The Bored at Work Network on TV

June 8, 2006

Like bands, television shows are promoting themselves on MySpace, and not just Fox shows. Entourage has profiles for the show and the characters (Vince, Eric, Turtle, Johnny Drama) But these look like they were done by the HBO online marketing department.

Compare the myspace sites for The Office: Pam, BJ, Kevin, Angela, Meredith and Roy. (I may have missed some)

The actors actually maintain the character sites themselves. Like office workers in the real-life Dunder-Mifflins of the world, The Office cast members have computers with internet access at their desks. So, when the show is filming and the characters in the background need to be working, the actors in the background can be surfing the web, updating their MySpace sites, blogging and pretending to work. Just like in real offices. It's the Bored at Work network on network TV. Well, paid for by network TV.

Besides an affinity for MySpace, Entourage and The Office have something else in common. Rainn Wilson (Dwight) made a guest appearance on the Entourage episode I watched tonight (I'm catching up with season 2 on DVD). Wilson played the editor of an Ain't it Cool-like website attending ComiCon. Victory! Oh, and Ari Gold is my F%*$#ing hero.

Speaking of television, it's a bleak time for TV. We won't see new episodes of The Office, Lost or Amazing Race until September. Battlestar Galactica is out of commission until November. The Sopranos ended on Sunday and won't return until next year. Doctor Who closes out its season on Friday. Aside from Entourage, The Daily Show and Colbert Report, there isn't much television happening now. Or is there something I'm missing?