Farewell, The Office

When I watch a TV show, whether during its initial run, or marathoning it on Netflix, I always am on the lookout for the "Lincoln Squirrel" moment*. In other words, the point where a show goes from good or very good, to one of my all time favorites. Some of my favorite shows never had this moment, others that moment has become obscured by time, due to me seeing individual episodes long before I watched them in order. For The Office, that moment is as clear as if it just happened. In fact, I remember it so vividly I could justify calling these moments the "Jan and Michael Take a Meeting at Chili's", except for that being too clunky to use.

Unlike many of my favorite shows, I came to The Office early on in its run. My friend had DVR'd the first season of the show, and we had watched them. I was underwhelmed by the pilot, a mostly shot for shot remake of the U.K. edition's pilot. However "Diversity Day", the second episode was a major improvement, and the rest of the season was funny, at least funny enough to keep me interested for a second season.

The second season started off well, with some great episodes like "The Dundies" and "Office Olympics". Clearly the show had hit another level, as it was funnier while also improving the Jim & Pam relationship. The biggest jump in quality was the character of Michael Scott, who was no longer a pale imitation of David Brent.

As much as it had improved, I still wasn't expecting what happened in the "The Client". Yeah, I expected Jan to get angry with Michael's inability to follow her game plan with this important potential client (played by Tim Meadows), and there was plenty of the awkward comedy to be found in her mortification and frustration at what he was doing. Watching the episode again a while back I realized how clearly it was being set up what eventually happened, but that first time through it looked like the usual Michael Scott dumbassery.

And then it happened. Suddenly Michael Scott made that turn, and you realized that he knew what the hell he was doing as a salesman, and how to get close the deal with this very important customer. The show had defied expectations and added depth to Michael Scott without it feeling cheap or undeserved. From then on, I knew that the American version of The Office was a noteworthy companion to its British counterpart. I was hooked for the rest of that season, and for seven more after that.

I could go on about why The Office was such an important show, or how it reflected life so well in the cubicle jungle (even if it got way too cartoonish at times, especially after season five), but far better writers have already done that. Instead I'll just add my own thoughts on what it meant to me. As of this writing in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I've still yet to see the final episode, so I don't have any thoughts to share about the wrap up of the show. Perhaps I'll share them later. From here on out there won't be any rhyme or reason to the paragraphs, just a bunch of disjointed thoughts about this show that I will miss.

The Michael Scott Paper Company arc is season five was eerily similar to a situation I was going through at the time in my own life. No, I hadn't had my "One True Love" shuffled off to Nashua, NH. Also, my situation was closer to Pam (jumping on board with Michael's company because she feared being trapped in a stagnant situation that was not stimulating) than Michael's (a feeling of disrespect by the company he had been so loyal to for so many years). Unfortunately, my situation ended up being closer to Ryan's before he joined the Michael Scott Paper Co. than what happened on the show, but still that arc holds a special significance to me.

Somehow I enjoyed the sentimental Jim and Pam stuff such as "Casino Night" or "The Job" and the awkward humor best exemplified by "Dinner Party". From reading on the Internet, I gather that these tend to be fairly mutually exclusive groups. Also, the people in the latter group are also more likely to think the U.K. version is far superior. While I certainly enjoyed the U.K. version, I prefer the American version, in part because it is closer to my tastes, and in part Michael Scott is a far better character than David Brent. Keep in mind I saw the U.K. version in its entirety several years after the American version had become a favorite show of mine.

Even in the show's weakest years, it still had some great moments, and some of the characters still rose above the problems. The back half of season eight, my least favorite run of the show, still had Florida Stanley. Ellie Kemper as Erin was one of the best things about the later seasons of the show. She brought a great mixture of joy and sadness to a character that could have been an absolute train wreck.

Right from his debut, Creed was funny. He only got better as time went on, and was always good for a laugh, even during the dire Deangelo episodes following Steve Carell's departure. Stanley, Toby, and Meridith were also fairly consistent season to season, with occasions where they'd rise up and steal episodes.

I've wrote about it before, but I can't help but smile every time I think about the end of "The Job". There, I said it, even if it means I have to turn in my "Cynical and Ironic Humor Appreciation" badge at the security desk.

I like Ed Helms, and Andy had his moments during seasons 3,4, and 5, but he sure became annoying after that. Far too often Kevin became too much of an "Idiot Food Monster" and the show suffered for that. Ryan was a useless character after the MSPC arc, but I enjoyed his time as the overwhelmed corporate manager in season four. I have to imagine that is what it kind of feels like to be an executive at NBC.

Catherine Tate could have had a great role on the show. Perhaps she should have been the manager instead of Ed Helms. But far too often they wrote her character like a female David Brent, and it just didn't work. Ditto with trying to turn Andy into a softer Michael Scott.

Michael Scott's seemingly irrational hatred of Toby was one of my favorite aspects of the show. I'm pretty certain most people have that kind of reaction to the annoyance that is corporate HR, at least to a certain extent. Even if we have better relationships with the HR people than Michael had with Toby. On the other hand, perhaps it was just Toby. After all, his replacement was Holly...

Michael Schur is the primary guy behind Parks and Recreation, quite possibly my favorite show of all time. He wrote for The Office during its first four seasons, including some of the best episodes of the show's run. He was a writer on Saturday Night Live during one of my favorite periods of the show, and he was one of the creators of the late, great Fire Joe Morgan. Yet it is his portrayal of Mose Schrute is the first thing I think of when I see his name.

Michael never got to use that baler, so I suppose Darryl can consider that a success.

Here is where I mention Oscar. Phyllis, and Kelly. I don't really have any specific recollections to share, just that the show was richer for having them.

Gabe was both creepy and goofy looking, and occasionally funny. Robert California was a much better character in theory, at least after his hilarious appearance in the season seven finale, than he was in practice. It's OK, James Spader, you were the best part of Lincoln. Plop and little fat Dwight, Jr, I barely knew you. Cathy, you were the most superfluous character in a show that had a guy work in a closet and spoke one or two lines a week. I had to look your name up you were so unimportant.

The mental unraveling of Jan was a thing to behold. It was amazing how she went from this generic professional in the first season to the absolute train wreck of "Dinner Party".

Can't wait for season 17 of Parks and Recreation, when Ann meets her cousin Karen in Utica during Leslie's Presidential campaign.

"Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica."

Angela was far too awful to Andy during their engagement, even if he retroactively deserved it for being such an ass to Erin. Also, that baby poster was freaking terrible. You were one of the bright spots of season nine, and cats are never not funny.

Favorite Episode: (tie) "Dinner Party" and "The Job"
Favorite Season: Season 3
Favorite Story Arc: Michael Scott Paper Company
Least Favorite Episode: The clip show a few seasons back
Least Favorite Season: Season 8

*I'm aware this sounds borderline insane. To explain this would completely derail my heartfelt appreciation of The Office. The short answer is a reference to that moment when I felt The Simpsons stepped over that threshold. Google "Lincoln squirrel Simpsons" and you'll see what I mean.

There Goes the Funcooker: Saying Goodbye to 30 Rock

In 2006, two shows premiered on NBC. One was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the other 30 Rock. Both shows dealt with the behind-the-scenes happenings on sketch comedy shows. Studio 60 was Aaron Sorkin's return to television, while 30 Rock was Tina Fey's first big project since leaving Saturday Night Live. Sorkin's show was riding a lot of buzz generated by its excellent pilot that brought to mind Network. The pilot for 30 Rock, on the other hand, was roundly panned as being rather mediocre bordering on bad. I hadn't seen the 30 Rock pilot, but I loved the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip pilot. I thought for sure that Sorkin had hit gold again, and a deserving successor to The West Wing had been found. If I even thought about 30 Rock, it was how it was likely to run through 13 episodes, maybe even a full season because of Lorne Michaels sway, and get cancelled.

Blergh, was I wrong.

Studio 60 ended up being far more "Bad Sorkin" than "Good Sorkin", and ignominiously bowed out after one season. These days it is rarely brought up, other than as evidence along with The Newsroom to show how "Bad Sorkin" has taken over his TV projects. The only time I think about the show is when Jeff Daniels is bitching about those young folks and their technology, when I remember how stupid it was Nate Corddry's parents didn't recognize Abbott and Costello, and when I listen to the admittedly great version of "O Holy Night" from the Christmas episode*.

Meanwhile, 30 Rock became one of my favorite shows, with Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy becoming two of my favorite characters of all time. Yeah, the pilot was not great, but it very quickly gathered its momentum, and was firing on all cylinders within a few episodes in the first season. The unhinged craziness of Tracey Morgan and Jane Krakowski worked wonders in contrast to the grounded craziness of Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin and the weird cheerfulness of Jack McBrayer. Beyond the big five characters, the rest of the group, including Scott Adsit and Judah Friedlander, helped flesh out the show. If those still weren't enough, the show had many great guest stars, ,such as Dean Winters, Jon Hamm, Will Arnett, and many others. Oftentimes it was the funniest show on television.

The core of the show was the relationship between Jack Donaghy and Liz Lemon. It was a special relationship, and fairly unique in that it was a friendship between a man and a woman character that didn't descend into "will they or won't they" nonsense. This seems to be a pretty rare thing, although more frequent in recent years with others like Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson, or Don Draper and Peggy Olson. I'm glad they never tried to force that situation, because it worked so much better as a platonic friendship.

And now, after seven seasons, it's time to say farewell to the show. Although I am sad to see it go, I am happy to say it is leaving strong. Unlike many shows, such as The Office, it is going out on its own terms, before it gets too stale. Although the show did get a bit weak (at times) in the middle of its run, it has rebounded to be consistently great the past couple of seasons. Of course, they have yet to stick the landing, so perhaps you'll see me on here tomorrow decrying the awfulness of Seinfeldesque proportions of the finale. Given the show's track record, I'm confident that won't happen.


*As annoying as the show could be, this was still a pretty great moment. Oh, the episode Allison Janney guest starred in was pretty good as well, if I recall.

TV Week: Posted, from Ridge Farm, It's Saturday Morning!

Note: I'm aware that this was posted almost four hours after midnight on Saturday, and that I didn't get a TV Week post done on Friday. This one counts as the Friday post because a) I've yet to go to sleep, so it is still Friday night to me and b) I turned my imaginary clock back to before midnight, all Illinois General Assembly style. Besides, as this is about SNL, it seems appropriate I post on Saturday.

Ask anyone which years of SNL were there favorite and you are likely to get many different answers. If they were born before 1964, it almost assuredly will be the "classic" edition (1975-1980). If they were born after 1964, then it will almost assuredly be the years that fall between when they were 11 and 17. It doesn't matter if that six season blocks includes 1980-1981, 1985-1986, or 1994-1995*. You'll stick up for the years you watched in that age group. As such, I have a soft spot for both the Farley/Sandler/Spade/Schneider years, as well as the beginning of the Ferrell/Morgan/Shannon years. However, for people a few years older than me it would be Lovitz/Hartman/Carvey**, and a few years older than them it would be Murphy and Piscopo. I would guess those who just became legal drinkers fondly remember the Poehler and Myers, as kids just going into high school are sad that Forte, Samberg, and Wiig are no longer on the show.

Anyway, the point of this isn't to discuss which is the best, but to state that I've begun availing myself of the SNL episode runs on Netflix streaming. I actually had started several months ago, but only made it through the first season. After letting it sit in my queue for months, I decided to start back up, with the goal of going through every one up to the most recent in the list.

Unfortunately (of fortunately, depending on the season), only the first five are uncut. From season six on the episodes are edited and cut, most likely removing any sketches and musical acts that would create rights issues. Some episodes appear fairly intact, others are cut to the bone (I saw one latter day episode cut to 17 freaking minutes). On the plus side this will let me get through them quicker. On the minus side, however, I'll miss out on the complete experience, whether good or bad.

Don't worry, I won't be blogging every episode, because that would be far too much. But I might pop in here and there to write about it, particularly as I reach the end of the various cast runs. Expect opinions on whether the "Classic" episodes hold up***, the notorious troubled seasons, and much more.

So stay tuned, and remember in a different timeline I could be talking about thirty-eight seasons of Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell/Dan Dierdorf****

* The usual consensus for the three worst seasons, at least from the 20th century
** Truth be told, this is my favorite group, particularly 1987-1990. I caught the tail end of them, but enjoyed their reruns the most when they aired SNL sixteen hours a day on Comedy Central during college. However, my heart is still with those slightly later groups. My favorite season from that run is actually probably 1995-96, which had a few holdovers from the previous group (Spade, Macdonald, and Meadows) while introducing Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, and Cheri OTeri.
***One season and four episodes in it's been good, but not earth shattering. I didn't expect it to be, considering how what was totally brand new in 1975 is now the bedrock for most of my favorite comedy, and thus rather commonplace. The Muppets kind of suck, though. I think they might deserve their own post at some point, possibly quite soon.
****Of course, in our timeline this show was gone after a season or so, and NBC's Saturday Night was able to add "Live" to its title, giving us our beloved SNL. Since Howard Cosell would probably be dead or retired by now in that alternate timeline, I imagined Dan Dierdorf would take over for him. No basis of fact, I just thought it was funny. It's almost 4AM....why?