TimesLeader.com

July 19, 2009

Decorating ‘The Office’

Dozens of area businesses respond to call to donate items for popular TV show.

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer

SCRANTON – Packing boxes with coffee mugs, pens and other typical office necessities, Mari Potis is sure producers of the hit NBC sitcom “The Office” will have plenty of props with authentic Northeast Pennsylvania company names and logos to choose from. But it was the pierogi that really caught her eye.

The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce held a “prop drop” Tuesday inviting area firms to bring in items that may wind up being used on the TV show about the goings on at the Scranton branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Co.

Potis, the chamber’s membership director, thought plenty of the items had a good chance to appear on the show, whether it’s a King’s College pennant on someone’s cubicle wall or a menu tacked on the break-room refrigerator. But she had no doubt about that pierogi.

Dropped off by John Twardzik, a Mountain Top native who now resides in Tampa, Fla., the stuffed pierogi bearing a Mrs. T’s Pierogies logo was deemed the best of the bunch by Potis, who’s been doing this for show producers since the show’s inception a half-dozen years ago.

“I guarantee this will get on the set. It would not be a prop; it will have permanent placement,” she said holding the stuffed pierogi that wore glasses and a ball cap with the letter “O” for Oliver Onion, the character’s name.

Twardzik was visiting his father in Mountain Top when he read about the chamber event. He headed to Mrs. T’s in Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, and grabbed a box of logo items. Though he doesn’t work for the company, it’s owned by relatives. It was his grandmother Mary Twardzik’s recipe that’s used for the pierogies, and she’s the Mrs. T.

He said he’s keeping his fingers crossed the item ends up on the show, which he watches religiously. The reaction he got from Potis made him feel good about his decision.

“I think we hit the nail on the head,” Twardzik said.

Another item Potis was already picturing being used on the show was a table tennis paddle dropped off by Tree Design Studio, an advertising agency in Shavertown.

On the paddle was the phrase, “You got the paddle. We got the balls” and the company’s Web site.

“This is so iconic. This is so cool. Can’t you picture Michael Scott holding this?” she said, referencing the obnoxious, uncouth office manager played by actor Steve Carell in the show.

Dozens of other company representatives have a good chance to have an item they brought in appear on the show, too.

“Bringing items for ‘The Office’ prop drop is a great opportunity for organizations to get their name in front of millions of people. From a personal and professional standpoint, it would be a real coup to have the bobble head of the Wilkes Colonel mascot land on someone’s desk at Dunder Mifflin,” said Wilkes University spokeswoman Vicki Mayk.

Solid Cactus from Trucksville also brought bobble heads – well, bobble cacti technically.

Abe’s Hot Dogs in Wilkes-Barre dropped off take-out menus.

The River Common in Wilkes-Barre dropped off VIP passes in lanyards.

More than 1,000 items have been sent the past five years, Potis said, and though the chamber has held prop drops, helping the show’s producers and prop masters is “a year-round” job.

She said she’s constantly getting requests for certain items or being asked questions about locations and names of towns and so forth. But having the prop drops makes it easier for everybody and gives the show’s staff the chance to see an item and perhaps come up with a way to get it some screen time.

Cheryl Summa, with Eye Care Specialists of Kingston and Scranton, had T-shirts, stress balls, pens and mugs that when hot liquid is poured into them, the glasses on the mug disappear.

Summa, of Lehman Township, like most of the company representatives dropping off items Tuesday, said she was a big fan of the show. She said she had seen other area company’s items make it on the show including a Froggy 101 bumper sticker, but wasn’t sure how they did it.

Now she knows. And she hopes Eye Care Specialists’ items make it on the show, regardless of whether they can be seen by those with 20-20 vision or not.