My first rant: The Office

So I've decided to actually start posting on this blog...six months after its inception. About friggin time.

With the big publicity push for "The Office" after the success of 40-Year-Old Virgin, I became hooked on the show. Steve Carrell plays the oblivious and evil boss so well...and Rainn Wilson is equally hilarious as the sycophantic Dwight. For me, the appeal is that the show seems so realistic and the characters are quite empathetic (and pathetic, as you would have it.) It's almost as painful as "Curb," but brings in enough slapstick and wry humor of "Arrested" that it totally works.

Now, for my rant. About a year ago, I wrote a column for the Daily on the product placement/deceptive advertising of reality television. I essentially said, "no harm, no foul" in that anyone who doesn't realize that when Trump pushes a certain product on "The Apprentice," it's obviously a paid advertisement. Additionally, it furthers the scheme of the show...I didn't really see a problem with it all. I mean, there was the Geritol Comedy Hour back in the 50s, along with products being advertised during shows and even being in the titles of shows. Nothing new. You even had actors/hosts pushing products (even tobacco, gasp!) during commercial breaks with as little differentiation between ads and content as FoxNews has between analysis and straight news.

Which brings me to my point. On Tuesday, when NBCUniversal announced its new initiative with iTunes to offer certain NBC shows ("Law and Order", The Office, among others (including Hitchcock's series!!)) for sale through iTunes. I was, and continue to be, pumped about this. It's the future of television, and now I can buy the first season of the show and watch it on my computer at a relatively cheap price. This is sweet. I was out Tuesday night so I taped the Office episode that aired then.

I watched it last night. Thanks to the snarky writing of many TV writers, especially Lisa DeMoraes, I have become exceptionally cynical about television. This isn't neccessarily a ba thing, but it could ruin a good thing as it did last night.

In this episode, the focus was on the company's holiday party. Steve Carrell, as the egomaniacal boss, decided that he was going to "outdo" everyone when it came to the Secret Santa moment by buying his "secret santa" an APPLE VIDEO IPOD!!!! This fit perfectly into the show's character, as then, when Carrell got a homemade oven mitt as his gift, he threw a fit and decided to make the gift giving a "yankee swap" or "white elephant" arrangement. Ergo, everyone took the iPod in lieu of the gift they had in front of them. It made fun of Carrell, per usual, and showed the mean-spirited nature of "yankee swap" and general office gift giving. Very accurate, per usual.

But this frightens me. I have to assume that the reason Carrell gave a Video iPod was because of this cross-promotion deal with Apple. I really really really hope that the writers of "The Office" scripted and filmed this episode long before NBC and Apple came to their agreement. Then NBC decided that this episode would be a good time to make the announcement. I pray that it didn't go the other way.

Yet precedent dictates that it probably went the other way. NBC has been a flagrant user of product placement, with both versions of the Apprentice. Even their news division was corrupted when Dateline aired two-hour specials as a send-off to "Friends." Also, the video iPod was given such great press throughout the show (everyone picking that gift as the hotly desired item)...and it's during the holiday shopping season, that it would be silly to not assume the worst.

I hate being so cynical, I really do. Tuesday night's "The Office" episode was quite good, but it left a bad taste in my mouth like I had been used. Please tell me I'm wrong.