TVSquad

Remember when NBC had a slogan for their repeats, "If you've never seen it, it's new to you!" I thought it was actually pretty much true, if a sneaky way to sell reruns.

Now they're going one step further. Next week the network is going to show two repeats of The Office. But instead of just airing them as they aired before, they're going to be recut into an hour-long episode, mixed up a little bit and with deleted scenes added to put in a whole new subplot that you didn't see in the first airings of the episodes. They're dubbing them "Newpeats."

I'm talking about the American version of the show that ran for a short time on NBC several years ago. It starred Rob Schneider, Justine Bateman, and Ron Eldard. Remember it now? It actually ran for a season and a half before it was pulled.

Shout! Factory is releasing a 4 disc DVD set of the show, which will include all 22 episodes (including seven that never aired). No word yet on if there will be any extras or other features. As you can see from the cover of the box, where Rob Schneider is standing there naked but with a newspaper over his genitals (get it? naked people covered up!), the show was, um, hilarious.

It always amazes me when shows like this come out on DVD. Not a hit, but it came out recently enough and there must be some sort of cult buzz to justify a DVD release. It just makes me think of all the shows in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that lasted even longer but were too long ago and/or don't have that buzz that would make a company put the show out on DVD. Though I guess if shows like this keep getting released, the chances of those older shows coming out increases, so more power to 'em.

The set comes out on February 13.

Ryan Budke is at it again, bothering employees over at Dunder-Mifflin. This time he's in the breakroom of the company, interviewing cast member and writer/producer Mindy Kaling. In the exclusive Netscape video below, he talks to her about tonight's episode: