I will always remember the impromptu dancing that we all did in the LITO office to “Boogie Wonderland.” And let’s not forget that LITO “Booze Cruise,” when I ended up on the deck in the moonlight, just staring at you guys…………………….. for 27 seconds. Yeah, I Will Remember You.

Thanks everyone for reading, commenting and contributing to “Life In The Office.” I think we all wish there was a way to know that we were in the good old days before we’ve actually left them.

~ Broccoli Rob

The “Assistant To the Assistant Regional Manager” starts out with Dwight Schrute scraping the old logo off of the used glass door he has just installed at Dunder-Mifflin’s entrance. Dwight explains that he bought the glass door from a jewelry store that went out of business. The logo consists of a gaudy diamond ring with the name of the jewelry store in fancy script letters. The beginning letters “B” and “i” are the only ones visible. I actually searched an internet list of Scranton jewelers, looking for a possible match. There were ninety four stores, but none spelled “Bi-.” I didn’t bother searching the hundreds (perhaps thousands)  of southern California’s  jewelry stores; I’m not that crazy.

Dwight is the new manager of Dunder-Mifflin, and he wasted no time in redecorating his office. Along with the stuffed boar’s head, and the photograph of the military drone, he has mounted a spiffy plaque, his March 2002 “Award Of Merit” from the “Greater Scranton Agrarians.” There is no existing Scranton chapter of the Agrarian Society, but according to the Wikipedia entry, the Amish and the Mennonites are included in the movement. That makes sense for a honor bestowed upon Dwight. The manager’s office also features a new mobile sculpture featuring all the Dunder-Mifflin employees’ names, and I was reminded again that the new “junior salesman” Clark’s last name is “Green.” Clark’s Green is a nearby suburb of Scranton, so that’s a cool, tip-of-the-hat inside joke.

Daryl is nabbed by his now ex-co-workers, as he tries to execute an “Irish exit” from Dunder-Mifflin. I had never heard of this quirky idiom before, as did neither my wife, who happens to be 100% Irish. I’m curious if anyone else was familiar with this term. Anyway, the rest of the workers are suddenly overcome with sentimental emotions about Daryl’s departure. Oscar whips out his phone to make lunch reservations at Cugino’s. This quaint Italian restaurant is located in my hometown of Dunmore, about a mile from where I lived, and was very high on my list of places to dine during my next visit. Unfortunately, according to Yelp, Cugino’s is now out of business! I dialed their phone number to see if that is true, and no one answered at 2 PM. That’s not a good sign… unless… Hmm, they were so busy serving late lunches that they didn’t bother picking up the ringing phone. Yeah, that could be it.

Pam watches a documentary-crew DVD compilation of tender moments she has shared with Jim Halpert through the years. In a scene from a Season One episode, “Basketball,” a vey boy-ish looking Jim is shown wearing a T-shirt that says “(something) Scranton,” and the shirt has blue and white stripes on it. Those are the colors of the University Of Scranton.  This is interesting, because one of the “rules” of the show concerning product placement has been “no names on articles of clothing.” That explains why the actors did not wear shirts or hats adorned with local businesses. Coffee mugs, soda cans, yogurt cups and beer bottles were the “go-to” props, when it came to the actors physically holding a product. Apparently, this incident of Jim Halpert wearing a University Of Scranton T-shirt either slipped by the sleeping censors or was videotaped before the rule went into effect. That “rule” might be an agreement hammered out by the  Actors’ Guild, to keep performers from becoming arbitrary “walking advertisements.” In a way, it’s too bad, because Jim Halpert would have naturally worn college T-shirts, and Kevin Malone would definitely have doffed baseball caps featuring various local bars’ logos.

Speaking of local bars, the action in A.A.R.M. finishes up at “Poor Richard’s Pub.” Poor Richard’s is a real bar in Scranton, that has been name-checked many times on the show. According to The Office’s Wikipedia page, the actual shooting location stand-in for Poor Richard’s has been Pickwick’s Pub in Woodland Hills, California. That would explain why they have a beer on tap called “Firestone IPA,” brewed in Paso Robles, California. But the prop department has been hard at work “Scranton-izing” the place. The bartender wears a red polo shirt with a gold crest that has “Scranton, Pa” embroidered on it. Plus, there are several 98.5 KRZ radio station stickers stuck around the bar, and all of the Dunder-Mifflin-ites are drinking bottles of Lion’s Head Ale, a microbrew from nearby Wilkes-Barre. (Odd… they all have the same taste in their beverage choice… Hmm… ) Furthermore, there is a plaque with a blue ribbon on it, honoring Poor Richard’s Pub as part of the “Best of 2012.” A nice touch is the start of the TV documentary “The Office: An American Workplace,” which features the logo of the local PBS channel WVIA. The graphic accompanying the logo is a director’s chair with the words “Original Documentaries,” and I suspect WVIA has used that graphic before.

And I wanted to point out this hilarious bit of “Scrantonicity” from NBC’s video series, “The Office Farewells: Rob Riggle.” Rob played the immortal Captain Jack from the “Booze Cruise,” and he was reminiscing about how much he enjoyed his time filming that episode. The only difficult challenge he encountered was his fierce “mental block” when it came to pronouncing the body of water the booze cruise supposedly took place on: Lake Wallenpaupack. For whatever weird reason, he had the hardest time saying that name, and scenes subsequently required several takes. “Wall-en-PAW-pack,” Rob. It’s not that long and hard. (Ahem… OK, all together now…) That’s what she said.

~ Bob

Surprisingly, for an hour-long episode, there is not much new “Scrantonicity” to report. There seemed to be lots of “missed opportunities,” where in the past they would have been slam-dunk Scrantonicities. For instance, all through the episode, Angela is shown swigging a spiked drink out of a large cup. But instead of any local convenience store connection, the cup is generically labeled “Iced Drink,” and festooned with a cartoon polar bear wearing sunglasses. Then, when Dwight discusses his upcoming black-belt ceremony, no mention is made of where Sensei Billy’s (probably dumpy) karate dojo is located. This would have been a perfect spot to name-drop one the many colorful towns around Scranton: Peckville, Moscow, or Dickson City, for example. And, then there is even a quick scene inside Sensei Billy’s dojo; there are many posters visible on the back wall, and they are all related to the martial arts. Huh? You’d think this would be a great place to hang a Scranton Printing Company calendar, or a crooked Froggy101 bumper sticker… but NO-oooo. And Kevin Malone goofily rambles on about being constantly entertained by a “bird in the park.” C’mon, that would have had much more impact if he had said “a bird up at Nay Aug,” Scranton largest and most iconic park. That’s probably where Kevin Malone spends many of his off hours, meeting with his bookie on a bench next to the Everhart Museum. That’s how I picture it.

As far as actual new Scrantonicity, here’s what I found: The white board calendar behind Angela lists a Scranton Chamber Of Commerce luncheon meeting on May 22nd at Cooper’s Seafood. Cooper’s probably has had more shout-outs on The Office than any other local establishment. This has led, I suspect, to a major bump-up for their business. It would be interesting to see a “before-and-after” graph, charting their sales from The Office’s debut-to-demise. They probably will sustain a little glow from visiting fans for a while, yet. Also, the white board lists Creed and Clark as the Dunder Mifflin attendees at the aforementioned luncheon. I wonder which one of that dynamic pair would qualify as the “brains” of the bunch at this lunch?

More Scrantonicity sightings include Clark washing his sandwich down with a Wegman’s Fountain Root Beer at his desk, while Dwight sips from a Sheetz coffee cup next to an Electric City newspaper. Meredith has a local Yellow Pages book on her desk, with a visible ad for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Hockey team. On the bulletin board behind Meredith’s head is a flyer advertising the “Three County Metro Street Atlas,” including maps of Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wyoming Counties. Oscar keeps his many pens and pencils in a New York Yankees coffee cup, which seems a little out of character for the fussy, fastidious accountant. Of course, I might be guilty of a stereotype here; Oscar may keep a very tidy, well-appointed apartment, like people assume of a gay man, but it’s not impossible that he’s an avid fan of the Yankees. Or maybe he just “borrowed” the coffee cup from Kevin’s nearby desk. The much-traveled, ubiquitous Utz Cheese Balls barrel now appears on top of the break room refrigerator. The only reason I’m bringing it up now is because I was reading Jenna Fischer’s recent reminisces about taping a particular scene, where the Dunder Mifflin-ites were throwing Utz Cheese Balls into each others’ mouths. And she confessed that the actors were gagging, because that cheese ball barrel prop has been around since the show’s beginning, and the orange-y, dusty balls are now several years past their expiration date. And yet they carried on with the scene. What troopers… now that’s dedication!

David Wallace offers the Dunder-Mifflin manager’s position to Dwight, who promptly whips out an existing business card listing himself as the manager. According to the card, Dunder-Mifflin’s address is 1725 Slough Avenue, and the zip code is listed as 18509. This is odd because the actual zip code for the mythical Scranton business park should be 18503. 18509 was my zip code, growing up in the neighboring town of Dunmore. I can vaguely remember learning to memorize my address as a kid, and  I recall whipping off “18509″ really fast, like it had a “zip” to it .

When Pam was peaking out of the ladies’ room door, I finally got a closer look at the poster for the 2010 “Fight For Air” charity Walk. The event, called “Conquer The Concourse,”  took place at PNC Stadium in Moosic, Pa, where the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees AAA team plays; maybe Oscar has a box seat there. Also, I observed two new commemorative plaques on the Dunder-Mifflin walls: a “special award” presented to Louanne Kelley, and a presentation to the head-of-the-class Dunder-Mifflin salesman, Ed Truck. At least he was the head, until he unfortunately lost his.

And although Roseanne Barr’s character will probably not be appearing again, I should point out an “Office” post that I received on Facebook; it was an “ad” for the “Carla Fern Talent Agency.” The office itself has already made an appearance, and I tracked it down to a strip mall on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, California. But the Facebook ad lists the address as 1604 Jefferson Avenue in Scranton. Which places it just a few blocks from the house where I grew up in Dunmore. Wow… How many times did I walk by the future home of the Carla Fern Talent Agency!?! Now that’s livin’ the dream!

~ Bob

The show starts out with an interesting quirk; the company that is sponsoring the paper airplane contest is named “Weyerhammer.” This is a thinly-disguised version of the huge cellulose fiber corporation Weyerhaueser, which is known for its paper products. It also produces lumber and packaging from the many trees of the great Pacific northwest. And Weyerhaueser’s company headquarters is a huge sprawling, park-like campus just a few miles from where we live now outside Seattle. So there I am, a Scranton native searching for Scrantonicity, and the show is having a laugh about a company just down the road from me in Seattle. Weyerhaueser’s main campus features a gorgeous bonsai garden that is free and open to the public, if you’re ever out this way.

The first legitimate new “Scrantonicity” sighting of this episode is Angela’s accounting diploma that is seen hanging on the wall behind her desk. It is from PennFoster College, an online university that has a main office and “Career School” on Oak Street in Scranton. It was not easy to read this diploma, which was visible on the wall for only a few seconds. It’s yet another example of all the research that was put into the back stories of these characters, most of which will never even factor into the show. But they did it anyway, and the prop department produced a nice-looking diploma for the wall.

Also visible on that wall were two “certificates of merit.” There is one I’ve noticed before,  “honoring” a real person named Marc Christie, for his past work on The Office as a “best boy” and a “key grip.” Marc has since moved on to other shows as a key grip, and this was probably his “lovely parting gift.” The second “certificate of merit” is for “Acco Fasteners,” a real company with ties to the paper industry. But curiously, the person listed on the plaque is “Todd Liggies,” a name that does not show up in any online searches. Hmm… I think we are on the outside of an “inside joke” here.

When Andy and Daryl arrive at the HDRCP lab to begin filming the industrial instructional video, they are shown walking through a working laboratory, with actual research going on around them by white-lab-coated technicians. They pass by a full snack box positioned on the lab counter, amongst the beakers and test tubes and vials and such. A bag of Herr’s Ragin’ Ranch Chips is clearly visible. It made me wonder if the meticulously pristine, gloved, goggle-wearing technicians just set their equipment down at any time to snatch up a handful of Ragin’ Ranch chips to satisfy their mid-afternoon munchies. Then do they carefully wipe the colorful Ragin’ Ranch crumbs off their hands onto their white lab coats? It all seems kind of Kevin Malone-y, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, the paper airplane contest is in full swing down in the Dunder Mifflin warehouse. Behind the contestants is a desk or a shelving unit that is covered with boxes of Wegman’s snacks and cereals, in an artfully-arranged still-life composition similar to the top of the break room refrigerator upstairs. On the wall above this snack cart is a poster that is “awarding” the warehouse with the unwanted title of “Dirtiest department.” The illustration on this “award” is a cartoon pig. Well… maybe if they didn’t have so many boxes of goodies so conveniently handy down there, they wouldn’t have so many cookie crumbs all over the floor! The warehouse refrigerator features a magnet for RX Billing Services, a local Dunmore business. It also has the exact same magnet as the upstairs refrigerator, extolling the legal services of Dante Cancelli, a Scranton attorney-at-law. Dante works both floors, tending to the legal needs of the blue and the white collars. There are several cases of Izze sparkling juice on the floor behind Nellie, and a 97.9X radio station bumper-sticker behind Kevin, as he glues his fingers together making his many faulty airplanes.

When Angela is shown “stocking up” on Dunder Mifflin toilet paper for her home use, she walks past a poster for the Scranton “Fight For Air” Walk, a charity event which was held in October 2012. The pilfered toilet paper rolls were in a blue generic wrapping paper, with only the word “soft” written on the packaging. Since the show knows that nuts like me are out there watching for stuff like this, they really should have put something comically negative like “industrial-grade” on the toilet paper. It would have been funny and apropos, reminding us that the notorious cheapskate Dwight Schrute is the landlord that stocks the Scranton Business Park bathrooms.

And finally, Jim Halpert is shown climbing into a McCarthy Flowered Cab in the parking lot. The local company McCarthy cabs has been a staple on the show for years, showing up time and time again. This particular cab is marked on the front fender with the designating number “M152.” Hmm… if I look back at previous episodes, I wonder if cab M152 will be the one that is making every single pick-up. Something tells me that it just might be.

~ Bob

I’m happy to see that they, ahem… “stepped up” the Scrantonicity in these last remaining episodes. At the beginning of the show, everyone is excitedly reading the early reviews of the documentary that hasn’t aired yet. Those (mostly scathing) reviews were written by the Scranton Times-Tribune critic “Josh McAuliffe.” The real Josh McAulliffe is indeed a writer for the newspaper, and he has chronicled the show through his  “Office Blog” for the paper since the beginning. The review of the documentary describes Dwight as “forever chasing a manager’s position that he will never get.” Dwight gets his revenge in a talking head, when he scoffs “What does Josh McAuliffe know about the paper business; he works for a news… thing.” Josh McAuliffe is understandably ecstatic about his shout-out on national TV, being “insulted by the one and only Dwight Schrute.”

A major plot point in this episode is the business meeting that Dwight has set up with the “school district of Lackawanna.” Later, when Dwight and Clark are dragging the drugged Stanley to the meeting, we can see the building signs for the “Lackawanna City School District.” This is curious because, although Scranton is located in Lackawanna County, there is no “city” of Lackawanna in the area. (There is a city of Lackawanna, in New York State, near Lake Erie and Buffalo.) In the past, The Office has referenced authentic local school districts, such as my hometown Dunmore, in the hilarious episode “Product Recall.” It also mentioned the real-life Valley View School District in “Job Fair.” So, why did they conjure up a phony, albeit realistic-sounding district of “Lackawanna City?” Well, I imagine it is because the Lackawanna City School District official, “Mrs. Davis,” is portrayed as a clueless, easily-manipulated doofus, that falls for Dwight’s obviously phony flattery, and Stanley’s slurred, drug-induced compliments aimed at her precious grandchildren. That would tend to send an awful message about a real school district’s business practices. I’m just impressed that The Office took that extra step to cleverly craft a bogus name that sounds so northeastern Pennsylvania-ish.

The senator’s “coming out” press conference was broadcast on WBRE-TV, the Scranton NBC affiliate. The logo was clearly visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen, which is not surprising considering that The Office is an NBC show. What was amusing was seeing the many microphones set up in front of the senator, one of which was festooned with what appeared to be the logo for a rival local TV station, WYOU. (CBS’s affiliate) Upon closer examination, I detected that that the logo read WZOO, which is kind of a cute inside joke.

The Carla Fern Talent Agency, where Andy meets with Roseann Barr’s character, is shown from the outside. Using the research skills that I’ve honed through “Scrantonicity,” I Googled one the other businesses visible in the scene: the Kung Pao Bistro. I soon found the actual site at 11402 Ventura Boulevard, in Studio City California, just a short drive from where the show is filmed in Van Nuys. If you Google-map the address, you will see that the “Carla Fern Talent Agency” sign was slapped over a now-vacant suite. At the time of the Google photo, the business located there was “Pilates and Gyrotonics.” I was not familiar with “Gyrotonics,” but I figured it involved “gyrations,” and I was kind of on the right track. Here is an article explaining “What the hell is gyrotonics?” Some of the machinery involved with these “exercises” looks like the owner’s manual should be, uh… “Fifty Shades Of Grey.”

The ever-changing, rearranging refrigerator door in the Dunder-Mifflin break room is at it again. Some of the new local reefer magnets include “Great Uncle Peter’s,” a steakhouse restaurant in Newton Township, Pa, “Sarno and Son” Dry Cleaning and Smart Laundry, and this pretty cool-looking penguin advertising a place called “Vance Refrigeration.” There was a partially obscured magnet that I’m proud of figuring out: I could make out the general shape of the logo, and I could barely see the words “… Brewing Company,” which was enough for me to find the “Breaker Brewing Company” of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Now, on my next visit home, I will have to stop by the brewery, and try one of their beers; maybe the “Phoebe Snow White IPA,” or the “Malty Maguire,” which is a pun on the local apocryphal historical figure “Molly Maguire.” Then there was one more partially obscured magnet that I couldn’t figure out; all I could read was the line “Exciting clothes for exciting women.” Hmm… A Google search of that provocative line plus “Scranton” only uncovered this: the Scranton “Dirty Girl Mud Run.” So, I didn’t find this mysterious “Victoria’s Secret”-y emporium. But somehow I suspect that Phyllis has begun shopping at that place, considering her newfound love for erotic literature.

Finally, Nellie wonders if Pam isn’t getting her mother to watch the kids, so that Pam and Jim can sneak away for a quick amorous adventure at the local Embassy Suites. When I heard this, I thought to myself “Hey, since the Embassy Suites is owned by the Hilton Corporation, I can use my employee discount there on my next visit to Scranton.” So, I feverishly looked it up for a future booking. Unfortunately, the writers were using that darn “creative license” again; there is no Embassy Suites to be found in the Scranton area. Darn that creative license! I guess I’ll just have to stay at the downtown Hilton. I wish I was gonna be there for the gala “Office Wrap Party” on May 4th.

~ Bob

Those promos are for “The Office: An American Workplace,” will which run as a special “Nine Nights In May,” on Scranton’s WVIA-TV, the local public broadcasting channel. Here is a list of the many original documentary films that WVIA has run so far. “The Office: An American Workplace” will fit in nicely alongside previous real documentaries such as “Chocolate Dreams: The Story Of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates.” (These candy bars have been featured numerous times on “The Office,” most memorably being stolen out of the break room vending machine by Creed.) Another real WVIA documentary is “A Century Of Service, The Army At Tobyhanna.” I’ve mentioned here before that my mother worked at Gertrude Hawk Candies and my father worked at the Tobyhanna Army Depot. So, besides “The Office,” I should take the time to watch these documentaries, too. Anyway, using the actual local PBS channel is such a nice touch of realism, a detail that most TV shows never bother with, and one that I will soon sorely miss.

Since the end of the show is drawing near, it was intriguing to see that the break room refrigerator (a major source of Scrantonicity) had been once again “rearranged” by the set designers. It’s as if they want to give a whole new perspective to the nuts out there that are watching for this stuff, along with some equal-opportunity exposure (however fleeting) to some new local businesses. Occupying new prominent real estate on the refrigerator door this episode would be a magnet for Turkey Hill convenience stores, Allied Services, the menu for Blu Wasabi, and “Kevin’s,” a Scranton promotional products and uniform company. (Totally apropos for an episode titled ‘Promos.’) Starring on top of the refrigerator this week is Wegman’s Strawberry Cream Shredded Wheat, which sounds like it has the best of both worlds; high fiber for your sweet tooth. When Dwight opens the refrigerator door, Wegman’s Grape Juice is visible on the shelf.

When Pam visits Brian, the fired boom-mic operator, like a good host he brings out refreshments; no, not Wegman’s Grape Juice, but two beers: Stegmaier Pale Ales. Hmm, the perfect midday pick-me-up for Pam during work hours, especially when she’s alone with a man in his apartment; a man with whom she shares a somewhat intense emotional relationship. As far as I have been able to determine, the Stegmaier beer appearance is not a paid product placement by the local brewery. However, I am surprised that Brian didn’t offer Pam a Subway sandwich. It seemed like he wanted to yank out a foot-long there.

Meanwhile, back at her desk, Pam is drinking from a light purple coffee mug with a darker purple oval design. Inside the design, I believe I see the letters “BAO.” So, on a wild hunch, I googled “BAO Scranton,” and I came up with this: local Scranton graphic designer Leal Bao, who has a dense, mysterious, esoteric website called “Going To Eleven.” I have no idea if this is a legitimate “Scrantonicity” sighting, but I like the notion that it is. So, we’ll go with it until proven otherwise. Maybe Leal himself will see this and confirm or deny it. Maybe I’ll  “friend” him on his Facebook page.

Lastly, but not leastly, I got a kick out of Dwight rating Angela as a “Nine,” and then Clark  refining that observation as a… “Scranton Nine.” Like the “Scranton Strangler,” I think a “Scranton Nine” has a really nice ring to it, and just might catch on.

~ Bob

The show opens with Creed standing in the Dunder Mifflin elevator, reading a copy of the Scranton Times. Just to mess with my head, I think the show should sneak in as a prop, a copy of the Government Center & Van Nuys News Press,” or even the LA Times. Now that would be funny.

Packer arrives at Dunder Mifflin bearing gifts; he has cupcakes which he says he got at “Nipples” at the Steamtown Mall. Pam gently corrects his Packer-esque mistake with the real name, which is “Nibbles.” The actual full name of the Scranton bakery is “Nibbles & Bits,” and the prop department has packed the cupcakes in genuine “Nibbles & Bits” white boxes with circular red logos on the top. “Nibbles & Bits” is not located in the Steamtown Mall, but on Ash Street in Scranton, not far at all from Heil’s Place, a tavern where I may have raised a glass or two way back when. But it’s always fun to have them reference the Steamtown Mall, so I certainly don’t mind the creative license. Later on in the show, Pam laments the fact that everyone is ready to forgive the despicable Packer because Nibbles cupcakes are so good, and they wouldn’t be so forgiving if the cupcakes came from the “Supermart.” Obviously, the Supermart is a generic stand-in for any and every mediocre supermarket bakery that serves up institutional-quality, cardboard-flavored, overly-sweet treats. That made me laugh; gosh, didn’t any real Scranton bakery want that national TV exposure?

Meanwhile, back at the Schrute farm, Dwight is sitting on a couch with sister Fanny. Draped over the couch is a crocheted souvenir Scranton blanket touting the “Lackawanna Iron And Coal Company Furnace.” This imposing old structure is located just outside of the downtown area, and not too far from where the Dunder Mifflin office would be located, if it indeed existed. The historical furnaces are huge, and cast interesting shadows, making them a favorite place for local artists to sketch the bold, abstract lines and shapes. They would be impossible to miss as the Dunder Mifllin-ites make their daily treks to and from downtown Scranton, and it was fun seeing the crocheted version of the furnaces visible on the blanket.

In the same scene, Dwight’s brother Jed is sitting in a chair reading a newspaper. This time, the paper’s masthead clearly identifies it as the “Co-op Farm Journal.” I searched, but was unable to find a “Co-op Farm Journal,” in northeastern Pa or anywhere else for that matter. So this must be a generic prop newspaper, even though a copy of the real Scranton Times was visible on the nearby coffee table. I wonder why they didn’t use the “Wayne Independent,” the real newspaper serving the Honesdale area. Or, I thought they might have used the nearby Carbondale Miner newspaper, until I looked it up and found that it was no longer being printed. Of course, the Schrute household featuring an old edition of a defunct newspaper sounds just about perfect!

Wrapping up this episode’s random product placement would include the Acker Drill Company coffee mug on Kevin’s desk, the red Pennstar Bank ruler on Angela’s desk, the New York Yankees cup, (possibly Jim’s, courtesy of  Athlead) and the Herr’s Home Style Potato Chip cannister upon which a very stoned Andy is laying down some heavy beats. And then there is this observation: not a “product placement,” but on the whiteboard calendar behind Angela, I noticed the intriguing designation “Zipper Day, 1937.” Well, apparently, on that day, April 29th, in 1937, the famous (?) “Battle Of The Fly” took place. Esquire Magazine was the “judge,” and they judged the zipper clearly superior to buttons, when it came to closing the “fly” in a pair of pants. The Levi Strauss Company was not swayed by this judgment, and continued with exclusive button flies for the next twenty years. Come to think of it, the Amish eschew zippers altogether, so it stands to reason that to this day, they employ buttons in that area. And that could possibly include the Schrute clan, with their vague ties to the Amish. Hmm… vague ties… buttons… zippers… I guess that give us, uh… closure on “The Farm.”

~ Bob

The first Scrantonicity sighting is a good one; Pam Halpert holds her rather paltry work resumé up to the camera. I can’t read everything on the out-of focus paper, but I was able to decipher that Pam lives on Linden Avenue in Scranton, and she graduated from Valley View High School. So, now we know that Pam Beesly grew up somewhere “up the line” (northeastern Pa slang) from Scranton, in one of the small towns of Archbald, Blakely, Olyphant or Jessup, which feed into the Valley View School District. There was stuff I couldn’t read on there, but I’m pretty confident her resumé will eventually find its way to the internet, just as the whacky applications of Dwight’s friends did after the episode “Junior Salesman” aired. You can read them here. I am particularly fond of the resumé of the new Dunder-Mifflin hire “Clark Green.” Clark lives at 375 Orchard Street, Apartment 206, which means he lives less than a mile away from the office. He could walk to work if he wanted to, which I’m pretty sure he never does. Also noteworthy is that Clark graduated from Marywood University, with a BA in Retail Business Management. That’s noteworthy because both my wife and I graduated from Marywood, so we might encounter Clark with a cocktail in a plastic cup at some future alumni gathering! Furthermore, the name “Clark Green” is probably an inside joke by the writers, since there is a town of “Clark’s Green” just outside of Scranton. If it isn’t an inside joke, well, it oughta be!

The next “Scrantonicity” occurs when a suspicious Andy opens the break room refrigerator and spies the incriminating lunch sack marked “Pete.” The plain brown bag is sitting next to a carton of Gerrity’s 100% Pure Orange Juice. After all the Wegman’s product placements on the show, it’s nice to see rival Gerrity’s get back in the game. Later on in the episode one of the hot tea mugs Phyllis is holding has a Gerrity’s logo on it.

When Toby and Andy are talking at Toby’s desk, we get a really clear view of the “Toby’s Troops” Tobyhanna green foam bone, which is a promotional giveaway from the Tobyhanna, Pa Federal Credit Union. I’m guessing that the very real “Toby’s Troops” program is just coincidental to the character Toby, and that’s why it is there as a prop. As I’ve mentioned before, my dad worked for years at the Tobyhanna Army Depot, so that place has a special meaning for me. On his desk, you can see that Toby stores his pens and pencils in an coffee mug festooned with the NBC network logo, which is not surprising. Also visible in this scene, just above the Boscov’s magnet, is the fictional prop handbook “A Mediator’s Tool Chest,” which is is gag version of the very real “Mediator’s Tool Box.”

Pam interviews for a job with the Simon Real Estate Company in Philadelphia. One of the best jokes in this episode is that the Simon Company turns out to be a “Bizarro-World” version of Dunder-Mifflin, and the boss conducting the interview is a “Bizarro Michael Scott.” As Pam is led on a deja-vu trip around the office, we can see very similar props and product placements, except they pertain to the Philadelphia area. One wall plaque reads “Award Of Merit ~ Billy Alt.” Billy Alt is a real  real estate agent from Las Vegas, Nevada, so the “inside joke” connection to The Office isn’t clear. Maybe Billy sold Greg Daniels a Vegas time-share just off the strip. That’s worth some merit, I guess. And it is worth mentioning that the Simon Real Estate office not only uses the exact same brand of whiteboards on the wall, but whoever updates them has the exact same handwriting as the person from Dunder-Mifflin! Wow, what a coincidence.

Nellie and Daryl are shown reading the Scranton Times-Tribune newspapers. Nellie’s local section displays the headline “County OKs Brixx Lease.” The Brixx is an old office building on Washington Avenue in downtown Scranton, and that newspaper article ran on January 12, 2012. So we know how old that particular prop was, anyway.

When Toby decides to go visit the “Scranton Strangler,” George Howard Skubb, he ends up at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Facility in Hunlock Creek.” This “joint” is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River a few miles outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The sign is briefly visible in the background, and is another fine example of the “above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty” prop department’s handiwork. I love how they researched and used a real nearby prison. I can only hope this isn’t the conclusion to the long-running, convoluted Scranton Strangler thread, as it is rather anti-climatic at this point.

The last Scrantonicity sighting of the episode is on the Oscar’s computer screen as he dangles upside down in the doorway. When the ad announcing the upcoming Office documentary appears in the lower right hand corner, the rest of the screen is advertising WVIA, the local public access channel, which serves TV, radio, and the internet. The studios are located in Pittston, Pa just off of I-81.

And so, without further ado, it is time to bid adieu, and be “moving on” toward the series end. Thanks for reading and participating!

~ Bob

Can’t wait for a full hour of The Office tonight!

Let’s start out with the big one; Jim and Pam have lunch at the State Street Grill. This restaurant is located in nearby Clark’s Summit, which would be about a half-hour drive from the mythical Dunder-Mifflin. It is on State Street (duh), near the intersection of Highland Avenue, making it walking distance for my sister and her husband. They often stroll down the hill for a romantic meal. The Office did their research to find a nice, somewhat low-key place for Jim and Pam to meet with Brian and his wife. As for the actual restaurant, the southern California stand-in has a similar feel in decor as the real State Street Grill, as I can see from the website photographs. Outside the window over Pam’s shoulder, I glimpsed the outdoor seating umbrellas, just as they appear on State Street. Nice attention to detail! (or maybe just a fortuitous coincidence)

The episode’s first Scrantonicity sighting was Kevin Malone, drinking directly from the carton of a half-gallon of milk. Wegman’s has been the go-to product placement for milk on The Office, but in this instance the carton is labeled “Farm Fresh.” Once I Googled “Farm Fresh,” I was directed here:  (Scroll down to see Kevin’s milk carton.) Isn’t that cool? There is a company that specializes in prop products, with realistic-looking labels, when generics are called for onscreen. And obviously Wegman’s did not want to be associated with seriously outdated milk that tastes like, uh… “chunky lemon.” Imagine that.

Jim and Pam are having a conversation in the break room, and I was finally able to decipher the menu taped to the cabinet door. It is for Tiffany’s Tap And Grill in Eynon, Pa. I could make out the “Tap and Grill” wording, and then I Googled “Tap and Grills in Scranton, Pa” to find “Tiffany’s,” which matched the blurry print. It is a satisfying feeling to find stuff that way, even if it is kind of ridiculously pointless.

The Scranton “mini-mall” remained anonymous, but the exterior of “The Nail Luxury” is shown. That real salon is located on McBean Parkway in Valencia, California, about 15 miles from the show’s base in Van Nuys. The prop department did go to the trouble to put several, colorful “Greater Scranton Chamber Of Commerce” plaques next to the equally colorful “Nail Polish Center” on the back wall.

Pete is shown standing in front of one of the Dunder Mifflin bulletin boards. I could see a business card for Cleveland’s Car Care, and a flyer from “Cinnamon Bay Tans,” that proclaimed they are “Welcoming all newcomers to the Scranton area.” Well, a search for  that establishment in Scranton turned up the “Cinnamon Bay Nail Salon” on Washington Avenue. That was probably the same place, and unfortunately they are now out of business. Sadly, I guess not enough newcomers to the area felt welcomed there. They should have tried a “”Couples Discount” promotion or two.

And even though this is not a local reference, I’ll include it anyway: I could read a plaque on Dunder Mifflin’s wall that is labeled “Certificate Of Participation,” and it was awarded to Marc Christie. According to Marc’s IMDb page (Internet Movie Data Base), he is employed as a camera and electrical technician, and he worked on the TV show The Office from 2005 to 2006. During that time he was a “key grip” and a “best boy.” I had to look these terms up: a “key grip” is in charge of the camera work on a televised production. And since the lively, single-camera set-up gives The Office such a unique signature “feel,” Marc Christie probably deserves his “Certificate Of Participation.” Then there is the “best boy,” who is the chief assistant to the gaffer, the head electrician. Which makes me think that when the lights went out at the recent Super Bowl, the big shots must have shouted “Where the heck is the gaffer?” And that best boy, too?” Now we know that would be the first thing to shout when the lights go out.

~ Bob

I had some really high hopes for this episode, knowing that all the crazy characters from Dwight’s life were going to be making an appearance.  I really expected the mix of Rolf, Trevor, Mose, The Babysitter from The Dinner Party and even that little weasel that used to work with Ryan at Corporate, Troy, to really bring a large dose of ROLF – Rolling on the Laughing Floor.  Even Sensei Ira from The Fight was there, even though he didn’t say anything at all.  Well, that didn’t really happen.  It was all just kind of strange and awkward.  I suppose each of these characters can be funny on an individual basis, but too many weirdos at once just ruin it.

The Cold Opening was very interesting; it kind of built on the last scene from last week’s episode where Brian the boom guy comforts Pam after her fight with Jim over the phone.  There’s a camera on the floor that has been left on inadvertently so we can only see the character’s feet.  We see Pam’s pumps come up to Brian who is cleaning up equipment and apologizes for him getting into trouble over interacting with her.  He says it wasn’t a big deal, it’s his first slip up in 9 years.  He asks if everything with her and Jim are squared away and she replies that it is; kind of.  Then we hear Erin’s voice off camera telling Pam she has a phone call so she walks off telling Brian to say hi to Alyssa for her.  So is Brian taken by this Alyssa or is it his sister?  Next we see Meredith’s skirt and her loafers trying to flirt with Brian.  He tells her that they are cracking down on the crew for talking to the “subjects” and walks away from her.  That is the first time I’ve ever heard the Dunder Mifflin employees being referred to as “subjects”; it was quite unsettling.

After the credits we see an exchange between Dwight and Clark in the break room about how Dwight will be conducting interviews for a new Junior Salesman.  Clark thinks he should get the job because he helped Dwight land the Stone & Sons Suit Warehouse account and he went above and beyond with Jan to land the Scranton White Pages account (and under we might add).  But Dwight isn’t concerned about experience or ability, he’s more interested in getting someone who can team up with him against Pam as payback for the Halpert alliance who have been playing pranks on him for years.  He’s going to find a candidate that he knows will be great because he’s going to hire one of his friends.  Why doesn’t Dwight think that Clark will fit that bill?  Well, in his own words, “Clark may look like a Schrute, but he thinks like a Halpert and acts like a Beesley.”

At first it looked like the only contenders that Clark would be up against were Rolf and Trevor.  Rolf’s interview flip flopped on Dwight and turned into Rolf asking Dwight for his credentials and telling him he’ll get back to Dwight and let him know.  Trevor, who apparently loves to Jump on people, could not jump all over the questions and ended up asking Dwight to validate his bus transfer.

After impressing Jim, who was beginning to get nervous about who would be sitting next to his wife, especially since things between them have been a little tense lately, Clark goes in for his interview and Kobayashi Marued the whole thing.  This impressed Dwight who agreed that Star Trek rules, but still refused to give Clark the job, stating that he has many more friends and they’re all better than the losers who work at Dunder Mifflin.  I had no idea what Kobayashi Maru meant, so I looked it up and apparently it’s a kind of test in the fictional Star Trek universe.  For those non-Trekkies who want to find out more, you can read about it.

Moving on,  Dwight calls in a whole conference room full of weirdos to interview for the Junior Salesman position.  The rest of the employees blame Jim because he’s the one going part time and putting Dwight, himself a weirdo, in a position to bring in more weirdos, one of whom is eating Stanley’s lunch.  Oscar declares that you can’t blame a weirdo for bringing in other weirdos.  You can blame a normal for creating a situation where a weirdo is allowed to bring in other weirdos.  Pam states that she’s the one that has to sit next to the weirdo when Jim is away.  It all becomes too much for her and she goes down to the warehouse to work on her mural.  Jim is left with a thoughtful look on his face.

He decides to call David Wallace and ask to have input on the new hire.  Dwight jumps in on the call and, of course, tries to talk David out of letting Jim have a say.  Jim argues that the person will be sitting at his desk next to his wife, so he should have a say.  David cuts Jim off to tell him that he’ll have to cut his pay back to only the days that Jim works.  Jim agrees that this is fair, although I don’t really get that since salesman usually work on commission.  Jim then tries to get David to invest in Athlead and David hangs up.  Jim is left not knowing exactly where he stands.

Dwight gets back to interviewing.  Next up is his cousin Mose.  It was great to see Michael Schur as Mose once again.  However, he lies on his resume by saying that he worked as a salesman for Dow Chemical for the past 15 years.  When Dwight calls him out on this by saying that they live together and he’s never seen Mose go to work, ever, Mose high tails it out of there running all the way out of the parking lot.  After that comes Dwight’s paintball buddy Wolf.  When Dwight’s role playing idea goes out the window with Wolf trying to keep the paper he had asked Wolf to try and sell back to him, he begins to realize that his idea about hiring a friend or relative might not be such a great idea after all.

Dwight is lying on the floor in Andy’s office trying to figure out how to let everyone down, when Melvina, his former babysitter (and former lover) comes in and asks if he needs to be changed.  Dwight lets her know that he does that himself now.  This show is getting weirder by the minute.  Trevor,  Wolf and Gabor (Mose’s brother) follower her in and tell Dwight that they understand how difficult this decision is for him, but no matter who he chooses they’ll still be his friend.  When Dwight brings up the idea of not picking any of them, Wolf says that he doesn’t believe that Dwight would do that to them.  Trevor agrees that would be contemptible.  Dwight just replies that he wishes he could hire all of them.  Poor Dwight, he really has gotten himself in a bind.

Dwight decides to give Jim what he wants, and get him to be the fall guy with his friends by letting them all down for him.  In order to get Jim’s attention without being noticed by any of his friends, he calls to Jim from Andy’s office.  When that doesn’t work, he crawls on his belly to Jim’s chair, grabs the post and pulls Jim’s chair with Jim on it, into Andy’s office.  He tells Jim that since the new salesman would be sitting at Jim’s desk, next to Jim’s wife, then he feels Jim should be the one to choose the person.  Jim immediately catches on  but agrees to go along with Dwight’s plan.  He goes into the conference room and tells the would be candidates that it was a tough decision, but they’ve decided not to hire any of them.  Dwight gets livid and lays it on thick, but the gang storms out and blames him anyway.

They all decide to go and play paintball to kill time.  Creed sneaks out along with them.  Dwight dejectedly says that people eventually outgrow their friends; he just outgrew all of them in the past 3 hours.

Meanwhile, Jim is settling Clark in at his desk when Pam gets back.  He tells Pam that this was the least of all the evils (kind of in Clark’s earshot, which was inconsiderate.  Also inconsiderate, Dwight giving Jim’s home address to all his friends in case they want to toilet paper his house), and it took him all day to pull this off so she should be thrilled, considering.  I think Jim was giving himself too much credit, all he really had to do was wait for Dwight to self-destruct and then swoop in and save the day like the X-Men, the fake school which Dwight attended as a child I failed to mention in my recap since it was so irrelevant to the story and such a dumb attempt at humor that it wasn’t even worth mentioning.  I suppose that’s how Dwight came to know the guy in the black framed glasses, who I can only conclude from the name board is Zeke.  If anyone else has any other theories, please let me know.

Dwight is back at his desk as Jim leaves to make a board meeting in Philly.  He gets an e-mail with the subject, “Hey Jerk”.  It’s a picture of all his friends in paintball gear captioned, “Glad You’re Not Here.”  On closer inspection, Creed is not in the picture.  Either he was the one taking the picture or just used the group of people storming out of the office to get away for the rest of the day.  It was a pretty funny Creed moment either way.

Clark gets up to go to the kitchen and asks Pam if she wants anything.  Pam says she’s good but Dwight holds out his mug and says, “I’d like some coffee.”  Clark replies that he’s sorry and holds up his hand above his head and replies, “You have to be this cool for coffee,” and walks away.  Pam can sense that this hasn’t been a good day for Dwight.  She asks him if he wants to haze the new guy.  Dwight jumps at the opportunity to team up with Pam against Clark.  She gives him a role of saran wrap and tells him that the next time Clark gets up to go to the bathroom, she’ll distract him and he should…  Dwight cuts her off, he tells her he knows exactly what to do.  Pam smiles mischievously.  Clark returns and the next thing you know, Dwight is behind his chair and has covered his face with saran wrap, suffocating him.  Clark screams and Pam, looking horrified, yells, “Dwight, NO!”  Obviously, he was supposed to spread the saran wrap across the toilet bowl and not Clark’s face.

Jim says in TH in the parking lot on his way back to Philly that it’s important who sits next Pam while he’s away because the people around you are the ones you end up sharing your life with.  Because of where his desk was, he spent years looking at Pam and he found love.  We cut back to the office where Brian the Boom Guy is holding his boom and looking at Pam longingly.  Uh oh, this can NOT be good.  Stay tuned for my recap of Vandalism, for the conclusion to this story.

All in all, Junior Salesman wasn’t all I expected it to be, but I suppose there were a few good moments.  Let us know what you thought by sounding off in the comments or join us on the boards.  I’ll be posting my Vandalism recap shortly.

~Suri (aka HDF)

“Scrantonicity” has been all about documenting the charming “localization” of the show. Over the years, as The Office’s creative writing roster has inevitably changed, the new kids appear to have lost sight of the original mission. The Dunder-Mifflin dialogue doesn’t include many local references anymore. Back in the early days, you could have caught a decent buzz if you were playing a drinking game every time a real Scranton restaurant was name-checked. There were copious Cooper’s Seafood mentions, and numerous excursions to Poor Richard’s pub. That doesn’t happen so much anymore, and even most of the events that take place outside of Dunder-Mifflin remain a geographic mystery. For instance, there’s the political fund-raiser at Senator Lipton’s stately home; that probably would have taken place in Green Ridge or Clark’s Summit, but the location wasn’t mentioned. I know it doesn’t matter, and doesn’t serve to make the show any funnier. But it did add another level of complexity to The Office, like the many layers of an onion. Or a lingering “tasting note” of a fine wine.

The writers may have given up the ghost, but at least the prop department continues the fun tradition. This great gag from “Junior Salesman” is only visible if you freeze-frame the action, and even then you have to look very closely at Rolf’s heavily-redacted resumé. Dwight’s good friend “Rolf” is shown to reside at 187 Chestnut Street in Dunmore, which is the borough that borders Scranton, and happens to be my home town. Chestnut Street is real, and it runs through the heart of town right at Dunmore Corners. But on Rolf’s “carefully” constructed resumé, the name of the street is hilariously mis-spelled as “Chestunt” Street. And the upper Dunmore zip code of 18512 is erroneously listed instead as 18505, which is the actual zip for south Scranton where the Dunder-Mifflin office would be, if indeed it did exist. The prop department people are way too meticulous to make a mistake like that, except when they are emphasizing the point that Rolf is an idiot. Almost everything else on Rolf’s resumé is blacked out, with these exceptions: his “education,” which consists of a “minor in entrepreneurship;” his “experience,” which is “custom built furniture,” and his time spent being a “life coach,” (2007-2007). And under “special skills,” Rolf lists “clean license.” Then there is his web address, which is www.rolfvonweyler@yawho.edu. (“Yawho”…) If the prop department goes through this much trouble to make up Rolf’s resumé, for one second of unreadable air time, I figure it is my job to bring it to light. Somebody ought to do it. If it was a lingering taste note of a fine wine, somebody ought to drink it.

One more semi-interesting thing about Chestnut Street in Dunmore: my sister got married at Saint Mary’s of Mount Carmel church on Chestnut Street. We all knew St. Mary’s as the only Roman Catholic church is the USA that didn’t have any steps leading into the front doors; the aisle down the center of the church was at sidewalk level. I wonder if that still is the case? Maybe another church has been built like that recently, which would make sense as far as new guidelines for ADA-compliant construction. Or maybe the whole thing was always just one of those “urban myth” deals. I can’t find anything about it on the ‘net. Hmm…

Later in “Junior Salesman,” Trevor hands Dwight a bus transfer for validation. I couldn’t read any writing on the authentic-looking transfer, but I’ll bet it is a legitimate one from COLTS. (County Of Lackawanna Transit System.) Because that’s the way The Office prop department rolls. Props to them!

In the second episode, “Vandalism,” the bulk of the new “Scrantonicity” can be seen in Jim and Daryl’s Philadelphia bachelor pad. They’ve stocked up on household supplies from the Scranton-area Wegman’s supermarket, before driving south. (Or they stopped in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which is the closest Wegman’s to Philadelphia. It makes sense, because we’ve already seen from a previous episode a close-up of Jim Halpert’s wallet that shows he carries a Wegman’s “customer loyalty card.”) Jim is shown eating Wegman’s Blueberry Muffin Squares cereal, doused in Wegman’s milk. Later, Daryl and Jim are shown drinking Wegman’s Fountain Cream soda. I didn’t try to identify any of their toiletries in the bathroom scene, because that seemed a little too personal. There are some places that Scrantonicity does not feel comfortable prying.

It was fun researching the “Charles Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters,” which is mentioned fondly by Dwight. I didn’t know anything about the fictional school from the Marvel Comics universe, but it was a hoot seeing how the Office writers gave Dwight such a colorful upbringing.

This is just a fun by-product of Scrantonicity, but I love when I find stuff like this. At 15:45 into the “Junior Salesman” episode, Dwight is pondering who among his friends he is going to hire. As he stands alone, talking to himself in the office, he delivers the following line: “And yet I’m hesitant; why can’t I pull the trigger on any of them?” On the word “can’t,” Rainn Wilson accidentally hacks up a huge spitball, which goes flying across the screen. It’s over in an instant, and the casual viewer would probably never notice it. Since no other actors were present, there was no danger of anyone being hit with the objectionable projectile. But it is jarringly funny to see, and noteworthy that they left it in there, rather than reshoot the scene. I guess they figured nobody, except maybe the “Scrantonicity” guy would catch it. Plus it’s the kind of off-the-wall anecdote that I can definitely see Rainn Wilson retelling on a late night talk show; the tale of his impromptu side-splitting “spit-take.”

~ Bob

Well, in keeping with reality, Meredith’s hair wouldn’t instantly grow back within a week, so they keep showing her bald and wearing wigs, but the hair and make-up department has revealed the truth about Meredith’s baldness and what it took to get her looking from this:

To this:

The following illustration shows just how they did it:

So now you know the truth, Kate Flannery did not actually shave her head. It still looks pretty real though, doesn’t it?