Finally, The Office

That this blog has little to no focus is no secret. I've skipped from personal experiences to oddball news stories to sports events. It's still a work in progress, and it's a slice of what interests and bothers me on a regular basis, which I guess in it's truest form is what a blog is supposed to be. With that said, it is sort of amazing that something I'm so passionate about has made just one blog appearance in the form of a hat in paradise.

Tonight, The Office returns with original programming for the first time in what I believe is 9 months. The greatest show on Earth returns, finally.

The NBC has put forth feeble attempts to quench the thirst of The Office fanatical. A few weeks back they threw in a couple deleted scenes into previously aired episodes. That was fine, but nothing that altered any story lines or offered any profound insight. Certainly in a show as good as The Office their deleted scenes are better than most regular programming, but a few thirty second snippets aren't going to satisfy.

Last week, the network gimmick was a marathon of episodes hosted by Toby, one of the show's characters. By "hosting" we really mean he sits in character and offers funny (but not "Office funny") thoughts about life in Scranton, PA. Again, no truly new material and nothing that couldn't be missed.

But tonight, we have a brand new show. Not only that, it's a one hour brand new show. The last time The Office expanded from 30 minutes to one full hour, viewers were rewarded with probably the best show of the season in A Benihana Christmas. Given another hour with the promotional tease being "don't miss the first 2 and a half minutes," I don't see how this can't be a wonderful, wonderful evening.

Oh wait, yes I do. I will be working and will miss all of this. In fact, I work Friday morning very early to unload our weekly truck marking a fun turn around in which I will get home about 11pm and leave home about 6am the next day. That's seven hours, most of which is usually reserved for sleep but you better believe I'm spending an hour of it to catch up on the best show on TV before hitting the sack.