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- Season 7 : Episode 17
- First aired on February 24, 2011
Summary courtesy of NBC:
"TODD PACKER" FORMER CO-WORKER TODD PACKER RETURNS TO THE OFFICE LOOKING FOR WORK, BUT WILL HIS FORMER OFFICE MATES PUSH FOR HIM TO BE RE-HIRED?--AMY RYAN AND DAVID KOECHNER GUEST-STAR--After many years and motel rooms, Dunder Mifflin traveling salesman (and Michael Scott's best friend) Todd Packer (guest star David Koechner, "American Dad") is ready to leave the road behind and take a desk job in the office. However, it remains to be seen if Jim (John Krazkinski), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Holly (guest star Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone") and the rest of the office are ready for Todd. Elsewhere, after his computer freezes for the millionth time, Andy (Ed Helms) battles office administrator Pam (Jenna Fischer) for a new computer. Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Ellie Kemper, Phyllis Smith, Oscar Nunez, Creed Bratton and B.J. Novak star.
I took the liberty of fixing the typo. Hope that's OK, James.
This could be a great one.
Watching Packer get abused by the office folks after his years of douchebag behavior could be entertaining.
General consensus seems to be that this will be Michael's "f.o. Finchy" moment. Seems pretty lazy to me. Which is why it makes sense.
I believe it's a reference to the final U.K. Office special, where David tells Finch to eff off. That's the final one, right?
final U.K. Office special
Watched the Christmas Special this week-end. They did a feel-good ending without going over the top. Tim's speech at the end is awesome.
Yeah, Tim's speech and David's slight evolution to a semi-decent human being were both really well done and felt deserved. If they have a similar moment with Michael here it will feel like a cheap ripoff. Much like miraculously having Holly return, using Packer as an instrument of Michael's maturation after not really being on the show for four years seems kind of lame.
"General consensus" is redundant.
If they have a similar moment with Michael here it will feel like a cheap ripoff.
I believe the phrase is "par for the course". They had about 20 episodes of good stuff in them, which was all spent long ago. When they started ripping off YouTube was when you knew it was over for sure.
"General consensus" is redundant.
But correctly spelled. Which is all I was shooting for.
But correctly spelled. Which is all I was shooting for.
Nice comeback. I'm stealing that someday.
If they have a similar moment with Michael here it will feel like a cheap ripoff.
This.
Unfortunately, I'd bet that is what happens as so few would know it was a ripoff.
I thought this was pretty good. Yeah, the whole Packer thing was like waiting for a shoe to drop, but the way they got rid of him felt right. Koechner was great. I lol'd a few times. Hell, they even brought back Jim Halpert.
But using Season 6 leftovers for the cold open was pretty weak.
Holy crap. It's 10:23, and I just realized from reading this thread that it's Thursday. I've been so thrown off all week by what day it is.
Jim's drawer prank was awesome. The rest of it was good, if fairly forgettable.
I'm half way through and it's pretty good! Plenty of laughs, nothing too over the top. Jim and Dwight are golden. 498 weeks?
There were several funny moments in this episode, but the whole Packer thing seemed slapped together. How does him driving off to Tallahassee actually get rid of him?
I found my mind drifting through much of the Packer stuff, but overall really liked this one. I'm happy that they've toned down Michael and Holly and am now firmly on the "I want this to end well for Michael" bandwagon. And Erin! Who would have thought I'd actually like Erin? These last two or three episodes, she's been great. It's like the writers actually listened to some of the complaints about her being too over the top. Jim seemed like his old self, and adorable Pam was....well, adorable.
The episodes since PDA have, for me, felt very much like The Office of old. I think it's the spy cams.
Maybe it was the NeoCitron I was doped up on, but I didn't find much about this episode to laugh about. All the Packer stuff was just okay. I only laughed when he humped the guys under the desk. David Koechner deserved a better send off episode, but I still don't know how they'd have done it.
The stuff with Andy and Pam was the most watchable, for me, anyway.
How does him driving off to Tallahassee actually get rid of him?
I wondered the same thing. It would be funny if that backfired on Jim & Dwight. After all, they did send him to Jo's back yard. Literally.
I liked the episode. It's the first one credited to Amelie Gillette, who used to write for The A.V. Club and is hilarious.
Halfway through watching this one (finally) and so far the only really good part is Erin and her ant frustration.
Okay, now I've seen the Justice Beaver moment. That takes new top spot for the episode.
They really sanded off Packer's rough edges in this one which sort of ruins the story line.
Having just watched "Sexual Harassment," I found it jarring to remember just what an abrasive tool he'd been.