“The Office’s” big Super Bowl episode has landed its first big guest star: Jack Black.
The “Kung Fu Panda” and “Nacho Libre” star will play himself in the hour-long “Office” episode, which will run after Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday, Feb. 1. No other guest star has as yet come aboard, but NBC’s announcement of Black’s involvement makes it sounds like some will.
Part of the hour-long episode will feature some of the folks from Dunder Mifflin trying to watch a bootleg copy of a movie featuring Black and “other notable Hollywood stars,” the network says. Other reports have said the episode, called “Stress Relief,” will also involve the firm’s employees giving a comedy roast of Michael Scott (Steve Carell).
Black’s “Office” appearance will be a relatively rare TV guest spot for the actor. He did voice work on a 2007 episode of “The Simpsons” and made an appearance on Comedy Central’s “Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show” that same year; prior to that, his last guest spot was on an episode of Fox’s short-lived “Cracking Up” in 2004.
In addition to the animated hit “Kung Fu Panda,” in which he voiced the title character, Black also co-starred in “Tropic Thunder” this year. His credits also include “The School of Rock,” “King Kong,” HBO’s “Tenacious D” and “High Fidelity.”
In other TV news:
“Glee” at Fox.
Fox will inject a little “Glee” into its lineup in 2009.
The network has picked up “Nip/Tuck” creator Ryan Murphy’s comedy about a ragtag high school show choir and the teacher who wants to take them to nationals. There’s no set air date yet, but reports have said Fox hopes to have the show on the air in the spring.
“Glee” is set at a high school whose formerly award-winning glee club has fallen on hard times, thanks in part to “a series of scandals.”
The optimistic new choir teacher (Matthew Morrison, Broadway’s “Hairspray”) thinks he can turn things around, although even his wife (Jessalyn Gilsig, “Heroes” ) thinks he’s taking on an impossible task.
The cast also includes Jayma Mays (“Ugly Betty”) as a fellow teacher and Jane Lynch (“Best in Show”) as the school’s cheerleading coach.
Fox ordered additional scripts for the show along with its pilot, so “Glee” should be able to go into production pretty quickly.
