Watching The Office

Michael Scott and his crew get very creative this week, as The Office opens its very first half hour episode since the season premiere.

Michael is gathering ideas from his staff for the local TV ad Dunder Mifflin is making. Jim notes that having the ad would be good for the company since it is literally unknown in the area. But Dunder-Mifflin Corporate has hired a crew of advertising professionals to create the TV commercial and Michael simply did not like what the concept was.  So he tells the crew to leave Scranton. He calls the bigwigs in New York and tells them Scranton is coming up with their own production. But Ryan, his boss, tells him he’s not the creative type. Nonetheless, Michael proceeds with his plan.

Pam volunteers to do the logo, since she’s also learning computer animation. She stays up late at night working on it. Michael assigns the rest of the staff in task he thought they do best —

• Kelly is on make-up
• Oscar is in charge of costume, which appears to have offended Oscar since it’s such a gay stereotype
• Andy, Creed, Kevin with Kelly, sing the background vocals for the commercial jingle Darryl was composing. But Michael had to drop this due to a creative difference between him and Darryl, in that Michael hated it.
• Phyllis is task to go around Scranton and find a celebrity and one just happened to be in town. Mystery novelist Sue Grafton is at the local mall for a book signing event. So Michael instructs Phyllis to get Sue Grafton for the ad and to persist in asking. Moments later, Phyllis comes back from the mall and she’s sobbing. The mall guards apparently threw her out when she refused to take a no from Sue.

Anyhow, Michael stays at the office overnight, along with Dwight and Pam, and did some editing work. And at crunch time, the crew from Scranton was able to finish something Michael emails this to Corporate. Ten days later, we learn that it was rejected as Michael heads to Poor Richards bar where everyone was, to watch the actual commercial. It was the very same one that the ad professionals showed Michael before. It was decent but typical of any office supply commercial you must have already seen. Jim then presents to everyone the ad they made, which corporate rejected and calls it the “Michael Scott Director’s Cut”. To be truthful about it, it was way better than the original, inspite the cheesy music. Everyone in the gang seemed to love it, too. And even if it wasn’t the one running on local TV, Michael sure was proud of their efforts and bought everyone a round of drinks (apparently, he doesn’t have money problems now?).

Other moments to note:

• Dwight has been a Second Life Player for over a year now. His avatar in the virtual reality game is an exact replica of him. Except that, Dwight on Second Life is able to fly. Jim also created a character on Second Life, who Pam calls Philly Jim, the guitar playing bad-ass sports writer from Philadelphia. Philly Jim’s mission is to spy on Dwight.
• Andy has been trying to get more intimate with Angela and seeks the advice of Dwight, not realizing his past relationship with her. Dwight was of course not happy to learn of this but when Andy told him that while they were kissing, Angela spoke, “Oh, D!�?. Andy thought it was short for Andy. But Dwight saw a glimmer of hope since D is what Angela calls him.
• Andy sings snippets of a commercial jingle and couldn’t exactly place what product it was (KitKat).
• Angela isn’t thrilled about being titillated.
• Kevin in high school was called the Kool-Aid man, and has the face for it.
• To Jim’s friends Dunder Mifflin is a muffler, muffin or mittens company.
• Darryl can sing.

All in all, it’s one good episode with all the good stuff The Office is known for.

Here’s the ad the gang from Scranton made:

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