Season 4 Opener: "Fun Run"
Kate Flannery, aka, Meredith, aka Dunder-Mifflin's drunken redhead here. And I am drunker and more redheaded than Season 3. It's true. My hair is so red I got a Happy Meal with my last salon visit. I thought I'd jazz it up a little this year.
I am thrilled to be back for Season 4 doing the
Office blog for TVGuide.com. I mean it. I love you guys. I love you. And I say that, not like an emotional drunken mess on the verge of tears and screaming at the top of my lungs, "I frickin' love you, man!" Unless you prefer to think of me that way. There is so much that has happened in the last month and in the last week but I am going to keep the focus on two things: the season opener and not getting sick (too much partyin' at the Emmys).
As for the cast of
The Office, we left work in April and we didn't get to see each other until June in NYC when NBC announced the new season at the upfronts. We all had a great time. And then Jenna fell at the NBC party and hurt her back. It was a nasty fall down these marble steps. Angela did not leave her side. She was laid up for several weeks there and she's had a pretty intense summer of recuperating, but I promise she is much better now. I know you've read about her. The whole thing was pretty scary. And no, she was
not drunk.
I didn't get to see everyone together again until the Television Critics Awards. We won for best comedy.
David Chase spoke for
The Sopranos and
Alec Baldwin talked about being shirtless while meeting David Chase in the men's room of a restaurant while he was drying his sweaty shirt 10 years ago.
Greg Daniels' speech was hilarious and super-nerdy. He compared our cast to
Harry Potter's. I love Greg. I frickin' love him, man!
Season 4 is about to begin airing and may I say, I am very excited about the season opener. Ryan the temp is now Michael's boss. Look out! And Jan has moved in with Michael. Duck! And Jim asked Pam to dinner. Don't breathe! I got to do some great scenes that I cannot talk about until next week. But I will say I had a few really fun scenes with Steve. And a fun scene with
Rainn and the whole cast and no, it is not the booze talking. Greg Daniels wrote and directed this first episode.
All you frustrated Meredith fans can relax. Your cards and letters have worked, baby. Or if you just thought about writing, it helped. I attribute my fun storyline to a little thing called The Secret. I didn't catch that episode of
Oprah, but The Secret is an interesting concept that's taking the greedy little world by storm. (Greed with a halo.) I've got the secret. I don't drink in public anymore. My drinking is the secret. My dirty little secret. So please don't tell anybody.
We've been back to work since the first week of August and it's been weird because we've been shooting these one-hour episodes since then. Long hours and catching up, the new TBS Tuesday night's reruns of
The Office (how cool is that?) and then, of course, there were the Emmy Awards. In case you missed them,
The Office didn't win best comedy. Greg Daniels won for writing "Gay Witch Hunt"! Thank god! I would have felt kicked in the stomach otherwise.
But there were other wins that night. A ton of support from celebs. (The father of Anna Nicole's baby is an
Office fan! Go figure!) Rainn Wilson beat
Kanye West. And
Steve Carell was sort of given the Emmy he didn't officially win by
Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert, one of the funniest moments in Emmy history in my opinion. If you haven't seen it, go to Officetally.com and watch the clip. He told me he actually said to his wife, Nancy, "I'm going up!" And so he did. He did the victory dance anyway, and all the
Office fans can join him.
We have a great show even if we didn't win best comedy this year. I frickin' love it, man! Please watch
The Office's Season 4 premiere episode, "Fun Run," this Thursday, Sept. 27 at 9 pm/ET on NBC. It's better for us if you actually watch instead of just TiVo. I'll give you all the dirty little secret details next week.
