with series producer NBC Universal Studios. Under the pact, Lieberstein will continue to run the comedy, working closely with The Office developer/executive producer Greg Daniels. Later in the life of the deal, Lieberstein’s first overall, he is expected to develop new projects. But for the time being, he will be focused entirely on The Office, which is undergoing a major transition following the recent departure of original star Steve Carell. “This show has changed my life,” Lieberstien said. “As a writer I’ve never felt so creatively fulfilled, I really feel like I’m writing exactly what I’ve wanted to write in terms of exploring everyday life. And it made me an actor, which I never suspected I’d do.”

Source: ‘The Office’ Showrunner Paul Lieberstein Signs 3-Year Overall Deal With UMS

Paul Lieberstein on Steve Carell’s Exit and the Star-Studded Season Finale

Nette — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:34:36 +0000

tvsquad.com:

Paul Liberstein, who’s best known for playing hapless HR rep Toby, is also the showrunner of ‘The Office.’ He talked to AOL TV about the challenges of Season 7, Carell’s farewell episode and where the show goes from here.

What was the feeling around the set the first week after Steve Carell’s departure?
It was weird. It felt weird around here. The last week with Steve had been so emotional that it really felt like … it was just very odd to be here without him. It was like oh, life goes on, OK. I guess we’ll just keep doing our jobs. But it didn’t take long for the mood to switch to kind of this very hopeful, excited and anticipatory feeling that anything could happen now. And that turned out to be very creatively exciting for everyone.

Where does that feeling come from?
Well, we had come to understand what an episode is with Michael, you know. And we played a lot of them — we played about 150 of them. I think he got to episode 149. So it’s a little bit different when you don’t have someone taking the majority of the lines for an episode. When you don’t have the show centered around a buffoon who tends to make a bad decision and then spends the rest of the episode trying to dig his way out of something. It was kind of a feeling that we get to do something new again, that we are kind of reinventing the show a little. And granted, not much. It’s the same people that you’ve seen before, for years and years. It’s just someone’s role, I guess, is a little slightly different when the show is centered around them.

Was the whole move of having Steve leave before the season ended to give you guys a couple episodes to find your way a little bit without him?
That came from the idea that what we would do is continue to tell a story about an office. And what happens in an office when the manager leaves is about, if we were making the spring about that, it doesn’t end with the manager leaving. There’s quite a bit of fun afterwards in the struggle to find an appropriate successor.

But does that parallel what you guys are trying to figure out in the writer’s room a little bit?
Um, not as much, really. No, it’s not happening here. I mean, I would think that at NBC … well we witnessed a few regime changes in our seven years here. And it’s a little closer to what happened over there. Steve was the star of the show, but he wasn’t the president of the show, you know what I mean? It’s not that type of leadership.

For fans and critics who think the show’s emotional center has been taken away, how is the void going to be filled?
Well, it’s on us to provide you with a new heart. It’s our job to win you back, win you over. It’s not something we don’t know. We know that Steve provided a lot of heart, and we know we’re going to have to come up with it from places you haven’t seen yet.

Is this the type of thing where we might not see some of that until next year, perhaps?
Um, yeah. That’s fair.

How emotionally wrung out was everybody by the end of Steve’s last week?
It was incredibly real. There were takes where we call it a reaction pass, where the camera isn’t even pointed at Steve, and Steve was crying. When I did my last scene with Steve, it felt monumental. And I’m sure it did with John [Krasinski] as well. It was kind of great that we all had a private scene with him to end that way. It felt very cathartic.

Is that the reason why you guys wrote it that way, so he could have a last scene with everybody?
No, we didn’t write it that way for personal reasons. But we felt like the audience would like to see that. We wanted to do something that felt like a real last day. It wasn’t a giant “TV last day,” but closer to the last days that we’ve had in offices, where it’s, you know, sometimes we loved it, sometimes we didn’t, but it’s a big deal to leave people.

Before Will Ferrell signed on to help transition Steve’s exit, did you have a different scenario in mind for those four episodes? And what might that have been?
We did have a plan. It wasn’t so shockingly different than what you saw, although we didn’t have anything like ['The Inner Circle'] in mind, where Will just kind of juggled his way through the episode. Yeah, I mean, Steve’s exit was going to be the same. But we had known about Will for a while, for months before we’d put it out. So he was part of the plan for a long time.

What were the interesting parts and challenges about writing for Will?
We really embraced what he was and who he is, which we love. I do. I’m incredibly entertained by Will Ferrell. I’m a giant Will Ferrell fan. So I saw it as, let me just gather up all my favorite Will Ferrell things and try to create a character that can let him do what, in my opinion, he does best. I feel he grounds the outrageous. And he embraces it, too. And commits like nobody.

If he had seriously thought about staying, how would you have embraced that?
Oh I would have taken it. Oh sure.

You would’ve taken it, no problem?
No problem, yeah. He’d be a great addition to the show. (chuckling)

It would kind of quell the questions about who’s going to replace Steve, at that point.
Oh yeah! I mean, for every person we lose who is not into the Will Ferrell thing, we would gain three.

How did knowing there was going to be a lot of publicity and a lot of attention put towards Steve’s departure and his replacement affect you, the writers and the actors? Did you guys feel more pressure?
Well, I guess there was an idea about a very quiet, soft exit for Steve that we abandoned, to really downplay it. And we realized there was no downplaying this. It was that people are interested, that’s where the excitement is, so let’s go ahead and make the season about a manager leaving. Or at least the second half of the season. And the first half of the season about slowly adjusting his character to someone who can go.

Someone who can emotionally become more mature … that was, from the first day, he kind of transformed a little bit in every episode.
Yeah. Yeah, thanks. I’m glad you caught that. Because we were trying to do that.

It seemed like from the beginning, the obvious scenario would be that Holly would come back and they’d fall back in love and they’d get married.
Yeah. It wasn’t the surprise scenario.

Was there any temptation to go away from that and say “Hey, that’s what everybody thinks we’re going to do”?
Well, there was talk about it. But I didn’t really want to send him off. I mean, the other way to do it is the more Ricky Gervais way where we fire him. But you know, to me, that’s just a different kind of cliché. I mean, if we’re going to send him off realistically, and we’re going to do it in a way that’s familiar, we weren’t going to completely rewrite how someone can leave a show. Or if we do, I just don’t think it would be satisfying. It’s not who we are. We’re not a farcical show with these giant story moves.

Paul Lieberstein to Give College Commencement Address

Nette — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:57:20 +0000

Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the U.S., Paul Lieberstein, Patricia Pogue Couper and John Sexton will deliver the Commencement address at Hamilton College on Sunday, May 22, at 10:30 a.m., in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.

Paul is a 1989 graduate of Hamilton College.

Source: http://uticadailynews.com

The Office Receives Producers Guild Awards Nomination

Nette — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:22:34 +0000

Congrats to The Office producers Randy Cordray, Greg Daniels, Howard Klein and Paul Lieberstein on their Producers Guild Awards nomination for Episodic Comedy!

“The Office” (NBC)
Producers: Randy Cordray, Greg Daniels, Howard Klein, Paul Lieberstein

Click here to see all of the nominations>>

Paul Lieberstein ready for season six ‘Office’ premiere

Nette — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:06:28 +0000

Spoiler Warning!

Scrantontimes.com writes:

Of the many talented people associated with “The Office,” Paul Lieberstein is perhaps the most versatile.

He writes. He acts. He directs. And now he’s pretty much running the whole show.

“I move in a lot of different areas,” Mr. Lieberstein said. “It’s one of these things where it’d be the best job in the world if it had a few less hours of it.”

No such luck for Mr. Lieberstein, who is busier than ever as the Scranton-set NBC comedy heads into its sixth season, which kicks off Thursday at 9 p.m. on WBRE-TV, Channel 28.

In addition to his role as low-key human resources representative Toby Flenderson, Mr. Lieberstein is one of the show’s original writers. He’s also directed a few episodes, and he recently assumed “showrunner” status – i.e. the producer who oversees a series’ day-to-day production – from “Office” executive producer Greg Daniels, who these days is concentrating more of his energies on “Parks and Recreation.”

“It’s very interesting. It’s a whole different set of responsibilities,” Mr. Lieberstein said of his new duties in a recent phone interview from the show’s set. “There’s little things I have to do now – I have to sign papers, like a regular manager – that I never had to do before.”

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Vote!

Nette — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:23:26 +0000

Comedy Faves Snubbed by Emmy? Make ‘Em EWwy Winners!

Please vote for ‘The Office’ cast members in EW.com’s Emmy Poll.

-Vote for Jenna Fischer click here.

-Vote for Angela Kinsey click here.

-Vote for Paul Lieberstein click here.

Monkey Bites and Monkey Business on ‘The Office’

Nette — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:02:03 +0000

SPOILER WARNING! This interview has spoilers! Read at your own risk!

What’s in store for the Toby-Pam-Jim triangle? Could Toby be a genuine obstacle to them? Said Paul Lieberstein, who plays the Scranton branch’s HR director emeritus Toby Flenderson: “Pam’s going to take an internship in New York, and Pam and Jim are going to try long-distance dating, and that’s going to be the source of obstacles for them. Toby is less of a threat than the price of gas.”

Is Holly Flax serious about Michael Scott? Amy Ryan (new human resources director Holly Flax) says that Michael and Holly’s infatuation with one another is just proof of her belief that, “There’s a lid for every pot?or in this case, every crackpot.”

Click here to read more.

Strike TV: The Office

Nette — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:55:42 +0000

“House Poor” is a new video that Mindy Kaling and Lester Lewis from ‘The Office’ made and it will be shown on Strike TV.

STRIKE.TV behind-the-scenes: HOUSE POOR from StrikeTV on Vimeo.

Click here for more posts about Strike TV.

Congratulations Office Cast!

Nette — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:05:51 +0000

The Office has 8 Emmy Award nominations! The 2008 Primetime Emmy’s will air on September 21st on ABC.

-Outstanding Comedy Series
The Office; Local Ad

-Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
Steve Carell; Goodbye, Toby

-Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Rainn Wilson; Money

-Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series
Paul Lieberstein; Money

-Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series
Paul Feig; Goodbye, Toby

-Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series
Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky; Dinner Party

-Outstanding Picture Editing For A Comedy Series
Dave Rogers and Dean Holland; Goodbye, Toby

-Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series
Ben Patrick, John W. Cook II and Peter J. Nusbaum; Local Ad