On Thursday, January 21, The Office aired its worst episode ever. The “all new episode” was a clip show.

I had thought of about twenty different ways to start this post, but whatever. It doesn’t matter. Here’s the truth – Thursday’s The Office was terrible. And I think it’s a tell-tale sign of the decline of a great TV show.

The episode, structured around the thin plot of a consultant (well played by Flight of the Conchords’ David Cosgtabile) interviewing Toby about the company, was totally unnecessary and actually angering. TV needs to, and should have already, figure out that Clip Shows are irrelevant in the internet age. But more on that later.

Six seasons may just be too much for this (once?) great show. Feel free to compare the runs of the American Office to the British original, which purposefully limited itself to just two season. But I don’t know if it’s appropriate. The Office was a success in the United States, and kept getting better as we got more invested in Jim and Pam’s relationship. But in a few years, when we can buy the completed series on DVD, it might become apparent that the show peaked around season 4.

Clip shows are the mark of a dying series. It takes just about no writing, costs nothing and are usually sappy and lame (side note: Saved by the Bell had a least four different clip shows). But The Office on Thursday seemed particularly bad. Here’s why:

Clip shows are exceedingly pointless in a world with perpetually available internet, On Demand television and cable syndication. Clip shows just don’t make sense anymore. With the internet, I can watch The Office, or really any show past or present, whenever I want. I can watch whole episodes and then find clips I like and then clips related to those first clips. There are dozens of free site I can watch The Office, including NBC.com,  Hulu and iTunes, and I can watch clips on Youtube. Imdb has 247 The Office videos available. All these sites even have clips you can see only on the internet. If I wanted to watch a clip show of the The Office, I’d just make my own.

And if I don’t feel like watch a show on my computer, not a problem. My TV automatically records every new episode of The Office and used to record the show even when reruns aired. Again, I can watch anytime I want to. But even in a time when TV shows are literally at my finger tips, a clip show is extra annoying for a show like The Office.  The series is only half way through it’s sixth season, but already I’ve seen each episode probably an average of three times, certain episodes maybe even a dozen. There are Office reruns on every day. It plays on three different channels – NBC, TBS and FOX. It’s on hours a day. Once I looked at my guide and saw it was on for eight hours one Tuesday. Check out this week’s air schedule. That’s a lot of episodes. Sometimes, the exact same episode is on two different channels at once.

I’m honestly sick of rewatching old clips of The Office. It’s a truly great show, I just see it too often.   So every Thursday (actually usually Friday after work, when I watch my DVR recording) I get really excited to see a new episode. So if you’re going to show a clip show, I better have some warning. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

“I felt insulted,” said Ryan Morris, The Office expert and devotee. “If I wanted to see clips from the ‘A Benihana Christmas’ episode again I would just turn on TBS or one of the other 3 networks that airs reruns 24 hours a day.”

Maybe the real problem is that The Office is winding down; and that’s hard to take. The shows isn’t as good as it used to be. A big reason for that, I think, is that the tension, the dramtics, surrounding Jim and Pam is over. It was great watching Jim’s painful love of Pam and their hilarious flirting. But now things are fine between them. They’re married and happy. The show’s root has been, well, uprooted. Carell is still funny, but the show has eliminated a lot of the really awkward jokes and caustic edge it used to have. Michael is still funny, but he rarely makes you cringe like he used to. Also, Jim’s a boss. I don’t know about anyone else, but I liked Jim a lot more when he was a prank playing slacker.

The Office had a great run. I’ll still turn it on a rerun while I make dinner, letting Dwight lecture over the sound of banging pots. But last Thursday’s episode was a loud signal that the show is coming down from its peak. Maybe the US version should take a cue from its English parent.

Currently there are five network channels: Central Broadcasting Service, National Broadcasting Company, American Broadcasting Company, Fox Broadcasting Company and CW Television Network.

Something I looked up today and found tickled my mind a bit was that of these five networks only four of them have ever had a top Neilsen rated show for a year and FOX only within the past four years.

That show is of course American Idol, but before Idol FOX never had the top rated show. For the first twenty years of the Neilsen ratings only CBS and NBC had a top rated TV show, but ABC’s first was in 1971 with Marcus Welby, M.D., which I have never heard of, but I assume is about a doctor named Marcus.

CBS dominated the early 70s and the early 80s, but The Cosby Show on NBC held the mid-late 80s and then in the 90s and 00s CBS, NBC and ABC split it up all over the place with Seinfeld, ER, Roseanne, CSI, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Home Improvement, 60 Minutes, Cheers and Friends each taking it occasionally.

What kind of surprises me is that Married With Children was never the top rated show. FOX was a young network so I understand why not, but if American Idol is appealing to a low demographic then Married With Children and a few other early FOX shows were scraping the bottom of the barrel. And American Idol is still on top even though there are 800 copycat shows all over the world these days. I didn’t know Simon Cowell was that big of an asshole.

Monday.

Julie said she wanted to get Matt and I some real New Orleans food instead of what we thought was real New Orleans food and turned out to just be Popeye’s. Although I have been told by multiple sources that Popeye’s is in fact better in New Orleans. Maybe Zattaran’s is too. So we went to Mandina’s and I was jonesing for gumbo. I got a bowl of it, which was a meal itself! Boy howdy. I also got a roast beef po’boy and found out the original po’boy was french fries between to be pieces of french bread. Wikipedia doesn’t have that story up, but maybe the fat guy wearing twenty-seven beads is right.

We went back and rested up. This is very important. Matt and I were flying out on Fat Tuesday very early in the morning. I was planning on getting in a half night of sleep before having to head to the airport and Matt was most likely go from partying to the airport. It is, after all, Mardi Gras.

Julie, Sarah, Matt and I went downtown, drank, watched the parade and began to despise everyone around us. A couple fun costumes and hats being worn out there, which is nice to see. Lundi Gras on Monday is when a lot of people get dressed up for the parades on Fat Tuesday. We were getting no bead love for almost an hour, but started to make up for it by the end. A bunch of the floats had very B List actors. Jim Belushi, Joan Rivers, some guy from American Idol, the cast of Reno 911. Matt grabbed two beads from Lt. Dangel. We wanted to stay for Harry Conick Jr., but ended up not even bothering. Sorry Harry!

We walked down to Bourbon Street just to see what it was like. It was crazy. Obviously. Kind of annoying. More protesters than I thought. On the way there Julie went to the bathroom in a strip club she didn’t realize was a strip club until I told her after and Matt went to piss on the street and then about a trip of 80 13 year olds walked by that never seemed to end. We walked around the French Quarter for about 45 minutes talking with strangers, watching hilarious people, singing “Amazing Grace” and checking out anything weird. Julie and Sarah danced “Get it Ready, Ready” with some kids that were from 40 minutes outside the city.

Then we went to some bars on Frenchman Street. Frenchman is officially my favorite place to go in New Orleans. Great live music, great big bars, lots of people. If Bourbon Street is Times Square then Frenchman is Bedford Ave. or MacDougal Street although it seems like an unfair arguement. Truthfully I kind of like the feel of Frenchman more than Bedford or MacDougal. R Bar was fun, but packed. Sarah and Matt had been playing these great characters for over an hour. Sarah was a hick and Matt was a real Jersey goomba. Basically both playing a combination of some of their relatives. Either way they were both on and kept me blissfully entertained. It was like watching a FOX sitcom from the early nineties.

The night ended watchin live music and running into Erin Patton and her friends at dba. Let me say I’m a fan. We danced and I tried Andygater, which I tried to be generous with. I don’t know if it’s still being generous if I’m trying, but I spread some love and good cheer.

All in all I’d say that Mardi Gras was a complete success this year. If I were New Orleans I’d keep doing them. It’s like the best parade, party and tailgate all rolled into one. It’s simply what everyone is doing that week. Why wouldn’t you be there?

Total Mardi Gras Beadage: 40 +/- I’m proud of this range, but some people were making a killing out there. Walking away with 100 beads a night, easy.