by Josh Wolk for Entertainment Weekly
June 9, 2006, Page 62.

As the hot months approach, a tropical metaphor seems apt: If The Office's Dunder Mifflin paper company is Hawaii, then the three rear cubicles that constitute its accounting department would be idyllic Lanai. "We're like a little island," says Brian Baumgartner, who plays gape-mouthed numbers-cruncher Kevin. "When Michael (Steve Carell) mentions having to go to accounting, it's always a destination. There's an announcement when they go to our corner to throw our papers on the floor."

And during this summer vacation, any Office fan with an Internet hookup can take a trip to Accountancy Island. NBC.com will post a 10-episode miniseries of three-minute "webisodes" featuring the Three Drone-keteers Kevin, the humorless Angela (Angela Kinsey), and the closeted Oscar (Oscar Nuñez)on a quest to locate $3,000 that has suddenly gone missing. "The audit story is always thrown around on different sitcoms, and I don't think it's ever been broken," laughs coexecutive producer Paul Lieberstein, who also plays Carell's HR bête noire, Toby. "We're talking about some very dry material here.... But we have three accountants who are very funny, so missing money seemed like a great way to utilize them."

The serial follows the CPA sleuths as they interrogate fellow employees, one episode at a time. "My character ticks a lot of people off because she assumes everyone is guilty," says Kinsey. (Lesser-seen back office co-workers like Phyllis and Stanley get grilled; Rainn Wilson's fussy Dwight is the only main character to make an appearance.) If this Law & Order: Ledger Victims Unit story line sounds like a suspenseful whodunit, keep in mind that this is The Office, where no one has the energy to go out to lunch, let alone track down a thief. (The biggest action scene? The trio sneaks into Michael's empty office to try out all his toys.)

This online programming experiment is directed at the show's loyal Web-savvy fans; The Office's rising success in season 2 was partly due to surfers who discovered it on iTunes. The series' writers sometimes even take their cues from Web message boards. For example, when they originally hinted at Michael's devotion to permatemp Ryan (BJ Novak), they scrutinized the online reaction. "Very casual viewers might ask, 'Is Michael gay?'" says Lieberstein. "But as we intended, they caught that no, it's just a straight-man crush. Ryan's a young, strong, virile guy, and that's terrific...in a nonsexual way. There was no confusion on the Internet, so that gave us permission to keep going with it." All hail the information superhighway, enabler of platonic crushes.

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