The Office's Ryan Howard isn't the only NBC character tribute to Ben Silverman, the young "Paris Hilton" exec of programming at the station. Tina Fey also based a 30 Rock character off of the young wunderkind: the closeted slimeball Devin Banks, portrayed with a deep throaty rasp by Will Arnett.
"There are probably four," she quickly replied (even though the show actually went on the air a season before Silverman started at NBC). The nearest, she reckoned, is the devious executive Devin Banks, played by Will Arnett, who is trying to outmaneuver Fey's onscreen boss, Alec Baldwin, for the top job at GE.
One day on the set, Fey recalled, Arnett was waiting to shoot a scene and, noting that he was wearing a silver-hued suit, was goofing around: "Look, I'm a silver man — get it?"
With two of NBC's best comedies already taking potshots at the golden calf, can we predict Ben's future by looking at what happened to his alter-egos? CONTINUED »
Ben Silverman is the most high profile douche-hat executive at NBC, which is saying a lot. He's also one of the youngest, which in some cases might mean he would be allowed some leeway when it came to picking the winning horses for the peacock station. He did, after all, bank on The Office, which as you can see from the grins on his and Melora Hadin's face on your right, did pretty well for itself.
But there are murmurings that Silverman may have finally run out his boss' patience at NBC with the less-than-stellar ratings for his pet project, Knight Rider, and could soon be pounding the pavement with all the i-bankers in search of a new posish.
Bloggers wishful thinking, or a fer-real possibility? If worst comes to worst, Silverman could always make like David Blaine and blame the show's crap ratings (7.3 million viewers) on President Bush's address that night.
It's hard to distinguish between writer/actor/comedian B.J. Novak and his alter-ego Ryan Howard from The Office, notably because Novak hasn't done much else besides the NBC show. Sure, there were a couple episodes of Punk'd he was on, like that time he pretended to be a really bad driving instructor to Hillary Duff, and he was in that one scene in Reign Over Me, but for the most part B.J. is Ryan: a wunderkind who came out of nowhere and rose to the top and seems a little cocky about it. Sort of like NBC executive producer Ben Silverman, who Ryan is supposedly based on.
With The Office season premiere tomorrow, now is as good a time as any to look back at the solo work of the young man who just told The New York Times: "I don’t see the value in quote-unquote brilliant things that people don’t like, and I don’t see the value in things that people like that I don’t respect:"
The Daily Show's only female writer, Emmy winner Rachel Axler, is leaving Jon Stewart's side to write scripts for Amy Poehler's Office spin-off. [VG]
As American television executives realize the 30-second spot has less and less influence as viewers TiVo right through them, the way to advertiser bliss is through product placement.
Daytime talk shows like Oprah and Ellen have always been amenable to these tactics. Even Emeril Lagasse's new program is a glorified Whole Foods endorsement. And reality TV probably wouldn't exist without corporate sponsors who sign on just to get their brand in the hands of contestants.
Now, a government affront to the practice. At least on opposite shores. CONTINUED »
NBC is greenlighting a spin-off of The Office. No word yet on which plotline will go off on a tangent, but please let it involve bitchy Angela and her dead cat. [THR]
These folks earn at least five times your measly salary, but they people on TV who don't. So support 'em.
Fans of NBC's The Office invoke their freedom of assembly by organizing the first ever Office convention ("Like a Star Trek convention, but with nerds wearing Dwight Schrute glasses instead of Spock ears.")
The groundbreaking (convention-breaking?) convention, to be held in a "former coal mining town in Northeastern Pennsylvania," should give devout viewers a much-needed opportunity to feel extremely socially awkward, remember that they get extremely anxious and uncomfortable in loud, crowded settings, and wish fervently that they were at home, watching The Office instead.
Ever wondered how the cast of The Office would fare on an all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice? We sure have! In fact, lately, we've been thinking about it a little bit more every day.
As we see it, the annoyingly sycophantic Dwight Schrute would quickly tick off The Donald with his transparent ass-kissing and self-promotional banter. Meanwhile, Jim and Pam would be too busy pranking Ivanka and debating whether or not to make out to seriously compete, while the Regional Manager of the Scranton Branch of Dunder-Mifflin would undoubtedly ruffle Trump's feather's with his overinflated sense of business savvy, then offend him with some sort of wayward racist or sexist remark in a misguided (and socially inept) attempt at humor.
Fortunately, programming guru Ben Silverman is already well on his way towards making our Office/Donald Trump crossover premise a reality (show).
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