Van Nuys, Calif. — Jim and Pam are getting married soon — very soon — on "The Office." But that doesn't mean that the show is going to turn into a domestic comedy.
Their relationship will be seen mostly within the walls of the Dunder Mifflin offices.
"I think we're going to try to see it in the office and that affects people who work together," Paul Lieberstein. "But we will be going out for the wedding. We'll meet the family, and it will be fun."
"A new start," added executive producer Greg Daniels.
Well, at least a new chapter in the saga of Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer). Theirs is a love story that has struck a chord with a lot of "Office" fans.
"When the relationship started and it was kind of an unrequited love relationship, I would get a lot of fan mail from people who were also pining away for someone else in their office," said Fischer, talking to TV critics on the set of the NBC show. "And they were enjoying watching that.
"And now I'm getting a bunch of mail, like, 'I can't wait to see you guys have a baby, because we're expecting.' So I feel like we're sort of growing up with our fans, and we're going through those same life stages as the people who have been watching us from the beginning. And I think maybe that's one of the reasons why the relationship has continued to be successful. It's been growing realistically."
It's also changing rapidly. Jim and Pam haven't made it to the altar yet, and there's a particular urgency about getting there. They're going to be parents not long after they're newlyweds.
"Pam is going to be walking down the aisle very soon because she is pregnant but trying to hide that from certain members of her family," Fischer said.
Which is why the wedding is scheduled for the fourth episode of the sixth season, which begins tonight at 8 on Ch. 5.
Fischer seems kind of thrilled for the character she plays — thrilled that Jim and Pam found true love with each other.
"I actually just had a fitting for Pam's wedding dresses, like, just right before I walked in here, and that was a really special moment," she said. "It was really very special to have this girl who when I started playing her, just really didn't quite know who she was, and she wasn't with the right man.
"And then there I was standing in this fitting for her dress to the right man. ... It should be pretty great, actually."
Awwww ....
IN SYNDICATION: Not only is "The Office" returning to NBC with new episodes this week, but beginning next week it goes into national syndication on stations around the country.
In Utah, "The Office" will air weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m. and Saturdays at 6 and 6:30 p.m. on KJZZ-Ch. 14.
Anyone who came to the show after the first, six-episode season will be in for a bit of a surprise. For one thing, those first six episode aren't that good. Even Daniels readily admits that it took him and his staff a while to find their footing when they turned the British show into its American cousin.
And, second, you may be a bit surprised to see how Steve Carell (Michael) looks in those first six episodes. There's a lot of stuff slicking down his hair.
"Well, part of the evolution was (that) between that pilot and Season 2, I lost about 25 pounds," Carell said. "And that sort of formed the look partially there. And I think that first year, the look was really scary.
"So there wasn't any big conscious decision. The hair just changed a little bit and got a little fluffy."
More changed about Michael than just his appearance, however.
"Michael was more an antagonist in the first season," Daniels said. "And (he) became much more a person that you rooted for. So you had to root for somebody with less hair gel."
One of the fascinating things about Michael is that he's such a shallow man, but the character has such depth. Which Carell said is easy for him to play.
"I just model it after my own shallow self," he joked, going on to hand the writers most of the credit.
"The writers are always finding ways to make the character evolve — to enable him to change or to maybe get a little more self-perspective," he said. "And that's fun, over the course of doing a few seasons, to figure out what else makes this guy tick."
But Carell never saw Michael as a bad guy.
"I've always sort of seen him as a sympathetic character," he said. "Even people who are obnoxious and in-your-face or unlikable to most, I believe that there are other sides and other gray areas to everybody.
"And I always felt that he was a kind of guy whose intentions were good and his heart was in the right place, but he just has a disconnect socially, and sort of that motional blind spot.
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com