SteveSilver.net

It Would Be Really Funny If They Set It In "Fictional" Latham, Mass.

From a New Yorker piece, by Nick Paumgarten, comparing the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial with NBC's "The Office.":

That evening on cable, there happened to be a rerun of an episode from “The Office,” called “Basketball,” in which Michael (Carell) challenges the warehouse staff to a game of hoops. Michael picks the only African-American in the office first (“Stanley, of course.” “Why ‘of course’?”), drafts the receptionist as a cheerleader (“You know, some pigtails? Little halter top?”), and tells another employee, “Just try not to be too gay on the court.” All he suffers, in the end, is some interdepartmental comeuppance, but one can imagine that the show’s creators could use a lawsuit as a conceit for a two-hour farewell special, reprising, via testimony, all Michael’s choicest remarks.

I liked that idea a lot better the first time, back when it was called "the last episode of 'Seinfeld.'" Though actually, come to think of it, I didn't like it better.

Posted by Stephen Silver at October 8, 2007 03:38 PM