TVSquad

Like a lot of writers, I have an idea folder (it's manila, but I have it covered in puffy rainbow and unicorn stickers, so it's beautiful). As each week progresses, I jot down all my ideas -- for columns, for stand-up bits, for ransom notes -- and at the end of that week, I take stock of my creative output.

This week, I noticed that there were a lot of ideas that I wanted to share, but that weren't quite big enough for a full TV 101 column. I attached them to the end of my last column in a section called "Dribs and Drabs." It was a good thought, except that it took an already bloated piece (my writing makes the Unabomber's manifesto look like a dream of concise thought) and puffed it up into a 3000 word monstrosity. My editor suggested I break up the Dribs and Drabs section into its own piece, and that, dear readers, is what I did. Dribs and Drabs, after the jump...

(Continued from Part One...)

After checking in (and eating my own weight in free press-room pizza), I went down to see what there was worth seeing...

(It should be noted that from this point forward I will only be referring to the actors on The Office by their character names and not their real names. You could make the argument that this is disrespectful, but I think that it's actually a testimony to how good the actors on this show are. Even when you're in the same room as them, you're not thinking, wow, look, I'm standing in the same room as Leslie David Baker, you're thinking: hey look, it's Stanley!)

(S02E12) Stop-motion animated sex is kind of disturbing. While watching this episode I wondered how much needed to be cut to make it suitable for air. Perhaps nothing needed to be cut, but this was certainly one of the more sexually graphic episodes.

The series was renewed for a third season recently, but I wonder how deep the "idea well" is for a series like Moral Orel. The city of Moralton and the denizens therein are trapped in their own little world, and it's not a world like Robot Chicken or Family Guy where gags can just come from anywhere, and it's not a satire of everything like The Simpsons. I'm obviously a fan of the show and its menagerie of characters struggling to appear righteous while committing all the sins us "normal" folks do, but the Moral Orel universe is so specifically constructed to represent a certain way of life I can't imagine it continuing further without starting to repeat itself.

(S02E05)

I Wrestle My Sons HARD --bumper sticker on Tom's car

Gary Busey guest stars in this episode, as, oddly enough, a man who is completely and utterly insane. More exactly, he plays Coach Harris, a man trying to lead the Jefferton Pinners wrestling team to victory using such esteem-building techniques as telling all of his students they're nothing more than little girls trapped in little fat boys' bodies. Meanwhile, Tom, who is the team's "equipment boy" and dresses as if he's an extra in Flashdance, discovers that the kids have been using an illegal supplement called "Flaxamax." Tom discovers this while hanging the boy's jock straps in the locker room and spraying them down with a garden hose.