Dagnabbit...

So we record episode five, and play the deleted scenes for THE INITIATION... THEN NBC comes out with 5 MORE deleted scenes, which we cover on episode #5.5... NOW NBC has posted yet ANOTHER deleted scene.  ARG.

Curse you, you peacock loving bastiches!

Edit:

Maybe I'm going crazy, but I also just noticed that NBC has uploaded TWO (1, 2) new deleted scenes from GRIEF COUNSELING that we never mentioned or analyzed on the podcast.  The first one gives us more Pam & Roy interaction, and the second shows Jan & Michael on the phone talking about Ed dying ("Does his family know?").

NBC... you guys are killin' me here.

Episode #5.5 of THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID finds both Matt and Ian lost in a sea of confusion... if a show airs no new episode, is there anyone around to hear the podcast? It's rerun day here folks, but we've still got a good handful of tidbits to dissect, news to go through, and e-mails to ridicule. From Jim's iPod this week, Jonathan Coulton with "Code Monkey"... Incidental music provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Email us at TWSSpodcast @ gmail.com, or leave a comment on our blog page at thatswhatshesaid.libsyn.com. iTunes reviews are always appreciated! Help spread the word!

IndiaWest (North American's Most Honored Weekly Newspaper, according to their website) posted an article today which looked at the November 2nd episode of THE OFFICE, "Diwali."

To quote from Wikipedia, Diwali is:

"a major Hindu festival that is also very significant in Sikhism and Jainism. Known as the "Festival of Lights," it symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind. Celebrations focus on lights and lamps, particularly traditional diyas (as illustrated). Fireworks are associated with the festival in many regions of India.

Diwali is celebrated for five consecutive days at the end of Hindu month of Ashwayuja. It usually occurs in October/November, and is one of the most popular and eagerly awaited festivals in India. Diwali comes exactly twenty days after Dussehra. Hindus, Jains and Sikhs alike regard it as a celebration of life and use the occasion to strengthen family and social relationships. For Jains it is one of the most important festivals, and beginning of the Jain year. Jains celebrate Diwali to mark the time when Lord Mahavira achieved Moksha. It is also a significant festival for the Sikh faith."

IndiaWest also interviewed Mindy Kaling (aka Chokalingam) about the show. She said that Greg Daniels was "thrilled" at the idea of focusing an episode on the holiday because it was a completely fresh concept that had never been done on American TV before, and also mentioned that her real life parents are going to be playing Mr. & Mrs. Kapoor on the episode.

"My mom and dad were thrilled and adorably nervous to be playing the Kapoors, who are much more traditional Indian parents than [mine] are," Kaling told IndiaWest. "They also play a couple that had an arranged marriage, which was not the case for my parents. So that was a little bit of 'acting' for them."

"The comedy potential of Michael Scott in a Hindu festival, surrounded by Indian Americans and committing faux pas, seemed too delicious to pass up, anyone could see that... It reminded me of Peter Sellers and 'The Party,' one of my dad's favorite movies."

So Brian "Kevin" Baumgartner gave some big news on his myspace blog today.

#1) November 16th's episode of THE OFFICE will be yet another 40 minute super-sized episode.  Tasty!  As we've seen, the episodes ALWAYS run long, so I am really happy for another "Casino Night" sized ep... This episode, of course, must be fallout from November 9th's "Branch Closing"... so I'm guessing this is when we'll see Jim (and Karen?) being relocated back to Scranton.

#2) Starting November 30th, DEAL OR NO DEAL will no longer be airing on Thursdays.  Instead, NBC will go back to the good old fashioned "Must See TV" all sitcom line-up!  From then on, we'll get Earl, The Office, Scrubs and 30 Rock... capped off with the 27th season of ER.  Based on the news from last week, this is sort of interesting... glad to see NBC is giving 30 Rock another chance (I thought the first episode was pretty funny, although I missed the last one... or two?).

Not too shabby.

In case anyone else missed the news from the comments area, NBC has posted several new deleted scenes from "The Initiation."

Ah, Stanley, I *knew* you had it in you... you just made it to the podcast sound clip library! Congrats, big man.

Speaking of which... can the members of TWSS/DAC give me a hand in finding ALL the "That's What She Said" clips that have ever been uttered during the three seasons of "The Office"? Episode number & time would be greatly appreciated... I'm toying with the idea of putting them all together into a big sound clip for use in promotional materials.

Thanks for any assistance!

We mentioned this on the show this week, but just in case you missed it, Angela Kinsey posted this reminder on her myspace.com blog:

---

just wanted to give you a heads up that Brian (you know you love Kevin) and I will be on Loveline, KROQ 106.7, tomorrow night---Tuesday, Oct. 24th. Here are the details about the show:

Loveline follows the call-in question-and-answer model with the primary goal of helping youth and young adults with relationship, sexuality, and drug addiction problems. Actors or members of popular bands often participate as guests. It is a nation-wide show but I'm not sure how you listen in if you are outside of California.

In the past---Jenna, BJ and Rainn have all been guests.

---

So there you go... if anyone listens to the show, let me know how it goes.

Episode #5.0 of THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID has turned both Ian and Matt into diehard "Jam/Pim shippers"! It's pretzel day here folks, and we're  jonesing for "the works" along with Michael and Stanley.  Pam a snitch?  Jim, master of Psychological warfare?  Bob Vance, a dick?  Will Ryan be able to wrestle his fear to the ground?  And oh, what a phone call... Episode discussion, news, emails and more. Nothing from Jim's iPod this week... Sorry about that... Incidental music provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Email us at TWSSpodcast @ gmail.com, or leave a comment on our blog page at thatswhatshesaid.libsyn.com. iTunes reviews are always appreciated! Help spread the word!

According to the Associated Press's "Today In History" column, everyone's favorite chip-finding, CoD sucking, Pam-avoiding actor John Krasinski was born the 20th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1,979.

Doing the math he's...let's see... 27 today.

Happy b-day, big guy!

Well, what did you all think?

I'll post my impressions tomorrow...

How about those last 10 minutes?

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette ran an article today which explored how the actual citizens of Scranton, PA feel about their fictional neighbors from "The Office."

Long story short?  The mayor has a Dunder Mifflin banner flying outside of City Hall (see image), the Chamber of Commerce sends the show Scranton mugs & other objects with pride, two "twenty-something" baristas feel the show makes fun of the city (but they're down with that), and a local firefighter says the show is "not funny" and is "stupid" (partly because they apparently used the wrong color coats on the firefighters in "The Fire").

There's still talk of trying to fly the entire cast to Scranton for a big St. Patrick's Day love-fest.

All in all, well worth a read.

Episode #4.0 of THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID reunites Matt and Ian to discuss "Grief Counseling" for much longer than is probably healthy-- don't forget, though, that it's mandatory. Matt would like it known that he's ok with a 2/3rd scale robot as a memorial... but a 15' extension cord would be cool. Episode discussion, news, emails and more. Nothing from Jim's iPod this week... Sorry about that... Incidental music provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Email us at TWSSpodcast @ gmail.com, or leave a comment on our blog page at thatswhatshesaid.libsyn.com. iTunes reviews are always appreciated! Help spread the word!

Not a whole lot to say about this other than... she sure cleans up nice, doesn't she? Jenna has a 3 page article in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY this week.  Not a whole lot of behind the scenes information or anything, but some interesting insight into her take on playing Pam. 

Ummm...

Ahh...

Must... stop... looking... at... picture...

But really... just LOOK at her.  She looks amazing. 

And I know I shouldn't be buying into this male dominated "penistocracy" society that forces women into flashy clothes and layers of make-up and airbrushing to be desirable, etc., etc., etc. 

But SHEESH! 

LOOK at her!

LOOK AT HER!!

ehem.

I'm better now.

This episode is definitely an interesting one to watch-- you can almost see the hamster turning the wheels inside Michael's head.

Surely Michael doesn't really CARE that Ed Truck, his old boss, is dead.  I mean, he told us in "The Carpet" that he was the worst boss ever, and that turning into Ed was his "greatest fear" (Creed: "You should have much bigger fears than that").  So why does Michael go so bat$#!t in this episode?

Simple.

If no one cares about Ed's death, then no one will care about MICHAEL's death either, and that's just too much for him to deal with.  The Answer?  Force everyone in the office to feel depressed in a futile hope it will carry over when Michael goes on to the afterlife.

Good luck, Michael.

Some unanswered questions:

1. Why was Dwight's grandfather "re" buried?  Why in an oil drum?
2. Are Herr's chips really that good?  We don't have them here in the midwest...
3. Why is Pam so mean, yet so nice to Michael?  Karmic balance?
4. Will the Ed Truck-bot ever see the light of day?

Only time will tell...

Thanks to everyone's support and iTunes reviews, we've made it to the front page of the iTunes Podcast page today!  Well, it's under the "What's New" section, and you have to go to the second group of podcasts to see it, but hell-- I still call it cool. 

I've been having a great time putting this show out so far, and I hope this will lead to greater exposure for the show.  My goal?  To get name dropped by the cast, like Northern Attack or Office Tally do :)  Seriously, thanks again to everyone who has stuck with me for these first three and a half episodes.  I'm looking into adding a forum for the show, so we can sit around and talk about how wrong I am, or other such fun facts!  It boggles the mind...

Only one more day until "Grief Counseling"...

Just wanted to give a quick link to Prospect Mali's myspace page here, in thanks for allowing me to play their song "The Silence" in episode #3.0... Thanks again, guys! 

I'm usually not a huge fan of music that is "inspired by" something else, but in this case, I'll give them a pass... I really do like the song, and the Jim/Pam connection is always a plus.

I'm sure playing non-stop on Jenna Fischer's blog page is much higher profile than being on my little podcast, but hey-- every little bit helps.

So after saying on episode #3 that the ratings were apparently "good enough," we get this article today in the NEW YORK POST with writer Adam Buckman saying that "The Office" is "doomed" because of low ratings.

From the article:

THE better it gets, the lower its ratings go.

With the new fall season only a few weeks old, “The Office? is fast becoming the “Arrested Development? of NBC - which is not good news for either the show or the network.

What’s the problem? Like “Arrested Development,? “The Office? is proving to be too good to be popular.

My advice to the show’s fans: Enjoy “The Office? while you can, before NBC discovers it’s not working and yanks it.

Granted, the NYP is no bastion of great journalism, and this guy has no say in what NBC will or won't do, and I know I should keep a positive outlook, but it's just not nice to see something like this in print.

Wow... only 1 minute into episode three, and I already messed up. Blame it on my shoddy show notes.  The Coup, of course, aired on 10/5/06... NOT 9/28/06 as I said in the introduction.

Sigh.

Episode #3.0 of THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID finds Matt alone in the office to talk about THE COUP. Can he handle the pressure? Tune in to find out! Episode discussion, news, emails and more. Music this week provided by Prospect Mali (see them on myspace) as well as the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Email us at TWSSpodcast @ gmail.com, or leave a comment on our blog page at thatswhatshesaid.libsyn.com. iTunes reviews are always appreciated! Help spread the word!

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way...

I taught the play MACBETH for years to advanced high school juniors, and "The Coup" plays out a similar 'tragedy' in modern-day Scranton, PA (is that anywhere near Scotland, PA?).  In any event, when Michael drops the ball with Jan yet again (and really, is 30 minutes a week really such a terrible thing?), Lady MacAngela accosts Dwight and convinces him to make a play for Michael's job.

Needless to say, it doesn't go well for anyone.

Dwight, Dwight, Dwight... why on earth do you have such intimate knowledge of Jan's personal shopping habits?  Why did you order all of that food?  And why didn't you bring your D.W.I.G.H.T. (Determined, Worker, Intense, Good worker, Hard worker, Terrific) sign with you? 

Give Michael credit for being more clever than I thought possible... he let Dwight dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole from which the D-man could not escape.  Holy crap, that drool on his face when he stood up was priceless.

Lessons learned?

Don't @#$% with a man's Sebring.

Creed is icky.

Never invite Jim Halpert to your LAN party.

And remember to always-- ALWAYS-- hug it out, b!tch.*



*CAUTION: do not use with female co-workers.

For those who care, the parable of "the prodigal son" IS indeed from the New Testament, and more specifically, the book of Luke.

From Wikipedia--

In the story told by Jesus, a man has two sons. The younger demands his share of his inheritance while his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he "wasted his substance with riotous living", and eventually has to take work as a swineherd. There he comes to his senses, and determines to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy. But when he returns home, his father greets him with open arms, and does not even give him a chance to express his repentance; he kills a "fatted calf" to celebrate his return. The older brother becomes angry. But the father responds:

It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. (Luke 15:32)

Jim, the prodigal son?  Well, he left... but he certainly seems MORE successful in Stamford than he ever was in Scranton... Leave it to Michael to misunderstand the context.

As THE OFFICE moves onto its second episode of the season, THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID follows with Episode #2.0...Join Matt and Ian as they discuss Michael and Jim's friendship, Dwight and Angela's clandestine affair, and Pam back on the market, along with the latest news and listener e-mails...Music by Jerzy Jung, courtesy of music.podshow.com... Contact us at TWSSpodcast@gmail.com, and drop by our blog page at thatswhatshesaid.libsyn.com... Please leave a review on the iTunes page, if you get a chance, and spread the word!