Like most of Season Six, “Scott’s Tots” is pretty light on the Scranton references. But there was at least one, and it shows that somebody on the staff still cares about “fake authenticity.” Near the beginning of the episode, Stanley holds up a Scranton Times article about “Scott’s Tots.” The newspaper clipping uses the exact font, and has the same “feel” as the real local newspaper. The article was “written” by Randy Shermansky, a former Times reporter who has worked closely with the show. So, using his name in the byline is kind of an “inside” joke, something I love, and I would love to be a part of one someday. 
After that nice local touch, the pickins get mighty slim. Again, we see the Erie-Lackawanna railroad print in Jim’s office. And even though they don’t name the high school that Michael’s “tots” are about to graduate from, at least they cared enough to make the scene at the entrance look “wintery,” with some piles of “faux snow” on the steps. I miss the days back when the obscene prom invitations were sent to Dunmore High School, where I graduated.
Perhaps they didn’t name a real area school because they knew they were exaggerating the racial make-up of the classroom on the show. According to Wikipedia, which is the best thing ever because anyone can write anything, the Scranton area population is 3% African-American. According to the website of the US Census Bureau, which is not the best thing ever because not everyone can write anything, Scranton is 7% African-American. Using either number, it is not likely that a Scranton school has that many black students enrolled. Which is not a big deal in terms of “authenticity.” I really enjoyed the classroom scenes. I do find myself getting annoyed by Michael and Erin’s car ride back from the school, with all the full foliage trees in the background. What would it take to make it look “November-y” out the car windows? Surely they have access to stock film footage of some New England fall “leaf-peeping” travelogue they could use.
Ultimately, I’ll still like the show if they drop all pretenses of a local flavor, as long as the quality of the writing remains high. But if “The Office” starts to “jump the shark,” I mean literally jump the shark, then for sure I’ll tune out. Because there are no sharks in Lake Wallenpaupack, and they better not pretend otherwise!
~Bob
Bob – great post as always; filled with fun references from the show.
I agree that the attention to detail has been waining over the last few seasons. Production should know by now that people look for that kind of stuff. Kudos on the newspaper prop though, I didn’t know that was a real Scranton Publication.
I can’t figure out why the racial proportion of the class that Michael pledged the college tuition to was so heavily black. I guess the whole idea was that they wanted to show that Michael had an interest in helping inner city kids. He always talks about how anti-racist he is. Think back to The Convict episode in S3. However, they should have done their research and found the nearest “inner city” to Scranton and mentioned that place and had Michael visit a school in that town. It would have helped make the story more authentic. I also agree with you on the seasonal stuff. There was a time when production would go out of it’s way to replicate the look of the colder seasons (again, see The Convict for S3, during “outdoors time”). Now it seems they just lost their umpf (for lack of a better word) for it.
I’m still on board with the show though, as long as the writing is good and as you said, they don’t jump the shark too much.
You know, I was wondering about the racial makeup of that class, Bob. I know there aren’t that many black people in Scranton but I thought maybe there was a school in a predominately black neighborhood (which, I realize, is difficult with a 3% to 7% black population). I’m glad you addressed that. And, you’re right, at least they put some snow on the ground. But I also look out the windows of the cars when they are driving around. It would be hard, unconvincing, and expensive to fake that kinda stuff, unfortunately…
Thanks, guys! My mom went to Scranton’s “inner city” high school. I don’t know the numbers, but I’d guess her graduating class was something like 10% minority students. Scranton’s more diverse than that now, but still nothing like the bigger cities.
I recall reading that the show spent over 100 grand to “recreate” the Pennsylvania convenience store/rest stop where Jim proposed to Pam. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just fly the actors to Pa? They would get frequent flier miles, too!
Lovely post as usual Bob.
As I was reading it I was struck once again with how surreal it must be to be watching the show and have references to your hometown pop up (twss). Just the fact that you WENT to Dunmore HS and they centered a whole ep around it would be beyond weird to me!
I hadn’t realized about the newspaper. Very good job researching that one Bob. You’re a credit to our LITO team!
Love the Wikipedia info as well. It did briefly cross my mind that “where the heck was this inner-city school coming from?” but I just figured they glossed-over it for the sake of saving time. They did show Michael and Erin driving. They could have easily driven somewhere more urban for Michael to do his ummm…”good deed”. I didn’t notice the trees though. That was something they could have been handled better!
Bob, you missed the perfect opportunity to drop the word “verisimilitude” in your post instead of “fake authenticity. I am disappointed in you.
As for the episode, I have done some recon, and I can tell you now that while there might be African Americans at Scranton area high schools, having such a large concentration in a single 3rd grade class (and subsequently having them all go to the same high school) is highly unlikely. Maybe if the show was set in York, Pa would that be convincing. Hell, I would even believe that Stroudsburg high school could have a lightning bolt strike and have that happen. But not Scranton. No way.
Dave, I had to do some recon myself, on the word “verisimilitude.” I wasn’t familiar with it. That IS a great word for this context! According to Wikipedia, it means “truthlikeness,” which reminds me of “truthiness,” and what’s not to love about that? Seriously Dave, I LIKE learning new words, and this is good one, so thanks for bringing it up!
Future “Scrantonicity” columns will be sure to point out all the “versimilitudiousness” references!
And thanks again Dave, for reconfirming my suspicions about such a large minority classroom in Scranton. That’s surely the reason why they didn’t use a real area high school.
Actually, verisimilitude means “of or appearing to be authentic” but I am glad that you found a colloquial version too….its more your style.
Dave, I have researched “verisimilitude” further, including how to pronounce it. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?verisi02=verisimilitude
Now I have a better grasp on the definition AND the pronunciation, and I stand ready to toss this word into the next appropriate conversation. Thanks again for the new word. Keep ‘em comin.’
The second I saw so many African American students in one class room, I REALLY started to lose faith in the Office writers… I don’t mean that racistly! I mean that there are no classes that have that concentration anywhere near Scranton…
Yes. This episode was ridiculous. Scranton doesn’t have that many minorities, its 93% white as the article writer said.