Life In The Office

Anytime the Dunder-Mifflin gang takes an out-of-town field trip, it presents a special challenge for “Scrantonicity.” This episode was looming as the next biggest challenge after “Niagara Falls,” from way back in 2009.  And to make matters worse, even though I grew up in northeastern Pa, and I was kinda-sorta somewhat of a Civil War buff as a kid, I never visited Gettysburg. It never even occurred to me to want to travel three hours to south central Pennsylvania. In fact, the only battlefield I have ever visited was the Little Bighorn National Monument in Montana, the site of Custer’s Last Stand. That was very educational and thought-provoking; and also very haunting and evocative, as a lot of heavy history had gone down on that hallowed ground. I had these deep thoughts as we were standing there on the lonely prairie with the eerie wind moaning and the tall grass hypnotically undulating; honestly though, the main reason we stopped there was because the visitor center had a bathroom, and you tend to pay attention to stuff like that on those long drives through the sparsely populated western states, when you’re drinking a lot of coffee from a thermos.

Back to Scrantonicity; unlike “Niagara Falls,” at least part of “Gettysburg” took place back at the Dunder-Mifflin office, and that provided me with a few new local references. We’ll start out with probably the most bizarre product-placement on the show to this date: Pam faking going into labor, using a plastic bottle of Pocono Springs water! We’ve discussed the merits of various Office characters holding real products as props, and as a matter of fact LITO reader Amanda did her college master’s thesis on the subject. From a marketing standpoint, it is more desirable to have a trustworthy, upstanding character eating your yogurt as opposed to, uh… a less trustworthy, ambiguous, or morally reprehensible character spooning the yogurt. In the movies, liquor distillers pay much more to have the hero take a swig of their spirits, rather than the villain. I suppose any publicity can sometimes be considered better than no publicity at all, but having your spring water bottle fall between the legs of a pregnant woman faking the onset of labor is… well, it’s different, that’s for sure. As far as exposure on national TV, you could say that it really “cuts through the clutter.” I’m just glad that somebody in the office is drinking something other than a can of Wegman’s soda pop. They drink way too much Wegman’s (or any) soda at Dunder-Mifflin, and this episode was no exception as several characters held a can in their hands. And Pam had an open bag of Utz potato chips at her desk. Gabe should include a lesson in good nutrition during his endless conference room classes.

Meredith was shown “sleeping it off” at her desk, and there were some new props on the bulletin board behind her aching, throbbing head. I saw a poster for the 98.5 KRZ Listener’s Club. 98.5 plays “today’s best music,” and it is easy to picture Meredith driving (erratically) down the road, lustily singing along with LFMAO’s “Sexy And I Know It.” Another poster on the wall had an illustration of a historical old building, along with the headline of “Lackawanna-Luzerne-Wyoming,” the three adjacent counties of northeastern Pa. Each pounding, expanding throb of Meredith’s head obscured the rest of the poster. There was a “no” symbol visible, a red circle with a slash through it, and underneath the “no” were what looked to be two stick-figure bodies engaged in something possibly obscene; or maybe not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

When Kevin was shown at his desk, brainstorming his various “game-changing” ideas, I saw a green and white basketball marked “Riverfront.” The Riverfront Sports Complex is located just outside downtown Scranton, near Memorial Stadium, and oddly enough, next to the winding Lackawanna River. According to their website, they rent the facility out for various uses, so the Dunder-Mifflin party-planning committee might keep that in mind, for a possible office birthday/flag-football event, with enough room on the sidelines for Andy to stage an impromptu singing concert.

Finally, we’ll take a look at the battlefield; how did the show do, in terms of “Gettysburg-icity?” Well, first of all, I think they should have been riding in a Martz Trailways bus, which is synonymous with day-trips in northeastern Pa! But besides that, did the location scouts find a suitable stand-in for the actual site? Well, filming took place at the Woodley Park Cricket Complex in Van Nuys, California. Considering that “The Office” didn’t even have to leave their own city limits, I think they found a pretty decent substitute for the rollling wooded hills of Pennsylvania. Pretty decent; again, I’ve never been to Gettysburg, so I’m sure there are some landscape inaccuracies. The show should have sent a film crew to the actual site, to weave some brief, authentic “overview” shots into the story. But they didn’t; however, as pointed out in this article in the Gettysburg newspaper, The Evening Sun, they did contact the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, for extensive help in recreating the setting. And, they ordered a Conestoga wagon’s worth of authentic uniforms and other props from the American Civil War Wax Museum. If any readers can point these particular props out, that would be cool! I’m sure the park ranger’s uniform is up-to-snuff, and I’ll bet the stone work outside the visitor’s center looks good, too.

Here is one bone I have to pick: Andy called Gettysburg “America’s bloodiest battle.” As a young Civil War semi-buff, I always thought that titled belonged to the battle of Antietam. Oh well, maybe different measurements are used by various factions, such as the length of time of the battle, or as Dwight mentioned: “DPA.” (deaths per acre) Then again, the show is a comedy, and Andy “getting it wrong” is always good for a laugh.

~ Bob