“The Office”
“The Promotion“

10/01/2009 (09:00PM - 09:30PM) (Thursday) : THE RECESSION HITS DUNDER MIFFLIN — David Wallace (Andy Buckley) breaks the bad news that not everyone will get a raise this year. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) reaches his breaking point with Jim (John Krasinski) and looks to the rest of the office for allies. Pam (Jenna Fischer) would like cash instead of wedding gifts. Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Paul Lieberstein, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Phyllis Smith, Oscar Nunez, Creed Bratton, Ellie Kemper also star.

Below are few more promotional pictures of “The Office” Season 6 Episode 2 “The Meeting”

Noticed anything different with Michael Scott (Steve Carell) on The Office? For one, he lost 25 lbs.

En route to the NBC comedy’s September 17 return for its sixth season, Carell revealed that he indeed lost a lot of weight back in 2005, right after he debuted on the Office’s six-episode first season.

“That sort of partially formed the look right there. I think that first year, the look was really scary. I don’t know if there was a memo from the hierarchy at NBC that he needed to be at least reasonably watchable. There wasn’t any big, conscious decision, though. The hair changed a little bit, and it got a little fluffy.”

And that is how we got to today’s Michael Scott: lean and just the right weight. But will he ever ran out of tricks now that The Office is on its sixth season?

“I just model it after my own shallow self,” Carell jokes, adding that he owes it to the writers to make his character “evolve” and give him a little more self-perspective.

“It’s been fun, over the course of doing five seasons, to figure out what makes this guy tick, and how he might change and grow.”

He also revealed that there was some pretty massive change in his character from the pilot season, from an antagonist to a “sympathetic” character.

Which, on all accounts, is easy to see. Over the five seasons, despite his wacky and sometimes off-putting antics, it has somehow become easier to relate to Michael Scott’s character, from his being temporarily sacked to his hapless love life.

Anna Camp will travel from Bon Temps to Scranton for a wedding. The actress who plays anti-vampire Sarah Newlin on “True Blood” has been billed to fill in a guest spot at “The Office” as Pam’s sister named Penny.

A rep from the show has told E! Online that Camp’s Penny will be at the wedding of Pam and Jim which is held at Niagara Falls. No word yet whether Penny will discover Pam’s secret of carrying Jim’s baby. The episode is scheduled to be held in the fourth episode airing October 8.

To go along with the family affair storyline, an actress has been hired to be Pam’s mom earlier this month. Linda Purl, who was relatively unknown, nabbed the role because an average actress would suit the show’s chemistry.

Premiering September 17, the new season will pick up a few months after the fifth season finale when Pam and Jim discovered that they are going to be parents. In the episode called “Gossip”, words are flying that at least one employee is pregnant, one is cheating on his or her partner, and one is questioning his or her sexuality.

Before “The Office” gets its season 6 premiere on September 17, NBC has unveiled four sneak peeks from the first episode. Titled “Gossip“, it sees Michael feeling left out as the rest of the office gossips about the summer interns.

The first clip is about Michael telling Kevin something about Angela dating a very old man. Kevin also wants to know who’s spreading rumors about him in the second clip. The third and fourth clip meanwhile, are about Michael talking to Jim and Pam about pregnancy, and Kelly talking to Erin the receptionist before Michael telling them to get back to work.

The season six opener jumps a few months after the May finale where Pam and Jim discover her pregnancy. The gossip indeed will circulate around one employee being pregnant, one cheating on his or her partner and one questioning his or her sexuality. Through the synopsis, it is found out that Andy is the one who struggles with heterosexuality.

TV.com chatted with The Office’s Oscar Nunez about his character, working with Steve Carell, and what fans can expect from Season Six.

Season Six of The Office is fast approaching, and while fans are getting excited about Jim and Pam’s pregnancy and upcoming nuptials, we here at TV.com wanted to catch up with some other Office notables. So we sat down with Oscar Nunez, who plays Oscar Martinez on the show, to chat about the upcoming season. A couple story lines are revealed, but there are NO SPOILERS in here! (Even the stars don’t know what’s scripted for the future.) To find out more about the making of the show, read on.

TV.com: Other than Jim and Pam’s engagement and baby news, how does Season Six start?

Oscar: Andy has a lot of funny stuff coming up, and, of course, Dwight, as usual. They kind of team up in a couple of episodes together as buddies, and it’s actually quite funny. I think we’re shooting that one right now.

Michael has a relationship that he gets into that is absolutely sick and hilarious. And it’s not long-lived. It’s a short-lived fling, but it is absolutely hysterical and we just finished shooting that one.

Michael is trying to do something good, and it comes out horrible, and then he backtracks and tries to fix it by making the hole even deeper and worse. There’s gossip flying around the office about everyone, little things about everyone.

TV.com: According to a preview video released last week, there will be an episode about office gossip this fall. Why hasn’t office gossip come up on the show before?

Oscar: Bear in mind it’s a 20 minute show. What comes out on TV always surprises me because it’s only 20 minutes. So it’s never the way I picture it.

TV.com: What was it like last year when Michael Scott was replaced as the boss?

Oscar: Oh dear God, he was still there. He was still there, even when he’s kicked out, he’s still there. He won’t leave. He can’t leave that place. There’s an umbilical cord. And poor Idris Elba’s character tried to not lose his cool, but Michael was always there. And then had like a stupid office down on the first floor or whatever. He never goes away really.

TV.com: What role does the accounting corner play on the show?

Oscar: It’s like we’re on a really really good basketball team, like the Lakers. We win championships and we get rings, but we’re on the bench, and if they need us we come in and we do our thing, and we try to get some rebounds and score some — that was a bad analogy — and score some points. But we’re on the bench and we’re happy to be there. But we’re not the starters.

TV.com: What was it like auditioning for The Office?

Oscar: Well, I just hoped we wouldn’t mess it up, because I was a big fan of the British one, which was genius — I watched all the episodes. And then I heard they’re making an American version, and I auditioned for it, and luckily I got picked, and then I thought, well okay, it’s a pilot. We’ll shoot the pilot, and that’ll be it. It won’t get picked up. I’ll make a little money, and go back to whatever it is I was doing.

And then I found out Steve Carell was cast as the lead, and then I kind of thought, you know what, we have a shot at this because that’s perfect casting. Other than Ricky Gervais, I think only Steve could do that part.

TV.com: What’s it like working with Steve Carell? What, if anything, have you learned from him?

Oscar: It’s nice to see him, like, learn huge amounts of monologue in five minutes, and that’s inspiring and it lets you think you could do it. And then you find yourself doing it. Everyone’s nervous when you first get there and then you get used to it, and you’re like “Wow. This is kind of really cool.”

He’s funny. Everyone has their own funny thing. Everyone [on the cast] pretty much has chops, but what I’ve learned from Steve is not how to be an actor, but how to be a person. He’s very very responsible. Loves to be with his family. Works his butt off. And is pretty damn normal, and that’s a cool thing.

TV.com: How are you different from your character on The Office?

Oscar: I’m not that anal. Not at all.

TV.com: Who (or what) inspires you as an actor?

Oscar: I always liked Tony Randall on The Odd Couple.

TV.com: How have the characters developed over the past seasons?

Oscar: You know who we are, but in the end it’s a workplace, and so we come into work and just kind of do our jobs. I always think: I’m at work, and I’m being filmed by a film crew that I don’t want to be here. And I don’t want to be filmed. I just want to do my accounting work.

There’s been a lot of buzz on the ‘net recently about how John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer were spotted together in Niagara Falls, filming sequences for Jim and Pam’s wedding on “The Office,” but when I talked to Oscar Nunez earlier today (I’ll post the whole interview in the near future) and the topic of the impending nuptial episode came up, he teased that there’d be a guest star turning up. He wouldn’t give any specific names, damn him, but he let slip that it was someone from the cast of “True Blood.”

So who is it?

After doing some digging and checking in with NBC, I was able to confirm that Anna Camp, who you may remember as Sarah Newlin – you know, Reverend Steve’s hot and sexy wife – will be playing Pam’s sister, Penny.