Category: The Office (Page 9 of 17)

The Office: “Fun Run”

September 28, 2007 / John Paulsen

Well, the big cliffhanger at the end of last season was Pam and Jim finally going on their first date, and although they tried to hide it for a while, they are in fact a very happy couple. The scene where the mockumentors showed them the footage of their kiss was a pretty funny way for them to tell the world.

(I do find it strange that Karen left without a whisper. It didn’t seem like a fitting way for such a good character to leave the show.)

Anyway, as is oftentimes the case when unrequited television love is finally requited, the worry is that the show will lose it’s umph. There is certainly a noticeable lack of romantic tension, but I think viewers will be in a honeymoon haze for a while before it’s missed. The show has enough humor and such a great ensemble cast that the writers still have a lot to work with.

In fact, a little of that romantic tension has been taken on by Dwight and Angela, who are going through some serious issues because he decided to euthanize her sickly cat, Sprinkles. This promises to be the “will they/won’t they” relationship, at least in the short term.

This hour-long episode also dealt with Michael’s guilt over hitting Meredith with his car and the resulting Rabies Awareness Fun Run. Sorry, but I didn’t feel like writing down the entire name of the race. I did, however, jot down several of my favorite moments of the episode:

Michael: “I took her to the hospital. And the doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could…and she is going to be OK.”
Stanley: “What is wrong with you? Why did you have to phrase it like that?
Dwight’s face when Angela was giving him instructions for how to take care of Sprinkles, including the application of fungal cream at the “base of her tail.”
Stanley: “You can’t be serious. You ran a woman over this morning.”
Michael: “Everyone inside the car was fine, Stanley!”
Kevin clapping (all by himself) for the nurse who reattached the IV in Meredith’s arm after Michael’s balloons unhooked it.
Kevin trying to hit Meredith’s fist when the gang said goodbye.
Angela: (crying because her cat died) “I thought she had more time.”
Dwight: “Nope.”
Angela: “Did she…when you saw her, how was she looking?”
Dwight: “Really dead. Like a dead cat. So…”
Dwight: “Cats do not provide milk. Or wool or meat.”
Micheal: “Is there a God? If not, what are all these churches for?”
Michael’s speech about “oldentimes.”
Dwight: “Wait, this money is going for bat birth control, right? That’s what you told me when I contributed.”
Pam: “’5K’ is for five kilometers, not five thousand miles.”
Darrell feeding a squirrel a peanut.
Angela: “Cat heaven is a beautiful place, but you don’t get there if you’re euthanized.”
Dwight: “I know a great taxidermist. I’ll pay to have her stuffed. Well, he’s not great, but he’s pretty good.”

What did you think of the premiere? Now that Jim and Pam are a couple, is it going to hold up?

One suggestion to the writers – we need to see more of Ryan.

External Entertainment, External TV, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

Jerry O’Connell, used car salesman

August 27, 2007 / John Paulsen

In a recent issue of Stuff (yes, I read Stuff, but in my defense, my subscription was free), Jerry O’Connell describes his new sitcom, “Carpoolers.”

“I have to hand it to Bruce McCulloch, the writer – who was one of the cocreators of ‘The Kids in the Hall’ – because it’s really funny. It’s four dudes who take the carpool lane every day, and they think they’re a lot cooler than they are. It’s basically ‘The Office’ meets ‘Arrested Development.'”

“‘The Office’ meets ‘Arrested Development'”? So you’re saying that your new sitcom is a combination of what are arguably the two greatest sitcoms of the decade? There’s a fine line between selling and overselling, Jerry, and you’re about a mile from it.

Still, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do, right?

External TV, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

Best moment from the TCA Awards…?

July 22, 2007 / Will Harris

When David Chase took the stage to accept the Television Critics’ Association Heritage Award for the cumulative run of “The Sopranos,” he said that he’d considered making a comment about the meaning of the finale of the series, then decided against it, but he did offer a very telling anecdote about the first time he ever saw “Planet of the Apes.”

“When the movie was over, I said to my wife, ‘Wow, so they had a Statue of Liberty, too!’ So, uh, that’s what you’re up against.”

Other Chase one-liners from the evening:

* “Here’s another clue for you all: the walrus was Paulie.”
* To critic Alan Sepinall, from The Star-Ledger, in Newark: “Would you explain to these people that it’s very possible to be sitting in a restaurant in New Jersey and everything just stops?”

Chase, by the way, wasn’t the only winner tonight:

Individual Achievement in Drama: Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: “Planet Earth” (Discovery Channel)
Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming: “Kyle XY” (ABC Family)
Outstanding New Program: “Friday Night Lights” (NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: “Plant Earth” (Discovery Channel)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: “The Sopranos” (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: “The Office” (NBC)
Career Achievement Award: Mary Tyler Moore
Program of the Year: “Heroes” (NBC)

To bookend this posting with “Sopranos”-related anecdotes, Alec Baldwin accepted his award for his performance on “30 Rock” by telling a story about how he actually changed management because his new managers told him that they could get him on “The Sopranos.” A year later, there’d still been no meeting with David Chase…but an encounter finally came about rather accidentally. Baldwin was in NYC, on his way to a meeting about some charity work he was going to do, and due to an error, he ended up at the Four Seasons Hotel rather than the Four Seasons Restaurant. He made a mad run from one place to the other, ending up at the restaurant drenched in sweat. Upon meeting his party, he apologized and made a dash to the men’s room, where he promptly removed his shirt and stood topless as he held the shirt in front of the hot-air dryer…and who should walk in?

Suffice it to say that Baldwin never made it onto “The Sopranos.”

(Chase’s version of the story: “All I thought was, ‘Omigod, that’s Alec Baldwin, the famous actor!’ I didn’t even notice he wasn’t wearing a shirt!”)

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, News, TCA Press Tour, The Office, The Sopranos, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: Thursday = Comedy

July 18, 2007 / Will Harris

One of the greatest mysteries amongst the critics here at the TCA Press Tour is why NBC’s completely kick-ass Thursday night comedy line-up – “My Name Is Earl,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” and “30 Rock” – isn’t one of the highest-rated line-ups on any network. I mean, seriously, that’s about as solid a two-hour block as has come around in years; every single one of those four shows is must-see TV for me, so it’s nice to know that Bill Lawrence, producer of “Scrubs,” agrees with me.

“Zach flew here from New York, and I came here all the way from my house, because I could not be more proud than to be up here with these four shows,” said Lawrence. “Everybody’s saying comedy sucks right now. These are three other comedies that I actually watch regularly. So screw the ratings, man, and I’ll have it out with you outside afterwards.”

Here are a few more revelations from NBC’s Thursday night comedy line-up:

* What lessons did Tina Fey walk away with after surviving her freshman season at “30 Rock”? “I think we learned a lot about the tone of the show throughout the year and whether — you know, we want the characters to be believable enough that you still care about them but still be able to do crazy jokes with them. So I think we learned that as the year went. And think we, this year, are going to try to maybe — try to maybe do a little less, because the shows were so dense that sometimes we worried that it was almost going by too quickly for the audience. So we’re hoping to let things breathe a little bit.”

* The ever-sarcastic Lawrence got a big laugh when he said of his show’s upcoming final season, “I think this is the year that ‘Scrubs’ really becomes a big hit. We had always kind of geared our plan towards peaking in the seventh year. And now’s when we really roll out the promotional stops. You’re not going to believe some of the things we’ll be doing!”

* Braff, however, was decidedly less sarcastic when speaking of his last year as J.D.: “I think there’s something really cool about knowing it’s your last season. I mean, so many times, you know, by the time you get to the seventh season or the last, what could be the last season, you don’t know, and there’s something really invigorating about going, ‘All right. We’ve got 18 more.’ I think it’s really going to excite the crew and the cast. We’ve had almost the exact same entire crew for the entire run of the show, and you know, it’s cheesy to say, but it is a total family because we have grown up with these people essentially. I think to go in for the final 18 with knowing it’s we’re going out with a bang, we’re going out with the way Bill wants to end the show, I think, I’m really, really excited to do it.”

* Greg Garcia on the change in Earl on “My Name Is Earl”: “We were always worried about him changing too fast, the character, and so we tried to spoon it out a little at a time. But knowing where we were going to end last season with him going to prison, we weren’t afraid to go ahead and start giving him a lot of things that he wanted in life, and we did a little, you know, arc of three or four at the end where he actually started getting his life together. And the whole time, we knew we were going to take it all away from him and send him to prison, so that was kind of by design.”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, My Name Is Earl, News, TCA Press Tour, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

The Office: “The Job”

May 18, 2007 / John Paulsen

**WARNING: SERIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD**

Wow, I didn’t see that coming. I thought Karen might get the job to clear the way for a Jim/Pam relationship in Scranton, but I didn’t think Jim would jettison Karen before the news broke about who got the job. The scene where Pam was being interviewed and Jim stuck his head in and asked her to dinner was SO INCREDIBLY sweet, it put 99.999% of all supposedly sweet romantic comedy moments to shame. It literally warmed the cynical heart of this writer, who usually sees this stuff coming from a mile away.

Pam’s speech at the end of the last episode really put things into motion. Karen was suddenly threatened (“Pam is kind of a bitch”) and told Jim that she wanted to move with him away from Scranton/Pam. It was also surprising how Karen reacted to Jan’s meltdown; Jim had some empathy for the newly voluptuous one, and I think Karen’s reaction might have been the straw that broke that relationship’s back. The writers were obviously trying to make Karen less sympathetic by having her throw Michael under the bus in the interview (“He’d be a disaster”) and leaving Jim at corporate to meet her friends for lunch. But she didn’t get the job, so presumably she’ll be back. If that’s the case, I doubt she’ll last long, especially if Jim and Pam are in a relationship.

For a guy who called Dwight an idiot last week, Michael is really pretty moronic himself. First he shows up on the wrong day (“The other branch managers are idiots – Hey Pam, I forgot which day the interview was and I drove to New York accidentally, so I’ll be like three hours late.”) Then, he names his successor AND sells his condo (on eBay, proudly getting 80% of his purchase price) BEFORE actually getting the new job. Jan’s boob job and subsequent meltdown were hilarious (that whole scene in the lobby with the box of her belongings was priceless); hopefully she’ll still be on the show as Michael’s girlfriend. Same goes for Ryan, who (I guess) is now Michael’s boss. But back to the boob job – Meredith’s take was classic: “It’s a waste. In my experience, guys are more attracted to the back of you than the front.”

We also got a glimpse of what life would be like if Dwight was the branch manager, and it sure wasn’t pretty. His search for a #2 led to this line: “I will need a new #2. My ideal candidate? Jack Bauer. But he’s unavailable, fictional and overqualified.” His presentation about paper was oddly compelling – I wanted to see more. (Actually, I’m just trying to earn some Schrute Bucks.)

Looking forward to next season, will be interesting to see how they handle the Jim/Pam relationship. Generally, when longstanding unrequited love finally becomes…um…requited, it’s a sign that the show may have jumped the shark. “The Office” doesn’t depend on the Jim/Pam dynamic for its laughs, but it certainly has been the major season-long storyline in each of the first three seasons.

Regardless, I can’t wait to see what happens next.