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Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 70: Steve Carell leaves 'The Office,' 'The Voice' & more

Alan and Dan also talk about 'Archer,' 'Survivor,' and a lot of other shows

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Apr 25, 2011 12:22 PM

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It's Monday, which means it's time for a new Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, in which Dan and I look back over Steve Carell's tenure on "The Office," talk a bit about NBC's "The Voice" and the state of "American Idol," and answer a bunch of your mail. 

The run-down: 

Steve Carell's "Office" departure -- 01:15 - 21:25
"The Voice"/"American Idol" -- 21:30 - 36:30
Listener Mail:
"Archer" - 36:40 -- 42:30
Boston Rob's "Survivor" performance -- 42:40 - 48:00
Points of disagreement -- 48:20 - 52:20
Quick cancellations, particularly "Paul Reiser Show" -- 52:20 - 56:38
TV shows course-correcting -- 56:40 -  01:01:00
Successful and unsuccessful shows using locations -- 01:01:00 - 01:09:30
 
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. Or you can always follow our RSS Feed, download the MP3 file or stream it on Dan's blog.
 
And as always, feel free to e-mail us at sepinwall@hitfix.com and/or dan@hitfix.com if you have questions you want answered on the show. Please put the word "podcast" in your subject line to make it easy to track them down amid the hundreds of random press releases we get every day.

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Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: Alan Sepinwall, Firewall & Iceberg, The Office, Archer, American Idol, The Voice

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  • Default-avatar

    Jon88

    No worries about language, guys. The captioner from "The Killing" changed Dan's outburst to "A__ A__ A__ A__ A__."

    April 25, 2011 at 3:28PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    James

    I think The Voce could end up being a huge hit or a huge flop.

    April 25, 2011 at 3:34PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    big man

    I’m not just some dilettante. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got names to drop. You think my reviews don’t make sense? Well, maybe you’re a little dense.

    Pretentious? Moi? Don’t be absurd. Sure, I use some twenty dollar words but, brother, I’m the salt of the Earth. And while my writing might be subpar, and I’m stuck here tending bar. I hold my own with all the cable TV stars.

    My politics are so correct. I march along in perfect step. And all my pals think like I do, that’s how I know I’ve got a clue.

    Now let me make this crystal clear: you point and laugh at all that I hold dear, but I’ve got the respect of all my peers. And they’re allowed to take the piss, but if you cross me then I’ll shake my fist
    and tell the internet about it.

    I’m a big man!

    It’s time for me to say the word "ass." And pass some rumors on as fact. Now don’t you dare call me a clown, or I’ll have my lawyer shut your website down.

    I got to interview David Simon. I didn’t really have a job with him, but I’ll have you know he's a personal friend. I got to ride Lil' Sebastian, and we all sat around and laughed at everyone who’s sick of my act.

    I’m a big man!

    April 25, 2011 at 4:18PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan That's very poetic... It *may* also conflate me and Sepinwall into a single person... But that could be synchedoche. Like I said: Poetic...

      -Daniel

      April 25, 2011 at 6:29PM EST

    • I've been complaining about all the complaining lately, but that one was at least creative.

      April 25, 2011 at 7:29PM EST
  • Avatar1974_1

    ConfusingJazz

    While listening to the section on location shooting, I couldn't help but remember Alan's first rule of television: TV is not a visual medium. Tell me you aren't backing down form this bold, some would say laughably foolish and open for mockery, stance. Stick to your guns, Alan, for the good of all of us!

    April 25, 2011 at 6:12PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    dylanfan

    I'm distraught to learn that The Paul Reiser Show is canceled after only two episodes ... I thought it was wonderful! And apparently, I think this only because I am old? Can this possibly be related to the fact that I get my tv news from the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast? Nevertheless, Dan, you are my hero: you used "conflate" and "synchedoche" in the same sentence ... fan for life.

    April 25, 2011 at 10:51PM EST Reply to Comment



  • I'm presuming that all the guest stars in The Office finale will only appear in the job interview scenes. I expect we'll see them for a minute or 2 being interviewed and then we'll never see them again.

    April 25, 2011 at 11:48PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    ed w

    In your discussion of The Office and Michael's departure you both strongly wished that they would hire a more legitimate comic actor to join (if anyone from outside has to) rather than this parade of Jim Carrey, Spader etc guest stars that are set to appear.

    But I'm here to tell you they HAVE. Catherine Tate is also scheduled to be in the finale but has conspicuously been not mentioned very much by either journalists or the people who promote the show. Of course part of that is she isn't a big draw who puts "butts in seats". But still, even with that she's got a lot of credibility and you'd think they'd mention her more often than they do. Unless she is the new boss and they don't want people speculating too much about that.

    She is exactly the kind of real comic actor you guys were wishing they'd use and while I'm not going to go out on a limb and say she'll stick around, it's such a smart move that I can imagine it being more than a one episode thing.

    April 26, 2011 at 4:42AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    loretta

    In response to a small point on the podcast... I always thought The West Wing had a wonderful sense of location. Sure, it was really only one small part of town that ever appeared (essentially the White House and the Hill and the stretch of D.C. between the two, with occasional forays into Georgetown for home settings), but it had the details of that part of town down pat. One thing that I loved about the West Wing (which, honestly, I'm still working my way through on Netflix) is that it even had a sense of how people in D.C. dress. it's a small detail, but people from different cities in different parts of the United States really do dress differently, and it takes a good eye to realize that.

    April 29, 2011 at 12:41AM EST Reply to Comment

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