TV Potpourri: a Pam-less "Office", "Kings" and more "FNL" news

"Dunder Mifflin, this isn't Pam." I'm not sure how I missed this little gem on Michael Ausiello's EW blog, but Michael Scott's ill-fated resignation may not be the last on the show.

Ausiello reports that improv theater veteran Ellie Kemper has been cast as the show's new... receptionist. Ummmm. Whaaa? Will Charles "Stringer" Minor bring in his own receptionist? (More importantly, will she run all meetings under Roberts Rules of Order?) Is Pam really leaving Dunder Mifflin? Is there a bun in the Jim-Pam oven we don't know about? Whatever the circumstances, it's more evidence the show is finally getting out of its Jim-and-Dwight-play-pranks,-then-Michael-does-something-stupid rut. Still, let's not get too radical -- it's not "The Office" without "Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam" in the background.

Will "Kings" be dethroned by ratings? The promising NBC drama dropped almost 25 percent this Sunday from its premiere last week. March Madness can't be to blame -- all the games ended by 7 p.m. at least here in the Midwest region -- but going up against the real Commander-in-Chief on "60 Minutes" probably didn't help the fictional royals.

Hope is on the way for "Friday Night Lights" fans. Talks are going on to bring back the DirecTV-NBC collaboration that allowed the third season to survive (the networks split the cost with the show airing first on DirecTV in the fall and currently on NBC). Rumors have it that not one, but two more seasons could be in the works for the good people of Dillon. Since the season finale hasn't aired, yet, on NBC, I won't offer any spoilers, but there's plenty of unfinished business to last at least a few more seasons.

-- Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com