OK, if you're into the whole Jam angle of The Office, I stumbled across this video and thought you guys might want to check it out.
This week's episode deals (at least partially) with Dwight's reaction to Jim's promotion. But the following week is the one-hour episode of Jim and Pam's wedding.
Here's a behind-the-scenes clip from the wedding episode. If this video is any indication, this could be one of the series' top episodes. In particular, there's great lines from Creed and Michael in this clip.
Oh, but before the video, here's the quick scoop. I'm not on Twitter, but The Office site has the feed from some of the cast members who tweet. Well, Melora Hardin (Jan) is on Twitter and said the she'll be back for a few episodes. Her episodes have typically been pretty strong.
Few sitcoms that I've watched have ever been able to pull off openings that have been so consistently hysterical. In that respect, it's like Cheers. Those first two or three minutes almost never let you down.
And this was another perfect example. In this case it was Michael asking Oscar about getting a colonoscopy. "Is there anything I can do to make it more pleasurable ..." Just simply hilarious.
But it really didn't end there. The Michael/Jim/David Wallace stuff was good, and the wedding stuff with Pam wasn't bad, either. But the Toby/Dwight/Darryl angle had me near tears. Especially when Toby yelled out the window at who he thought was Darryl, "Hey, a**hole, are you gonna eat all that dog food?!?" and Dwight plowed his car into Darryl's garbage cans.
There wasn't much Andy in this episode, but I loved his "flirting" email from his cousin, "Hey, Andy, let's go visit Grandma and then get drunk together. Ha ha."
Oh, and it'll be interesting to see how Dwight handles Jim's promotion.
Sorry it's taken waaaay too long to post my thoughts on the season premiere. Things have just been crazy at work. Ironically, most days are filled with rumors -- just like last week's Office episode. But the rumors at work typically involve the paper being sold and layoffs. Heck, I'd kill for a rumor that someone at the N-J is the voice of the Taco Bell dog.
Anyway, I thought the episode was great. The parkour opening was hysterical. Obviously I love this show (duh, I'm doing an Office blog), but the openings are just phenomenal. From Jim's line about "point A being delusion and point B being the hospital" to Dwight riding on Andy's back to Andy jumping straight through the cardboard box -- good stuff. PARKOUR!!
Just some more random Office thoughts:
* Loved how Michael came up with nicknames for all of the interns. Especially using Alan Thicke for the kid who looked like Matt Damon.
* Andy's confusion was priceless, especially his Brad Pitt scenario. I bet he likes tea. Ha!
* 30 Rock is a funny show. At least the couple of times I've watched it. But there's just part of me that's almost bitter that it ALWAYS beats out The Office in the Emmy Awards.
* Creed's lines are always so unexpected. And always amazing. His line about scuba was good, but how about when he asked, "Who's the OBGYN?" when Pam and Jim announced that Pam was pregnant?
* "A baby conceived out of wedlock is still a bastard."
* "She's an anorexitec."
* I was really surprised at how good "Community" was. No, that's not about The Office, but it's on right after The Office. Close enough.
* Oh, and it was nice to see Stanley take out years of frustration on Michael's car.
This was my favorite deleted scene from the season premiere:
I stopped by Target (or Tarzzhay as Michael would say) on Saturday night to pick up a few things and decided I'd check out the dollar section to see if they had any new Office merchandise.
I was happy to see that they did, but it wasn't nearly as much as they've had in the past. Heck, it was about a quarter of the amount of stuff they had out last year.
That doesn't mean I went home empty-handed, though. You can never have enough mechanical pencils in the house. Or quote pens. And I was pretty happy to see that they had a Phyllis pen, featuring her quote about her "jugs."
But that was pretty much it. Pens and pencils.
And as I headed to the register to pay, I saw their display for the Season 5 DVD. In a move of marketing genious, they packaged the DVD with a chance to win one of Michael Scott's golden tickets. Except this golden ticket would get you a ticket to the set -- not a big discount in paper.
It's been a long summer without a whole lot of news on The Office.
That's about to change, with Season 6 starting up next Thursday. It's about time!
Anyway, here's the latest on The Office, including some stuff you may have missed.
*The Office has received the follwing Emmy nominations (the Emmys will be held Sept. 20): Steve Carell, Comedy Series Lead Actor; Rainn Wilson, Comedy Series Supporting Actor; Comedy Series Directing; Comedy Series Editing; Comedy Series Sound Mixing; Comedy Series Casting; and Interactive Media -- Fiction. Carell is up for his work in the episode "Broke," the last of the Michael Scott Paper Company. That episode was fantastic, and Carell really did an awesome job with it.
*I'm still waiting for the Andy bobblehead to be released.
*The Season 5 DVD just hit the stores today. Wonder if it's packaged with any cool stuff like my keychain of the stapler in Jell-O.
*Finally, here's a behind-the-scenes clip of Season 6.
I got ambitious and spent a little time cleaning off my computer desk yesterday. (My wife will say I needed to spend A LOT of time cleaning off my computer desk.) Anyway, something was telling me, "Let's get rid of some of the junk and get things in order."
Instead, it was really the universe telling me, "Clean some space, and then go to NBC.com and check out the new 'Office' bobbleheads they have for sale."
I've taken my son to the movies twice in the last couple of months, and both times saw somewhat unexpected appearances from "Office" cast members.
My movie-going decisions are pretty much based off of the previews; I don't do a whole lot of research. And they're usually in the PG/G neighborhood and my son really pretty much has final say.
The last time, it was "Monsters vs. Aliens," with Rainn Wilson supplying the voice of the head alien, and John Kraskinski and Ed Helms playing smaller roles. This time, it was "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." I was hoping my son would pick "Up", but he went with "Museum" instead. After, I was glad he did, because it seemed like half of "The Office" cast had cameos -- or more.
Former cast member Amy Adams -- "Office" fans will remember her as Katy, who first shows up as the purse salesperson before briefly becoming Jim's girlfriend, and getting dumped on "The Booze Cruise" -- lands a lead role in the movie. She does a great job playing a spunky Amelia Earhart, ready for a good caper.
Ricky Gervais returns in his role of museum curator Dr. McPhee, while Helms, Craig Robinson and Mindy Kaling all chip in with minor roles. Helms makes a quick appearance as Ben Stiller's assistant, Kaling plays a docent at the Smithsonian and Robinson is one of the Tuskegee Airmen.
While it was nice seeing the familiar faces, it also made me ready to watch some new episodes of "The Office." Too bad the summer has just begun. Maybe I'll just have to hit the movies again.
Photo: Ben Stiller and Amy Adams light up the big screen in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." Photo credit: Associated Press
Former N-J food editor and three8six.com contributor Cathy Klasne sent this link to me, and I thought you guys might find it interesting. It's a list of the top 10 food moments from "The Office."
While I agree with a lot of the scenes that made the cut on this list, there's no way you can have a top 10 food list and leave off so much from the "Benihana Christmas" episode. Or all of the episodes at Chili's.
Overall, I thought this episode pretty much rocked. Although there were a couple of things that made me say "huh"?
First off, I really wish the episode could've been an hour. "Celebrity Apprentice" and "The Biggest Loser" had season finales that ran THREE hours. There's so much that gets left on the cutting room floor (or heads to the deleted scenes area on the Web site), that it would've been nice if they had made this one an hour.
Sorry about the delay in getting this review posted -- I've been absolutely slammed. On Saturday, I was race director for a charity 5K, and I've had nonstop stuff going on for what seems like months. And you have no idea how badly I wanted to have one of my friends scarf down some fettucini right before the race. I swear, some of the people who were in the 5K also stopped off at a garage sale to buy a lamp, too.
Anyway, I was kinda mixed about the last episode. Maybe it just seemed so off the wall to me. The whole concept of a cafe disco was just so bizarre. And I don't know about the whole angle with Bob Vance possibly cheating on Phyllis. Having said all of that, I did think the Andy-Kelly dance-off was pretty funny. Andy is just hilarious in any scene he's in.
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the season finale, which is also the 100th episode of the series. All of the finales have been so strong -- I'm really excited to see what they come up with Thursday.
