NBC actually calls these “April Fools Day PSAS” and they are incredibly funny. I didn’t see any of these last night, but a couple of people have mentioned them in teh comments and I watched them on the NBC site. This show, and it’s actors, just continue to amaze me.

Here is the link to the full list of videos on NBC’s site. These play on PCs and Macs. It will open up in a new window so you can come back and tell us which one is your favorite. My favorite is Jim Halpert assuring us that it is ok to call a foul in pickup basketball games because “they know what they did.”

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/sub_122.shtml

I know I’m sounding like a broken record every week, but this was one of the best episodes so far. Michael was back to his annoying self as he tried to deflect birthday praise and search for it at the same time. Of course, he didn’t like that Kevin was getting all the attention becaue he was waiting to hear from the doctor on whether he had skin cancer.

There were two parts that I literally laughed out loud. 1) The raising of the roof at the beginning of the episode and 2) Ryan’s uncomfortable time in the kitchen with Dwight and Angela talking about getting “cookie”. Number 2 could have been the funniest moment this whole season. It was perfectly played by Ryan The Temp.

What was your favorite part?

As she does each Thursday, Pam gives us a little peaks at what is going to happen on the show tonight. In her TV Guide post she warns, ” Dwight and Angela bicker over who is in charge of planning Michael’s birthday party. Jim and Pam sneak out of the office together. And in the end, the whole office gang goes ice-skating. This was another fun episode to shoot because we got to leave the office set and shoot at an ice-skating rink. Steve Carell is a great ice-skater. He used to play hockey. The writers had been looking for a reason to use Steve’s secret talent in an episode, and they finally found it.”

Read the rest of it here.

PS, She also lets us know that she’ll be on with Jay Leno tonight.

John Webster (who is a regular commenter here at LITO) also does the morning radio show in Scranton, PA. Today he got a call from Angela and conducted a wonderful interview with her. It was incredibly nice to hear her pleasant and personable. She does very well at acting in a role that is the complete opposite. She mentions that she initially tried out for the role of Pam…but was too spunky.

John was nice enough to post the interview up on his blog for all of us outside of Scranton. You can read about and listen to the interview here.

I hope she hits up an interview with Life In The Office next.

The entries are in for the latest haiku contest. It’s fun to visit these old episodes. (Though I’d still prefer new ones) I’ve selected the three finalists…now you can vote for the winner.

1) Robot infection
It is an epidemic
Just like Jim and Pam

2)Despite Dwight Schrute’s doubts
Anal fissures do exist
Woe unto Kevin

3)Dwight’s health care plan sucks
Jim makes up fake diseases
Inverted penis

Which do you like the most?

As always, Dave gives us the view as a Scranton Insider:

Hello, folks! Another week, another episode of The Office. Here we go.

Terrified of having to tell his staff about the pending cuts in the Dunder-Mifflin health plan, Michael goes on a mission throughout Scranton to find a “big surprise” to offset the bad news. He first lands at Scranton Travel, Inc. The address label we see lists the agency as residing at 150 Adams Avenue in Scranton, with a zip code of 18503.

Scranton Travel, Inc. is indeed a real place, and that’s its real address. Specifically, the reservation center is on Adams Avenue, and the main offices can be found just a few blocks away on North Washington Avenue. Both locations are in the downtown area and very close to Dunder-Mifflin.

While at the travel agency, Michael asks about “those busses” that go to Atlantic City and pretty much comp or include the price of everything you’d want to do over on the Jersey shore. He’s half right about this.

Bus tours do in fact leave Scranton for the high-rolling casinos of Atlantic City, New Jersey fairly regularly, but you don’t get included food, comped rooms or anything like that (though you they may throw in a few chips or something).

Michael soon exits Scranton Travel and picks up his cell phone. He calls the Lacakwanna Coal Mine Tour (how cool that a genuine pamphlet was on the show! I have to give the props department…well…props). (link) This is very much a real thing, and yes, it is 300 feet below ground (and no, the journey into the mine isn’t a free fall as Michael suggested. That proved to be rough on the miners).

I’ve taken the tour many times myself, and it’s a lot of fun. In fact, it was my go-to activity for out of town visitors. Once you’ve been issued your mining helmet, you board the winch-driven cable car and begin the slow descent (about four minutes) into the mine, where it’s a constant 50 degrees. You then get out and walk around the mine, learning all about how mines were created, the coal extracted and the day’s results hauled back up to the surface. I think it’s pretty interesting, actually, and all of the tour guides I’ve met down there have known their stuff. At the end, you receive an “Honorary Miner” certificate. If you’re ever in Scranton, check it out.

Ok, infomercial over. This episode wasn’t as jam-packed with references as previous episodes, but these two were pretty good. Thanks for reading, folks. Talk to you again soon.

This may be a long shot, but LITO would like to invite any member of the cast for an interview to be posted here on the blog. (It doesn’t hurt to ask.)This site is quickly becoming the place for Office fans to meet and we’d love to hear from any of the cast.

Top Five Reasons You Should Grant The Interview

• It will only be 10 questions long. But the tenth will be “Will you encourage other cast members to interview with LITO?”, so you only have to answer 9 real questions. The questions will come from our readers. And I promise not to ask, “So what are some real office jobs that you have had?”
• I’ll be sure to let you and your agent read thru the interview before it is published.
• Jenna, you always talk about the women on the show getting no attention…maybe this will count.
• It’s your chance to get in touch with the fan base…and we’d love it.
• I’ll make it super easy to do over the phone, audio/video ichat, Skype, email, or in person….if you want to make a trip to Vegas. You can stay at my house so it’s cheap.

We’d love to hear from anyone on the show.

Steve Carell- Michael Scott
Jenna Fischer-Pam
John Krasinski- Jim
B.J. Novak- Ryan The Temp
Rainn Wilson- Dwight
Angela Kinsey- Angela
Brian Baumgartner- Kevin
Leslie David Baker- Stanley
Phyllis Smith -Phyllis
Kate Flannery- Meredith
Mindy Kaling- Kelly
Oscar Nunez- Oscar
Creed Bratton- Creed
David Denman- Roy
Patrice O’Neal- Lonny
Craig Robinson- Darryl
Karly Rothenberg- Madge
Melora Hardin- Jan Levinson
David Koechner-Todd Packer
Paul Lieberstein- Toby
Amy Adams- Katy
Robert R Schafer- Bob Vance

And if you’re a director or someone that can just get me in the studio then we’ll knock out all the interviews at once. You can use the contact form on this site and it will get right to my inbox.

LITO Readers: Be sure to leave your reasons/pleadings/bribes in the comment section for the cast to read. When we are granted an interview I’ll be sure to post again looking for questions.

Here’s hoping that actors/actresses Google their name sometimes…

NorthernAttack just posted a link to a forum that is showing off some soon to be used Puma ads featuring our favorite Office workers. You can see one photo below and the rest of themhere.

It’s awesome to see the cast get some advertising dollars. Big companies don’t do that unless they see the stars getting popular. Also, Puma makes some click clothes so I’m glad they are the company.

Here we go again…time for the weekly haiku contest. This week the episode is “Health Care“.

Remember, a Haiku is a “Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.” So basically, you have to have three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables and they don’t have to rhyme. Of course, instead of nature or season, we are going to write about that weeks episode. It can sum up the whole plot, or just one part that you liked.

Leave some haikus of your own…or just make a comment about those you are enjoying from others.

Your turn…

Well, it looks like the winner is

As I re-watch the episode, this is fast becoming my favorite part of this episode. Dwight is so void of humor.

(PS, sorry about the lack of posts lately. We had a family trip to our condos Oceanside, CA and there is no internet connection there. I wasn’t able to go searching for the set of The Office, but we did have a grand time at Disneyland.)