Jack Black and Jessica Alba’s next big project premieres Sunday, Feb. 1, not on the big screen but right after the Super Bowl: the two are guest-starring in the special post-game episode of NBC’s “The Office.”
NBC hopes that viewers will stick around after the big game to check out Black, Alba and certifiable comic diva Cloris Leachman, who made a splash last year on “Dancing With the Stars.”
“The Office”‘s writers have been working on the episode, titled “Stress Relief,” since the beginning of the TV season, when they were informed they would get the slot.
“We didn’t lobby for it. They came to us,” says Paul Lieberstein, one of the show’s executive producers and cast members-he plays Dunder Mifflin human resources executive Toby Flenderson. “Halfway through the fall we realized that other shows were lobbying for the slot and we kind of had to defend it. We did and we did so successfully.”
Lieberstein, who this season is co-running the show, is spending less time writing and more time managing. For the Super Bowl episode, however, he started early.
“We knew the episode wasn’t going to fall until about episode 16 or 17 so we spent a while thinking up ideas,” he says. “Writing this episode took almost as much time as writing the rest of the season.”
Producers of the Thursday night comedy hope the episode reels in new viewers. They timed it so that most of the show’s ongoing story arcs had already wrapped.
Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Andy (Ed Helms) have both learned that Angela (Angela Kinsey) was sleeping with both of them, and now that sticky situation is coming to a close. “Office” golden boy Jim (John Krasinksi) and receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) are proceeding with their drama-free romance, while Michael (Steve Carell) is again looking for love after his romances with former boss Jan (Melora Hardin) and human resources executive Holly (Amy Ryan) both went south.
“This will be a good jumping-in place for people. We will be starting some new arcs and pushing the show forward, but not in this episode,” says Lieberstein.
In “Stress Relief,” Jim is trying to distract Pam, who is stressed over family issues, so they download a movie at the office and peek at during the week when no one else is looking.
The stars of that movie are Black and Alba, of course. The two play a young couple and “when Black meets Alba’s ‘nanna, played by Cloris Leachman, a love triangle ensues,” says Lieberstein.
“Cloris was hysterical on-set,” says Lieberstein. “When she found any little comedy bit, she went as far as she could with it. I was very impressed with her comedy chops.”
The movie-within-a-movie idea is a new concept for “The Office,” which up until now has largely stuck with its core cast. It also has shied away from stunt casting, Lieberstein says.
“We have a no-stars rule in general. It’s very distracting to our audience to see someone so famous show up on our set. But this was a very funny story to me and I don’t think it was distracting at all.
“For this episode, we erred on the side of doing something that would stand alone, and I think we were successful,” says Lieberstein.
“Stress Relief,” which is a one-hour episode, was not originally written with any particular guest star in mind, but once Black, Alba and Leachman were cast, it was heavily tweaked to “make it more appropriate for them,” says Lieberstein.
Casting such big names is “an incredibly complicated process,” Lieberstein says. “It involved network executives making calls for us, and one of our executive producers spent weeks reaching out to people. It meant finding stars that are also ‘Office’ fans.”
THE OFFICE
Sunday, 10:30 p.m., NBC