Fans Don’t Mind Spending the Weekend in this “Office.”

Cast members Ed Helms, Angela Kinsey, Brian Baumgartner
and Kate Flannery (L-R), took the stage at the Scrantones concert.
The concert took place Saturday, Oct. 27 at Lackawanna
Community College.

Fans of "The Office" came to Scranton, Penn., to spend the weekend with cast members.

Because of an awesome opportunity to receive press passes, I attended NBC’s “The Office,” convention. The convention gave an opportunity to fans to meet cast members as well as fellow fans. It was held in Scranton, PA, which is also the shows setting. Now in its fourth season, the show has a large enough following to successfully hold this event.

The event ran Oct. 26-28. Fans from all over the world came out to spend the weekend in the “Electric City.” The cast in attendance were Leslie David Baker, Andy Buckley, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Melora Hardin, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, Bobby Ray Shafer, Michael Schur and Phyllis Smith.

Events throughout Scranton were held all weekend, in which the cast made appearances, both scheduled and unscheduled, to mingle with fans.

I got to bring a friend along with me, which was awesome because I don't think it would have been as much fun had I been there alone.

As I was walking across the Scranton University campus (which is a very confusing place, by the way) to “The Office” street fair, I began to hear live music. “I got the hots for you,” was the lyrical peak the band reached. I really couldn’t expect the best of entertainment yet since it was still so early. Much to my dismay and enjoyment, I walked up to the stage and saw none other than cast member Creed Bratton, who plays Creed on the show, singing. The band playing was The Scrantones, who perform the show's theme song. They were also in the episode “Booze Cruise.”

"I believe the way it works is for every one month we are on strike, three episodes will not be written,”said creator Greg Daniels on the writer's strike.

I stuck around for a while. I got to hear Craig Robinson, who plays Darryl on the show, cover Radiohead’s “Creep.” The concert started winding down, and I headed to the press conference.

The aforementioned cast members and creator Greg Daniels spoke at the conference. Many different issues were covered. An interesting one brought up at the conference was the then-impending writer's strike. At the time of the convention, the strike was not yet in action, although it is now, and there currently is no end in sight.

"I believe the way it works is for every one month we are on strike, three episodes will not be written,”said Daniels.

Mindy Kaling, writer/producer/actress on the show, talked about her character Kelly's evolution.

“The transformation of what Kelly used to be in the first season to now is one of the great scam jobs ever been done on network television,” said Kaling.

Kaling's character Kelly used to be conservative and quiet, and is now known for being exactly the opposite.

Daniels and the rest of the cast were pleased to see what the real Scranton looks like, and meet fans.

“Fans were surprised I didn't have a drink in my hand. Actually, they were surprised I wasn't drunk,” Flannery said in reference to her character on the show.

Once the press conference was over, the cast talked and was interviewed by the NY Times, LA Times, VH-1's Best Week Ever, and many other noteworthy publications.

At this point, I was asking myself what I was doing here. I was surrounding by prestigious press, and there I was, reporting for a blog that wasn't even up and running yet.

I got a chance to meet Ed Helms. I got a picture taken with him and he even asked what I was reporting for. Andy (Helms' character) from “The Office” now knows that The Gunk Gazette exists. Score.

Later on that evening, a look-alike contest was held. The cast helped judge the contest, and more specifically their own characters.

The contest ended and The Scrantones took the stage. Many “surprise” guests came on stage. Flannery played keyboard while the band played the theme song. She also covered “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” dedicated appropriately to Carell's Michael Scott, who hit her character with a car in a previous episode.

Robinson made another appearance, covering the Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy.” Helms took the mic to sing “Werewolves of London,” and cleverly changed it to “Werewolves of Scranton.” Hardin came on stage to sing a few of her own songs, and cover The Pussycat Dolls' “Buttons.” Baumgartner sang The Police's “Roxanne.” Bratton returned to sing a few of the Scrantones songs. The last song played was the theme again, and the cast thanked everyone for coming out, and danced as the song ended the evening.

Fans undoubtedly left satisfied and more enthusiastic about the show.

Sunday, I attended the 'Writers Block'. Fans had a Q&A with the writers of the show. BJ Novak, writer/actor for the show, made a surprise appearance. First, questions submitted over the Internet prior to the event were presented to the cast, and then the floor was open to the audience. Much to my surprise, Kaling wrote one of my favorite episodes, “The Injury.” Daniels was asked who on the set did the most improv, and not to anyone’s surprise, he answered Steve Carell.

“I feel that improv sometimes can even work better than the script. Sometimes you just don't feel comfortable saying what is in the script and it just works better when you say what is more natural to you,” said Daniels.

Fans were excited to hear that Stephen Merchant, writer/creator of the original series, will be directing an episode that will air in December. Also, Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” will return this season to direct another episode. The writers said how much fun it is to work with each other, and it is rare to have set of writers that click as well as they do. The writers also revealed that writer Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby, is a lot like his character on the show. They concluded the Q&A by giving the audience a treat and presenting the first part of an upcoming episode.

The weekend was a blast. I am still amazed and thankful that I got to be a part of this. Fans undoubtedly left satisfied and more enthusiastic about the show. Everyone got a realistic view of the cast that portray their favorite television characters. The convention is rumored return to Scranton again next year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.