"The Office" outsourced?? 10 Web mini-episodes focus on Accounting Dept.

[underpants]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060320/en_tv_eo/18596

NBC has announced that 10 mini-episodes of The Office will premiere this summer not on the mothership network but only on NBC.com.


With boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) out of the office and unavailable to throw his hilariously self-absorbed weight around, the workaday lives of Dunder Mifflin paper company's accounting staff are taking center stage. The two-minute serialized Webisodes will feature Angela (Angela Kinsey), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) and Oscar (Oscar Nunez) trying to track down $3,000 that has gone missing from their Scranton, Pennsylvania office. Several other series regulars will also appear, including Rainn Wilson (Dwight), Melora Hardin (Jan), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis), Kate Flannery (Meredith), Leslie David Baker (Stanley) and David Denman (Roy).


The Office has already made its presence known online since becoming one of 12 shows NBC made available in December for downloading via the iTunes Music Store. (Episodes are typically available for downloading the day after their air date.) As of January, the mockumentary had accounted for one-third of all downloads available from the NBC selections, according to Television Week.


NBC has already ordered a full 22-episode schedule for the 2006-07 season, partly due to the show's online reach.


NBC had previously said it would be cutting the show's second season short and scheduling the season finale for Mar. 30 to give Golden Globe-winning star Carell time off to shoot the big-screen comedy Evan Almighty. But due to some extra hustle and bustle by Carell and his fellow cast mates, they have squeezed out a full 22 episodes, with the season finale now set to air May 11, according to NBC spokeswoman Cathryn Boxberger.

[momophile]

1. I'm in the middle of the British show right now...

very funny.

I haven't watched any of the American ones yet.