Less than one week until THE MOST ANTICIPATED WEDDING OF 2009:
Mark your calendar, kiddies! Jim and Pam tie the knot on Thursday, October 8th.
Showing posts with label The Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Office. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Here Comes the Bride..
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Brian Griffin Loves the Office...
...Stewie does not. The producers of Family Guy, a surprise nominee for the Best Comedy category at the Emmys (airing September 20th) created this short clip on why the Academy should vote for their show and NOT the Office. It cracked me up. My favorite part: "Indians and Hispanics don't live in Scranton." HAHAHA.
Friday, April 10, 2009
TV Review: Parks & Recreation
This is going to be a really short review on the new NBC series, Parks and Recreation, which debuted last night sandwiched between 2 new episodes of The Office. NBC has been promoting the hell out of this thing, frankly because they kinda need a few (or a lot of) hits to save their sinking ship, and have built an entire campaign of this show on this line: "From the creators that brought you The Office..." And that is my exact problem with Parks and Recreation.
It stars SNL alum Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, the eternally optimistic and sorta pathetic head of the Parks and Recreation department of a fictional town in Indiana. The first episode sets the plot for the next season (or two or three), with Leslie's attempt to turn a giant construction pit into a park for the town. As with The Office, she has her share of interesting coworkers (the funniest being Aziz Ansari) and it seems like as much as it is about life in the office and office politics, some of the upcoming plot will also be grounded on her budding friendship with Ann (played by Rashida Jones), who gets her committed to turning the pit into a park in the first place. I don't like Rashida, but I liked this aspect of the show. Yay for fun female friendships!
But, I really didn't love the pilot. And I wanted to! I think Greg Daniels and Michael Schur (creator/writer and head writer of The Office, respectively) are geniuses and will pretty much watch anything they are involved with. I loooove Amy Poehler. But I didn't love this. Why? Though it is not a spinoff of The Office or related to it in any way, it felt exactly like an episode of The Office. The mockumentary style, the quiet buildup of humor, the similarity of Leslie Knope's character to Michael Scott, EVERYTHING. It's not that I don't enjoy any of the above, but I don't know, maybe it was because it aired between The Office that I really just felt like I watched 3 episodes of the same show last night. In all fairness, The Office had a really slow start too. And I already have Parks and Recreation set for series recording on my DVR, so I'm going to continue watching. But, my initial impression is that I just wasn't that impressed. Yet.
Let's bring this back to something that is near and dear to my heart. What I did love was The Office's new opening last night. I heart the framed picture of John Krasinski. Pam, you lucky lucky girl.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Celebrity Sighting to blow all other celebrity sightings away
So originally this post was going to be all about Momofuku Noodle Bar, and how excited I was to finally go, and how amazing the food is, and blah blah. All of that is true, and I do recommend going to Momofuku Noodle Bar and having the pork buns and the Momofuku Ramen (YUM). BUT. We all know where my heart lies- celebrities. And nothing gets me more excited than seeing one up close. You can liken the excitement I get from seeing celebrities in real life to say, if you saw a unicorn roaming the street- fascinating, right?!! My celebrity sightings = your unicorn. I know, I know, they're just people, spare me the talk. But there's something exciting about seeing someone you only know through your TV/movie screen in real life. I've seen a couple this year (Stephen Colbert being my FAVORITE), but uh, last night's encounter blew all previous celeb sightings away.
I went to Momofuku with one of my favorite people in the world, my cousin Cathy, who wanted to introduce me to her favorite noodle place. We got seated right in front of the chefs, which was exciting in itself, and as I glanced around, who do I see sitting at a table 5 ft from us?? Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen! I love the neurotic characters he plays on SNL, and from gawking at him, I could tell that he embodies a lot of the frenetic neuroses in real life- lots of hand gestures and animation in his conversation. My cousin, who had her back towards their group, was like, is he with anyone famous?? And I was like no, I think he's just with normal people...
Um yeah, NO. She kinda turned to look at them and was like, "He's with Pam from the Office." WHAT?!? And yeah, Jenna Fischer had her back towards me, which is why I couldn't tell at first, but once Cathy pointed that out, I was like, OMG THAT'S PAM FROM THE OFFICE!! If you know me at all, you know that I LURVE The Office. Like a lot. Btw folks, the camera does add 10000 pounds. Jenna is TINY in real life, and her face/head was like so small. Just throwing it out there. Anyways, Fred and Jenna were also with Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy on Mad Men, who is also tiny as hell. So even though I restrained myself (mostly out of fear of being rejected AND/OR embarrassing Cathy and myself) and did not acknowledge them, ask for a picture, or profusely gush I LOVE YOU GUYS like I really wanted to, it was the best.celebrity.sighting.ever. EVER! I feel one degree closer to my future husband John Krasinski.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Can't Get Enough of The Office?
I absolutely LOVE NBC's The Office. I love it so much, that I am subscribed to a few of their fansites, getting daily RSS feeds about news and updates on episodes, character developments, cast members, etc. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal to me.
Anyway, one of my favorite Office-related subscriptions is my monthly email for the Dunder-Mifflin Scranton Newsletter. Different employees from the Scranton branch "put together" - and by "put together," I mean that it's most likely the writing staff for The Office - a newsletter, filled with whatever their quirky characters might be saying in a newsletter:
Here's a few excerpts from this month's newsletter:
"Dwight Speaks! Chewing on pens is completely unacceptable. It's a disgusting habit that some of my co-workers partake in. This oral fixation is offering up a slew of germs and/or viruses to not only the chewer, but the person he/she passes their pen on too. When you put office supplies in your mouth you are sharing a dose of your infectious saliva with all your co-workers. Although my writing utensils are heavily guarded, I still come across a chewed pen every now and then. The other day I found Andy chewing on one of my pens - to retaliate I walked over and spat on his desk. I've reached my wit's end with pen chewers - their filthy habit will no longer be tolerated. To encourage everyone to halt this behavior I will be applying a dose of an anticoagulant to all of the pens in the office. Consider yourself warned."
"And Now Michael Scott: Sometimes I think I could invent things better than the inventors do. There are lots of times when I know what will make an invention better long before the inventors themselves. Like when the first cell phones came out, I looked at them and instantly thought, 'They should make these really small.' It was years before the telephone manufacturers got that idea..."
"The Celeb 411 (with Kelly Kapoor): OMG you guys! I just heard that Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant! Again! She just gave birth to a super cute baby girl, Maddie Briann, three months ago. Now it looks like Maddie is going to have a little baby brother or sister to play with pretty soon! Leave it to a member of the Spears family to start a new trend: teen pregnancies. Having a baby before you graduate high school has gone from "totally bad news" to "super cool" in the last year (sort of like cardigans)."
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Summer concert series
The weather's getting nicer, so that only means one thing, summer's almost here! And with that comes tons of outdoor events, most of which are free and open to the public. I've been on a big concert kick lately (there's nothing like seeing artists you like perform live), and with my love for nice weather and for concerts, I'm making it my mission to attend at least one outdoor concert this summer. Thankfully, rival morning shows TODAY and Good Morning America host a series of concerts during the summer, with a slew of awesome artists booked and ready to rock&roll. The only catch is that you have to be there at ungodly hours to ensure a spot to watch them perform, but it's a small price to pay for free entertainment, right?
NBC's TODAY Concert Series Lineup
ABC's Good Morning America Concert Series Lineup
As for me,
One word: Coldplay.
Two words: June 27. (ok, I know that's actually not 2 words)
Three words: I'm so there.
Four words: Who else is in??
Ok, I know I'm being super annoying. But, um, it's COLDPLAY, my favorite band ever. I don't enjoy waking up in the morning when it's still super dark outside, but did I mention it's Coldplay?? The last time I did something crazy like that was September 06, when my boyfriend (aka John Krasinski from the Office) and actress Jenna Fischer were on TODAY to promote the season 3 premiere of the show.
They had a scheduled DVD signing at the NBC store across the street right after the interview, and even though I already owned the DVDs, I followed them there like a stalker. And while everyone else was at the signing to get DVDs signed, I just stood there and took tons of pictures like a creep-o. Whatever! In my defense, there were a handful of other people doing the same exact thing I was doing (and yes, the restraining order has been lifted). Unfortunately, I got like 4 good shots of the 100s I took, cause I'm an idiot and don't know how to work my camera. Things will be different this time around. Here I come, Chris Martin!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Welcome back, Dunder-Mifflin-ites!
In response to fellow Life in Boxes editor and fellow Office lover Julia's post below, today I also celebrate the return of our favorite show after a too-long hiatus. I haven't been this excited since... uh, September, when Season 4 premiered.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is the twisted Jim Halpert-Dwight K. Schrute relationship, which I enjoy as much as the Jim/Pam relationship. Entertainment Weekly put together 16 of Jim's best pranks on Dwight. It's hard to pick a favorite, I think mine's a tie between the Vending Machine prank (How funny is it to give Dwight a bag of nickels to buy back his own stuff??) and Future Dwight's fax to Present Dwight ("Do not drink the coffee!"). I also highly enjoy the Gaydar, which you can purchase at your local Sharper Image. ;)
Which one is your favorite?
P.S. - Sorry to our loyal readers who don't really watch the Office (but you really should) and are thrown off by a double post on the same topic. But we're really excited about tonight. Like really.
And So It Begins ..
Do you have any plans tonight?
No? Oh, that's too bad. I guess you have no soul.
For anyone who does have a soul, they'll probably be glued onto their television sets tonight for the return of .. [dun dun dunn] .. The Office!
Here at Life in Boxes, it's been a bit of a running joke that another editor (Hi Jen!) and I are a little bit in love with The Office. We blogged about it here when the new season was airing. We continued on when the WGA strike put production in a standstill for 100 days. And yes, when our beloved show returns tonight, you bet your Tivo that we sure as hell are going to post about it today.
*semi-spoilers / links ahead
Tonight's episode is called "Dinner Party." From the spoilers read here and there online, as well as the recently added "cold opening" on the NBC website, it is pretty self-explanatory even in the episode title itself as to what's going on with our Dunder Mifflin friends tonight.
It'll be interesting to see how producers are going to hide Angela Kinsey's (who plays everyone's favorite cat-loving and party-planning extraordinarre, Angela Martin) burgeoning baby bump. According to recent interviews, expect to see Angela behind printers, behind the desk, etc. Aw, I guess the speculated pregnancy-lovechild story between Angela and Dwight won't be happening anytime [soon?].
Anyway, after weeks of waiting .. it's finally here. We can all breathe and start the countdown.
8 hours to go.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
NBC's New Schedule
This is the time of the year that all the major TV networks reveal their plans for the upcoming fall season. Having just gotten back from Cartoon Network's (I heart my job sometimes) Upfronts (which is when networks present their upcoming schedule to advertisers), I can tell you that I'm excited about TV being back in full swing in general. One of my favorite networks, NBC, unveiled its new schedule yesterday, and they have a really interesting season coming up.
Highlights:
* The Office is getting a spin-off. New cast, new locations, same executive producer Greg Daniels. It will premiere in the winter. I don't like this at all. I trust Greg will bring the same quirky humor to this series as he has done for the original American version, but eh.
* Speaking of the Office, a special episode will air right after the Super Bowl XLIII next February, followed by a new episode of the spin-off.
* Live from New York, it's.... Thursday Night Live??? SNL Thursday Night Live is a 4-week series that will air in the fall, leading up to the elections.
* Friday Night Lights (one of the best shows on TV) is returning for a third season. The only catch: the 13 new episodes will air on DirectTV first starting October 1, then air on NBC starting Feb '09.
* Heroes fans rejoice! Season 3 will return Sept 15 with a three hour special-- 1 hour clip-show, and 2 hour season premiere.
* Scrubs is gone from NBC, but rumor has it that it is moving to ABC. Stay tuned for that.
Here is the complete schedule:
Fall 2008:
Monday: Chuck, Heroes, My Own Worst Enemy
Tuesday: The Biggest Loser: Families, Kath & Kim, Law & Order: SVU
Wednesday: Knight Rider, Deal or No Deal, Lipstick Jungle
Thursday: My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, The Office, ER
Friday: Crusoe, Deal or No Deal, Life
Saturday: Dateline, Knight Rider [r], L&O: SVU [r]
Sunday: Football Night in America, NFL Sunday Night Football
Winter / Spring 2008-09:
Monday: Chuck, Heroes, The Philanthropist
Tuesday: The Biggest Loser: Families, Kath & Kim, Law & Order: SVU
Wednesday: Knight Rider, Deal or No Deal, Law & Order
Thursday: My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, The Office Spinoff, ER/Celebrity Apprentice
Friday: Deal or No Deal, Friday Night Lights, Life
Saturday: Dateline, L&O: SVU [r], Law & Order [r]
Sunday: Dateline, Merlin, Medium, Kings
Monday, February 11, 2008
When Will Your Favorite Shows Return??
Great news, fellow TV fans! The 3-month old writer's strike is expected to reach a conclusion as early as this Tuesday, bringing thousands of out-of-work writers, actors, producers, and behind-the-scenes workers back to the grind. Here is a handy dandy guide to when your favorite shows are expected to return, courtesy of TV Guide's Mike Ausiello:
After the WGA Strike: When Will Your Favorite TV Shows Return?
I am most happy about my FAVORITE, the Office, which is expected to shoot 5-10 new episodes to finish out the season. YAY OFFICE THURSDAYS! Everyone, clap your hands say yeah.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
65th Golden Globe Nominations
I love awards season. Held in January, the Golden Globes officially kicks off the awards season (minus the various Critics' choices, which happen at the end of December). I like the Golden Globes because it brings the two worlds of film and tv together.
However, I don't like the Golden Globes because it is a misguided and outdated system of lumping categories together. And there are only 80 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press (they're like part time journalists who are affiliated with the media outside of the US) who are voting on the winners, and whose tastes aren't the best reflectors of current trends. 
The nominations for the 65th GGs were announced today, and there were some glaring omissions and surprises as usual. I have to admit, at the moment, I don't really care about the film nominations as much. But I think people are pretty surprised Russell Crowe didn't receive a nomination for American Gangster, nor were the summer comedy favorites Knocked Up and Superbad even recognized. But Juno and its star Ellen Page was recognized, and I'm satisfied with that.
TV is where the most surprises happened, most notably in the comedy/musical category. Don't even get me started on why comedy is lumped in with musical. How can the Office, a critically acclaimed, modest ratings hit, not be nominated in the Best Comedy category? Desperate Housewives, which is on a creative upswing, was missing from the awards hooplah. Last year's winner Ugly Betty? Nope. Even Two and a Half Men, which is not my favorite show by any means, but is a giant ratings grabber, was passed over.
I'm happy for 30 Rock, which I think is the funniest show on air, but Entourage again? Californication? Really?? The GG were generous to the new show Pushing Daisies, awarding the show and its two leads with nominations. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan, but it still has a lot to prove.
In the drama category, no love for the final season of the Sopranos or its star James Gandolfini, or Lost, or Heroes or Friday Night Lights. But Grey's Anatomy, which is definitely going through a creative slump, got a Best Drama nod. And can people STOP nominating Katharine Heigl's annoying, uninspired performance on that show already? I don't know why Ellen Pompeo always gets overlooked; she's really come a long way since the beginning of the series. And why they lump together series with miniseries in the same category is beyond me. They're two different things, and it seems a bit unfair to judge a performance in a mini series with that of a performance in a long running series. Whatever.
I'll still be watching anyway. Here is the complete list of nominations.
Monday, December 10, 2007
TV in Numbers
Here are some interesting TV statistics for this season, courtesy of TV Guide. I LOVE TV and entertainment statistics. Kinda like how Jorge loves baseball statistics. Idk, do you love baseball statistics, Jorge??
$73,000: The median income of homes that watch NBC's the Office. That is the highest of all network television shows. Scrubs is $68,000, ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, Big Shots, and Private Practice are $63,000.
24.1%: The lift in viewership for the Office when DVR playback is added into the number of people who watch it live the night of its airing (within the same week of its original airing). Heroes is 22%, Reaper is 18.7%, Grey's Anatomy is 18%, House is 17.6%, and Friday Night Lights is 17.1%.
45.2: The median age of people who watch NBC prime time, which makes it the youngest of the four major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX). CBS is the oldest, with a median age being 52.6 and up.
17%: The increase in viewers of FOX's Family Guy in the Sunday 9PM slot. Kinda amazing since the show has been on since 1999, but then again, they've had a kinda amazing and bumpy ride so far. Not any show can claim that they've been cancelled and then resurrected. This unheard of increase is probably due to its multiple syndication airings, which just went into effect this TV season.
Monday, November 19, 2007
What's happening to your favorite TV shows?
When is your favorite TV show gone?? Here is a handy dandy guide of how many new episodes of your favorite shows are left. Read it and weep.
The good news is that the WGA and the AMPTP are set to resume talks on Monday, November 26, which is a lot sooner than the rumored January '08 date. Hopefully both sides can come to some sort of an agreement, for the sake of the thousands of people out of work right now, as well as for TV fans.
The bad news is that more likely than not, most of our favorite TV shows will be affected come 1st quarter 08. Already we have no more new episodes of the Office (damn you NBC for making the producers work so hard to crank out 4 1-hour episodes at the beginning of the season!!), and the rest of the shows are dwindling down. Fast. No matter how early they reach an agreement, there will probably be a period of reruns as everyone gets back into the groove of things of producing new episodes. Let's keep our fingers crossed though!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
You Can't Ever Go Wrong with Some PB&J
In response to my friend Julia's insightful post on the status of our favorite show, The Office, this season, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. Valid points were made, shrewd observations were had, and for a more articulate (but opposite) version of what I'm about to say, you should just read her post.
The thing I love most about the Office is how real they manage to keep the show, despite its moments of slapstick comedy and unbelievable characters. Because in the midst of all the cringe-worthy Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute moments, we need a moral grounding that keeps the show believable. Pam and Jim (hence known as PB&J from this point on) is the show's heart. This doesn't mean the show revolves around them, nor do I think it should despite my die-hard love for these characters, but it does mean we get the normal, straightman types to balance out the wacky. I think the writers have managed to do a great job balancing the broad comedy of the show with heart.
However, enough was enough. More than three seasons of keeping PB&J apart for the sake of making exciting television or to avoid the Moonlighting curse would have been the road taken by a lesser show. I too had reservations about seeing PB&J together this season. After all these seasons of pining for each other, would being together take away from the unrequieted love tension these two had built? But the witty banter and awful cuteness and the chemistry between John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer is still there, so PB&J works. It also works because the rest of the cast still play central roles in providing laughs and situations that only the Office can pull off week to week.
Kudos to the Office writers and producers for realizing that if there are no more reasons to keep these characters apart, then they should be togther, simple as that. Also kudos for rewarding the fans. It's pretty awesome when a show is able to do that and still remain true to the essence of the show. I have complete faith in this season and in good ol' PB&J.
I'd like some JAM on my bread, none of that PB&J
Once upon a time, there were two star-crossed lovers who just couldn't get the timing done right. She was engaged for three years, and he was in love with her. Then he was in a committed relationship, and she missed what she never realized was there the whole time.
This was pure television gold.
Everyone loves a tragedy. Everyone loves a challenge. Thus the birth of JAM, the sweet unrequited love between Jim Halpert and Pam Beasley. We fell pretty damn hard for them.
Season three only fueled the hopes of seeing Jim and Pam finally meet each other at the middle. We had our laughs, awkward moments, and surges of hope when we met "fancy new Beasley." By the end of the season, the writers of the show cruelly left us hanging, with the entire summer to wonder what became of our beloved JAM.
Out of JAM came what only Kevin could describe:
Kevin: Oh well. If they aren’t together now, then they probably never will be. I thought they’d be good together. Like PB & J. Pam Beesly and Jim. What a waste. What. A. Waste.
But no, Kevin; you were right on the dot. Jim and Pam were together. But they really did go from being our beloved JAM to just PB&J.
Shake it up, writers. Show us some more crazies. None of this lovey-dovey-holding-hands-cutesy thing. I'm getting bored here.
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