I have blogger's ADHD

But I'm not going to do anything about it. Just like the depression. If you acknowledge the problem it gets old real fast so instead ignore it for as long as possible, life will go by more quickly.

Anyway, The Office and Seinfeld (and 30 Rock). Wait, if Mourinhno really wants the England job then I think (not that anyone would ever ask) the FA should pay him pretty much whatever he wants. He'll have the highest chance of succeeding at the job since Sir Bobby Robson. The Special One is egomaniacal enough to not be pressured into sticking with the players with a good reputation and actually be able to alter the lineup according to the player's form; from the past decade of watching England, one would be led to believe that this is a novel concept. For example, it took Hoddle almost two games in the opening rounds of the 1998 World Cup to stick Owen in for Sheringham and Owen never looked back, at least for that tournament. Michael is just a sour topic because he really had some quality which were never improved on and then the injuries wore him down to the overpriced journeyman he is today. He could have been a contender, especially among the slowfooted centrebacks of the Premiership. Mourinhno would still keep England in a conservative style but he's an excellent mindbender which will help the players get over the pressure on them. He'll probably be able to get the media pressure off by having the corp focus all their attention on him, something he did with Chelsea. He'd also mess with the opposing coaches just for fun, he's perfect, give him his own money printer, stat.

If the Special One took England all the way he'd be a living god and get any job he wanted, like Alex Ferguson's after he finally retires. The odds of England winning would be incredible because the World Cup is in Africa in the summer and you know the European teams wonn't last two matches without dehydrating (unless they use two lineups). And also, because it's England we're talking about.

So I was reading SI's Peter King who, if you're a fan of the NFL and wasting time on the "interweb", is really one of the good weekly reads. So in it he mentioned how people think The Office compares favourably to Seinfeld and might be its successor. Now, that might be true from a viewership standpoint because The Office probably gets the strongest ratings of the NBC thursday lineup and also because it has characters and character relationships that viewers actually care about. But that's exactly why it really isn't anything like Seinfeld because like most people weaned on pop culture would know, Seinfeld never went for that element in its stories. It'd have romances, but they'd end before the episode was out, except George and Susan and Elaine and Puddy. The former they dealt with by having George off his bride to be and the latter was not any less farcical. Basically, everything was played for a laugh. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You never saw them do anything cheesy but sweet like The Office finale of season two and it would have been awful if they did.

The Office is much more like that other successful NBC sitcom before Seinfeld: Cheers. Both are sitcoms but with the occasional dramatic arcs, chances for their characters to cry in an empty stairwell or get a feel good hug. They also boasts great underused secondary characters, loads of them. How much did they use Bebe Neuwirth on Cheers? Small dosage and she was awesome. For The Office, I guess I'd pick Darnell. Seinfeld had Newman and Jerry's parents and Uncle Leo and Peterman - actually, nevermind, all great sitcoms have excellent secondary characters that leave you wanting more. But Frasier getting left at the altar was an event that made you empathize with him, did anyone ever have that for a Seinfeld character. Exhibit B is Dwight in the hallway crying about Angela or Pam crying and having Dwight take off his coat and tying it around his waist because it was warm.

If you had to correlate The Office and Seinfeld, I think it should go like this:
Michael ~ George, except without the bitterness and meanstreak. Michael would park in a handicapped spot because he burnt his foot on a Foreman Grill, essentially because he believes he's handicapped by the injury. George wouldn't even need any excuse: so long as he thought he'd get away with it. He'd know it was wrong and wouldn't care. Plus, he would pretend to be handicapped just to use the executive washroom.

Jim ~ Jerry but more idealistic and caring. Oh, and dreamier. Jim's usually the straight man to all the other screwballs. They both have trademark expressions (of indignity as it were?)

Dwight ~ Kramer but humanized. I mean, of course there are real Kramer's in the world but you can't relate to them - not in the real world and not even on your idiot box.

Pam ~ Elaine. She's not really Elaine, but obviously they're both female. Pam is almost too perfect on the US version. She's everything good, and on top of that, approachable. She's pretty but not intimidating to be around because she's just the receptionist (it's not prejudice, just something about the attitude that they have to show: mainly being approachable) out that almost every guy on the show has wanted to do it. Pam did do a bitchy thing on Karen at the Survivor trip. Elaine is pretty much acting like that (selfishly) all the time.

30 Rock, it seems to me is the new Seinfeld. It's like how Jack described Liz Lemon, which is also how he'd probably describe the stiking writers, "funny, weird, and socially retarded." It's got a Kramer-like Tracy Morgan. I want to say Jack is like George if he were successful but it'd be a lie. Still, Jack and George were the stars of their shows, respectively, above the main character. Tina Fey and Jerry are both limited actors (Fey's probably better by a lot because Jerry really has the range of a stand up, albeit a very good one based on my tastes), they play the straight man with the occasional misadventure. Mostly they just disapprove of the outlandish schemes of their comrades and in the process make us laugh. Elaine, is there an Elaine on 30 Rock? Jenna, I guess, but I think most people see her as modelled on Rachel Dratch with more feminine allure but less "apartment full of cats", cherubic charm. Okay, now I need to look up what Dratch is up to on Imdb.com, great.