I’ve slowly been making my way through my Office Season 5 DVD set, having watched all the deleted scenes, the blooper reel and two of the commentaries so far. But it was the “100 episodes, 100 moments” montage, eight and a half minutes of highlights from the show’s every episode, that reminded my why I still care.

Yeah, the first 28 outshined the final 72, but there were stellar moments throughout. (Nothing to see here, by the way.)

And since then I’ve been pretty pumped up for tonight’s Season 6 premiere. Set your DVRs for 8:57 p.m.

Gossip — Michael feels left out as the rest of the office gossips about the summer interns. While Michael searches for the next juicy rumor to share, Andy struggles with heterosexuality.

I’ve given up on expecting the episode summaries to accurately reflect the episodes. Random predictions are as likely to be accurate.

Anyway, for some thoughts on how things might play out, check out NPR’s blog item on the premiere. If nothing else, the writer picked the perfect clip to show how good the show can be in portraying a storyline not everyone will embrace right off the bat.

Check out the reader poll to the right of your screen for more on that.

To paraphrase the president, yes I can. (Also, Malia, don’t touch that red phone, sweetie.)

I have to admit, Thursday nights wear me out. Yes, a TV blogger is whining about TV blogging. But hear me out. I recap both 30 Rock and The Office, and I can’t start watching either until 9, and they’re not over until 10. Factor in time for pausing the DVR while I scribble down funny quotes and any inspired musings I may have, and it’s closer to 10:30 before I start recapping.

But I persist, because this is a sweet gig. And I whine, because I can.

Anyway, tangent over, preview to follow. Here’s your respective episode summaries and my observations…

The Office: “Prince Family Paper” (9 p.m.) — Michael and Dwight go undercover to do a bit of industrial espionage on a paper company competitor. Meanwhile, the rest of the office holds a debate to settle the question: is Hilary Swank hot?

• Michael and Dwight on an adventure! Hope it’s more “Branch Closing” or “Office Olympics” than “Survivorman.”


• No, she is not. Debate settled.

30 Rock: “Retreat to Move Forward” (9:31 p.m.) — Jack is nervous about the corporate retreat, so he recruits Liz to accompany him for support. Meanwhile, Jenna ends up at the mercy of Frank when she decides she needs to implore method acting to prepare for her Janis Joplin role, and Kenneth must convince Tracy that diabetes is affected by his diet.

• Corporate retreat? I wonder if they’ll hone their Sixth Sigma skills? Nothing beats Liz out of her element.


• Frank messing with Jenna is always promising. More Frank is always good.


• Kenneth and Tracy should get their own show when this one runs its course.

So in honor of the winter hiatus’s impending close, I thought it time to open my spoiler-free eyes and take a look at what’s coming up.

When last we left Dunder Mifflin Scranton, the most depressing Christmas party ever culminated in Phyllis revealing Dwight and Angela’s illicit affair to everyone but Andy. Pam was back from New York. Michael was seemingly over Holly. And Meredith completed the shortest rehab stint ever.

First off, here are your next three episode titles and summaries…

Jan. 15: Duel — The office is on eggshells because Andy still hasn’t found out about fiancee Angela’s affair with Dwight. When Michael spills the beans, Dwight and Andy take matters into their own hands. Meanwhile, Michael is nervous about being called down to corporate for a meeting with Wallace.

Jan. 22: Prince Family Paper — Michael and Dwight go undercover to do a bit of industrial espionage on a paper company competitor. Meanwhile, the rest of the office holds a debate to settle the question: is Hilary Swank hot?

Feb. 1: Stress Relief — No summary released yet but Paul Lieberstein is the writer.

OfficeTally has a great running round-up of spoilers here. Here’s the upshot: Cloris Leachman does a love scene with Jack Black in “Stress Relief”, in which Jessica Alba rounds out the stuntcasting. The trio are featured in a bootleg movie the Dunder Mifflin staff watches. The hourlong episode follows the Super Bowl and its main plot centers on a Michael Scott roast.

Capping 2008, The Office ranked 14 on AOL’s list of Top 50 comedies and The A.V. Club put “Dinner Party” at fifth place on its list of the best TV episodes of the year.

More formally, Greg Daniels and Kent Zbornak scored a Producer’s Guild Award nomination while the Writers Guild handed down two nominations, for best comedy series and best episode (“Crime Aid”).

And just to round things out, there have been a few great cast and crew interviews popping up over the break.

Craig Robinson tells the A.V. Club about his appearance as a security guard on Arrested Development...

CR: Wow. I played opposite David Cross’ character, and I forget the name of the girl who played Maeby. [Alia Shawkat.] I had so much fun doing that. There’s this one part where David Cross and I were up for the same role. I’m going, “Oh yeah, I’m going up for that,” despite being a security guard. That was the joke. There was a moment before the cameras rolled where I’m looking David up and down, real seductively but real slow, real creepy, and he said “I will pay you a hundred dollars if you do that during a real take.” So we were just doing silly stuff between takes. That was a nice short-and-sweet deal, and it felt good to be part of a classic TV show.

“In your house you don’t have a team of people lighting you perfectly. They can light your cellulite so you see it or don’t see it; it’s the most amazing thing. They can put makeup on your legs, you try on hundreds of outfits until you find the one that looks the most perfect on you,” Fischer told Tarts. “It really has nothing to do with whether you’re in shape or not. They can do pretty amazing things with any body type.”

Fischer also opens up to St. Louis Magazine about her days as a psychic.

When I agreed to be a telephone psychic, I approached it from the angle that I was just going to give people really good advice. The problem was that nobody wanted advice; they just wanted to know what lottery numbers to play that week. So I would just look around my house and read whatever numbers I’d see. I’d be like, “11 … 24.” That just made me feel guilty, so I quit after two days.

I believe in hunting, but only if you use the entire animal. For instance, instead of a comb I use the rib cage of a squirrel.

Have you ever really kept your nose to the grindstone? The amount of blood that comes out is shocking.

Making a sale is like making love: the faster the better.

With ongoing Yuletide in mind, I give you The Office’s Leslie David Baker and Bobby Ray Shafer detailing the office Christmas tree, a Charlie Brown variety if ever there was one. What this video lacks in image quality, it makes up in horrendous audio quality.

It also boasts the most mis-applied “That’s What She Said” ever uttered on The Office set.

Leslie gets the second place cast award for most disturbing real-life voice. Naturally Brian Baumgartner ran away with that category.

All that said, I think, as Mame put it, we could use a little Christmas, right this very minutes. So for that, thanks guys.

Speaking of Baumgartner, this Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview is a must-read. I’ve been following this show closely for almost three years and I’m surprised I can still learn new things about the cast. What steered the future Kevin Malone from sports to theater is one example.

The role he played on CSI is most definitely another.

It’s not surprising the same names keep coming up in these contests, since there are so few comedies on TV these days.

As usual, Alec Baldwin and the cast of 30 Rock go up against Steve Carell and the cast of The Office in the Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories, respectively.

There’s every possibility, however unfair, that Jeremy Piven and the cast of Entourage could send both home winless.My money’s on Baldwin and The Office. My heart is on Carell and 30 Rock.

Weeds is up in the comedy series category, too, as is star Mary Louise Parker for Outstanding Actress, though my heart and money are on Tina Fey, but only by a little.

The 15th Annual SAG Awards airs Jan. 25 on TNT and TBS.

Speaking of SAG, by the way, OfficeTally has sifted through and pulled out all the Office folks from the list of some 130 actors opposing a strike by the union. Really? After what a hoot last year’s WGA strike was?

One curious omission struck me: Jenna Fischer.

Could be because she’s been busy. According to Variety, she’s exec-producing “an hourlong comedic drama about a lumber salesman who solves a crime and becomes a private eye, along with a ragtag group of pals.”

Ragtag? Really?

Rainn Wilson is branching out too, according to the piece. He’s partnering with Adam Braff on Hump Tulips, “about a lawyer who winds up in a small Washington town in pursuit of the woman he loves.”

Both projects are through Universal, as in NBC Universal.

And since I mentioned 30 Rock, I’ll just point out that Salma Hayek’s first episode has been shot, and she reportedly found Alec Baldwin to be quite a handful. The Sun, via BuddyTV, got the scoop.

“Salma plays my mother’s nurse and I find out I have testicular cancer.  She shoves her hands down my pants and that was the first episode I shot with Salma,” he said.

First there was the reveal that Jack Black will guest star. Then came news Jessic Alba would be joining him. (ETA: Almost forgot, Cloris Leachman too.) This is starting to sound like a modern version of The Love Boat. The reassuring part is that they won’t really be in the episode. Instead they’ll be the stars of a bootleg movie one of the staff secretly tries to watch.

My question, then, is why bother?

I mean, I’m glad they’re not going the stuntcasting route. 30 Rock perfected that tack before flubbing it repeatedly this season. The Office, deliberately by some accounts, has always avoided actors whose recognition factor would take viewers out of the show.

So you’ve gotten Tim Meadows as the hilarious Lackawanna County official Michael woos in “The Client” or Amy Ryan, whose Wire stint and Oscar nominations were common knowledge among only a savvy few. Amy Adams is another good example.

The thought of Black or Alba swinging by Dunder Mifflin bugs me more than Liz Lemon sitting next to Oprah on a plane (even if it was only a hallucination).

A quick check of the NBC media site and the always reliable OfficeTally calendar, just to be sure, reveals that after tonight we’ve got a month of repeats before new episodes resume.

Replays of “Crime Aid” and “Customer Survey” will air Dec. 18. “Goodbye, Toby” is up on Jan. 1. New episodes resume Jan. 15. So this is it. E

njoy your new Office fix while it lasts. It also occurs to me that tonight’s episode, “Moroccan Christmas” is only a half-hour long.

How is it not an hour long? The schedulers at NBC have next to no idea when to supersize and when not to. (I know, they technically don’t supersize anymore since that referred to the odd 40-minute episodes like “Casino Night.” I think the term should still apply to anything longer than the standard half-hour episode.)

By the way, in case you  haven’t heard, Karen’s coming back.

What’s that? I buried the lead by not revealing this startling news immediately? Sorry. But according to the imdb page for Episode 5.14, old Fillipellers shows up three episodes from now. And based on the schedule information detailed above, that’s Super Bowl Sunday.

There’s few details yet available about the episode, other than, as I’ve reported, that it SPOILER ALERT! features a Michael Scott roast and some sort of disaster related to Dwight’s fire marshal training.

You know those 712 reasons why you loved this show at its best? This episode had 645 of them, and it wasn’t even supersized.

This  episode was about next-to-nothing. Seriously, a rift over how to spend a $4,300 surplus would barely constitute a B- or C-story most episodes. But the writers blew it up. They took a completely relatable scenario and dissected the petty office politics that would erupt when put-upon office drones are forced to choose between basic comfort and the tools they need just to do their jobs. It was like they were stuck for what to write about, so they called in a security guard to settle the matter.

And for good measure, they split Pam and Jim on opposite sides.  On that note, Pam is a fiercely competitive individual, and she’s not afraid to use her feminine wiles to get what she wants.

Not that it works on man-child like Michael who no doubt sincerely views her as a daughter. Or a sexy sister-in-law.

I’d just like to point out that I totally called that Pam would be gunning for new chairs when I previewed this episode earlier today. She’s been on the look out for new digs for her rear end since Michael fell for the chair model lady. Meanwhile, Oscar is shaping up to be quite the office nemesis  to Pam, first challenging the cowardice of her microwave note and now taking up the cause of a new office copier.

I’m sure Jamfans were anxious about potential friction in this one,  but pitting Jim against Pam was a good move. First off, it was about something totally trivial, but as couples are wont to do, they took it ridiculously seriously. I mean, Jim went for lunch with Michael and laughed at his jokes. Pam flirted with him?

Suffice to say, no need to start the Jam doomsday clock back up.

I should touch upon the B-story, the actually dramatic portion of the episode, which threatened to make me punch a hole in the Internet if it was mishandled. Dwight, Andy and Angela went to Schrute Farms to plan the wedding.

I’ve sworn I couldn’t take another week of Angela stringing poor Andy along. I mean, the guy’s a pathetic jerk, but the whole bit was  becoming unfunny, and as we know lame is double offensive.

But this worked. I never saw Dwight’s ploy coming, and yet he managed to do the unthinkable. He finagled a wedding out of Angela right in front of Andy. That is so Dwight, right down to the twine ring.

Angela was all set to come clean—if she can ever indeed be clean again after all her dirty doings with Dwight in the warehouse—when he revealed his wedding ploy. The kiss she plants on Andy back at the office was an un-Angela-ish sight to be hold. Poor Andy’s lost eight deposits on 12 venues, but he’s a step closer to seeing what’s underneath those high-buttoned blouses.

As for Michael and his financial quandary, I’ll just say this: I’d take the $645 too. Difference is, I’d have known about it all along and wouldn’t have put it to a public vote. Was their any doubt the two sides would reach their own accord? They weren’t going to let Mr. Bonus, the guy who took home $3,000 for firing Devon and celebrated by nearly ruining Christmas, get away with their chair money.

I redact my comment from earlier today that this has  been a season so far of good but not great episodes. Clearly this one was great. Whether it proves to be memorable remains to be seen, but I think it will. “Weight Loss”, “Baby Shower”, “Crime Aid” and “Business Trip” reached similar heights. “The Surplus” was right up there with them.

And the best part was, it was about nothing.

Here is an incomplete list of things that made me laugh out loud, just off the top of my head…

• Andy stepping in horse flops in Dwight’s barn.


• Pam telling Michael not to take his ass away.


• Andy stepping in horse flops in Dwight’s kitchen.


• Michael calling Toby the silent killer.


• Kevin thinking Michael was a mathematical genius.


• Hank being called into settle the argument and Michael losing patience with him.


• “Explain it to me like I’m an 8-year-old.”


• “Explain it to me like I’m a 5-year-old.”


• Michael choking on tira misu cocoa powder. Twice.


• Michael wearing a fur coat—splattered with blood.


• Mose throwing a basketball at Andy’s head.

Since they debuted, the periodic Office webisodes have been a mixed bag, a welcome fix in times of hiatus but usually subpar in terms of hastily assembled scripts and sometimes stilted acting.

I sometimes got the feeling I spent more time making my lunch than they spent on this past summer’s installment about Kevin’s gambling debt.

I’ll just throw out a spoiler alert now, even though I don’t plan to be too spoilery.

The latest round of webisodes, which debut at NBC.com tomorrow (Nov. 20), are pretty awesome. For starters, the run times are a little longer than the usual two-minute in-and-out. The casting involves pretty much everyone on the show short of Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski (aka the convention no-show quartet).

And of those characters that do appear, easily a half-dozen of them could be said to be showcased.

Besides Oscar Nunez, around whom “The Outburst” is centered, Ed Helms, Brian Baumgartner, Phyllis Smith, Angela Kinsey, Creed Bratton and Mindy Kaling all have memorable moments. There’s even a funny return appearance by Paul “Toby” Lieberstein.

The story centers, not surprisingly, around an outburst by Oscar. The nosy Dunder Mifflinites are naturally consumed with curiosity about what prompted it. Now that’s a realistic office scenario. What also sets these webisodes apart from earlier installments is that they could easily have subbed for the B story in any network-aired episode.

I’d almost say there’ve been actual episodes I haven’t enjoyed as much as “The Outburst.”

I hope I’m not overselling them, because they do suffer the deficiency of being extremely short and only being doled out a little at time. I don’t know how they’ll come across that way, but back-to-back they’re pretty sweet.

Webisode I

Here’s the sneak preview…

And here’s the cast talking about the mini-series…

The Office isn’t what it once was. No show is after 70-something episodes. And to be fair, it’s still better than most of what’s on TV. That said, honest fans can see a finish line in the distance, even if the Scranton branch still has a few seasons left in its bag of tricks.

But I came across an idea for a way to make it end immediately, or at least make the most diehard fans wish it would: Have Ricky Gervais appear as his character from Extras. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? So he tells TVGuide.com…

“I’d quite like them to maybe be watching an episode of Extras, and Michael Scott comes along and goes, ‘This guy is no good. If they ever do a remake, I think I should do that part.”

This is a show whose stars bandied about the idea of Carol Burnett playing Michael Scott’s mom before producers pooh-poohed the idea as too much of an acknowledgment of real life outside the mock-umentary premise. They even fretted about Michael recognizing Amy Ryan’s Holly Flax as her other character from The Wire, which he’d referenced just a few episodes earlier.

I love Ricky Gervais, and I still love The Office. At first blush, the idea of a cross-over excited me in a funny-times-funny-equals-funny-squared kind of way. And partner Stephen Merchant’s directing turn last week really revived some of the essential Office-ness the show has gradually eschewed. But how do you recover from that? His very appearance would completely shatter the fourth wall of a show whose sets actually have four walls.

It would be the equivalent of Marty McFly from 1985 running into his future self, creating a Doc Brown paradox of epic television proportions.

Just enjoy The Office for the brilliant Gervais adaptation it is. And if you want to see Gervais himself, watch his stand-up routine on HBO Saturday at 9 p.m.

Watch the TVGuide.com red carpet interview below…

They said so much cool stuff, it couldn’t possibly fit into a single Remote Access post. So I split it up into two parts. The first part came yesterday, and herewith is part II.

On Andy and Angela’s open hostility

“I think what works for one might be horrifying to another,” he said. “What Andy and Angela have is largely horrifying, but in some ways who they are dovetails perfectly.”

There’s a bit of a feedback loop between Andy being so accomodating and Angela being so demanding. It isn’t healthy, he said, but it works at least as far as it keeps them together. Also, we’ve all had relationships with different people who bring out different sides of ourselves, Kinsey added.

“Sometimes you’re with someone and you’re like, what am I doing?” she said. “I think Andy and Angela have a lot of that.”

Andy’s parents might be the only people who know them who don’t question their relationship, Helms said.

On cracking each other up

In the season premiere, the scene at Angela’s desk when Andy calls her Angela-ella-ella, Oscar Nunez—who never breaks—nearly fell apart and that made Helms lose it.

“And it’s so frustrating because sometimes it’s like your favorite take,” he said. “It’s the take that’s going the best and that’s the funniest that makes you lose it.”

On keeping things fresh

“I have to say we all love our own show, we’re dorks for our own show and we so enjoy it that it’s very easy for me to keep my enthusiasm up because it’s the most amazing thing that I’ve been a part of,” she said. “And we still have a giddiness and a real sense of fun even five years into it.”

Helms agreed.  He feels like Andy has constantly evolved in his two-plus seasons on the show. What also keeps things fresh, he said, is the dialogue between actors and each episode’s writer.

“So we’ll be shooting a scene, and I’ll be like, ‘You know what? I’m not sure Andy would say it this way,’” he said. ‘I’m not sure Andy would really feel this way in this particular scene.’”

That’ll lead to an analytical discussion, because the episode writer is always on set. Producer Paul Feig plays a big role in fostering such discussions and maintaining the show’s consistency, Helms said. Just such a discussion Helms had recently with writer Jen Celotta drew in Feig and Executive Producer/writer Paul Lieberstein.

“And then as we kind of got to a conclusion I remember saying, ‘God, I love these conversations,’” Helms said.

The environment is collaborative, and the writers care that what happens makes sense to the actors, he said. Kinsey said other actors on other shows tell her that’s a very unique thing.

On the show’s widening appeal

“My cousin is 10-years-old and is the biggest fan for our show, can quote Dwight monologues,” she said. “And she’s 10! She’s never worked in an office.”

Helms said one of the show’s editors, Dave Rogers, is also a surprisingly big fan.

“He sits there and edits these episodes all day long and he still comes up to us and like quotes our lines,” he said. “He’s like our biggest fan, and he sees more Office than anyone in the world.”

Helms said the show is based on such a simple concept. Creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant tapped into something that has an international relatability and just an elegant simplicity, he said. (Merchant, by the way, directed last night’s “Customer Survey”. “I dorked out on him,” Kinsey admits.)

On the pitfalls The Office has avoided

“I also think all of our characters exist individually without the relationship,” she said. “Dwight is so defined, and my character is so defined. Andy and Michael. So whether they’re in a relationship, they’re still interesting. So that for me has been a real gift.”

The one successful TV relationship she draws on is that of MASH’s Frank Byrnes and Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan with their secret relationship and militant, judgmental demeanors.

Helms agreed the writers have balanced the melodrama and comedy well. He said you’ll never see “A Very Special Office,” even if, as Kinsey points out, the NBC promo department hasn’t got that memo.

“I think even when there are those moments, Michael has still figured out how to make a fart noise come out of Phyllis’s chair,” she said. “There’s always some real sense of playfulness.”

On real life examples of Office life

Kinsey, short on cash, signed up to help and was assigned to tie large bows to a railing.

“I’m not great with bows, OK?” she recalled. “And she actually came behind me and she was like, ‘You’re doing these bows all wrong!’ And it was like the end of the world.”

Kinsey found herself reassigned to cleaning out a refrigerator.

On what’s wrong with Andy

“I think she truly has a love-hate relationship with Dwight, and with Andy she has a like-like relationship,” she reasons. “There’s something about that love-hate that’s really appealing to her.”

Andy is blinded by his own passion, meanwhile, says Helms.

“There’s so many things that he doesn’t notice about Angela,” he said. “The lack of her passion is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Just deciding to commit and make it work is an admirable thing in him, Helms said. He may not have had enough information when he made that decision, but he’s following through on that.

The premises were mundane, but that’s long been the show’s classic secret weapon. In this case it was a disgruntled customer service rep and a silly plan by Jim and Pam to stay on the phone all day. (Even Karen never put Jim through that.) And the result was hilarious. I laughed nearly throughout, and when I wasn’t laughing I was engaged in the story.

But that was the first 28 minutes or so. And then came the confrontation, the ham-handed heart-to-heart between Pam and her charming, benign New York guy friend. We got what, about 14 seconds of screentime from him to date, a couple of quippy lines and virtually no sense of who he is or what he’s about.

So when he asks Pam to chat privately, unaware Jim is listening in on the world’s smallest Bluetooth earpiece, we figure he’s got designs on our Pammy. Nope, he’s got her best interests at heart. You can’t do New York in three months, he tells her. Jim may be in Scranton but her future is right where she is.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved how this scene played out. It was cringeworthy for the audience. And I did love when Jim said, “That’s it. I want to talk to this guy. Put me in his ear.” Jim fears he’s right. Pam does a little too. Plus, she wishes Jim weren’t listening in so she could pretend the conversation never happened. But it did. And the bumps in the Jim-Pam road just got bumpier.

Throw in the fact that Jim revealed early on that he’s buying his parent’s house unbeknownst to Pam (because it’s the perfect time to buy more house than you can afford), and our favorite couple is in quite a pickle.

My problem was where did this guy come from? He knows about Jim. It was made clear Pam told him she’s got a man. But I could have used at least a little setup or motivation. Instead the guy comes out of left field, and the impact is undermined.

OK, that’s my beef. The writers really seem to be struggling with how to handle, or avoid mishandling, Jim and Pam’s relationship. That aside, though, this was still a classic episode.

I loved the cold open. It was plot-related and hilarious, the recipe every cold open should follow. It seems Michael returned from Nashua and told everyone he and Holly were engaged. Not according to Darryl, though. Michael needs professional help, and he’d dig into his own pocket to cover his co-pay.

Darryl has been amazing this season. Too bad we got very little of him tonight.

A double wedding is out after Michael, and Jim, vetoed it. But Kelly bought her bridesmaid dress. And it’s white. (Is a Phyllis’s Wedding call-back really a good idea? Eh, I laughed.)

Poor Michael’s mom, though. Whenever he’s getting married she doesn’t believe him. Makes you wonder how often it comes back. The speaker phone was a nice touch. So was his hanging up on her.

It seems once a year Kelly surveys Dunder Mifflin customers to rate the salespeople and help determine their bonuses. She then compiles a list. Kapoor’s List is not an appropriate parody, mind you.

Kelly’s out $100 on her dress, by the way; Michael’s out a fiance.

Well it turns out customers find Dwight rude and abrasive. Big shocker. He concludes there must be a conspiracy. Bigger shocker. But why are Jim’s scores so poor too?

I loved the ensuing investigation, aided by Pam in the Bluetooth. She picks up on details, like Kelly cutting a conversation short. And while Andy complaining about Jim drinking out of his cup was funny, it seemed like a throwaway bit. Turns out it was the key to the story.

I wish they’d laid some foundation for Kelly’s party in an earlier episode. But it was so true to character for her to hold a grudge when Jim and Dwight didn’t show up. That is so Kelly. So is getting everyone who did come a personalized mug with their own cheesy mugs on them. (You so know those will be on sale at the NBC store by 11 o’clock tonight.) I loved the slow reveal and Jim’s realization of that too.

You know what else was nice? Jim telling Dwight he was right. That might be the first true bonding moment between them since the near-hug in the stairwell. Of course Dwight was right when he snuck up on Kelly and told her she was the mastermind but too stupid to do it alone.

This whole storyline was reminiscent of early Office, when episodes took the inconsequential and built entire plots around it in a way the reflected how office life turns the mundane into obsessions for cubicle drones. I didn’t love that final scene, but I’ll be very happy if this trend keeps up.

OK, here are some random observations and some of the funniest bits of the night:

Pam’s a gold digger, New York ain’t free. Get back to work.

If I were joking, you’d be laughing. Do you look like you are laughing? Impossible to say. I can’t see myself.

Why would Jim drink out of someone else’s mug? That’s nasty.

Andy’s scoping out Wedding Tentists. And they do gray!

Jim’s and Dwight’s practice sales call was classic, but the way Jim roped Michael into it sealed the deal. He even got Dwight fired over a million dollar sale. Bill Buttlicker is a big spender.

Jim Halpert is smudge and arrogant.

Angela’s Nana Mimi can’t be in canvas that long! And Angela doesn’t want to be married in a tent like a hobo. She will be married on a farm just like Schrute Farms.

Dwight may need a third shoe.

Dwight get out of my nook. That’s what she said!

You cannot say you were raped and expect all your problems to go away. Not again. You can’t keep doing that.

Michael has consumed a ton of leftover guacamole because people don’t show up for his parties.

Dwight and Angela are evil.

Here’s part one of what they had to say, with part two to follow soon.

On approaching their at-times unlikeable characters

“I’ve tried to find a lot to love about Andy and a real sort of sincerity, he said. “If anything he’s guilty of caring too much sometimes.

He likes giving the audience something to hope for with Andy but also lot to just roll their eyes at and laugh at.

Kinsey has had jobs that were mundane and forced her to work with people she wouldn’t otherwise like to hang out with. There was always the stickler or the busybody, she said, the person who went berzerk with the smallest amount of authority. But even with all that she tries to find the upside in Angela Martin.

“I try to find in my own way, the way Ed does, a way to like her even with all her craziness,” Kinsey said. “She’d probably drive you crazy, but she’d probably completely organize your desk for you if you let her.”

The funny thing for Helms is trying to justify Andy’s love for Angela.

“My dad asked me recently, ‘Why are you with that woman?’” he said. “It’s a very valid question.”

But Andy has an unflappable optimism and a decisiveness about things. He puts his whole heart into his decisions like his commitment to Angela.

On getting grief from fans for being Angela

“I had this woman come up to me and say, ‘Will you take a picture with my friend?’ She was too scared to approach you because she was afraid you might be like your character,” she said.

On missing the fake news business

“I loved being in the fake news business, but it was so taxing to do those interviews,” he said. I have great memories from the ‘04 campaign coverage, but it’s really, really hard, really hard work and it’s really hard on your constitution. So I loved it but I don’t yearn for it.”

What he misses is the feeling of being close to the heart of the action, at the conventions, talking to the key players. He admits to feeling pangs of nostalgia but not real regret.

Helms admits that with his last job on The Daily Show people were more likely to confuse him with his on-screen personality, which was kind of a heightened, jerkish version of himself.

“I think there is a blurry line sometimes between perception,” he said. “Even though you give an audience full credit for knowing the difference, there’s just something kind of visceral that kicks in when you see someone and you have all these associations with them.”

On their own office romances

Helms recalled working for a very small firm out of school where there were four employees, and he and the bookkeeper tried to hide their relationship from the guys who ran the company. But they completely knew.

“They were like, guys, we know what’s going on,” he said.

On playing the office minx

It’s fun to play, though, like a buffet of choices to pick from. Her dad, on the other hand, is being put through the wringer watching his daughter be kind of the office skank. But, she adds, it’s fun to play.

On playing the guy being cuckolded by the office minx

“I love the dynamic. I love his passion for Angela. As Andy has grown in the world of The Office and all the characters have grown it just gets more complicated, which is so much more fun as a performer.”

Kinsey agreed, admitting she puts herself into the character so much she once organized all her wrapping paper, ribbons and tissue paper at home.

“That sort of freaks people out when they see my wrapping paper section of my closet,” she said.

On the pros and cons of Angela’s choices

She’s torn between the person she thinks she belongs with and the person she’s passionate about, Kinsey theorizes. What’s more, Andy is so accommodating while she clashes with Dwight, which maybe exhilarates her.

“It’s the Madonna whore thing in reverse for Andy and Dwight,” Helms chimed in.

On Andy’s favorite co-worker

“All Andy wants is for Jim to take him under his wing.”

But beneath it all there’s a shrewd part that wants the same from Michael. Call that a corporate crush.

On where they’d take the relationship

Gun to his head, though, he’d like to see Andy at NASA, where he’d take Angela into outer space, as a space wife.

Angela said the question leaves her at a loss for words because anything she might think of is improved upon tenfold by the writers. She often leaves the table reads in awe. Helms agreed.

“I feel like the table reads for us are just like the episodes for fans,” he said. ” It really has the same anticipation, the energy. And I’ll say this about the way Angela and Andy, the way our story develops over the next few episodes, I would not change a thing. I’m so excited about it.”

On favorite episodes

Kinsey agrees. She likes the Christmas episodes the best because they let her do just that.

How does Angela sleep at night?

“I think Angela’s childhood was probably pretty disturbing,” he said. “So you’ve found a lot of coping mechanisms, so you’re able to sleep through a hell of a lot.”

Kinsey said Jen Celotta put it well when she said Angela is in a very typical situation where she has blinders on about the way her choices have snowballed on her.

“That made sense to me, and I think that’s kind of how she is,” Kinsey said. “I think she’s got these blinders on. It’s all going to work out, and I don’t have to pick or decide or choose, and it’s all going to be fine.”

She concedes the possibility that Angela had a disturbing upbringing, though.

On what prepared him to be Andy

It goes back to his stand-up years in New York and his time with Upright Citizens Brigade doing improv. You aren’t so much fearless as you embrace the fear. It’s exhilarating. On The Daily Show he was terrified all the time, not fearless at all. And he loves to break into song in real life.

“There’s nothing funnier to me than a really inappropriately timed Broadway number,” he said.

On Angela’s payback plans for Phyllis

“”I wouldn’t be surprised if Angela Martin has a file on her minutes of everyone’s behavior that she can use at some point,” she said.

“You’re right,” Helms said. “She’s like the J. Edgar Hoover of The Office.”

On what Andy will do when he finds out

“You can buy a little inflatable gremlin or something, and it’s like, ‘You can beat this up and take your anger out on this thing,’” he said. “So Andy has one of these at home. But for some reason I like the idea that Andy beats up this little inflatable doll so much that he flings it around his room and he’s actually damaging it.”

Any new nicknames

“I’m actually a big nicknamer in real life, so there’s always something brewing,” he said.

Check back for part II of this interview.

When last we were at Scranton Business Park, David Wallace left us with the chillingly glum observation that he didn’t know Michael was dating Holly. The branch manager whose last girlfriend and former boss sued the company is dating the HR rep. What’s not for a CFO to love about that arrangement?

So yeah, Holly’s gone, just as sure as Amy Ryan is gone, at least by all accounts. She wrapped her sixth and final episode several weeks ago, and it airs tonight. (The hour-long season premiere counts as two episodes.) And if there was any doubt, tonight’s episode title is…

Employee Transfer — Pam is embarrassed when she is the only person at corporate wearing a costume on Halloween. Holly and Michael take the long trip to Nashua after they get some shocking news from corporate. Meanwhile, Dwight torments Andy and tries to get under his skin.

Here’s an NBC promo. And here’s another one.

Anyway, the thought of Pam showing up in costume to a workplace where no one else is dressed up for Halloween strikes me as very funny, the kind of uncomfortable funny this show thrives on but too often foregoes. And Dwight going after Andy should be good. I enjoyed when he flipped Andy’s X-Terra on eBay, and now he has the added incentive of desperation to win Angela back.

Apparently we get to meet Jim Halpert’s brothers tonight, too, according to this article and to this article. If you dabble in spoilers, as I do from time to time, you might have heard about this encounter coming up. Here’s what Blake Robbins of Salem, Mass., who plays the older Halpert brother, has to say…

In the case of “The Office,” his height — 6 feet 2 inches — helped. They didn’t want an actor shorter than that because Jim, played by John Krasinski of Newton, is 6-foot-3.

On the show, Jim, a paper salesman, is engaged to receptionist-turned-art-student Pam Beesly, played by Jenna Fischer. Tonight, Pam organizes a dinner in New York City so she can meet Jim’s older and younger brothers.

“The most I can say is that it doesn’t go according to her plans,” Robbins said.

I mean, Steve Carell balances a booming film career with his leading Office role. Ryan’s a great actress, sure, but is she more in demand than he is? Maybe studios are more flexible with the schedules of bankable stars, and his films have grossed more than $500 million.

Still an Office gig hasn’t kept John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer or Rainn Wilson out of theaters. And they are neither top-grossers nor Oscar-nominated.

Ryan talks here with The Daily News about her upcoming role in Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling, a role that sounds closer to Helene in Gone Baby Gone than it does to Holly Flax.

“People who are struggling in some form in their lives are usually the most interesting parts to play,” says Ryan, 38. “If you’re playing a really nice character who has everything together, there’s no conflict, there’s no real drama. I’d much rather take on these kinds of parts.”

Great White spoiler alert

Oscar and Andy join him on the trip, making for an interesting grouping of characters, and the episode centers (centres?) around Michael having an affair with a hotel concierge. The article details how the city’s tourism bureau provided authentic items to give the L.A.-shot episode local flair.

And predator-free since 2008!

Well, it just got aestheticer, as Michael Scott might say.

Tanster, the brains behind the operation, announced the make-over on Saturday.

I did, but it turns out the writers were divided pretty sharply on it. One faction favored going for true documentary effect by omitting the audio of the dialogue so all you’d hear was the passing traffic.

What’s more, as showrunner Greg Daniels tells The Washington Post, the original plan was to shoot the scene at an actual rest stop on Connecticut Merritt Parkway (which seems completely random, partly because it doesn’t run anywhere near Scranton, Pa.). That was deemed too costly, but the Hollywood reproduction ended up costing more than twice as much. And there’s more…

One of the things that we decided at the last minute was to leave the sound in; we also had one version where it’s the exact same visuals, but you weren’t able to hear their dialogue. And that’s a very poetic way of doing it. The staff was completely divided down the middle, and I lost sleep over which way to go on that.

Ultimately, I felt that Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski had done this work, and their performances deserved to be seen. It was kind of artier to remove their voices, but I felt like after this length of time, you deserve to see what was going on and hear it.

In other news, check out the deleted scenes from “Crime Aid” if you haven’t already.

“Crime Aid” Deleted Scene #1

“Crime Aid” Deleted Scene #2

Once upon a time, Jim’s crush on Pam was a peripheral distraction that you couldn’t ignore anymore. And once you stopped trying, you could totally relate to it. Then they went and overdid it, leaning too heavy on that aspect of the show and throwing things off balance. And they brought in Karen.

Well, “Crime Aid” looked like it was going to be one of those loopy, stupid episodes where Michael gets way too goofy, the laughs are plenty but the story is sitcom-ish. It looked like another “Safety Training.” Instead, it was a frenetic thing of beauty.

So much went on in 21-plus minutes, so many parallel stories and odd character pairings. The overarching plot was almost secondary to the episodic events within.

It was so satisfying (and smile-inducing) to see Michael and Holly trade dorky jokes and TMI comments about their budding affair. No, Michael, the third date is no gimme. Well, unless it’s with Holly, who seems incapable of not going with the flow no matter what bizarre comment her new beau throws out. Yup, twice.

The Roy-makes-Jim-uncomfortable-then-jealous story got the perfect emphasis. It was the kind of angsty story that drove past episodes, a la “Cocktails.” But it was the C story at best this time, and it was resolved on a perfect note. Jim and Pam are not Roy and Pam, not even close. Roy planted a seed of doubt in Jim’s head, but it was gone before the I-80 East entrance ramp.

Poor Pam, broke in the big city and working at corporate. Nice to see her, though, all 37 seconds of her.

I was amazed at the chemistry between Phyllis and Dwight, if that’s the right word. Their interactions, their huge personalities so apt to clash, jibed on their own plane apart from all else. And he was decent to her in the end. Everybody bidding for a Phyllis hug was nice, and Dwight driving up the bidding was the perfect gesture. She was only trying to help, after all.

But why couldnt’ he just say he was letting the air out of her tires?

The CRIME AID benefit was ridiculous. Again, it would have been the main plot in a Season 3 episode. This time around, it was just a vehicle for jokes. No one wanting Kevin to be their tax man was funny. Hank playing horrid blues guitar was funnier. And $300 for a Holly yoga class was just painful. I don’t think Michael understands what an auctioneer is supposed to do, by the way.

It was great to see the CFO, though clearly Ryan didn’t think so. But it was silly for Wallace to show up and participate. Even Jan had to be convinced to come to Casino Night. But Wallace’s one-liner at the end, after spotting Michael and Holly canoodling, was excruciating.

It explains well what’s to come, as sour as that prospect is. We know Holly is leaving because we know Amy Ryan is leaving, and there’s been no word to contradict that. It’s a shame. She gives the show needed ballast.

By the way, was Kelly in this one at all? And poor Kev, now susceptible to surges!

Season 5 is the new Season 2 (almost).

That’s not to say that I didn’t post my insights and observations about “Baby Shower” (loved it), along with podcast pal Chris Serico (kinda liked it, I think), aka CGC.

I’m still feeling oogy, but I’m back on the horse. We’ve got a new episode tonight, and I can’t wait to sit back with a hot cup of tea with honey and just enjoy the funny. I’d say it’s got a tough act to follow after last week’s bit of brilliance.

Here’s the episode summary for “Crime Aid”...

Michael helps Pam get a part time job at corporate so she can afford to go to art school. Michael and Holly get an early start at the office on their date night. After the office gets robbed, Michael decides to hold an auction to raise money for all the items lost.

Michael and Holly’s date night looks promising, though Amy Ryan’s impending departure continues to cast a pall on any hopes for a bit of happiness for this dorky duo.

And only Michael Scott would hold a charitable fundraiser to benefit his for-profit corporate employer after the office gets robbed. Oddly, it’s his second fundraiser but the first office robbery (assuming Creed’s daily kleptomania doesn’t count as long as he doesn’t get caught).

In the meantime enjoy a preview or two or three or four.

Here’s what TVGuide.com’s EW’s Michael Ausiello (I’ll never get used to that.) had to say about Holly Flax’s future with Dunder Mifflin…

Question: Please tell me The Office is keeping Amy Ryan around permanently. She is perfect for Michael!—Heather
Ausiello: You’re preaching to the choir, my dear. Unfortunately, I hear producers have yet to approach Ryan about punching in full time. But maybe they’re just afraid of rejection; the Oscar nominee is in high demand, and likely keeping her options open. Whispers an Office insider: “I think she’s hoping to do both, but have the flexibility to take a great movie gig when it comes along.”

No, we won’t be singing any wildly inappropriate lullabies, but if things run long one of us may need to take a quick nap on that couch in the back.

Podcast file:

Flash video:

I didn’t think I was going to like it. I didn’t feel much like watching it, in fact, mainly because I’m a little under the weather.

But it got me anyway. From Dwight birthing a buttery watermelon to Amy Ryan pulling out the  Oscar-caliber chops for her final scene with Michael, I was impressed with the way this episode pulled me in. You had me at “Omaha Beach,” Creed.

I’ve got a lot to say about it, but like I said, I’m not feeling up to snuff. So I’m going to take my time to collect my thoughts, transcribe some of the funnier bits and generally assemble a blog post that does it justice.

Until then, feel free to watch it again on our dime. The full episode, including the series’ second afterbirth reference, appears after the jump.

Here’s the episode summary…

Michael practices for the birth of Jan’s baby by having Dwight go over possible birthing scenarios. Meanwhile, Michael tells Holly that he will pretend to dislike her for Jan’s benefit.

I’m going to say that the part about Michael pretending to dislike Holly about clinches it.

Man, two episodes into the season, and I’ve gotten negative. The premiere was so great, but last week’s “Business Ethics” started the downward slide toward Holly’s inevitable departure, and we’re not going to see much of Pam for reasons that don’t make sense on any level. Yes, she’s away in New York. So find an excuse to send the camera crew there. It wouldn’t be a big stretch.

If you can’t wait for tonight, SpoilerTV has three clips up from the episode. I’m not watching, because that’s way too spoilery for me, but feel free to peek.

Actually, if you like spoilers, you might want to check out this (scroll down for call sheet), this and these tidbits from E!’s Kristin... (Again, proceed at your own risk.)

On Michael & Holly: Last week I told you Dunder Mifflin was getting robbed, but I didn’t say how. It looks like Michael and Holly are so distracted by their lip-locking action they forget to lock up. Michael is getting some booty! Holler!

On Jim & Pam: They’re doing well, except for the fact that long-distance relationships are hard. There are a couple of upcoming incidents where phone snafus cause confusion and uncertainty between Pam and Jim. (Don’t butt-dial, people, it always goes wrong!)

But not as good as Kinsey.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Today show took a set tour with Mindy Kaling and Angela Kinsey. Here’s clip one and here’s clip two. Pretend you’ve never seen the show, like Lester Holt. It’ll make it more fun.

CareerBuilder offers some hiring advice, using Office castmembers to represent various types.  You saw a lot more of these articles a couple of years ago when the show was newer. So it’s nostalgic if  unoriginal.

In the clip below, writer Ryan Koh answers questions about “Business Ethics,” and you know I had a few. Warning: he doesn’t address Pam’s absence. Also, it’s his first episode, which makes me feel bad for ripping on it. Not that I’m redacting or anything…

And  here’s a promo for tonight’s episode.

Podcast file:

Flash video:

There was lots not to like about “Business Ethics,” last night’s episode of The Office, but after a day of contemplation I’ve decided I liked it anyway. That doesn’t change the fact that when it was over I felt like a 9-year-old kid who just witnessed his parents have a really big fight.

But I laughed. And it was real. I don’t ask for much more from my Office.

Give it another watch, then see me struggle to figure out just how I felt about this mixed bag of an episode.

I really missed Pam, though. She brings an air of sanity to the show, and she’s like the face of the audience. Everything that’s wacky and unbelievable to us is reflected in her reactions. Things felt a little off-kilter without that.

She proved this during her only speaking part last night with with two one-word reactions on the business end of Jim’s speaker phone in the opening scene. When Jim announces their engagement to the office at her urging, their underwhelmed co-workers prove him right for waiting so long to tell them.

When Dwight responds by pointing out she’s a virgin, Pam lets out a deadpan “Wow.” And when Michael tackles Jim, she says simply, “Sorry.” And that was it for old Pammy. Word is actress Jenna Fischer was under the weather the week this was shot, so the script may have been tailored to reflect that.

I absolutely loved Angela pointing out Pam was engaged before to Roy, by the way. Perfect delivery.

Deleted scene #1

But the night was all about the tension between Michael and Holly, and that only served to underscore the fact that Holly’s days at Dunder-Mifflin—just like Amy Ryan’s days on The Office — are numbered. She probably has more episodes ahead of her than she has under her belt, but I still feel like a piece of the core is being removed.

Anyway, Meredith, getting a welcomed extra dose of screen time, reveals she trades sexual favors for discounts from one of the company’s vendors. That’s ethically questionable, it turns out, even though she said it during the immunity portion of the meeting (which doesn’t really exist).

And here for the first time we have Michael confronted with Holly’s essence (the non-Michael-like essence): she’s HR, and HR is evil. More specifically, she wants to fire someone, and as Michael has taught us, a great manager doesn’t fire people. He hires them and inspires them.

How did these two, the most flawed perfect couple ever, end up so far apart?

As they settled down to a lunch of Michael’s two lobsters and whatever Holly was having, they alternated between glimpses of companionship—“Terminatuh.” “I’m from da fyoochah.”—and moments of cold division. They weren’t hearing each other. Well, to be clear, he wasn’t hearing her. I laughed the hardest when he said, “Bleah, busted,” when she asked him what she’d been saying.

In the end, though, it was HR that saved the day in the form of Kendall (Ugh, Kendall), the HR chief in New York. Turns out what’s most ethical is guarding the bottom line. Nice bit of easy to overlook irony there. And he really comes down hard on Holly for not just giving her spiel, collecting her signatures and moving on. That was hard to watch.

Even for Michael, struggled with how to respond…

Michael: How do you tell somebody that you care about deeply I told you so? Gently, with a rose in a funny way like it’s a hilarious joke? Or do you just let it go because saying it would just make things worse? Probably the funny way.

The initial conference room scene reminded me of Ryan’s first presentation as Michael’s boss. That one quickly disintegrated into a grammar discussion. This one, steered by Oscar, took a turn toward semantics-ville. No corporate ethics aren’t always a study in competing concptions of the good. Sometimes they’re just about stealing pencils.

Deleted scene #2

That’s important too, though. Pretty soon you’ve got yourself a profit margin.

Anyway, Holly’s explanation beforehand was great. “It’s going to be insane…No it’ not. I have to read from the binder.”Her intro dance with Michael to “Let’s Get Ethical” went on a bit long.

I love that Michael’s helping her as a “strategy” to merge into a relationship without her even knowing.

Even before Oscar’s erudite criticism, Stanley is calling the meeting a waste of time, Kelly is threatening to start smoke and Michael is telling her she needs to be Robin Shyamalan.Luckily Andy’s there to drop some knowledge from his two stints in Intro to Philosophy. Dwight missed that class, apparently, because no, the bread is not poisoned and no one’s been cuckolded by a stronger, smarter male.

Before Meredith can lay bare her laying bare, Michael reveals he spent five straight days watching Cookie Monster sing Chocolate Rain and other YouTube hits after discovering the video site. It was catharctic fessing up.

But while Oscar may be a time thief, it didn’t warrant Angela calling INS.

On other fronts, Ryan is still a loser. He’s such a loser he doesn’t even know it. But he does.

He’s the elephant in the ethics seminar, no matter how many Survivor-like babes he bagged. At least he’s bringing Kevin and Jim closer together. That fist bump was suh-weet. ‘Hired’ guy. Nice one, Kev.

Amazingly enough, the entire B story to this episode was Jim pranking Dwight, using a stopwatch to intimidate him all the while convincing him he’s tracking his time spent lollygagging.

I loved the Battlestar Galactica taunting.

Andy: Is that anything like the original Battlestar Galactica.

Jim: You know what, it’s practially a shot-for-shot remake.

Eventually, after a rather brief, 19 minute and 48 second absence, Dwight concedes he isn’t entirely ethical. Is it possible Jim didn’t realize he’d just missed Dwight’s romantic warehouse rendezvous with Angela?

This was a good episode for getting the show back to its workplace roots. It was almost entirely office-set, with the exception of Michael and Holly’s lunch at Scranton landmark Cooper’s.

The tone was very British office and certainly left me with the same feeling of despair the original often did. But the show’s luster was noticeably dulled. Maybe that was its Pam-lessness or maybe it was something else. The return to half-hour episodes usually bums me out too.

A few random observations…

It was kind of silly that Meredith doesn’t realize she was being interrogated by Holly. I don’t mind that Meredith is almost exclusively a background character but good for her for stealing some limelight for once. “Not a lot of fruit in those looms.” Awesome line. Almost made you miss Michael’s “You stupid bag.”

Michael was really harsh on Holly when she returned his “Holly-lujah” with a “Mike-raculous” and he says she’s reaching. That hurt. Then he redeems himself by seemingly  coming on to her. But then, like with the concert tickets he tore up, he throws out her lunch and offers to go Dutch with her.

Michael doesn’t want employees thinking their jobs depend on performance. Of course not. You could feel their bond being torn asunder as soon as she said, “It’s not a family. It’s a workplace.” Might as well mock his magic tricks and insult Bob Hope. I have to admit, I didn’t really get where that chastity belt conversation was going.

What happened on the ride back. He wouldn’t ride the elevator with her, and he threw her leftovers out? Later he steals the coffee pot from her and photocopies a wall plaque rather than get out of her way. Ugh. I hated how this all unfolded, and so early in the season too.

Still, Michael’s her best friend in the office, according to her. Also, in middle school, she was a hall monitor. I wonder if she was best friends with her fourth-grade teacher.

Ryan gets Michael.

And then this exchange…

Meredith: Am I getting fired?

Michael: Now is really not the time, Meredith.

Yes, I know he’s a temp hired by Michael through an agency, so it’s possible Corporate doesn’t know. And yes, he did seem to be following some type of 12-step program by making amends to Jim and others he’d hurt during his drug-induced wunderkind phase.

But Corporate would eventually find out, and four months is awfully quick to kick a drug habit and so easily return to your old life.

Sorry. I’m overthinking this. I’m glad Ryan’s back, and I’m even more glad the old Ryan is back. It sets up great comic opportunities like this one…

Business Ethics (9 p.m.,ET) —Following Ryan’s recent scandal at corporate, Holly must hold a business ethics seminar. The meeting gets out of control when Michael lets everyone speak freely about their unethical behavior at work. Meanwhile, Jim makes Dwight comply with the company’s “time theft” policy.

Having seen an advanced screener, IGN TV offers this preview-review (which I haven’t read).

Can you believe there’s a petition to Save Holly Flax?I signed it. Amy Ryan cannot be allowed to leave the show. She has breathed new life into it and helped return it to Season 2 form. She’s the best cast addition since Ed Helms, and we haven’t let him leave either.

Besides, Office fan petitions work.

Looking back at the season premiere, OfficeTally was able to get writer Gene Stupnitzky to answer fans’ questions about “Weight Loss.” Here’s a tiny snippet about that fateful rest stop scene…

Q. Give us some behind-the-scenes details on the Jim/Pam proposal scene. I’ve heard that the gas station was fake, the rain was fake, even the traffic was fake! Do tell!

Gene: I don’t think any scene in our show’s history went through as much prep as that one.

You wouldn’t believe how much time, money and planning went into making that proposal look casual, authentic and unpremeditated.

The original plan was to film this at the actual Merritt Parkway on the East coast — but there were just too many variables. So it was decided, after about a dozen meetings, that we would –- at considerable cost –- recreate the Merritt Parkway in the parking lot of a Best Buy in Los Feliz, California.

I guess that’s what they call “Hollywood magic.”

Also, Jenna Fischer’s taking questions at her MySpace blog.

And if you’re an Office fan who loves Halloween, and you have ludicrous amounts of free time, why not carve a Dwight-o-lantern? (I mean, aside from the possibility of scaring off unwitting trick-or-treaters.) Use the outlines below, which are linked to a more detailed explanation about how to do it. There’s more here to choose from.

First off, Kristin is starting trouble by asking “Is Roy Coming Back to Steal Pam?” The answer, of course, is no (but I included the adjacent photo in case you needed help getting back off the ledge).

It would be an awful turn of events, one from which the show could not recover as far as most fans go. But David Denman, who portrayed Roy for three seasons, is returning for an upcoming episode. The reason seems to be that the writers are addicted to angst.

Word is, somewhere around the fifth episode of the season, Jim and Darryl will meet up with Roy at a bar (as usual, to avoid some hijinks cooked up by Michael), and the meeting is fairly benign (no punching this time). However, it could still spell trouble for Jim and Pam. I’m told Roy throws out a zinger that makes Jim worry about Pam being away at art school and whether any of her new guy friends could steal her away (just as he did to Roy).

Here’s the episode summary for Thursday’s “Business Ethics.”

Following Ryan’s recent scandal at corporate, Holly must hold a business ethics seminar. The meeting gets out of control when Michael lets everyone speak freely about their unethical behavior at work. Meanwhile, Jim makes Dwight comply with the company’s “time theft” policy.

Meanwhile, do you think Pam Beesley’s an icon? She doesn’t. Rather, Jenna Fischer doesn’t think her character and John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert have approached the level of Friends’s Ross and Rachel or Cheers’s Sam and Diane. I’m inclined to agree.

The Office has never gotten those shows’ ratings, so it’s hard to argue Jim and Pam have penetrated the public consciousness the way those other, less interesting couples did. And that’s OK. So they’re not iconic. Whatevs. They’re compelling, which those other duos never were.

In real-life Scranton, Pa., news, Mayor Chris Doherty recruited the city’s top accountant — Is “top” the right word? — to help send a message about keeping the city clean. That’s a politician who knows how to cultivate a good thing, which having The Office set in his city is.

Video

EW.com compiled a greatest hits of Jim Halpert’s best pranks (mostly on Dwight Schrute), and all the usual suspects are there, from hiding Andy’s phone in the ceiling to the original placing of a stapler in a Jell-O mold. My favorites, though are when Jim spent $11 to come to work dressed as Dwight (Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.), and when he put Dwight’s belongings in the vending machine.

You know, the thought of Meredith raising a child is disturbing, as her Sex and the Electric City blog continues to illustrate. J.C. Penney catalogues? Seriously?

Finally, here goes another Angela video.