| "Todd Packer" | |||
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| The Office episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 18 |
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| Directed by | Randall Einhorn | ||
| Written by | Amelie Gillette | ||
| Production code | 718 | ||
| Original air date | February 24, 2011 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of The Office (U.S.) episodes | |||
"Todd Packer" is the eighteenth episode of the seventh season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's 144th episode overall. Written by Amelie Gillette and directed by Randall Einhorn, the episode aired on NBC in the United States on February 24, 2011.
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Traveling salesman Todd Packer (David Koechner) comes to Dunder Mifflin looking for a desk job in the office. However, the office is unsure if they want him to work there due to his previous behavior. Holly gives him a job as a salesman, forcing Dwight to leave his desk and move to the annex. Todd repeatedly offends everybody with his "jokes," especially Kevin, although Kevin pretends to go along with it. Only Michael, who has a similar sense of humor, is un-offended by Todd. Holly, who was at first excited to have Todd in the office per Michael's recommendations, quickly discovers how insensitive Todd is and asks Michael to get him under control. Michael and Todd have coffee in the lobby, where Todd says he wants to make the effort to be a better person. Michael gets Todd to apologize, but everyone can tell that the apologies are insincere. Dwight and Jim scheme to get rid of Todd, first by planning to pull pranks on him, but eventually taking more drastic measures. They call him, pretending to be Corporate offering him a job in Tallahassee, Florida, a job which Todd readily accepts. When Michael finds out about the scheme, he plans to tell Todd that Dwight and Jim have tricked him. Before he has a chance to, however, Todd insults Holly, which causes Michael to keep Dwight and Jim's scheme a secret and allow Todd to take the "job" in Florida. As Michael and Holly witness Todd drive away from the view in his office, Michael smiles as he refers to Packer as "an ass" before they embrace.
Meanwhile, when office administrator Pam gets a new computer for the receptionist's desk to replace the current, ancient one, Andy wants a new computer too. Pam states that if she were to get a new computer for one sales rep (Andy), she would have to get one for every sales rep, which leads the entire office momentarily believing that new computers are being freely handed out. Since Pam refuses to give him a new computer, Andy switches his computer with Erin, a trade Erin seems to be fine with. Pam is angry with him, saying that the computer was not meant for Erin personally but for the receptionist's desk in general, and therefore it was not hers to switch. Pam tells Andy that the only way he can get a new computer is if his breaks, which leads to him accepting all cookies, intentionally opening pop-up ads, and placing food in the disc drive. Pam then buys Andy a new computer, but they scratch it up as to not make it look brand new. When they pretend to argue about it in front of the office, Pam claims that she found it in the warehouse. Darryl subtly confronts Pam later regarding finding the computer in the warehouse. As he knows everything that's in the warehouse and where, he leverages Pam into giving him more sick days. Pam appears to be gleeful that she is now "full-on corrupt!".
This episode was written by Amelie Gillette, her first writing credit of the series. She previously was a writer for The A.V. Club before being hired for The Office.[1] It was directed by Randall Einhorn, his 14th directing credit of the series. The cold open in the episode was actually filmed for the previous season and is featured in the blooper reel on the sixth season DVD and Blu-ray sets.[2] Following the episode's air date, the term "Justice Beaver" (Jim mentions Justin Bieber and Dwight says "What's a Justice Beaver?", leading Jim to say "A crime-fighting beaver")became popular trend on Twitter, and led to a website in honor of the quote.[3][4]
In its original American broadcast, "Todd Packer" was viewed by an estimated 6.121 million viewers and received a 3.2 rating/9% share.[5] This means that it was seen by 3.2% of all 18–49 years olds, and 9% of all 18–49 year olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This marked the lowest rating for the series since the first season.[5] Despite this, the episode became the highest rated NBC program for the original week it aired and also became the sixteenth most-watched show for the week of broadcast among adults aged 18–49.[6]
IGN writer Cindy White criticized the episode commenting that it was too similar to a scene in the series finale of the original version of The Office in which David Brent, after a successful blind date, tries to jump into a conversation with traveling salesman Chris Finch at a Christmas party. Finch makes a rude comment about his date which makes David stand up to him and tell him to "fuck off". Despite that she spoke highly of Jim and Dwight's storyline writing that "I wish their final ruse had been a bit more original, but it served the purpose of getting rid of Packer". She ultimately gave the episode a 7.5/10.[7]
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