Happy new year, Office fans. Meredith here. Last week's episode was on during my vacation, but now I am back! This week's episode is "Traveling Salesmen." Have you seen the promos with Phyllis and Karen with big hair and too much makeup? Hilarious. Pennsylvania women have it going on. I'd like to give more away, but I can't — I can't remember much. It's not just the booze. I have to fit 10 pounds of news in a five-pound bag! We shot it eight weeks ago, and we've had a break for the past eight weeks. And in those eight weeks we all traveled and did cool stuff, like get talk shows and do Vegas gigs and get nominated for two Golden Globe Awards (one for Steve Carell and one for best comedy). We also got nominated for two SAG Awards (one for Steve Carell and one for Best Ensemble in a Comedy). While children are starving in Africa, I am working hard on getting my dress — the SAG Awards do not refer to our aging bodies. Too bad, after all those Christmas cookies.As most of you...
read more
Hello, friends and fans of The Office. The Office's party gal here. This week's episode is a rerun of last week's, "A Benihana Christmas," so if you missed it... consider this your oportunity to get a second chance. And if you watched last week, consider this Meredith ordering another round of the same for everyone at Poor Richards. So drink up!A bunch of the Dunder-Mifflin gang got together last week to watch "A Benihana Christmas" at the home of its writer, Jen[nifer Celotta]. She did a great job, didn't she? It was great to see everybody... well, almost everybody. I can't wait until we start back in January. It's going to be a lot of fun.I wish you all a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah and a fantastic new year filled with great joy and more episodes of The Office. Is that lame of me to say? The Office does bring great joy. And DVDs make great Christmas gifts, even if the gift is for yourself. It's all good.I am off to Philadelphia for the holidays. I'll be at my family's b...
read more
Season's greetings from Kate Flannery! The Office presents its new, one-hour Christmas episode this week!Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming! The Office Christmas episode is twice as nice! No, I am not referring to my boobs. (It was last season's "Christmas Party" episode when the drunken Meredith went topless in Michael's office.) No, no, it's twice as nice because it's a full hourlong episode. I can't count how many fans have written me on MySpace or commented here at TVGuide.com and said the words, "I wish The Office was an hour." Well? Let me quote Dwight K. Schrute by saying, "It's a Christmas miracle!" This is the deal: It was a fake goose. No goose was hit by Dwight K. Schrute. No birds were killed. Get this: The Office starts at 8 pm/ET instead of 8:30 this week! Set your TiVo or DVR or DVD-burner or VCR or your Greg Brady-style tape recorder (a method I used as a child in the '70s when there was no alternative, except maybe writing it all down as fast as humanly possib...
read more
Hello, Office fans. I don't mean people who like to work in an office. The Office is not on this Thursday. I know. It's a bummer. Guess you can see me in the deleted scenes on NBC.com or you'll just have to Google Kate Flannery. Or not. Google the rest of the cast. Have you watched the webisodes lately? The Office is like oxygen. You get too much, you get too high. Not enough and… you know the rest of the song. You will not see the Dunder Mifflin crew this week, nor the drunken redhead in the corner — a.k.a. me. Let's face it. You have Christmas shopping to do and you had better get a move on before it's too late and you're so stressed out that you find yourself shopping like a mad woman and spend more money than God. Oh, wait. That's me!Use the time wisely. Next week is our Christmas episode and it's going to be an hour. The Office DVDs make great gifts. The NBC.com shop has cool stuff from The Office. But the coolest stuff from The Office is at Cafepress.com. Just put Th...
read more
Hi, it's me, Kate Flannery from The Office [Thursdays at 8:30 pm/ET, on NBC]. This week's episode was a lot of fun to shoot. I must admit, in the past few weeks I was hesitant to mention some of my scenes because they didn't make it on the air. But NBC.com has been showing so many of my deleted scenes that I now feel comfortable bringing them up, as long as you keep in mind that you may have to watch them later on the Web (or on the Season 3 DVD extras). OK? That being said, "The Convict" was written by our show's British creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. This is the first time they have written specifically for the American version of the show. Pretty cool. Now, usually when we shoot an episode, the writers are on the set all week when we shoot. Ricky and Stephen were not. They haven't been to the set very often. I love it when they come, but when I've seen Ricky there, it seems to me like he is looking at all of us with a sense of, "I can't believe that this exists bec...
read more
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving from all the folks on The Office. You won't see The Office this Thursday on NBC. It's time to see your relatives and friends and give thanks. So... you won't see us. You won't see Michael Scott carving the bird that Dwight killed. Or the beer that Ryan and Kelly brought, or the football game that Kevin watched. Or the pumpkin pie that Phyllis made, or the cookies that Angela frosted.... The nap that Stanley took, or the walk that Pam and Jim took, or the dishes that Creed did. And of course you won't hear the Thanksgiving toast that Meredith made, and made again and again, to everyone's health and no one's health.You won't see that this Thursday. This week will not be "must-see TV." This Thursday will be "must-eat tur-key." The Office will not be on this week. We'll be back with a new episode next week, I promise. But for now, you can enjoy The Office DVDs of Seasons 1 and 2 with the whole family, just as the big football game is over and the trypto...
read more
Hello, fans of The Office. Meredith here."The Merger" is coming up this Thursday at 8:40 pm/ET on NBC. Last week was nail-biting. Thank god the Scranton branch didn't close. It's pretty wild. Now the Stamford, Connecticut, branch is about to merge. Michael has some very intense techniques for initiating the new people. This was a really fun episode to shoot. The new actors on our show are really fun. We all had a blast. Rashida Jones, Ursula Burton, Wayne Wilderson, Ed Helms, and Mike Bruner as Tony — all hilarious. They double the size and they double the comedy. I sound like a commercial for gum! It was like a party all week shooting this episode. I'll drink to that!I hope you all had a chance to watch the NBC.com producer's cut of "Branch Closing." I had a few really fun scenes in the producer's cut — which is the one for sale on iTunes, FYI! I loved doing the possible love scene with Steve where Meredith asks Michael if he's the guy she made a deal to have sex with o...
read more
Jenna Fischer thinks that this week's episode of The Office [Thursdays at 8:30 pm/ET, on NBC] is the best yet, and I concur! Yes, I'm Kate Flannery. Thank you. Thank you so much. I play the drunken redhead on the show, who seems to be the favorite of many folks. There is so much I want to share with you, so much I want to tell, but I am contractually obligated to keep my big, fat mouth shut. Now, in case you hadn't noticed, the words "branch" and "closing" are in the title of this week's episode. Kind of gives it away, right? So, let me just say that the downsizing issue of the first two seasons is nothing compared to this.Jenna speaks more freely about it in her MySpace.com blog: "You must catch our show this Thursday night. I've already seen it, and it is the best one we've ever done. I'm not kidding. Michael finds out that the Scranton branch is being shut down. He and Dwight go to New York to try to save the branch. The stuff they do together is the absolute funniest thing ever ...
read more
Happy belated Halloween. I understand that instead of Halloween office parties, this year there were Office Halloween parties. Get the difference? The word got out that this year there were a lot of Office-inspired Halloween costumes. It's true. Office-inspired Halloween costumes! We have officially arrived. How bizarre. How cool, but how bizarre. Let's hope those women, and in some cases men, who dressed like Meredith look good in a one-size-fits-all denim skirt. There are some fun Office Halloween-party photos up on OfficeTally.com, and I got sent a few photos on MySpace.com/kateflan. Imitation is the highest form of Flannery.... I mean flattery. Thank you. Thanks to all for playing my Office Trivial trivia last week. That was fun. Some of you readers actually admitted that you were stumped! Pretty cool. I generally think of the Office fans as remembering more than I do. (And I'm in the episode!) No, I am not sucking up to the Office fans. I actually find them a little intimidati...
read more
Hi, everyone. It's my favorite time of year, folks. It's not just that I need to carry a sweater (can you feel the slight change in the air? Can't you sense it?) but it's also time for the very first rerun of the new season. I love The Office reruns. I get to see what I laughed over. Just because I play Meredith the drunken redhead doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching the reruns! This week is the "Gay Witch Hunt" episode again. Rerunning this episode will make you feel even more up-to-date than you did six weeks ago.Did you know that right now we are shooting two episodes at the same time? That's right. Steve [Carell]'s grueling movie schedule has us doing things a little differently. Usually we shoot one episode in a five-day week, but we had to shoot all of Steve's scenes for two episodes in one week. I'll bet you won't be able to tell which episodes they are.So it's a great time for you, and I get to get a little intimate. Or not. Anyway, it's time for The Office Trivial Trivia.He...
read more
