We were a little confused when Ed Helms’ character disappeared without a trace from The Office. It actually got to the point where we were wondering if we’d missed an episode. So, where’s Andy?

That’s the question fans of NBC’s “The Office” have been asking ever since the Jan. 18 episode, titled “The Return,” when new Dunder-Mifflin Scranton employee Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) punched a hole in a wall in a fit of rage. He excused himself and hasn’t appeared since.

Turns out the answer to that mystery lies within “The Return” itself — or, rather, in an extended producer’s cut that was made available on NBC’s Web site and through Apple’s iTunes store. An added scene at the end explained that Andy was ordered to attend anger management classes.

We had a little bit of this with Lost, too, over the past few months. If I’m watching a TV show, I don’t want to have to discover critical pieces of information by hunting around on the web. I’m way too lazy for that.

(via our Viewer Discretion TV blog)

Technorati Tags: The Office, Ed Helms, Television

The one advantage of having all these late games (including next week) is that the baby is asleep and not subjected to the endless stream of screams, gasps, curses and shrieks that accompany playoff football.

Yesterday’s game was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Some of us in the room were worried, but I knew Brady would come through in the end (and that the Chargers would self-destruct).

(p.s. for LT: The easiest way to keep people from celebrating on your field is to win the game…)

Don’t bring a pen when you listen to Katie Couric.

Matt Bartel, owner of the popular MNSpeak blog also was issued an invitation by WCCO [to attend the Couric ‘Town Hall’ event], although the station apparently didn’t recognize the name Bartel (ubiquitous in Twin Cities publishing circles) or his business, until the event was about to start.

“They pulled me out of the auditorium and told me that they’d become aware of the fact that I had a blog,” Bartel said. “They said, ‘We don’t want you to participate,’ ” then offered him a choice: surrender his notebook or leave the event.

“I wasn’t going to give them my notebook; I had business stuff in there.”

A compromise was reached - the ‘CCO staffer confiscated Bartel’s pen instead.

I’m sure Couric had little to do with this, but the staffer’s actions reflect poorly on her.

More here, on the penless scribe’s website.

Wow, if you weren’t already impressed with Jenna Fischer — Pam from The Office — her essay on how to work in Hollywood will definitely win you over.

I thought being an actor meant being famous. But, most actors aren’t recognizable. It’s funny. I watch TV in a whole new way now. Like, I watch a show and I see the person who has 3 lines on Law and Order and I think, “Their family is gathered around the TV flipping out right now. I bet that was a huge deal for that person!” There are so many actors that make a living by doing support work on shows. I was that person for many years. For me to stay in this business, it had to be okay if I was never recognized. I learned that I loved the craft of acting more than the idea of being famous.

Wow, such a fun link from Boing Boing: a reel of 70s toy commercials on YouTube.

These toys look like so much fun.

As you know, we watch The Colbert Report each night. Last night, Colbert hosted the White House Correspondent’s dinner; today, the blogosphere is all atwitter.

Colbert ripped the President to shreds, playing one long extended game of the emperor’s new clothes, with some pretty funny lines.

[Talking to Jesse Jackson is] like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is.

Some people are upset at Colbert’s disrespect. They aren’t challenging his premises, just his taste in making comments so near the President. Which may be reasonable, given comments like this:

I haven’t. I stand by [President Bush]. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, has he stood on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

Here’s the transcript. Here are video links, to part one, two, three. You should watch the whole thing, not because it’s brilliant comedy — some places are pretty flat, not helped by a hostile audience — but because sometimes the court jester is the only one who’ll speak bluntly.

I got a nice email response to my My Name is Earl unsubscribe post asking what shows I’ve added to my Tivo season pass. Here they are:

The Daily Show
Still the best, though it’s lost a little since Stephen Colbert left. We usually watch the Daily Show the next night, after dinner. We’re never up this late anymore.

The Colbert Report
Incredibly funny, if incredibly uneven. The Word is almost always worth watching, even though many of the jokes go *way* over the heads of the mostly-college-student studio audience. We also love the eagle in the credits and the bear footage from the Threatdown.

Lost
This season has been weaker than we’d like, but it’s still worth watching.

Survivor: Exile Island
I’ve watched pretty much every episode of Survivor since the middle of season one. This season falls somewhere in the middle in terms of quality.

The Office
This is, hands down, the best show on television right now. I’m thrilled that they don’t talk down the audience, and they don’t explain the jokes. We’re constantly pausing the Tivo to keep from laughing over the next lines.

It’s also one of the few shows on television where people who are supposed to be normal people actually look like normal people.

Ebert & Roeper
Fodder for the Netflix queue.

What not to Wear
A’s. Although I do sometimes find it interesting to see what the people they find think is attractive clothing.

NFL Primetime - currently off the air
NFL Primetime has been the highlight of my Sunday nights for almost 15 years now. I’m sad that, with the network shakeups, it is now permanently off the air.

Grey’s Anatomy
A.’s. I don’t like medical dramas.

Desperate Housewives
A.’s.

How I Met Your Mother
I watched this first out of loyalty to Alyson Hannigan, but it’s stayed on the list on its own merits. The shows around when Ted met Victoria were some of the best sitcom episodes I’ve seen in years.

Alias
A’s. I’ll watch the DVDs when they come out.

Supernanny
Surprisingly engrossing. We end up pausing to talk through some of the issues they discuss. I can’t imagine we’ll ever be that permissive with little Sadie.

Scrubs
A’s, though entertaining the couple of times I’ve watched it.

Rescue Me
Mildly entertaining. May not make the cut this summer.

National Geographic Explorer
Outstanding nature shows.

Nova
Sometimes they cover interesting topics.

20/20
I generally find one topic in three interesting, but that’s worth grabbing it each Friday night and flipping through.

Frontline
The best newsmagazine on television. They also always do outstanding web companion sites for their major pieces.

What am I missing? What else should we subscribe to?

I suppose this qualifies as my embarrassing disclosure of the day. Here are a couple of videos I found this morning, videos that brought me back to the mid-eighties, when I knew everything about professional wrestling.

Hulk Hogan wins the WWF championship from The Iron Sheik
From January 1984.

Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy
From January 1985’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Also, the WWE store has a Hulk Hogan anthology that looks pretty impressive. Check it out.

For even more fun, check out the Wikipedia entries for these folks for these men. Sadly, many of them are dead.

Hulk Hogan
The Iron Sheik
Andre the Giant
King Kong Bundy
Big John Studd

If you’ve never tried it, you should check out YouTube and do a couple of searches. You will be able to find all sorts of interesting things.

My Name is Earl has really gone downhill over the past couple of months. It was good for several laughs per episode at the beginning, but they seem to have lost a lot of steam recently. Maybe it’s only a concept with a half-a-season worth of material. This makes me sad, because I love Jason Lee as an actor.

At least The Office is still brilliant.