I Finally Finished The Office

Many of you who know me already know that I am a big fan of the TV show The Office, which aired on NBC for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013.  In fact, two of my previous posts on this blog are about that very show, including my painstakingly detailed recaps of The Office Basketball Game from Season 1 and The Office Olympics from Season 2.  However, as much as I enjoyed the show, I completely stopped watching it altogether after Season 7.  Once Steve Carell, the lead actor who played regional manager Michael Scott, left in 2011 to focus on his film career, I said that they should wrap it up right then and there, and there was no way I could keep watching it without Michael.  The Office would continue for two more seasons without my viewership, finally ending in 2013 after Season 9.  Over the years, although I remained a fan of the show’s first seven seasons, I completely boycotted watching Seasons 8 and 9.  Other people who shared my fandom of The Office would make a reference to a particular quote or episode from the last two seasons, and I would look at them blankly and say, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.  Is that from the last two seasons?”  And they would say, “Oh that’s right, you’ve never watched the end of The Office!  You need to finish watching that show!”  But as I can be stubborn about certain things, I never did.  That is, until just recently.

Friends Thanksgiving Football Game

On Thanksgiving Day 1996 in New York City, six friends got together for a friendly game of football.  But what started as just a friendly game quickly turned into an intensely competitive battle for the coveted Geller Cup in front of millions of television viewers.  I am, of course, referring to the Friends Season 3 episode, The One With All the Football.

In one of my early blog posts back in April, I provided an unnecessarily detailed breakdown of the basketball game from The Office.  (You can find that here.)  With that in mind, I have decided to once again combine one of my favorite TV shows with my interest in sports.  With this week being Thanksgiving, and in celebration of the time-honored tradition of Thanksgiving football, I now present an unnecessarily detailed breakdown of the Friends Thanksgiving football game.

Head of the Class

During this year’s quarantine life, many of us found ourselves suddenly staying at home with more time on our hands than we anticipated.  Over the spring and summer, I found an old TV show online to catch up on, one that I somewhat remembered as a kid but not seen in at least 29 years.  The following is my review of the hit ABC sitcom Head of the Class, which aired from 1986-1991.

Office Olympics

In an alternate timeline where everything had remained normal this year, the sports world would currently be enjoying the opening weekend of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.  Although the games have not been cancelled at this point, but rather postponed until 2021 (hopefully that is still able to happen), these Olympics were supposed to be taking place right now. And although baseball is now back with its empty stadiums and piped-in crowd noise, it’s not quite the same. We’re still missing the swimming, track and field, gymnastics, beach volleyball, table tennis, and all the other sports we pay attention to every four years because NBC tells us to. Fortunately, I still can still watch some version of the Olympics, since I have The Office Season 2 on DVD, which contains the episode Office Olympics.

“I Could Have Done Better”

Over the past couple weeks, while societal tension and unrest have dominated the news during our coronavirus pandemic, graduation season has come and gone for most communities here in Indiana.  Of course, graduations have looked different this year, as all the ceremonies I know about have either taken place virtually or been postponed.  However, I wanted to take this opportunity to honor the graduates of this strange year by offering a graduation speech of my own.  After all, I have a blog now, so I can do this.

So, let’s be honest.  Unless you have given a graduation speech yourself (which I haven’t), how many of us who have graduated remember anything from the speeches?  Mainly what I remember is being in extremely hot and crowded gyms for both my high school and college graduations, and how they both took forever to read through the list of names, but I don’t really remember much from any of the speeches.  We may have heard some excerpts from “Oh, the places you’ll go!” by Dr. Seuss, or how this isn’t just the end, but a beginning of a new chapter.  But for some reason, the graduation speech I do remember the most comes from a TV show.  Because of course it does.

The Big Bang Theory Season 13

On the one-year anniversary of the series finale of The Big Bang Theory, we explore what one more season of the iconic TV show could have looked like.

If you followed the show like I did, you may recall that the series said its final goodbyes one year ago today – Thursday, May 16, 2019 – after twelve successful and entertaining seasons.  Those of you who know me well have probably figured that I would drop in several TV references on this blog to a certain core group of my favorite shows.  I have already included several references on here to The Simpsons and The Office, and now The Big Bang Theory makes this list as well.

The Office Basketball Game

April 19, 2005.  Scranton, Pennsylvania.  One of the most legendary basketball games in history took place fifteen years ago today.  No, it wasn’t an NBA game, or college, or high school, or even a real-life game.  I am, of course, referring to the Season 1 episode of The Office titled Basketball.

To commemorate the 15-year anniversary of the date this episode aired, I wanted to take a look back on this game between Dunder Mifflin Sales and Dunder Mifflin Warehouse in one of the classic episodes of one of the best TV sitcoms of all time.  If you’re like me and you enjoy both basketball and The Office, this is definitely for you.  Even if you enjoy only one or the other, you should hopefully get some entertainment out of this as well.  Since this weekend would have normally been the start of the NBA playoffs, we all need a little basketball to help tide us over until it comes back.