And the heavens open up

I asked a half a dozen TV critics about that "Office" vending machine gag, asked at least as many friends who are as obsessed with pop culture as I am, and nobody could identify the previous show to use that gag. And just as I was on the verge of cold-calling sanitariums, I found this comment to that blog posting by Melissa:

In an episode of Undeclared, when they're trying to get even with the RA, they put all of his belongings in the vending machine in the hallway. That's the only thing I can think of. Hope it helps.

Melissa, whoever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you. That's it. It was like an itch that I couldn't scratch for days and days and days.