"The Office" Ratings Continue to Excel

The Hollywood Reporter writes about the ratings surge "The Office" has been having lately.

"NBC's "The Office" topped the Thursday night ratings as the comedy's heavy-hitter competitors aired repeats.

Pulling one of its highest ratings of the season, "The Office" (9.8 million viewers, 4.9 preliminary adults 18 to 49 rating and a 13 share) matched its return to original episodes last week while "Scrubs" grew slightly (7.3 million, 3.7/10) given the decreased competition. "ER" was on par (7.7 million, 3.1/9)."

Click HERE to read more about it.

MANY Guests Show Up For "Dinner Party"

The Office came back to TV, and so did the fans! Reuters has a story about Thursday night's ratings.

"NBC returned to an all-original lineup Thursday night, highlighted by the much-anticipated resumption of "The Office."

Most of the network's comedies were roughly on par with their pre-strike averages, but "The Office" delivered its highest rating since the show's fall season premiere (9.2 million, 4.8 rating/12 share)."

Read more HERE.

"The Office" Season 2 New on TV!!

Well, it's new to you if you live in Dubai!

"Dubai, UAE - January 20, 2008: It's time to clock in for Season Two of The Office, the hilarious and witty fly-on-the-wall TV docu-reality starring Steve Carell (Little Miss Sunshine, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) in his Golden Globe Award-winning role. From sexual politics to performance reviews to email espionage, the employees at Dunder-Mifflin are there to get the job done…or not. Join earnest but clueless boss Michael Scott (Carell), Assistant to the Regional Manager Dwight (Rainn Wilson), receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer), sales rep Jim (John Krasinski), and the office temp, Ryan (B.J. Novak), as they make the daily grind a lot more laughable."

You can read more HERE.

For those of us who failed Geography, Wikipedia says...

Dubai can either refer to one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the eastern Arabian Peninsula, or that emirate's main city, sometimes called "Dubai city" to distinguish it from the emirate.

Michael: Wikipedia... is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.

Ben Silverman to sell Reveille

You know that logo with the guy playing the trumpet at the end of the Office episodes? That's the title card for Reveille production company. Ben Silverman owned the company and now that he's on board at NBC has decided to sell it.

"NBC Entertainment co-Chairman Ben Silverman has agreed to sell his production company, which makes "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," to a London-based firm owned by Elisabeth Murdoch for at least $125 million, people familiar with the situation said Friday.

Silverman put the company, Reveille, up for sale last year to deflect criticism that his dual role as a supplier and buyer of programming was a potential conflict of interest."

Read the rest HERE.

"The Office" Part of USC's Business Film Festival

According to the University of Southern California's website:

"The Southern California Business Film Festival 2008, USC's first business-themed film festival, will be an exciting three-day mix of student filmmaking competitions and screenings of Hollywood representations of the business world, including Oliver Stone's landmark film Wall Street, NBC's hit comedy series The Office and HBO's Hollywood behind-the-scenes phenomenon Entourage, featuring invited guests from the cast and crews. The SCBFF will focus on allowing students maximum creativity, while providing the style of larger film festivals and competitive events for young filmmakers and businesspeople."

They even expect some of the cast and crew to show up!

"4:30 - 7:15PM: The Office — A special screening of two episodes of NBC’s hit comedy series The Office will begin with a panel discussion with guests from the show (TBA). The episodes "Business School" and "Traveling Salesman" will be screened, followed by USC faculty and business leaders discussing the business issues addressed within the show."

You can read all about it and even how to attend by clicking HERE.

"The Office" Going to College

Well, clips of the show are anyway.

NBC has struck a deal with an organization called The University Network which shows items such as entertainment, news, weather, etc. on college campus closed network televisions.

According to Media Post Publications:
"Under the arrangement, NBCU will provide short-form clips (90 seconds or less) from shows ranging from "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" to "The Office" to news features focusing on the presidential campaign and issues germane to college kids. NBCU content will be provided daily, and can be customized for specific markets. So, local stations owned by NBC can provide weather, news and sports information in their respective areas."

You can read more about it HERE.

Office Alliance Podcast Helps Out SBO

That's right!

The girls at the OfficeAlliance podcast were nice enough to mention us in their fandomicity section of their Jan 7th Podcast.

If you listen around the 39:00 mark of the show you'll hear our little shout out for the SBO!

You can click HERE to download the podcast.

"The Office" and the OVAL Office?

Vanity Fair has a very fun article where they replace the Oval Office with THE Office.

"Question—who has the following characteristics, Bush or Michael Scott: smug, self-centered, and isolated; prone to inappropriate comments and malapropisms; fond of engaging in philosophical discourses that are spectacularly muddleheaded and self-mythologizing? If you answered both, you would be correct. And don’t forget the pathetic attempts at humor. Michael: the day he tried to boost office morale amid rumors of layoffs by giving Meredith (the boozy redhead) a birthday party, and then ruined the moment with a card that read: “Meredith, Let’s hope the only downsizing that happens to you is that someone downsizes your age.” Bush: his ill-conceived attempt to amuse attendees at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner the year after the Iraq invasion by conducting a mock search for weapons of mass destruction in the Oval Office. (The month of the president’s poorly reviewed antics, 52 coalition troops died in Iraq.)"

Read the whole article HERE.

Multiple "The Office" Covers of Entertainment Weekly!!

Melora Hardin, Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, Rainn Wilson, B.J. Novak & Mindy Kaling. On newstands this week!

USA Today Tips From The Office

According to USA Today, bosses across American could be taking cues from Michael Scott! YIKES!!

"Readers who are unfamiliar with The Office don't realize how unsettling it is that bosses may be taking cues from the regional manager of fictitious office-supply distributor Dunder Mifflin. Michael's character is played by A-list movie actor Steve Carell (Little Miss Sunshine, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), who exhibits jealousy when his birthday is overshadowed by an employee's skin cancer test. His eyes linger upon workplace cleavage and, when apologizing for a homosexual slur in one episode, he maladroitly outs a gay employee."

Read the whole thing HERE.

Throw an "Office" Premiere Party!

The TwinCities.com will help you out!

They have a cool party planning guide for Office night!

"Invitations. E-mail messages in memo form, like most corporate communications. Attaching spicy vacation photos, like Michael once did in an e-mail, is optional but encouraged.
Ask guests to arrive at least an hour before the premiere at 7 p.m. Thursday so you have time to watch a few classic episodes on DVD."

Read the entire Party Planning Guide HERE.

Greg Daniels Talks About Scranton Ties To Show

In an article with The Washington Post, Greg Daniels talks about trying to get things "right" between Scranton and TV's version of Scranton.

"In other words, not every detail on "The Office" -- the NBC comedy about a group of disgruntled Scranton paper company employees and the unhinged manager who thinks "That's what she said" is the funniest phrase ever invented -- is accurate when it comes to this former coal-mining mecca.

Hey, it's television, people."

Read the whole thing HERE.

NY Times Says You Are What You Watch

If that's the case, I'm truly a mutt with the amount of TV shows I consume in a week.

But the Times was nice enough to mention our favorite little show!

"Over at NBC “The Office” is one of the best comedies on television yet the truly finicky insist it can’t hold a candle to the original British version starring Ricky Gervais."

The article is hanging out over HERE.

Appleton Post Crescent Talks to "Pros".

Professionals talk about watching their life through tv shows.

Including...

"The Emmy-winning documentary-style parody chronicles life in an office with regional manager Michael Scott serving as the zany tour guide. Scott is Rhonda Ziegler's favorite character. "He's just funny. I like the premise that everyone thinks he's crazy, but he just won't accept that," said Ziegler, an assistant bank manager at Associated Bank's Richmond Street branch in Appleton."

Read the whole article HERE.

STOP Having Fun!

The WallStreet Journal online has a fun article about stopping the stupid team building and "fun" events in the offices around the world.

Who's the poster child for this? Michael Scott of course!

"One artistic portrayal of the pain it can cause, however, can be found in NBC sitcom “The Office,” in which the hapless boss Michael Scott’s attempts to liven up his workplace with fun are a constant torment to his employees."

Read the rest HERE.

A Fun Workplace is Win-Win

Globe Life from Canada has a story about "A fun workplace is a win-win for employers and their staff". And of course the reference back to our show!

"Think Michael Scott of NBC's The Office. The socially inept regional manager's jokes are malapropos and often downright mean.

"Michael in The Office is certainly an exaggeration, or at least I hope he's an exaggeration, of managers out there," said Joel Goodman, director of the Humour Project in Saratoga, N.Y., who advises companies on how to get more "smileage" out of their employees."

Read the whole thing HERE.

The State Gives Office an Award

The State is South Carolina's homepage.

Writer Neil White talks about The Office in a recent article where he discusses Emmys and gives some of his won awards which he calls the "Talkies".

"Now it’s almost certain that you’ll be outraged at least once during the telecast. Emmy rarely gets it right. Do you really believe that any other show could be deemed funnier than “The Office” when it comes to picking the best comedy series? We’ll see."

Read the article and see the winners HERE.

Weekly Standard Asks If We're Having Fun Yet

The news outlet has put an article together about what makes the workplace 'tick'. Of course they mention our favorite show!

"The genius of the NBC television show The Office (and the original BBC show from which it derived) is that boss Michael Scott, manager of a failing paper-distribution branch in Scranton, goes well beyond the Dilbert-esque stereotype of the dictator cracking the whip over his cubicle monkeys. Armed with nothing but business-book clichés and a desire to be loved (he is nearly incapable of firing a person, or "counseling them out," in the current parlance), Michael fancies himself a fun guy, an entertainer. His employees don't think he's the least bit funny, yet the Dunder Mifflin office is a stage, and Michael is its headliner."

Read it HERE.

PopMatters Calls Office an Audience Favorite

As a part of PopMatters Fall Preview, they refer to the end of the week as having audience favorites. Of course The Office is among them.

"The Office, 9 p.m. Sept. 27, NBC: A shake-up at Dunder-Mifflin in the season finale means jobs are a-changin’ this season. But the big change is that Jim asked Pam out. Like, on a date. Let the Office romance begin."

Read it all HERE.

TV Guide Fall Preview

What a GREAT web tool! It lists every show, new and returning, all kinds of information.

The Office
Premiere: Thursday, September 27, 9 pm, NBC

Where we left off: Jan Levenson (Melora Hardin) lost her job but got a new set of breasts to win back Michael Scott (Steve Carell). Ryan (B.J. Novak), the one-time intern, was promoted to a job in Dunder-Mifflin's corporate office.

What's next: Jan moves into Michael's condo as her new assets rekindles their romance. And we'll finally have the satisfaction of seeing Jim and Pam get together — we think. "It's not necessarily what (fans) want to happen or think is going to happen," says executive producer Greg Daniels. "But I don't think we'll have an angry mob on our hands." You'll be seeing less of Rashida Jones, who plays Jim's ex-office squeeze Karen, and more of Ed Helms and Craig Robinson, now full-time regulars. The season will start with four hour-long episodes, but Daniels won't be filling them with scenes from the cutting-room floor. "It will be a lot tighter and have a lot more stuff happening," he says. "We're trying to approach it like a comedy movie."

Read the whole Fall Preview HERE.