And The Peacock Laughed

In possibly the most insane bit of scheduling so far this tour, NBC has devoted a whopping 30-minute session to Q&A with stars and producers from all four of its Thursday night comedies. By the time they finish introductions, it'll be half over. Nonetheless, given the rabid fan base for "The Office" and perhaps the others, I'm going to liveblog it...

The participants, producers first: Greg Garcia and Jason Lee from "My Name Is Earl," Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey from "30 Rock," Greg Daniels and John Krasinski from "The Office," and Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff from "Scrubs." Fey's got a little black dress with a loooow neck line. Krasinski has a funny haircut, a tie with shirtsleeves rolled up, highwater jeans, sneakers - he looks about 12. Lee has a full hillbilly beard. Everyone else is Hollywood casual normal.

Someone asks about the disappointing ratings for this stellar lineup: "I think this is the year 'Scrubs' becomes a big hit," says Lawrence, to general laughter. "We always geared our plan toward peaking in the seventh year."

Daniels is complaining about spoilers online and Krasinski says, "My bad! Needed a little extra cash! Dishing the secrets!"

Fey on an upcoming guest shot: "We could not be more excited to have Jerry Seinfeld on the show, because then regular America will find out that we have a show."

On the hardest part of comedy writing:
Garcia: "Once you have the story situation, the jokes will come out. We could do a full hour drama and I know within two days it will be all full of jokes...it's the story."
Lawrence: "For us it's mostly just trying to think of new dick jokes."

Lawrence on "Scrubs" going into its final season:
"We've done seven of these (press tours) and by the way, at five of them, the first question was, 'Can you believe your show is still on the air?' "
Lawrence on doing the last 18 episodes:
"We've mapped out the first two and the last two, and the 14 in the middle we're just mailing in."

Krasinski on how a network-wide NBC "Green Week" on enviro themes will affect Dunder-Mifflin:
"We're a paper company, so we're screwed."