The Point Radio: The Genius Behind THE OFFICE

Ricky Gervais talks about his new animated show, and why we shouldn’t be concerned that Steve Carrel is leaving THE OFFICE – plus TRON has one hell of a comeback. And be sure to stay on The Point via , RSS, MyPodcast.Comor Podbean! Follow us now on and ! Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net – plus there is a great round of new programs on the air including classic radio each night at 12mid (Eastern) on RETRO RADIO COMICMIX’s Mark Wheatley hitting the FREQUENCY every Saturday at 9pm and even the Editor-In-Chief of COMICMIX, Mike Gold, with his daily WEIRD SCENES and two full hours of insanity every Sunday (7pm ET) with WEIRD SOUNDS! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.

Transcript

Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point where all parts of pop culture come together. Ricky Gervais joins us to talk about comedy, his HBO special, The Office, and of course, The Golden Globes. In the meantime, Marvel gets cross-gen and they pick up Mark Wade in the deal. Tell me, are you surprised at that? It's Friday, the 17th of December, 2010. Let's get to The Point right now.

This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. Let's face it, Ricky Gervais is a busy guy. His animated series, The Ricky Gervais Show, doing pretty well. A new stand-up special headed to cable in just a couple of weeks. And then there's The Golden Globes. Last year Gervais took the stage and this year he's invited back to do it again as the host of the awards ceremony, hoping one more time to entertain but not offend.

I know I think comedy comes from a good or a bad place. And I think however cheeky or out there or, you know, taboo subjects and dark places I take them, I think they know it comes from a good place with me. The last thing I want to do is genuinely offend anyone. I couldn't live with myself. So I want the victims of the joke to like it as well. I don't see any victory in going out and being awful and shocking. That's too easy. I mean, it's five o'clock on network TV. You don't have to…

I mean, people couldn't believe I went out with a beer. So if that's still shocking in this day and age, there is no victory in just being shocking. I think you've got to be interesting and engaging. And I try and do it with a twinkle in my eye and a smile on my face. So hopefully I can go even further this year and still not be chased out of the country. So what prompted him to take the stage of the Globes for a second time?

Like anything you do for the first time, you go, oh, let me do it again. I can do it better. I can do it better. Do you know what I mean? It's like the first time I had a go at golf. I wanted to go around again because I think, no, I can do it now. I can do it now. So, yeah, I want to give it one more go. I think it went well. I really enjoyed myself. I think I pitched it about right. But as I said, I think I can go a little bit further. I don't know. I just think I can really go out and really throw away the shackles of worry.

I mean, I don't mean I'm going to go out and again get drunk and have absolutely no planning or input. But I think I can certainly have more fun with it. And I think I can have more fun with the room as well. I also sort of gave myself this weird restriction that I wrote it like a few days before in about an hour. All the lines, right? And if you notice that all the lines are about the people that are about to come out. And I've realized I can reference anyone in the room. I can look down and just go, right. I can go for anyone here.

So I probably made it a little bit harder for myself than I could have. So I'm going to have even more fun with it. Probably go a bit further. Push the boundaries a little bit more. I think you always should. And I, you know, what's the worst that can happen? I didn't expect to be invited back a second time. And I certainly and I won't do it a third. So I've got nothing to lose. I've got nothing to lose. So, yeah, I'm going to go for it.

Out of England, Ricky's stand up special for cable was on in 2008. Now there's a second one planned for just a couple of weeks from now. And as he explains, like with the Globes, it's better the second time around. I stand up. It was the it was the fourth or fifth thing I did. You know, I mean, I'm a list of things that I did to myself. I stand up was probably both, you know, and now I I am. I think it's great. I love the fact that it's, you know, outside the novel or something. It's the last bastion of self censorship.

You know, what a privilege to be able to say anything you want to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. So that's how I approached it. And now I can't wait for my my next stand up because I've got no I know I went wrong. Now I can be even better this time. And I think you should. It's like, you know, every day I become conscious for the first time. I know I know how to improve. I know what excites me now. Every day is a new day and you want to improve. It's like, you know, you can you can you can rub out the blackboard and start again. I mean, those things still exist.

But you can say, right today, I'm going to do my best work ever from now on. And I say that every day. It's also the sequel to the animation as well, which starts on the on the 14th of January. So yeah, second globe, second special and second. And I think I'm best second time around. I genuinely think that I do. And I think me and Stephen write things that are better on their second viewing. And we write them with that in mind. And we were very conscious of that with the office. We were putting in jokes that we thought people wouldn't even see first time round.

But we said, you know what, someone to see in the fifth time they watch it. And then what a compliment that people have. Listen to the podcast five times or watch The Office five times or you know, so. Yeah, it should be a good year. The year of the sequel. In case you didn't know, Ricky created the original office on the BBC, which in turn became the one we know here in America, a concept of comedy much different from what was on television, both in England and in the US at the time. But one that Ricky doesn't want to take the full credit for.

You know, the office was wasn't just a comedy, it was not about comedy. We purposely we took out some jokes. We took out some big events. We took out some, you know, great plot lines because it interfered with the reality or interfered with the romance or interfered with the existential mood of the piece. You know, you've got to take the whole package and if something you put in takes away something else, something you take away, make something stronger. And so it's my choices that count as a writer and a director. No one else is. So it's all or nothing. People can't cherry pick. They're not allowed to cherry pick. Not in art. You know, you can do that with a menu, but you can't do it in art.

You take it all and if you say, I wish you've done this, I say, well, you make it yourself. You do your own show. You do your own show and you can have it exactly as you want it because that's how my shows turn out exactly as I want them. And when I'm like, of course, I know that gas come in and but it's there for a reason. It makes a point. And comedy is a release. Let's not forget that comedy is a release. That's why that's why we do it because it's it's obviously it's a it's the industry built out of humor. And the reason we have humor is to get through, you know, the reason we have humor in our evolution is to get us through adversity.

And it's no coincidence that some of the most oppressed people have the best sense of humor and create the best comedy. And I say in the special, we use it as a sword and a shield as a medicine and all these reasons. And I love taking people on an emotional journey. And that doesn't matter. There's a film, a TV show or a piece of stand up. It's to take people on a journey they hadn't been on before. And and that's important. And I wanted to resonate as well. You can see a stand up when he's any does a thousand brilliant puns. Great. You will laugh for an hour.

You'll be looking at your watch after about half an hour and you won't remember one of them. But if someone goes out there and he tells you a story, someone shambles out on stage and tells you a story, then there's nothing to compete with that. Whatever happens with innovation in entertainment, you know, there's going to be something that makes Avatar look like Steamboat Willie one day. But I'll tell you, it will never whatever that is, it will never compete with one human being telling another human being what an awful day they've had. We've got more to talk to Ricky about in just a little bit. But in the meantime, you can catch plenty of his work out of England to the stand up special.

Set to roll right now on HBO. Check your listings for that. In the meantime, there's extras. His original series available on DVD and the first season of the Ricky Gervais show as well. Still rolling and we'll tell you about when season two is set to start coming up. Stick around. The flight radio. It's Friday, December 17th, 2010. Here's what's going on in pop culture. Marvel has announced a new imprint and it's one you're familiar with. The Cross-Gen imprint now gets revived under the Marvel banner with two of the original titles, Ruse and Sigil.

Four issue miniseries are what's planned right now. Both are premier early in 2011. If you're a little confused about how Marvel got the rights to this. Well, Disney bought the Cross-Gen properties back a few years ago, 2005. In fact, for just a little under a million dollars. Disney acquires Marvel. Marvel gets Cross-Gen. Sigil will be written by longtime comic writer Mike Cray. Pencils will be by Leonard Kirk and Ruse will be written, if you're ready for this, by Mark Wade.

Who we told you a few days ago went freelance from his job as COO at Boom Productions. It will also have artwork by Butch Geiss and Mike Perkins as well. Both series premiere with first issues in March. It more than likely could be the end of the Stargate franchise. Sci-fi network has canceled Stargate Universe. There are 10 episodes left to be shown. Those will turn up sometime in the spring and then that'll be the end.

No word on the Stargate Atlanta Stargate Universe crossover movie that was greenlit last summer. And there was even talk at one point of a Stargate Extinction project as well. Neither one of those have had any movement so far in the past few months. Tell me you're not surprised to hear that the Spider-Man musical, Turn Off the Dark, has had its opening date push back again. Now it looks like the real opening will take place sometime in February.

The show's been currently in previews. There's been a lot of controversy about some of the problems there. Both technical and with the story as well. Word is that they're going to be changing that story and add some changes to the music as well. But on the good note, the show is selling about 98% of the available tickets for the previews. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the Japanese Digital Comics Association,

in cooperation with several Japanese trade groups, is threatening to sue Apple over pirated content they say is in the iTunes App Store. Apple's argument is, is with thousands of apps going up every week, it's impossible for them to thoroughly check each and every one for pirated content. The Japanese Trade Association agrees, however, they do feel that Apple could be responsible in a court of law for damages for their losses of the pirated material.

Here's something you want to pay attention to. Well, first of all, NBC series The Sing-Off is doing pretty well. If you like it, okay, if you don't, well, you're probably scoffing and throwing your shoulders off at this time. But here's something interesting. NBC decided to expand the last episode of The Sing-Off and in there to slip in a sample of their new comedies

at the debut in January called Perfect Couples. It's a preview episode of the Midseason series. It's not the pilot. It'll follow The Sing-Off episode at 10.30, coming up on Monday night, December 21st, if you're checking your calendar. Again, Sing-Off rolls at 8 on NBC, followed by an unplanned and unlisted and most TV guides episode of Perfect Couples,

right after that. Dynamite Entertainment has announced Team Up that well really makes a lot of sense. You wonder why it hasn't happened in the past. The Lone Ranger and Zorro, together in a new miniseries called The Death of Zorro, begins next March. Covers on the series will be done by a number of people, including, of course, Alex Ross,

and the wrestler-turned-artist Jerry the King Lawler from the WWE, which could be interesting in its own right. Keep checking the internet for sample art and some of the covers that'll be released during this series. Lone Ranger and The Death of Zorro again hits the schedule in March of next year. IDW has announced that Eric Powell, best known for his work on The Goon, a dark horse, will be involved with their Godzilla series, Godzilla Monster World.

Eric will co-write the new series, along with writer Tracey Marsh. She'll also do one of the two covers for the series. The other cover, of course, is painted one by Alex Ross. Interior art for the series will be by Phil Hester. And Godzilla Monster World comes from IDW in March.

It's true, Jon Favreau is out as the director of Iron Man 3. Favreau announced it via Twitter this week, saying he wished the guys at Marvel the best of luck, but he was moving on to direct Magic Kingdom. Lots of speculations on what the reason here would be. Money seems to be part of it, with Favreau having a deal that would get him at least between $12 and $15 million,

plus a massive amount of the profits, with Robert Downey also having a similar deal, maybe the cost of Iron Man 3, with Favreau attached just might be too much. Favreau did talk a little bit about the plan for the Marvel movies, saying that he was concerned that Iron Man is going to be a sequel or a continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and the Avengers. And he said that those guys at Marvel, and we're quoting here, really don't seem to have any idea what they're doing.

Alright, all that behind us now, it's time for you to start your speculation on who you'd like to see direct Iron Man 3. Everybody's abuzz about the Golden Globes. The good news in our world is that Red picked up a nomination for Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and AMC's The Walking Dead got an nomination for Best Television Series Drama in the Globes. Christopher Nolan got a Best Director and Best Screenplay for Inception, that was no surprise. And the Big Bang Theory picked up a nomination for Best Television Series Comedy or Musical as well.

Golden Globes coming to NBC in January, we'll talk to the host Ricky Gervais in a little bit about what we can expect on that very live and unpredictable night. Listen for that coming up in just a while. We need Richard Dawson to host this one. In February, the game show Jeopardy! syndicated in a lot of markets, in fact, most of them around the country, has a special week of Man vs. Machine as two of the highest-winning contestants on Jeopardy! Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter take on a specially built IBM computing system named Watson.

The competition will air over three days in February from the 14th to the 16th. Watson is named after the IBM founder Thomas J. Watson has built over about the last four years or so by a group of scientists at IBM who want to replicate a human's ability to answer questions posed in real language with speed, accuracy, and confidence. Rutter and Jennings will donate 50% of what they win, if they win, to charity while IBM has agreed to donate 100% of Watson's winnings to charity as well. Again, it airs on Jeopardy! which shows in most markets, usually somewhere in the 7 to 8 o'clock. Fox is cancelled running wild, well at least they've pulled the episodes, which seems to me just as good as the other.

The five remaining episodes, as well as the one-hour finale episode, are no longer on the schedule at Fox. A representative from the network said the episodes will air, but no word as to when we will get to see those. Back hours on February 16th to the 14th in 2011. This is my gold. We usually don't play full songs on weird scenes, that's what we've got weird sounds for. But this time, I simply cannot resist. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

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On Blueberry Hill, we'll see what you feel. This is my gold on America's true pop culture channel. GetThePointRadio.com. In the meantime, The Point Radio will get you through the weekend. Listen free anytime you want to for all your latest pop culture news and a lot more at GetThePointRadio.com. This podcast is produced for you twice every week by Malcontent Media and heard on great websites like michaeldavisworld.com and ComicMix.com. Catch us in the iTunes podcast directory under The Point Radio. Say hello to us anytime you'd like to and listen at GetThePointRadio.com and then be right back here. We'll see you on Monday.

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