When I was a kid — 9 or 10 years old — I can remember thinking there were two kinds of television shows. Good shows. Bad shows. But those were imprecise words, good and bad. In my Slinky, Gnip Gnop, stoopball world, the “good shows” were boring beyond words — these were shows I hated like M*A*S*H and Barney Miller and All in the Family, you know, shows my parents liked, shows where the humor was often subtle and language-driven and not geared at all toward the psyche of 9 or 10 year old boys.
Meanwhile, the “bad shows” were great — Welcome Back Kotter, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Three’s Company, the Six Million Dollar Man — because the plots mostly revolved around people falling down, getting bonked on the head, punching people, doing stupid dances or or repeating the same stale catchphrase like “Ayyy!” or “Sit on it!” or “Up your nose with a rubber hose*” or the classic “Whah happan?”
*UYNWARH was, of course, the Welcome Back Kotter catch phrase, and I can remember that in whatever grade we were in then — 5th, maybe? — we pretty much spent 93% of our free time trying to come up with our own version of the catch phrase … unfortunately, I only remember “In your ear with a bottle of beer,” and “Down your spine with a porcupine” and a couple of rather crude ones. We had millions of them, though. We were like a boys version of the Manhattan Project trying to come up with new and creative body part/projectile insults. We spent the other 7% of our time playing paper football, Mattel football and shooting paperclips and hard paper shrapnel using rubber bands that could stretch out to about 9 feet.
As I grew older, of course, and developed slightly more adult tastes*, I came to love the “good shows” and tire of the bad shows. That’s what getting older is about, I guess. I know the whole Jump The Shark thing has become lame and tiresome in itself — in part because Happy Days lost it before Fonzie jumped the shark — but I do remember when I realized outgrew Happy Days. It was when the live studio audience would applaud wildly at the mere sight of Mrs. Cunningham, as if her cheerful disposition could take us all back to that magical time in our lives before we realized that show really, really sucked.
*I looked up the adjective “adult” on my computer Thesaurus and two different groupings of words came up. The first was Adult as in — mature, grown up, fully grown, fully developed, of age … OK. The second was Adult as in — pornographic, obscene, smutty, dirty, rude, erotic, suggestive, porn. Doesn’t the two meanings of adult pretty much say all we need to say about society today? It reminded me of the time I was talking about how someone built something, only I wanted to use a different verb, so I looked up built in the Thesaurus and was given these options: Buxom, curvaceous, curvy, voluptuous …
Anyway, I’ve never quite gotten beyond the concept of good shows and bad shows. I still tend to group stuff that way in my mind. And I hope everyone understands that by “good” and “bad” I’m not referring to quality. Some good shows are bad. Some bad shows are good. It also does not refer to the kinds of shows I would be more likely to watch. ER is clearly a good show — still tackling issues (I suppose), still featuring good actors, still giving us that weekly scene where one person kisses another person on the forehead — but I would not watch ER unless under heavy sedation. Meanwhile, “Judge Judy” is clearly a very bad show, stupid, mindless, pointless and yet I have found myself watching it with interest that, frankly, embarrasses me (“That girl is LYING!”).
Maybe it’s better to say that I tend to think of good and bad television the same way I think of food being good for you or bad, songs being serious or poppy, books being literary or mainstream, movies being artsy or mindless. I want a little bit of ALL stuff that in my life. I want goofiness, seriousness, poetry, Mozart, good fart jokes (so rare — where have you gone Mel Brooks? A flatulent nation turns its lonely eyes to you …), Citizen Kane, Shakespeare, a Go Gos reunion, another Austin Powers movie, Gilligan*, more Don Delillo and E. L Doctorow, and lots of Bugs Bunny.
*No real surprise here, but Mary Ann is absolutely destroying Ginger in the popular vote — apparently this blog audience is West Virginia and Mary Ann is HIll. I fully appreciate this — I’m a Mary Ann guy myself. And Mary Ann has long beaten out Ginger in polls. But there are two things missing here. One, Tina Louise is just not getting her due respect. I mean, come on, 24%? Seriously? Two, the best answer I ever got to this question came from a friend named John, who immediately said, “Oh Ginger, it’s no contest.” I asked why, and he said: “Because there are only so many places to hold hands on the island.”
All of which (finally) brings us back to The Office. For a long time I did not want to watch The Office because I was such a huge fan of the British Office … I suspected it could only be a cheap substitute. Maybe at first, that’s what it was. Then, to me, Our Office found its own voice, took off, became something different from the British one, something, I don’t know, more American maybe.
Now, I love it because … it’s all that stuff we’re talking about. I cannot categorize it as good or bad. It’s both. It’s smart and stupid. It’s silly and thoughtful. It’s measured and totally over the edge. It has the touching and almost haunting middle-aged disappointment of Toby*, and it has Mose throwing down a raccoon cage and running away after being caught. It has a great office romance between Jim and Pam that has so far avoided the sit-com cliches, the tired “OK, we’re broken up now, OK we’re back together now, OK, we’re broken up now,” goofiness. And it has the comic genius of Steve Carrell, who as Michael manages at different times to be your worst boss, your goofiest and most helpless friend and something entirely unique and unrecognizable.
*The running gag about Michael hating Toby for no apparent reason is one of the great bits in the history of television.
The Office to me touches all parts. It is way out there. It has beet farming. It has office politics. It has its own Mini Putt online game. It has some out there characters who aren’t really like anyone I know except in the most two dimensional ways. And yet there’s something about The Office that makes it more true to life than just about any show I’ve seen … and I think it’s this: No matter what happens, everyone in the office pretty much realizes that they’re stuck with each other. It doesn’t matter if they like each other. It doesn’t matter if they know how bad and ridiculous a boss Michael is. It doesn’t matter if they have crushes or if they exchange cross words of if they get insulted. Tomorrow, it’s back to work. That’s real.
45 Comments, Comment or Ping
Levi Stahl
I just came across some of the same thinking in a funny passage from Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, from 1859:
And Joe, if you appreciate office comedy, you should check out my friend Ed Park’s new novel Personal Days, which tells the story of a failing office. It’s extremely smart and funny.
May 18th, 2008
Alex Belth
Hey Joe,
I have really enjoyed the US version of “The Office” as well and think it’s sensibilities are as American as the originals were British. Personally, I couldn’t stomach the original, not because it wasn’t expertly done–it was–but because it made me so uncomfortable I just sat there anxious and nervous as hell (I have the same reaction to the Larry David show on HBO).
I recall reading an article a few years back that there were versions of “The Office” made for German and French TV as well and that each reflected something inherent in its own culture so that the British one didn’t translate to German, the French didn’t relate the American, etc. Which may be why it’s such a wonderful concept, because you can take it and make it bend.
About ten years ago I was in a taxi cab in Manhattan and got to talking comedy with the cabbie. We were talking about a FOX satire show that featured Jay Mohr. I don’t remember the title. But I was telling this guy that Mohr left me totally flat. I just found that he was smarmy and obnoxious and that was all there was to him. And he said a great truth about American comedy. “The reason Jay Mohr is a flop is because he’s not vulnerable. If you are vulnerable, we’ll accept even the worst kind of behavior.”
And I think that’s really right on. Think of Ralph Kramden or Archie Bunker, or even Larry David or Homer Simpson or Michael Scott. They might all be jerks to a certain extent but we can forgive them because deep down, they are just big lugs with even bigger hearts.
The Rickey Gervais character is incorrigible through and through, even at the end, when he pathetically begs for his job. There is no let up with him. Where as Michael Scott is actually a GOOD salesman when it comes down to it. Horrible manger, a total mess, but also a good person. Remember when he shows up to Pam’s art show and is genuinely blown away by her drawing of the office?
Anyhow, that’s one of the reasons why I think the show was a success here–because, as you say, it found its own voice. I’ve found this season to be the weakest thus far. Part of that might be due to the writer’s strike, and another part might be chalked up to the fact that it is very difficult for a comedy show to maintain a high level for more than a couple of years. Recently, I think “Arrested Development” and “Weeds” and “Freaks and Geeks” were all strong comedies. But “Arrested Development” started to slip in its third season; ditto “Weeds” and “Freaks and Geeks” of course, didn’t get a chance to last that long.
Regardless, even if it is only batting .500. “The Office” is still a quality show. And I like it because it is not shoving it’s own cleverness down your throat. It’s not just hip irony for its own sake, it’s also emotionally involved, and you end up caring about the characters.
May 18th, 2008
Levi Stahl
Okay, Alex and Joe: you’ve finally sold me. I loved the British show–despite, as you’ve written, it being nearly painful to watch at times–and avoided the American one despite raves, largely because I am very stingy with my TV-watching time. But your accounts are convincing enough that my resistance is finally overcome: I’m watching it. As soon as baseball season is over, that is. First things first, after all.
May 18th, 2008
Ron
I always thought Michael hated Toby because Toby was the only one who didn’t report to him, but reported directly to NY instead.
Also loved the Japanese “Office” parody on SNL last night. I don’t speak Japanese, but I knew when Michael said “That’s what she said”.
May 18th, 2008
Carl
I think Michael’s hatred of Toby is because Toby is the HR guy, who must deal with the fallout of Michael’s stupidity and try to get him to knock it off. Michael assumes this is because Toby is a killjoy, rather than out of any obligation to the company and workplace policies.
May 18th, 2008
Matt in Toledo
We did the variations of “Up your nose with a rubber hose” too. The only one I can remember is “up your butt with a coconut”.
As for the Office, I like how they do something the Simpsons have always done. Each character on the show (I believe) has been placed in a sympathetic role at least once.
May 18th, 2008
Mike
Creed has never been in a sympathetic role, and I don’t think Kelly has been either. Creed, by the way, is by far my favorite character. He only gets one line per episode, if that, but makes them count.
May 18th, 2008
Kelly
The running gag of Kevin, just behaving as Kevin does, appearing to the new HR person as a special needs adult?
That can go on for months for me.
It’s amazing to me, though, the people who tune in and don’t GET the office (i.e. my parents, both of whom are teachers). Part of me wonders if they have enjoyed their 35+ year careers more or less having avoided the cubeyfarm existence…..
May 18th, 2008
Grant
Alex:
I think this season has been truly phenomenal. There have been a few filler-ish episodes, but the very dark episodes, like “The Deposition,” “Dinner Party,” and “Night Out” have been some of the best television I have ever watched.
Also, I don’t think Arrested Development started to lose it at the end. I think it was more a case of their knowing they were going to get axed either way, so they might as well see how self-referential one TV show can get. For an already extremely self-referential show this was quite a feat, and I think it’s maybe easy to get lost, even for fans of the show. I recently watched it all at once, in batches of four or so episodes at a time, and much like The Wire, it’s much easier to follow, and I think, more enjoyable.
Also, I recommend everyone start watching 30 Rock. It’s one of the better shows on TV right now, and it is suffering the same low ratings problems that many other brilliant shows do. So watch it so it won’t get canceled.
May 18th, 2008
Matt in Toledo
Ugh, I forgot about Creed. I’d be curious to see the situation where he could be in a sympathetic situation.
May 18th, 2008
Jeff
Arrested Development IMO is the best tv show ever. And Grant nailed it on why the 3rd season seemed a bit off.
The Office is also one of my faves, Creed kills me.
May 18th, 2008
Concerned Citizen
The Jay Mohr show was called “Action” — and all I remember was that Ileana Douglas played a hooker, Buddy Hackett played himself, and the theme song was Warren Zevon’s “Even A Dog Can Shake Hands.”
May 18th, 2008
wcw
Arrested Development to my mind was the best comedy on television while it aired, and probably the best network show that had more than a token tryout (I’m looking at you, Freaks and Geeks and — especially and depressingly — Wonderfalls) since Homicide. At its best, it was jaw-droppingly good. It made you laugh at things that should not be funny. I mean, tit should not be possible to make them funny. And then the show made them so funny you laughed out loud. In front of other people, even. And then laughed at them some more. At its best, that show was so good it hurt. Now, my diagnosis of its last season is a little different: I think Charlize Theron was deeply miscast in any show that good, and I think working her in in any way broke the spirits of the writing team. But here I am just making shit up. Clearly, something was not right.
Back on topic, the US ‘The Office’ has become a strong contender here. I think it lacks the ability to make absolutely anything funny, but I think it has one thing Arrested Development never did: a real grounding in reality. Apparently fourth-graders like The Office. Not because they’ve ever worked in an office, but because the territory it covers involve real truths about how human beings interact.
Plus, beet farming.
So, yeah, The Office. I hope its run is as long as the Simpsons’ was.
May 18th, 2008
John
I felt sympathy for Creed when Ryan set him up with a blog that was merely a local Word document.
May 18th, 2008
Mean Dean
I thought Action was a terrific show, but I do agree that Mohr’s character had no redeeming qualities, and that that was the basic problem in terms of American mass appeal.
I personally don’t think of The Office as “both smart and stupid”, any more than I see The Daily Show as being such because it does so many dirty jokes. Shows like that are perfectly aware that the stupid jokes are stupid, and the absurdity is part of the larger message. But I too like to mix legitimate “bad shows” (American Idol, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? etc.) into my diet.
My cousins had the Up Your Nose with a Rubber Hose board game! I thought “Wha’ happen?” was original to A Mighty Wind, but if it’s not, don’t tell me, I don’t even want to know.
Are you seriously doing a Mary Ann vs. Ginger poll right now? It doesn’t get any more stereotypically “pop culture junkie of a certain age” than that! You might want to apply for a position at VH1.
May 18th, 2008
alias
no love for curbed?
and ill add some love for 30 rock. not as relentlessly funny as arrested development but its fit to wear its jockstrap.
ricky gervais does a series of hour long interviews with comedy icons including christopher guest (who he credits as a major influence), larry david and garry shandling. shandling comes off as something of a pill. they can all be found on the youtubes.
and as an aside, i cant stand jay mohr. i dont know whos more unfunny, him or dennis leary. ok, theyre not in carlos mencias class but then who is?
looking forward to the upcoming david cross/bob odenkirk sitcom on hbo.
shout out to sarah silverman and flight of the conchords!
May 18th, 2008
Will
Remember the episode where Creed plays guitar and then says he was in The Grass Roots back in the 60’s (Of Temptation Eyes fame). That’s not a joke, he really was. I suspect that many of the characters eccentricities are based on his real life.
May 18th, 2008
Ross
I absolutely love The Office, it’s the second best sitcom ever made (behind only Seinfeld). The first 10 minutes of the episode when Phyllis got flashed may have been the most hilarious 10 minutes in TV history. I hope they turn this new HR lady/Kevin as a special needs person thing into a running gag, it’s already been great and the possibilities are endless.
May 18th, 2008
Snowman
I think that Toby will return early next season. I just cannot imagine that Beadie… errr, Amy Ryan… would follow last year’s performance in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Oscar nomination for Gone Baby Gone by returning to television.
May 18th, 2008
Eric S.
Quick note - the guy who plays “Mose” is also one of the show’s writers…as well as “Ken Tremendous” of the great blog firejoemorgan.com. Now THAT is high comedy.
May 19th, 2008
Yay Joe
HEY JOE …
“In your horn with an ear of corn!”
“Down your pants with a bag of ants.”
“Down your throat with a honey oat!”
“In your spleen with Ovaltine!”
(Okay, I’m done)
May 19th, 2008
Chris
If memory serves, the actor who plays Toby is also a writer, so I think it’s very likely that he’ll return at some point.
While I really enjoy the Office, I find that it’s very painful to watch sometimes. Steve Carrell is great, but I think his character’s stupidity and self destruction are just so hard to watch most times. In fact, I’ve skipped over entire episodes if it hurts too much to watch. Kinda like George Costanza episodes of Seinfeld. In moderation, Michael Scott’s antics are tremendous; when it’s a train wreck, I have to look away.
Arrested Development on the other hand was absolutely solid top to bottom. The third season was the weakest, but I’d point out that they figured on being cancelled by Fox anyways and were just making fun of the whole situation. Consider:
George Sr.: Well, I don’t think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us.
Michael: Yeah, the HBO’s not gonna want us. What do we do now?
George Sr.: Well, I think it’s Showtime. I think we have to put on a show during dinner.
Genius!
May 19th, 2008
Mikey
That’s a good point about “Action”. I always just chalked up its failure to the fact that there’s a pretty limited audience for shows set in show business.
I know I’m in a tiny minority here, but I think The Office (US version) and Arrested Development are the two most overrated shows this decade. There’s never any point in arguing over someone’s sense of humor, so I can’t debate anyone who finds them hilarious. Personally I just find them plodding and self-satisfied.
Two funniest shows on TV for me: 30 Rock and Colbert.
Maybe I’ll get ripped for this but I have a soft spot for How I Met Your Mother. Classic three-camera sitcom that nobody even bothers to do anymore. Great cast. Rarely hilarious but always watchable.
You Arrested Development fans will be glad to know that Mitch Hurwitz (sp?) has a new animated show for this fall. It’s set in a high-school and the voiceover talent is really good: Bateman, Arnett, Henry Winkler, Kenan Thompson. Might be funny.
May 19th, 2008
phil3154
I agree with Alex about “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I have tried several times to watch it, but I find it so uncomfortable to watch. Which I guess is a tribute to Larry David and the writers, that they can make a fictional character so three dimensional and simpathetic that I feel bad about the situations that he manages to get himself into.
May 19th, 2008
phil3154
So much so that I forget how to spell “sympathetic.”
May 19th, 2008
Pete_C
We also used “up your butt with a coconut,” as mentioned above.
Others included “through your legs with scrambled eggs” and “in your jeans with baked beans.”
Boys are such idiots. : )
May 19th, 2008
John Peterson
I’m still at the point of distrusting the American Office because I am such a fan of the British version. I’ve watched America’s cheap approximation, and it just seems so… American. The boss is great– better than great, but the lead guy is too cool, the receptionist too pretty, everyone too funny and not depressing enough. Whatever. FJM is hilarious, so I’m sure I’ll break down and watch the whole run sometime.
May 19th, 2008
John Peterson
I also find Arrested Development “plodding and self-satisfied.” The excessive narration, which I suppose is trying to be ironic, is just insulting to my TV-watching sensibilities, almost like Sex in the City.
The Wire is the best show on television, ever.
May 19th, 2008
Roger
I doubt Toby will be back, or if he is it will be a VERY small role. The actor who plays Toby is also a writer, but is taking over the role of showrunner next year with Greg Daniels overseeing both The Office and the spinoff of The Office. Being a showrunner, writer, and still finding time to bring Toby back could be difficult.
There are some weeks where I think The Office falls behind 30 Rock for best TV comedy, but more often than not I end up coming back to The Office. Its one of the better comedies I’ve seen in a while. This last episode, where Michael tried stopping himself from saying, “That’s what she said” while on the ferris wheel… hilarious. That finale was great in how many storylines they were able to open for next year without leaving that episode feeling like it was forced. Great, great writing, IMO.
May 19th, 2008
Dan
UK office tops US version for me. But a little apples to oranges too. Michael is too over the top me, but I haven’t missed a show- it’s a classic.
And oh yeah- TWICE AS FAR WITH A CHOCOLATE BAR!
May 19th, 2008
Josh in DC
Wait — There’s going to be an Office spinoff? What?!
Much love for 30 Rock. “They’re all just like lemmings. You know my agent, Dave Lemmings? That guy will do whatever you tell him.”
May 19th, 2008
Larry Melton
Joe says:
“Now, I love it because … it’s all that stuff we’re talking about. I cannot categorize it as good or bad. It’s both. It’s smart and stupid. It’s silly and thoughtful. It’s measured and totally over the edge.”
That’s a wonderful summary, Joe. I watch the show with my 13-year old daughter (I’m 52), and we laugh until we shake the house. But my wife
(51), only sees the “stupid”, and so she won’t watch with us. I think maybe she’s just “too adult”. I hope I never get there.
Comments above bring to mind an idea I’ve had for what would surely be the most uncomfortable TV show ever produced:
Larry David meets Michael Scott. Just typing the words on the same line makes me cringe.
May 19th, 2008
Cairo_East
As a Penn State grad, there are two events in the past five years that have led to that frenetic phone exchange where you call every college buddy you have, only to find that you can’t reach them because they are calling everyone of your buddies at the same time.
1) Penn State 14, Ohio State 10 in 2005 (thank you Tamba!)
2) Toby Flenderson has a PSU sticker on the corkboard of his cubicle.
Such is the weirdly wonderful appeal of The Office that a group of people would get excited that a sad figure like Toby has a regionally-relevant prop. Honestly, it felt as if PSU was as “cool” as The Office because someone presumably went there.
This probably speaks to the relative mediocrity of the PSU football program as well. That’s a different conversation.
May 19th, 2008
Jake
Nobody’s even mentioned B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan, and is also a writer and supervising producer. Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor) is also a writer.
One of the reasons The Office is so great, is because the characters are all so diverse (in both looks and personality), that something about each of them hits really close to home for each person who watches at home… Plus I LOVE the fact that so many characters use their real names: Angela, Phyllis, Creed, and Oscar at least…
May 19th, 2008
Ken
I’ve watched America’s cheap approximation, and it just seems so… American. The boss is great– better than great, but the lead guy is too cool, the receptionist too pretty, everyone too funny and not depressing enough. Whatever.
I like the American version a lot, but I agree with this. The British protagonist is a guy you really pull for - a bit short, average-looking, frumpy, and with grand ideas in his head about what he wants to do that are overwhelmed by reality. Plus the girl is out of his reach. You just can’t feel for his tall, good-looking American counterpart in the same way.
Expanding B.J. Novak’s role last season was a terrible idea.
May 19th, 2008
Creston
The Office also has one of the finest bloggers on the ‘Net. Mose Schrute the beetfarmer, aka Michael Schur, aka Ken Tremendous.
I didn’t start watching the Office until season 5 for some weird reason, but I definitely think it’s one of the best shows on TV.
Fondly wanting Heroes to return,
Creston
May 19th, 2008
Creston
Michael hates Toby because Toby is HR. And anyone with any sensibility hates everything and anything that’s HR. HR is the absolute worst to come out of all the misery of the 90s.
May 19th, 2008
jd
Thankfully, Creed figured out a way to break out of that Word document, so we all can read the enlightened thoughts emanating from his mind:
http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts/
Dwight Schrute has a blog too:
http://blog.nbc.com/DwightsBlog/
May 19th, 2008
Kyle
Amen.
May 19th, 2008
Stuart
Did you know that Tina Louise refuses to talk about Gilligan’s Island and bristles if anyone brings up the role of Ginger to her? A friend of mine was at a fundraiser with her recently and she said (I’m paraphrasing), “I don’t know why everyone always brings up ‘that series.’”
May 19th, 2008
Mike
I’ve always been under the impression that they explained why Michael hates Toby in the early episodes. If you go back and watch ‘em, there are a few key scenes where Toby kinda out-Michaels Michael.
1) In the diversity day episode, they’re coming into the conference room for a meeting and Toby makes a joke about sitting around indian style. Everyone laughs, which they never do with Michael, and Michael gets upset over the reaction the joke got and he throws Toby out of the meeting.
2) In the episode where Amy Adams is selling handbags, Michael wants to date her. To his horror, he finds Toby chatting it up with her, while he’s gotten nowhere. So he brings up Toby’s divorce to kill his chances.
It wasn’t until well after this point that Michael started to display an actual hatred of Toby. So as opposed to being something unexplained that’s always been there, I always thought it was set up by those early examples.
It’s all about Toby’s personality, not his job with HR. Toby naturally has qualities that Michael is dying for — he’s well-liked, he has a sense of humor, and he has the respect of the office. They smiled and clapped for Toby when he finished the sexual harrassment speech, for example, while Michael never gets that kind of reaction.
From Toby being at the party at Jim’s that Michael wasn’t invited to, to Darrell from the warehouse saying Toby could crash with him in NY but Michael couldn’t, right down to Pam saying in the finale that she thought Toby was cute, these are all things Michael strives for and can never achieve.
The irony is that Toby is a quiet, reserved, sad type of guy, and is absolutely no threat to Michael’s neverending quest to be the cool kid on campus. But Michael is so sensitive to the fact that he lacks these major qualities, he hates Toby for having them anyway.
Just my two cents.
May 20th, 2008
Cosmic Charlie
I know exactly what you mean about the PSU sticker, Cairo_East!!! I live just outside of Scranton, PA, so one of my favorite elements of the show (in addition to all those discussed above) has been keeping an eye out for those subtle tributes that somehow make me feel cooler. Did you notice the Mike Lieberthal bobblehead on Dwight’s desk, from when he played AAA-ball in Scranton in like 1994? I don’t think any other show pays such attention to details like that.
May 20th, 2008
G Young
I love The Office because the writers summed up the entire show in one line from Michael:
“I look at somebody like Jim Halpert, and I think that guy could do anything that he wants to do. He could do anything. And he chooses to work here, selling paper. Just like me.”
That was actually the week prior to the finale, in an episode that was probably the weakest of the post-strike shows. And yet that line blew me away; it encapsulated the entire Office experience.
May 20th, 2008
Reb
Hey Joe,
In your socks with a pound of lox.
Cheers!
May 21st, 2008
Motherscratcher
When I think of the funniest sitcom moments (for me), 2 immediately come to mind:
1. In Cheers when Cliff tries to train himself to be less annoying by having a therapist observe and shock him when he starts to ramble on about mudane things. Cliff gets mad when he thinks the therapist is shocking him too much and wrestles the remote away. Then he points the remote at the therapist and proceeds to shock himself again. I laughed very hard at that.
2. In Arrested Development when Tobias (analrapist) in the mole costume and George Michael in the jet pack destroy the miniature development Godzilla style in front of the japanese investors…well, that’s the closest I’ve ever come to actually peeing my pants watching TV.
I love the Office, Cheers, Seinfeld, 30 Rock…but there is always a few AD DVDs in my player ready to go at a moments notice. Always.
Also, why no love for According to Jim?
“Up your pooper with an ice cream scooper” was our favorite.
Aug 6th, 2008
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