Who Dat Ninja? - Irene on The Office

Welcome to the first installment of our newest recurring segment called "Who Dat Ninja?".  "Who Dat Ninja?", which derives its name from the popular Tracy Jordan film, will look into an actor or actress who makes a small guest appearance on a TV show, and we figure out who they are.  ("Who Dat Ninja?" is essentially the same as "Sitcom Moms & Dads", except that they're not playing moms or dads).

Today, we look at Georgia Engel, the little old lady named Irene who has appeared in the last few episodes of The Office as Erin's new friend and employer.

But who is this random old lady?  What has she been in before The Office?  It's time we ask the question, WHO DAT NINJA?

Decades before The Office, back in the 1970's, Georgia Engel starred on Mary Tyler Moore as Georgette, the soft-spoken girlfriend and (spoiler alert) eventual wife of the loud and brass newsman, Ted Baxter.  She became a popular character on the show, and even earned herself two Emmy award nominations for the role.  Here's the beginning of an episode which prominently features Engel's character of Georgette.  (Georgette enters at the 2:15 mark)

More recently, Georgia Engel  appeared on Everybody Loves Raymond as Robert's mother-in-law (Amy's mother) Pat MacDoogle.  Here's a nice little compilation video I found on YouTube of the best of Georgia Engel as Pat MacDoogle on Everybody Loves Raymond:

Lastly, while Georgia Engel is primarily known for her work on television, she has also appeared on the stage.  I had the pleasure of seeing her live on Broadway in the musical The Drowsy Chaperone.  

And that's Georgia Engel, the little old lady on The Office.  Tune in next time when we'll find take a guest actor or actress and ask the question, "Who Dat Ninja?"

UPDATE
So we were sitting around, watching an old episode of the classic Nicktoon Hey Arnold! on Teenick (part of the 90's Are All That block), when Anna recognized that unmistakable voice coming from the show.  "Hey, isn't that Georgette from Mary Tyler Moore?"  Turns out it was.  Georgia Engel voices the old lady with pink hair, a peg leg, and one eyebrow who mistakenly took Arnold's bag of money.  What are the odds that particular episode came on tonight, the day I posted a "Who Dat Ninja?" on Georgia Engel?  Anyway, here is the full (11 minute) episode entitled "Bag of Money" which features the voice of Georgia Engel.  Her character first appears around the 2:00 mark, and then again around the 9:30 mark.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Since it's Thanksgiving (or at least it was when I started writing this), I thought it was appropriate to give thanks for all the great Thanksgiving episodes of TV! Here's a sample of a few of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes (limited to 1 episode per show, and limited to whatever clips I could find posted online).

Will & Grace: "Queens for a Day"

While the earlier Thanksgiving episodes such as the one where they spend Thanksgiving for 10 minutes with each person's family, or the one where Jack's mom comes to dinner and she doesn't know Jack is gay (they sound like Friends episodes when I describe them) might be more classic, one of my favorite Thanksgiving Will & Grace episode is "Queens for a Day" from Season 7. In this episode, the gang all goes to Queens for the day (as you might have guessed) to spend Thanksgiving with Will's boyfriend Vince's family. Will spends the day trying to impress Vince's mom with the perfect Thanksgiving dinner, while Grace and Karen both hook up with Vince's teenage cousin and Jack discovers that Vince's engaged sister is secretly a lesbian. This is how the big Thanksgiving dinner goes down:

Boy Meets World: "Turkey Day"
Cory is from a middle class family, and his best friend Shawn lives in a trailer park. Shawn decides it would be fun if Cory's family came over to the trailer park for Thanksgiving. But even though their difference in social class was never much of an issue for Cory and Shawn as friends, they'll soon learn that it'll be more difficult than they thought for their parents to get along. Here's what happens:

South Park: "Helen Keller! The Musical"

While most TV shows have Thanksgiving episodes about families coming together at a Thanksgiving dinner, this episode of South Park features the boys putting on a Thanksgiving musical about Helen Keller. The boys all want the show to feature a great turkey in honor of Thanksgiving, but Timmy, the handicapped kid who plays Helen Keller in the show, insists on using Gobbles, a handicapped turkey.

After Timmy realizes that the Broadway turkey trainer tricked him and sent Gobbles away to be slaughtered, Timmy leaves the show to save Gobbles. The play's director, the guy who starred in Les Miz on Broadway, steps in to save the show. It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

Everybody Loves Raymond: "The Bird"

My favorite Thanksgiving episode of Everybody Loves Raymond is called "The Bird", and involves the Barones having Thanksgiving with Amy's family. They're all getting along fine, until a bird flies into the window, and instead of trying to help save the bird, Amy's mother kills it to put it out of its misery, much to the shock of the Barones. A classic Thanksgiving episode ensues. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a clip of that episode anywhere on the Internet, nor can I find a clip from any of of the other classic Thanksgiving episodes (The one where Debra decides to serve fish instead of turkey, the one where Marie decides to make a tofu turkey instead of a real one, etc.). The only Thanksgiving clip I could find online is the one that follows. Still funny, but not the one I wanted to show. If anyone can find a better Everybody Loves Raymond Thanksgiving clip, please comment here and let us know!

Friends: "The One with all the Thanksgivings"

Friends has kind of been known for their Thanksgiving episodes, as it's a great opportunity to have all 6 characters in one room for one crazy meal. While there has been a great Thanksgiving episode nearly each of the 10 seasons the show was on the air, (including the ones where Underdog escapes, they play football, and Brad Pitt shows up to Thanksgiving and confesses he and Ross had an "I Hate Rachel Club" in high school), my favorite would have to be "The One with all the Thanksgivings". This episode had the friends sitting around and reminiscing about all the worst Thanksgivings that they've had, and is filled with tons of flashbacks to various Thanksgivings throughout their lives. Here are some of my favorite clips from that episode:

Hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving weekend!

Holiday Gifts: TV Edition!

Happy Holidays everybody! I know we're a little late, but with the holiday season comes busyness, followed by laziness. Also with the holiday comes presents! Since we celebrate Chanukkah, we have 8 nights of gifts, and since we love tv (as the name of our blog suggests) most knew enough to get us TV-related presents! So here is a recap of the TV gifts that I received this holiday season:

Everybody Loves Raymond-The Complete Series on DVD! I'm a big fan of this show, (I even posted a clip for the TV Clip of the day a few weeks ago) and I love watching it every night on TBS. While I watch it all the time on TV, there are still tons of episodes that I haven't seen before, so I'm glad to own it on DVD!

Get Smart-The Complete Series on DVD!

I'm sure you all saw the great film version of Get Smart when it came out this summer, but this here is the complete series of the original TV series from 1965. This show was one of my dad's favorite shows when he was growing up, and he always used to talk about how funny it was. A few times, we'd go to the Museum of Television and Radio in New York (the greatest museum in the world!) and at the museum they have a "TV Show Library" where you sort through thousands of TV show episodes that they have in their computer, select the ones you want to watch, and then go to a private viewing booth and watch the shows you selected. We'd always watch an episode of Get Smart or two, and they were always lots of fun. Owning this series will always bring back those great memories, as well as of course providing lots of laughs!

The Office Trivia Game! I got this board game from my sister and it looks like lots of fun! I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but the game is packed with fun trivia questions from The Office as well as "That's What She Said" cards, Dundie tokens, and "Support the Rabid" wristbands! I can't wait to play it!

Saturday Night Live-The Best of Tracy Morgan on DVD! I didn't really start watching Saturday Night Live until after Tracy had left, but I have since found him hilarious on 30 Rock, so I was really excited to watch this DVD and see what he was like on SNL! We started going through this DVD and it's filled with some really great stuff! (Ok, and some pretty weird stuff too). Please enjoy our favorite Tracy Morgan sketch on the DVD, Brian Fellows Safari Planet:

Saturday Night Live-The Best of Molly Shannon! Another great addition to our SNL DVD library, The Best of Molly Shannon! Molly is of course best known for her Mary Kathrine Gallagher character (who starred in her own movie Superstar!), but she has also done many other great characters and impressions on the show. We currently love watching her on Kath & Kim, I'm really looking forward to enjoying the best of Molly Shannon from her time on SNL!

Saturday Night Live-The Best of Eddie Murphy! Finally, I received yet another SNL DVD! SNL has been on the air for almost 35 years, and while most of the DVDs that I have are from more recent seasons, in the past 10 years or so, I also enjoy seeing what the show was like back in the 70's and 80's. Well, 80's SNL was all about Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy has since gone on to be a huge movie star, so many forget that Eddie Murphy got his start on SNL. I saw part of this special on TV a few years ago, and I remember laughing a lot. Can't wait to watch the whole DVD!

Well, it was certainly a great holiday season for me! I got tons of other great gifts as well, but I won't bore you with them, as this blog is only about all things related to TV. I know A got many TV-related gifts too, so I'll leave it up to her if she wants to blog about them. What about the rest of you? Did any of you get any great TV-related gifts this holiday season? Comment back and let us know all about them!

TV Clip of the Day: It's Supposed to be Fun!

Today's Clip of the Day comes from one of my favorite episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond entitled "It's Supposed to be Fun" (which I'm watching on TBS right now and inspired me to post this today). In the episode, Ray and the family watch their sons play basketball, and although Michael is a good basketball player, Geoffrey does not play too well, and Ray keeps making fun of him from the stands. After the coach and the rest of his family yell at him, Ray decides to give Geoffrey some positive reinforcement:
(My favorite part comes at 1:08!)

Raymond Trivia: At the end of this clip, when Ray sits on the bench, he sits with his real life children. The girl sitting next to Ally Barone is actually Ally Romano, Ray Romano's daughter, and the 2 boys he sits between are his real life twin sons, Matthew and Gregory Romano (which were the names of the twins in the pilot episode of the show, before they were changed to Michael and Geoffrey).