Whine & Cheese

Express Lane: Issue 52

'Amazing Race' Honcho Teases New Season - Seems like TAR has been off the air for awhile (well not that long if it still got an Emmy nod), but TAR13 returns on Sep. 23rd.  As the article title suggests, expect mild spoilers if you choose to click the link. (8/1/08)

Thomas Jane Gets 'Hung' - Not sure if it's a compliment or a curse to be cast as the lead in an HBO comedy about a guy with a big... well, you know...  (8/1/08)

No 2nd Season for HBO's 'Tell Me You Love Me' After All - While it was a depressing and intense show, it was quite good... so a tad disappointed that HBO has had second thoughts about bringing it back. (7/26/08)

`Desperate Housewives' Creator Says End in Sight - Much like 'Lost,' Marc Cherry gives the ladies of Wisteria Lane three more seasons. I like this trend of shows having an end... get focused and get out while the getting is still good.  (7/18/08)

Amy Poehler Says She's Bound for `Office' Spinoff - It's been a big year for Amy - a movie, baby on the way, an Emmy nod today... and now word she'll star in the likely one of the more high-profile shows of the upcoming new TV season.  UPDATE: The show is not a true spin-off, just has the feel/sense of it... ala 'from the creators of...' - and also the show will likely not debut until 2009. (7/17/08)

Express Lane: Issue 40

'The Office's' Angela Kinsey Pregnant - No word if her 'Office' namesake will be in the family-way as well, but wouldn't be great fun?! That is, if the Writers' Strike ever ends!  Other trivia: 'Toby' is Kinsey's real-life brother-in-law. (11/21/07)

Super-Californication-Titular-Litigious - The Red Hot Chili Peppers sue Showtime, accusing the network of 'stealing our identity' over the title of the David Duchovny sex-fused dramedy 'Californication.' (11/20/07)

Donny Osmond apologizes to Larry King - Don't think this is in order... didn't LK & Co. still ambush Marie live on the air?  Couldn't they have told her BEFORE the show, that they knew about it and that tabloids were going to break the story. (11/19/07)

Paige Davis returns to 'Trading Spaces' - After being unceremoniously dumped from the show in 2005 -- and likely when most folks stopped watching (I hadn't realized it was still on!) -- Davis and many former designers are coming back to the TLC makeover show. (11/15/07)

Ken Follett is latest Oprah pick - Finally a book selection pick that I've already read!  Though it was years ago, so I don't really remember all that much about it! (11/14/07)

DWTS' Karina Smirnoff Gets Nose Job - Check out Karina's 3-week old 'new' nose when she returns for the season finale on Nov 27th.  (11/13/07)

Sopranos' pork store no more - Satriale's has been whacked, demolished to make room for condos... glad we got to see the Kearny, NJ store front this past summer (you can see my Sopranos pix here). (11/11/07)

Around 'The Office'

Just a few 'Office' related items swimming around my head.   

When I was looking for something to wear last Wednesday, I decided on the above t-shirt... as it was the closest thing to a Halloween "costume" that I was going to get.  The Office is not exactly a ratings juggernaut, so I was a bit shocked that a couple of kids made the connection between Dunder Mifflin and the show.  I even had on kid that told her Mom about the shirt and the Mom came back to the door to ask me where I got it.

Funny enough, a new Office-related t-shirt landed on my front door step the very next day.  I had ordered the... well just read it below...

MS'sDMSMPMCRAP-AFRRFTC t-shirt pretty much the morning after the season "Fun Run" premiere episode and it was already on back-order (my guess is that it wasn't even in production).  I was happy that it came in a bright blue... the cast wore a teal version of it and I am not much of a fan of that color.  I have yet to wear this one out in public, but it should be interesting to see what, if any, reaction it gets.

After opening with a handful of hour-long episodes, The Office is now back to its usual half-hour slot.  As I have in the past, while I love the show, I still think it can be pretty "hit or miss" and I had been surprised how consistently good those hour-long episodes had been.  I didn't think the most recent episode, "Branch Wars," was that great... but one thing was classic:  The Finer Things Club.

I am soooooo jealous of Oscar and would soooooo be Pam's gay boyfriend and a member of the Finer Things Club (though not so sure about the dressing up part!).   And while it was a tough call (as it usually is), Oscar had the line of the night:

"Besides having sex with men, I would say The Finer Things Club is the gayest thing about me."

It kind of reminded me of those gay "dating" sites where guys are looking for (or advertising themselves as) "straight acting" men...  Besides having sex with men, I would say I am very straight acting.  Ha!

Anyhow, the whole thing was pitch perfect... from Kevin and Phyllis interrupting to Andy attempting to become a part of the exclusive club to the book selections.  It had not hit me at first, but quite an ironic choice that the first book shown was A Room With A View... since the FT Club meets in a room with no windows to the outside world. 

New Banners

It was time to come up with some new banners for some old favorites... and it made sense to give the re-furb to two of our current favorite TV shows... The Office and Brothers & Sisters.

The Office had previously been sharing a banner with My Name Is Earl... why I don't know... when creating this new banner it was tough deciding which Office cast members to leave off, let alone what pix to use of the ones that did make the cut!   The new banner also serves as a demotion of sorts for Earl... still watching it, but not quite feeling it this season.

Next up, Brothers & Sisters... the goal was to get all the siblings of the title into the banner.  Though when I created the original B&S banner, I don't believe "bastard" child Rebecca hadn't even been on the show yet... plus I was never quite pleased with the Nora (Sally Field) pic.

Since the banners take up the whole length of the screen and I am too lazy to create smaller versions of the banners... if you want to check them out, head on over to the W&C Banner Gallery.  At the moment (subject to change), they are the first two banners on that page (you can page down to see the old/retired versions). 

Else you can always keep hitting reload until to they randomly pop up above.

"Office" Fun(ny) Run

WARNING:  If you have NOT watched the season premiere of The Office, you might want to skip this post (just for now, of course!)

Here at W&C, my love of The Office is pretty well-documented.  That said, even I can admit the show can at times be a bit hit-and-miss.  I was a bit concerned with these handful of planned hour-long episodes, as they say sometimes "less is more." 

As it worked out, last night ended up being two linked but fairly independent episodes (have to make it work for syndication)...

I thought it was a brilliant hour from start to finish!

I am a t-shirt nut!  Given my quite fortunate self-employed/working from home situation, t-shirts are work clothes for me.  So I have quite the collection.  I have even contemplated posting pix of some of my t-shirts (for those bloggy "rainy days").  I already have one that notes that I am a Dundie Award Winner... so it's pretty much a no-brainer to get this one...   

Yes, it is available for $24 at the NBC store...  though I guess I am not alone, it's already back-ordered (shipping Oct 9th)... and how funny was it that Pam had to try to answer the phone... "Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure, this is Pam."

The night was filled with many TiVo rewind and pause moments... one of our favorites being the "blink and you'd almost miss it"...  Phyllis' Rabies Awareness Quilt:

And as you can guess, I was irrationally thrilled with the status of the absolutely, positively fictional characters of Jim and Pam... or PB&J as Kevin has dubbed them (that's Pam Beesley & Jim)...

Why did this make me so genuinely happy?!  I mean, for reals.

And was it cruel or what... they give us the full bare torso of Andy/Ed Helms... but we get this teasing shot of Jim/John Krasinski?!?!

Express Lane: Issue 35

Marshall Confirms Cast for "Nine" - A pretty impressive cast for 'Chicago' director Rob Marshall's film version (Dec 2008 release) of the musical "Nine"... Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Sophia Loren. (9/7/07)

Edie Falco Rolls to '30 Rock' - The 'Sopranos' star will appear in three episodes... perhaps I'll have to get over my dislike of Alec Baldwin and give the sitcom another shot. (9/6/07)

'Office' Star Jenna Fischer, Filmmaker Husband Split - Sad 'real world' news for our Pam... but this has got to be the most adorable joint divorce press announcement ever. (9/6/07)

Open-American media turn on "classless" Serena Williams - The NY Times uses the "C"-word on Serena, who gave typical credit to her vanquisher, Justine Henin, saying "she made a lot of lucky shots"... yes, it takes A LOT of VERY lucky shots to win a 6-1 final set. (9/5/07)

NBC Downloads Get Unboxed - After failing to reach an agreement with iTunes, NBC moves its shows over to Amazon... no change in the $1.99 price per episode.  (9/5/07)

Changing the world one loan at a time - The weekend edition of 'Today' had a very nice piece on Kiva.org, here's the accompanying online version. (9/4/07)

'Dancing' Partners Get Hitched - I get quite a few search hits asking about this one, and now it's official. Congrats to Edyta Sliwinska and Alec Mazo, married in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend! (9/4/07)

CBS defends decision to cancel all BB8 interviews until after the finale -  Ironically it's a "good person" like Amber -- thanks to some not so nice in-house anti-Semitic chatter -- that halts pre-sequester press interviews for the first time ever in BB history.  (8/31/07)

Time right for Garofalo on "24" - The former Air America host stays in TV politics but  moves from left to right, "The West Wing" to joining forces with Jack "What Geneva Convention?" Bauer. (8/21/07)

"Grease" Revival Is Not The One That We Want - Laura ("fine singing voice and sweet charm") is fairing a bit better than Max ("singularly lacking in magnetism") but early reviews of the NBC cast Broadway show are not very electrifyin'... this one is not much better... and here's more. (8/20/07)

What Dunder-Mifflin Did This Summer

Not that I feel like I should be hawking stuff for NBC, but this extended promo (3 minutes!) for the upcoming season of The Office was just too good not to share.   

Shameless "borrowed" from EW's PopWatch blog.

What was your favorite line/moment?

Three's Company at The Office

Lately on Thursday nights we have not got around to watching much "same night" TV on the TiVo (especially with a 9pm-ish reading period strictly enforced)... so usually, we just get to one NBC sitcom... more often than not, it has been The Office.  I hate to admit it, but Scrubs just isn't quite doing it for me this season... not sure about the whole Turk/Carla baby thing and JD's girlfriend most certainly needs to go (perhaps George Costanza can send her some envelopes to lick?). 

But anyhow, back to The Office.  I am pretty surprised it is still on the air.  I always liked it, but it just didn't seem like one of the show a major television network would keep on despite any critical acclaim and one that will never be a big audience/mainstream success.  I think the show has really hit its stride of late...

That said, I still think it can be pretty hit-or-miss.  There are times when I think Michael Scott is even more than I can handle... and I think some of the Jan stuff from last week's episode was insanely out of character.  I think the show is far more successful when its subtle or even silent, uncomfortably silent.  I particularly love the supporting players... Phyllis, Stanley, Ryan, Kelly, Meredith, Toby, etc!

Going into this season, I was most worried about the handling of the Jim-Pam thing.  I am savvy enough to know that the TV gods were not going to make them a couple anytime soon.  But still the initial office physical/distance split and the emergence of an "other woman" through me off for a bit.  However, I am pretty pleased and think the storyline has been handled with quite a bit of care.  The viewer has been privy to some private and unexpected moments with each character... Pam's little cry, Jim not so sure he's over Pam, and Karen's reaction to Phyllis' little Jim/Pam slip last night.

Now while my other half likely will not agree, I think that why this has worked is that they have made Karen a likable character.  I think part of it is that I have preemptive sympathy for her... wrong place, wrong time, wrong person... and ultimately pulling the short straw in this scenario.  So credit to Rashida Jones for creating a character that could have been so easy just to "love to hate."  (BTW, I was not at all familiar with Rashida before this ... did you know she is the daughter of music icon Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton?!)

tags:  the office

Jim & Pam - Season 3

Stumbled across this You Tube Season 3 The Office teaser video featuring my sweethearts, Jim & Pam... it looks like it is officially from NBC... so good quality and "official."

Call me a wuss... but the video put a lump in my throat and gave me goosebumps...

... and officially makes me feel I am far too involved/invested about this fictional couple.

tags:  the office, jim and pam

'The Office' Goes Golfing

Had to share a couple of photos of the crew from The Office ... stumbled across them this morning (thanks to Just Jared)... but apparently these pix were from a Puma Golf fashion spread that appeared in April 2006 issue of Details Magazine.

Here is one of the crew... note the team names "The Just Friends" (Jim & Pam) and the Sharp Schruters (Dwight... and in very small print, Ryan):

Ummm... don't you just eat them all up, well except Dwight (sorry Rainn!)

And my personal favorite ... a subtilely steamy pic of Jenna Fischer & John Krasinki:

The chemistry just pops on this one... John's shirt says "Fore!"... indeed!

If you are jones-ing for some more Office... be sure to check out the NBC website... a lot of fun video extras... the "online only" webisodes featuring the accounting staff... as well as all those dead-pan parodies of NBC's "The More You Know" PSA spots.