<![CDATA[Gawker: the office]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: the office]]> http://gawker.com/tag/theoffice http://gawker.com/tag/theoffice <![CDATA[The Office Makes Milf Hunting Mainstream]]> Defined by the irrefutable Urban Dictionary a milf hunter is, "A person or group who wishes to pound that mature box." What was once a joke only suited for 1990s yuk-a-minute-just-barely-R-rated movies, milf hunting has crossed over into the mainstream.

It was discussed out-rightly in tonight's episode of The Office. Michael Scott, the head manager of Dunder-Mifflen Paper Company, is dating the mother of one of his salespeople, the mother-in-law of his co-manager. She's a mature hottie pushed over a lust filled edge by her daughter's marriage and her ex husband's happiness.

How did such a concept get this close to our mainstream universe? Some people blame the internet. On the web the topic is hardly taboo, as you can tell from such popular question boards as Yahoo! Answers and WikiAnswers. The question the world can't seem to stop asking is direct. Is it wrong to "get with," my friend's mother?

Reference Intermission:
WikiAnswers
Yahoo! Answers
The Insider
The Urban Dictionary

The question never seems to be attacked full on, rather muffled over by demands that the question bearer's mother has indeed already been nailed by the person whom dares answer the question in a public forum. The final say is still merely a punchline, but the world prays those truly suffering with this totally respectable fetish step up to the sounding boards and argue louder and longer than those people that get their jollies by dressing up like amusement park animals and miming fellatio.

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<![CDATA[We Got an Invitation to Jim and Pam's Wedding and We RSVPed "No Thanks"]]> Well, Jim and Pam, possibly the blandest characters in sitcom history, have set a date. The episode where The Office characters tie the knot is October 8. Does that mean we have to hear about it until then?

Seriously, we're already sick of these two insufferable lovebirds. The engraved invitation was sent to all of America today by Entertainment Weekly which announced the date in a website tease to their cover story that comes out this week. Speculation and spoilers about their nuptials have been buzzing about the internet for months now. Know what? It's stupid.

Jim and Pam are everyman anchors in a sitcom full of crazy people. That makes them just like the cashiers at the supermarket: you're glad that they're there, you have to be nice to them, but you really don't care about what happens to them outside of work. Whether or not they get married seems to have the impact of answering, "Paper or plastic?"

And their drawn out relationship has been going on for five years now. They're a bigger cocktease than Sally Gregoridas, the girl in the 5th grade who would make everyone play spin the bottle, but then wouldn't kiss anyone when the empty two liter of Diet Coke pointed its cap of romance in her direction. Christ, it took them two years just to freakin' kiss! And now their engagement, which has been prolonged since last season's premiere, is the same way .The run up to the ceremony is going to be a drawn-out string of leaked photos, half-hidden promos, and mild exposés in an attempt to goose the show's ratings.

The other reason we hate sitcom weddings is the same reason we hate when celebrities go to rehab, because all the fun stuff has already happened. What's left for them to do? They'll have their kid and be parents, maybe one will cheat on the other or they'll get divorced and then back together again, but their story arc doesn't have many possibilities now that they're together (hear that, Sex and the City sequel?). It's just more of the same push and pull on the heartstrings. That's why soap opera "supercouples" have to get married five and six times. That's the only way to keep things exciting and fresh. At this point Jim and Pam are about as fresh as hearing "Summer Breeze" while standing in line at the DMV, which we would rather do than sit around and listen to people coo about their seating chart.

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<![CDATA[Soon There'll Be Something, Finally, to Watch on TV]]> If you don't have a DVR (for shame!), you're going to need to know when to sit down to catch your favorite series, like Mad Men, Project Runway, Gossip Girl, and 30 Rock. Then go buy a TiVo. Really.

Mad Men
Returns August 16 [AMC]
Yes, that means you only have six days to watch the DVDs of the first two seasons of the show that you've been telling everyone you already watch, even though you don't. You better get hip with Don Draper or else everyone is going to laugh at you.

Top Chef
Returns August 19 [Bravo]
Well, if Bravo can't have a whole show with hot skinny models in crazy dresses, at least they can have Padma Lakshmi when she returns with her cavalcade of chefs who will call each other names and cook up a bunch of shit that would taste better than the mac 'n' cheese from a box you eat while watching.

Project Runway
Returns August 20 [Lifetime]
With the switch in networks, this show is now officially for women (and gay men). The premiere kicks off with an all-star edition and then there is a show about the models directly afterward. After that, probably Golden Girls reruns or some shit.

Melrose Place
Starts September 8 [CW]
Just in time to make us feel old, the '90s are back—and so are Jo, Michael, Jane, and Syndey! Ashlee Simpson is sure to blow this place up. Literally! She'll probably be planting a bomb in the first episode. Oh Melrose, we missed you.

America's Next Top Model
Returns September 9 [CW]
Though Tyra insists on calling it a "cycle" she's back with a whole new batch of bitches. Even if you ignore the rest of the season, tune in for the premiere, just to see what sort of drag queen madness Tyraparades around in. It always looks like the world's biggest budget public access show.

Glee
Starts September 9 [Fox]
You saw the pilot way back in May and there are already new musical numbers. It's like this high-school-musical-theater-nerd dramedy has been here all along. This is either the next Cop Rock or the next My So-Called Life, so catch the early episodes.

Vampire Diaries
Starts September 10 [CW]
Ok, you have have to watch this because vampires are so hot right now and if you don't, 14 year-old girls will mock you. This is the CW show about teenagers who stay up all night because they're undead, not because they're coked up at Butter.

Gossip Girl
Returns September 14 [CW]
You'd think that now that everyone made it to college they'd change. But watch the new promo. Blair gets bitchy, Chuck gets laid, Serena gets naked, Dan gets clueless, Vanessa gets ignored. Some things never change.

The Office
Returns September 17 [NBC]
What's up with Jim and Pam? We gave up. We'd much rather just watch Steve Carell make an ass of himself.

30 Rock
Returns October 15 [NBC]
NBC is so mean! Why is they going to make us wait until October for new episodes? We would boycott if we could survive without Tina Fey and her tiny little glasses. You will not laugh at anything on television until then. Sorry.

Lost
Early 2010 [ABC]
What, they can't set a date? Does everything with this show have to be a fucking mystery?

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<![CDATA[The End of Comedy As We Know It]]> The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.So Housewives wasn't the only thing that ended last night. The rest of comedy did too. No more 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, or The Office until autumn. Let's see where things were left.

Yes, I Did Say Parks & Recreation
Anyone who dismissed this show after its first sorta underwhelming episode made a mistake. The show has only gotten tighter and sharper, culminating in last night's funny/sad finale. Leslie got kissed, Chris Pratt got his casts off, and Tom Haverford introduced us to his shockingly attractive wife. We love the small, wistful pacing and joke-making of this show. It's not quite as broad and Commedia Dell'arte as The Office. There's something wiser and a bit more weary at work here, especially in Amy Poehler's outta-the-park performance. Her scenes with her old man date were pitch-perfect and just a bit sorrowful, and the almost-at-the-end scene of her and Mark sitting by the pit, near about to kiss, was a heartbreaking little study in rumpled adults being rumpled adults. We're very glad this show got picked up for a second season.

The Office, Who Knew?
Though the season started off pretty weak and we started to write the show off, suddenly something changed or reversed. Everything from the Michael Scott Paper Company on has been basically golden. Though it was a bit of a logistical stretch to have all the branches coming together in one central place for the Dunder Mifflin corporate picnic last night, it was still an ingenious set up and a nice reminder that, even though we're all these seasons in, the writers can still come up with a scenario that feels familiar and banal but, you know, funny. Pam's volleyball prowess was charming where it would have been cloying just a few episodes ago, Michael and Holly (I mean, really, Steve Carell and the ridiculously wonderful Amy Ryan) have such touchingly awkward chemistry, Dwight's weirdo best friend was jolting and gonzo, while Stanley's little aside about not normally enjoying the theater elicited a loud hoot. Plus, you know, Jim and Pam and a baby! Has John Krasinksi ever actually acted like that on the show before? He should do it more often.

30 Rock, Of Course
This show has been on a steady climb most of the season, though this episode, for us, fell just slightly short of some of the other recent installments. Maybe it's because we don't really like music jokes all that much, because we're lame. That aside, Chris Parnell's brilliantly insane Dr. Spaceman is always welcome ("maybe it's the hard K sound that's getting me...") and "sexually transmitted crazy mouth" should enter the lexicon. Plus: Kenneth getting religiousy about science class, "Rainstorm Katrina," and the gay kid at graduation bit ("Who told?") all killed. If the closing, kinda-creaky "We Are the World" joke at the end felt a bit flat to you, well, you're not alone. But all the rest considered, it certainly wasn't a deal breaker.

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<![CDATA[Five Ways Parks & Recreation Is Different from The Office]]> Amy Poehler's Parks & Recreation premiered last night. We thought it was pretty good. Detractors' complaint? It's too much like its older bro, The Office. To which we say: Nonsense! They're so totally different.

Sure Greg Daniels created both, and both are mockumentary-style workplace non-laugh-trackers. But the similarities stop there. Observe:

Gender Studies
Michael Scott on The Office is a bumbling, self-important man. Leslie Knope on Parks & Recreation is a bumbling, self-important lady. Huge comedy differences there. (No, really, there are, but I don't want to get into some sort of Christopher Hitchens debate right now.)

Color Wars
The Office's non-African-American brown character, Kelly, is a total Valley Girl, but also Indian. Parks & Recreation's, Tom, is a self-described redneck who is also... Libyan? (That uncertainty was a joke last night.)

Pro Fatties
The Office has large-and-only-occasionally-in-charge Stanley and Phyllis. Parks & Recreation has only one full-figured person, an as-yet-unheard-from coworker. She's black, like Stanley, but a lady, like Phyllis! Two birds.

The Rashida Jones
On The Office, Jones played Karen Filippelli, a sassy in a soft sarcastic way paper saleswoman. On Parks & Recreation she plays Ann Perkins, a sassy in a soft sarcastic way nurse. Nurse vs. Paper saleswoman? That's like comparing Mothra and Rodan.

Location, Location, Location
Scranton, PA is a very real-life hell hole of boringness and creeping economic decline. Its name is a joke, but it's a very real place. Joe Biden once killed a man there, just to watch him die. Pawnee, IN—where Parks takes place—is a totally made up town in the southeast section of that boring state, tinged we imagine with creeping economic decline but, because it's fake, not an immediate ha-ha joke. Except, you know, in the usual "Indiana? Heh." kind of way.

But seriously, we actually did like the show. And who cares if they're similar? If one's good, two must be great! Right?

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<![CDATA[Fat Women Need Bachelors Too]]> Movies get directors, and they also get Matthew McConaughey. The Office actors just got rich, and fat people just got validated, in glorious reality show form.

Jump-cut proficient director Tony Scott has signed on to helm Unstoppable, a thriller about a runaway train that's full of dangerous radioactive goop. The engineer (Denzel? Will?) and the conductor (Dakota Fanning?) find themselves in a "race against time" to stop the goop from gooping out all over everybody. Everyone else is villains. [Variety] On-set freakout proficient director David O. Russell has signed up for The Silver Linings Playbook, based on the novel about a sadsack high school teacher who goes to live with his mom after being released from the nut house. [Variety]

Kathy Bates has joined Sandra Bullock in a drama called The Blind Side, about a hobo who learns to play football. And, to love. [Variety] Emma Stone, a future tabloid queen who we want to have a beer with will star in Easy A for Screen Gems. The comedy is about a high school student who, while reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's book-of-the-movie based on Demi Moore's The Scarlet Letter, decides to pretend she's the school slut so she'll be popular. How one only pretends to be a loose woman is unclear to us. [Variety]

Matthew McConaughey (introduced hilariously by Variety as "Fool's Gold thesp") has signed on to be maybe a little serious for once in his goddamned, sun-poisoned life. He'll play the lead in the legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, about an attorney made of logs. Or something. [Variety] In other encouraging movie news, presumed blockbusters like Transformers 3 and The Avengers are securing release dates even though nothing has been signed off on them, nor do they even have scripts. So. Good. [Variety]

Bet there's a money-fight going on right now at Dunder Mifflin. NBC has secured lucrative syndication deals for The Office in all 50 top markets across the US. The comedy will air on Fox affiliates this fall. [THR] ABC has cut its 13-episode order of freshman sitcom In the Motherhood to just 6 for this season. The show premiered last Thursday to low-ish (6.7 million) ratings. [Variety]

You won't have to drive over to the Ruby Tuesday's to watch fat people dating each other anymore. No, Fox is developing a reality dating show called More to Love. Fox alternative programming prez Mike Darnell says of the show, in a statement sure to haunt him in the afterlife: "For six years it's been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that's not what the dating world looks like. Why don't real women — the women who watch these shows, for the most part — have a chance to find love too?" It's true, America. Our real, fat, Bachelor-watching citizenry needs fake, sad reality show love too. Me, I'm just hoping this opens the door for Fat Real World and Fat Housewives of Fat City USA Population: You. [THR]

Meanwhile Survivor guru Mark Burnett is joining ABC in an unholy alliance to produce Shark Tank, an adaptation of a British reality show that is itself an adaptation of a Japanese reality show about rich tycoons giving struggling entrepreneurs money. In this economy! [THR]

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<![CDATA['The Office' Takes A Week-To-Week Ratings Hit]]> Last night's Office actually declines, despite Super Bowl boost. [THR]

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<![CDATA['The Office' Porn Features Almost As Many Couplings As The Actual 'Office']]> Worried that The Office has become mired in too many relationship subplots? Have we got the NSFW version for you!

Enjoy this trailer for The Office - A XXX Parody, which may actually shoot in the same San Fernando Valley warehouses as the Steve Carell-toplined original. In this version (produced by New Sensations), Michael Scott is the busty, blond "Michelle," and the prolonged romantic tension between "Jim" and "Pam" is resolved when the former finally comes on the latter's face (we can already hear all the Jam fangirls squeeing in anticipation!). Greg Daniels, forget about that planned Office spinoff—we've found something even better (though we're a little afraid of the inevitable super-sizing).

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<![CDATA[Jessica Alba, Cloris Leachman Join Jack Black as Glitzy 'Office' Temps]]> NBC will leave no stunt unplayed in its attempt to own Super Bowl Sunday, with Jessica Alba and Cloris Leachman now confirmed to appear alongside Jack Black in that night's special hour-long Office episode.

The three stars reportedly filmed their appearances today, all of which are featured in a bootlegged Hollywood movie that the Dunder-Mifflin staff attempts to watch during the workday. Few other details are known beyond the high likelihood that ABC's counterattack will still probably win Feb. 1 on the sure-fire appeal of its 2008 hit Inbred Obstacle Course All-Stars: Breasts Edition. Expect guest-star firings by Ben Silverman just for the sake of it.

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<![CDATA[The Top 10 Worst Pop Culture Bits Of the Year]]> Everyone's doing Top 10 Lists this time of year! About movies and TV and stuff! So I figured I should too. But just one list, that encompasses everything. Everything bad. Enjoy!

10) The Hills, MTV's reality muck about TV and the sad things it does to young people, is full of faux-existential angst that's fun to write about, to be sure. But it's also terrible, terrible, terrible and worst of all doesn't seem to show any signs that it's ending, ever.

9) The Mentalist—a show about a fake psychic (he's really just super-observant!) that's a rip-off of an even terribler show, Psych—was this season's only new breakout hit TV series. It's on CBS of course. Sigh.

8) The Office kind of stopped being as funny. I mean, didn't it? Do you worry about things like: How sustainable is the credibility of the idea that this "documentary film crew" has been following these people for four years? I try not to. But, y'know, Ricky Gervais mighta been onto something with that whole two seasons only thing.

7) John Leguizamo and Jeremy Piven not knowing their lines on Broadway. They were both in David Mamet plays—Leguizamo as the fast-talkin', foul mouthed Teach in American Buffalo; Piven as the fast-talkin', foul mouthed Hollywood suit in Speed the Plow—and it was such an agony watching them struggle to find their words. Like, they're being paid a lotta money here. To not bother to learn the script is just rude.

6) Kath & Kim. Not that it's awful, that you're not watching it. It's actually kind of funny once you get used to its weirdness.

5) That Fred Armisen's spot-on Barack Obama impression on Saturday Night Live was maligned because he's not black. Yes, absolutely, the show needs a much more diverse cast than it currently sports, but Armisen's take on the president-elect is pretty damn good.

4) 27 Dresses. The entirety of Katherine Heigl, actually.

3) The nickname "Sasha Fierce" that Beyonce gave herself so she could release a double album and make more money from us. Don't get me wrong, "Single Ladies" is a bodacious song, but didn't anyone in her camp tap her on the shoulder and show her a photograph of Chris Gaines?

2) The Dark Knight hoopla. For all its pomp and circumstance, the film was really only good because of Heath Ledger's insanely brilliant and scary performance as the Joker. Think about it. The Harvey Dent plotline was featured too prominently and was really over-serious (why so?). Christian Bale's Batman growl was laughable and, worse, distracting. The city didn't look anything like what Gotham should look like. It looked like exactly what it was: modernist Chicago in late afternoon. The whole "let's blow up the other boat" climax was a groaner. And, they used up two good (well, could have been good in the case of Two Face) villains in one movie that didn't need them both. The movie was entertaining, yes. But best picture of the year material? You must be joking.

1) Everything about the Twilight freak fest that came to a thundering climax when the shitty movie (didn't pay, watched it for free online) came out last month. The books, about chaste teen vampires and the sad anti-feminist teenagers who love them, are terribly written and play into some really creaky ideas about sex and gender that are probably doing some damage to the series' obsessed kid fans. Though, you know what? I might hate Twilight most of all because it lead to Caitlin Flanagan's utterly horrifying think piece crapstravaganza in The Atlantic. Read it. Become enraged.

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<![CDATA[The Boss, 'Office' to Battle 'Wipeout' in Super Bowl of the Soul]]> Chalk up another victory for the creative class: ABC's obstacle-course competition hit Wipeout will return for two episodes on Super Bowl Sunday, directly challenging both NBC's halftime show featuring Bruce Springsteen and a special postgame edition of The Office. It's the biggest such counterprogramming battle in five years, and as with everything else pertaining to the network these days, the Peacock might be in trouble.

Though it looked for a while like Wipeout may have its lowest-common-denominator license revoked for any number of intellectual-property infractions, that day won't come soon enough for NBC, which will be forced to stave off what THR calls "one of the most ambitious Super Bowl Sunday programming plans ever mounted by a non-host network." And yes, let's face it: If Pop Culture Doomsday has proven anything, it's that inbreds falling off padded balls (with NFL retiree-commentary) is the definitive sophistication Americans crave between football halves.

And as for counterprogramming against The Office? Boobs, naturally:

ABC will air an hourlong Wipeout in which cheerleaders compete against male "couch potato" sports fans. [...] "It's broadcast's biggest day, and this is a big mass-market show, and it's fun to be able to participate and be a part of it," said John Saade, senior vp alternative programming at ABC. "This will put Wipeout back in the public's consciousness between runs, and we plan to have a lot of fun with it."

Meanwhile at NBC, Jeff Zucker is hoping the Japanese can pick up the pace on that Wipeout injunction, lest he be forced to augment his own gameday programming with the stakes-upping, fan-friendly halftime act tested out earlier this year in New York. You don't know what this guy is capable of when he's cornered.

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<![CDATA[WGA Awards Recognize Every Half-Decent Show On TV With Its Own, Worthless Nomination]]> The Writers Guild unveiled its 2009 TV nominees this afternoon, revealing a radical shift in taste that rotated only one new drama and two new comedies into the year's Best Series nominations — all replacing old nominees that weren't on the air this year. Let's hear it for attrition!

Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Lost, Mad Men and The Wire occupy this year's dramatic category, with Lost filling in for 2008 retiree The Sopranos. (Dexter was the only one of the nominees to earn an episode nod as well.) In comedy, 30 Rock, Entourage, The Office, The Simpsons and Weeds earned nods, with the latter two filling in for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Flight of the Conchords, which return to the network next year. Emmy surprise Breaking Bad drew three nominations, including one for Best New Series, for which it'll compete against Fringe, In Treatment, Life on Mars and True Blood.

Pretty much all the late-night shows that get nominated for everything else were recognized today as well, with Conan, Letterman, Real Time, SNL, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show vying for Best Comedy/Variety Series. The awards will be announced Feb. 7; the full listing is available at the WGA's site. Good luck to all, and enjoy it while you can, Weeds.

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<![CDATA[John Krasinski's Harmonizing with Aimee Mann Not Quite Jim-and-Pam Level]]> John Krasinski is a true renaissance man: in addition to his work on The Office, he can count a Sundance directorial debut and a facility for Muppet arms to his credit. Still, one thing that may need a little more work is his incipient singing career, which he humbly debuted this past weekend in Los Angeles.

Taking part in Aimee Mann's annual, guest star-studded Christmas show at the Wiltern, Krasinski joined the chanteuse for a self-effacing round of "Winter Wonderland." His throaty duet gave hope to all those karaoke singers in the audience that the only that thing separated them from an onstage performance with Mann was the simple matter of television fame and fortune. Still, we did detect a bit of chemistry between John and Aimee, and was that an aborted, awkward hug we saw in the works at one point? Careful, John — Michael Penn's in the warehouse, and he's ready to thrown down.

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<![CDATA[ Supersize This: NBC announced its midseason...]]> Supersize This: NBC announced its midseason scheduling moves today, including not just Celebrity Apprentice news but an ER mercy kill on March 12 (the new drama Kings will take over ER's longtime Thursday night berth). And which show gets the plum post-Super Bowl slot? That would be The Office, which is — you guessed it — supersizing to an hour for the occasion. Sorry, Rainn! [THR]

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<![CDATA[Rainn Wilson As Sick of Super-Sized 'Office' Seasons As You Are]]> Though Ricky Gervais's version of The Office folded up shop after two six-episode runs, that wouldn't amount to even half of a current season of the Steve Carell-toplined Office, which is continually pressed into service for hourlong episodes, spinoffs, and expanded seasons by NBC. Though the moves have pumped up ratings for the sitcom, the results are not always well-regarded by critics — or by a burnt-out cast, says Rainn Wilson:

"The Office is keeping me pretty busy," Rainn told us at the Tisch School of Performing Art's annual fundraiser in New York. "We just shot 13 episodes in 17 weeks," he said.

"Most TV shows make 22 episodes in a year — so we made that in just over three months."

So what's the rush to rack up episodes of the smash hit mockumentary?

"It's NBC and their lack of programing," he explained. "They're milking their golden goose, to mix a couple of metaphors."

Upon hearing news of Wilson's mutinous feelings, NBC head Ben Silverman finally took the time out to learn the name of his assistant — "Beth? Ding DING Ding!" — then promptly blamed her for the Office supersizing in a thinly sourced item meant for Page Six. Satisfied at his handling of the situation, Silverman then turned his attentions back to NBC's two hottest scripts in internal development: The Office: Howie Mandel! and a Phyllis spinoff.

[Photo Credit: AP]

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<![CDATA[Investing Wisely, Office-Style]]> Adults don't have Sesame Street, they just have Suze Orman and James Cramer and other financial wizards to turn to for life advice. We're forced to look in other places for common-sense tips during tough economic times, like magazines, prositutes, and of course sitcoms. The most recent episode of The Office presented an instructive example: Dunder Mifflin salesman Jim Halpert bought a house for his new bride-to-be Pam Beasley. Did he make the right call in investing in the Scranton real estate market, and what did he probably pay to make his parents' former residence stay in the Halpert family? Plus, deleted scenes from this week's episode.

Fresh off the disappointment of not being able to learn Flash, let alone PHP or Drupal, Scranton's Pam Beasley passively aggressively expressed her general displeasure with life by writing a mean note from "Disappointed" to whoever left a disgusting mess in the microwave. We feel for you, Pam.

Jim couldn't sense Pam's unhappiness. He was more worried about how she'd react to the awesome big decision he made without ever telling his partner. Males not named Tony Soprano would risk having their balls severed for the gesture, but in this moving clip Jenna Fischer was totally walled off, implying either a subtle shout-out to Monica Bellucci's famous scene in Irreversible, or that she just can't act:

We talked to a trusted real estate advisor about Jam's new property. He priced the house at around $125,000, while noting it could go for less given the market. Although an earlier scene revealed that the house wasn't in the nicest of neighborhoods, the block looked like it had been kept up. "The exterior is pleasant enough," said our expert. He also noted the tiny windows in the bedroom, the remnants of a particular home-building trend that now looks severely outdated. It's not the most beautiful house in the free world, but that's not the point. "Land is never a bad investment," noted our expert as he described the good sense Jim Halpert had in living many years without anything in the way of expenses or dependents other than dinners with Rashida Jones at TGIFriday's.

And hey, Jim's right, the garage gets a lot of light and will make a great studio. Really, Pam should have been jumping for joy. The only thing most people can be sure of getting this Christmas season is the stomach flu.

In the first of two deleted scenes, Pam tells the truth:

In the second, Michael tries to finger other members of the office for his malfeasance:

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<![CDATA[The Office Should Go Long]]> If you've ever seen the full extended versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you know how much you missed out in the theaters. It's like that every week now with The Office, whose expanded cast and tendency for short scenes sometimes makes you feel like you're reading a condensed Reader's Digest story. Show creator Greg Daniels helps the situation by posting two of the week's deleted scenes online each week. The cutting room floor material is almost more fun than the actual show, and that's the case in two delightful clips that somehow didn't end up in this week's ep.

When it comes to the audience for The Office, an hour did initially feel too long. But the show's ensemble cast has gone much further than the BBC series in developing storylines and conflicts. Twenty-two minutes is just not enough time to follow the show's umpteen characters properly. More Stanley is just never a bad thing. Since consumers are getting used to dictating the amount of time they spend interacting with a given piece of content, it almost makes sense to offer the long version for those who prefer a more full-featured Office, and show a clipped, digestible edition for those who don't want the extra few scenes. Until that kind of choice is possible, or the show's spin-off kills our desire for more Office, we'll have to deal with the abbreviated version.

Still, it's hard to imagine that these scenes should have fallen on the cutting room floor.When you hit on a duo as perfect as Oscar and Andy, it's time to milk that straight-gay friendship for all the comedy it deserves. Here's Andy playing wingman on the flight to Winnipeg:

Usually I have a hard time watching Michael Scott flail around. It's a neat twist on the British series that Scott is actually a capable salesman, and watching him be a fool, and then confident savant sets up an incredible phone conversation with his boss, David Wallace near the end of the episode. In this clip Michael gets money to spent in the metropolis of Winnipeg.

Now we just need to find out exactly influenced Pam to give up graphic design, because it sure wasn't that she "missed Scranton."

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<![CDATA[What Should Be Canceled Instead Of Pushing Daisies]]> As we suggested yesterday and was rumored by the trades, ABC's whimsical dark comedy Pushing Daisies—about a saturnine pie maker who can bring dead people back to life with a single touch—may be facing an unresurrectable demise. In fact, it's very likely the subject of this morning's lead blind item, about a show that's secretly been canceled. The show premiered strong enough last year, but then was perhaps mortally wounded by the writers strike last spring. So it's in danger, yes. Which is a shame because it's got a talented cast (especially its balefully sexy lead Lee Pace and the always chipper and reliable Kristin Chenoweth) and inspired (if a tad too cutesy at times) writing. In fact, there are several other shows that should be canceled before Daisies is. We'll list three of them after the jump.

Entourage
HBO could cross out the lines on the budget for fancy guest stars and location shootings that dimly buoy this sad, tired old alpha dog of a series. The current season, about resident movie star Vincent Chase being not quite on top but not quite on bottom, has been boring and slow, with only hints of humor (Werner Herzog joke!) peppered in between lame Johnny-is-dumb, Turtle-likes-poontang jokes. Pushing Daisies has the arty design and defiant oddness to flourish on the premium cable net. Over there, 6.6 million viewers (which the show is averaging this season) is a lot!

Private Practice
Well, this is probably on its way out too. But for the time being, it remains. It's a really irksome, forcibly "sexy" show about rakish beachside California doctors and the various genitals they fall onto or have fall onto them. Ick. We understand giving creator Shonda Rhimes, who spun this show off of her ludicrously popular Grey's Anatomy, a pat on the back and a sweet new series deal, but this... this is just a punny lady joke nightmare. ABC should stop forking over what I imagine are pretty hefty salaries for Kate Ward Walsh, Tim Daly, and Taye Diggs and spend it on advertising Daisies a bit more. Send supporting star Audra McDonald back to Broadway where she belongs. Yes, Kristin Chenoweth belongs on Broadway too, but whatever.

The Office
Yeah, we said it. This once-great series is languishing under the "stretch it out!" studio mandates that the creator of its British inspiration, Ricky Gervais, so deftly avoided by insisting on only making two short, neat little seasons that were wrapped up with a heart-swelling Christmas special. We used to really like this show, but now it's weighed down too heavily by big Plot Points—Dwight and Angela, Jim and Pam, Michael and Sadness. One of the greatest ensembles on television is no longer allowed to play like they used to. NBC could use a little creative jolt, so why don't they lovingly put this show to bed and bring Daisies into their fold. Ever-tarnishing wunderkind that he is, top Peacock exec Ben Silverman has typically been really good about supporting critically-beloved but low-rated shows. Daisies could be one of those low-rated shows!

What else would you nix to keep Ned and the gang safely out of the ground?

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<![CDATA[The Office's Deleted Scenes Leave Us Wanting More]]> The grass is always greener when it comes to The Office. When the show began running bloated hour-long episodes, viewers complained that the show became too drawn-out and dull. Back to its usual half-hour form, the show just doesn't deliver enough insane Dwight to satisfy our considerable need in that department. With The Office rounding into form after moving some characters off the show, these deleted scenes capture the small moments of Dunder Mifflin that warm our hearts.

Now well off the rails of the two-season BBC series that inspired King of the Hill creator Greg Daniels' American version, The Office's new season has started to build momentum. Early storylines that didn't quite lead to yuks (Pam meets Jim's crazay brothers! Jan didn't want Michael to give her child! Michael's slightly inappropriate office romance!) have been cast aside in favor of the show's bread and butter rivalries: Dwight vs. Jim, Dwight vs. Phyllis, Dwight vs. Andy, Dwight on top of Angela. There seems to be but one common denominator here, and he is hilarious:

That's an insta-classic if there ever was one.

Also helping the return to form was the tremendous bluetooth phone link, New York to Scranton, between Jim and Pam through the show's episode. Jam aren't terribly funny together, and they weren't apart — so why not go with something in between? The contrivance of Jim listening in while Pam had a heart to heart with a fellow student was almost too much to bear. We want more, and the show offers up these two deleted scenes.

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<![CDATA[Great Moments In FCC Baiting Presents: 'The Office' Training Call]]> On The Office last night, we learned that Dunder Mifflin customer service rep Kelly Kapoor threw an America's Got Talent finale party, where she gave out personalized gift mugs featuring every worker's face over a blue star. (In a nice touch, you can purchase said mugs at the NBC online store. We'll take six Phyllises—something about her smile puts us in the mood for warm beverages.)

A mugless Jim and Dwight never bothered showing up, however, and begin to realize that a vengeful Kelly was the reason behind their poor performance review scores. All of this is really just set up for the scene above, a perfectly executed comic gem in which the two engage in a role-playing sales call. It eventually climaxes with Dwight shouting something at the top of his lungs which, we think it's safe to say, has never been uttered on network primetime before. We'd suggest it veers on NSFW—but if it's safe for their office, we guess it's safe for yours. Enjoy!

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