The Office

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Who's going to watch this? It looks funny.

[TJL]

I'm hoping it's going to be good, but it's got big shoes to fill. The original version is arguably the funniest Britcom ever shown here in the U.S.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Originally Posted by TJL

I'm hoping it's going to be good, but it's got big shoes to fill. The original version is arguably the funniest Britcom ever shown here in the U.S.

Aye dios, I wish it good luck. I think NBC needs it...

[barwars]

It looks good. I'll definitely be tuning in.

[Brent88]

I'm going to give it a try when it premieres after The Apprentice next Thursday. Looks pretty good.

[snl75]

i might watch it

[Janice]

"The Office" Transfers to a New Cubicle

The New York Times ^| March 20, 2005 | Bill Carter

Plenty is wrong with the half-hour comedy on network television. But the main problem is that it's simply not funny enough. The gang around the living room couch; the fat guy with the skinny wife; the set-up-then-joke rhythm, punctuated by peals of often preposterously overenthusiastic laughter - viewers, especially young adult viewers, are just not amused by any of that anymore. The ratings prove it.

So what will they think of "The Office," which starts on NBC this week with a special edition on Thursday night before moving to Tuesday nights?

Yes, it's an American adaptation of a British show that is already considered a classic, and that probably puts it down in the count by at least two strikes. Networks have not been very good recently at taking British shows and making them work over here ("Men Behaving Badly" and "Coupling.") Furthermore, Americans are notoriously unmoved by subtle British humor, and no show of recent vintage has been more brilliant in subtle humor than "The Office," which won a Golden Globe as best comedy. (It played on cable in the United States on BBC America, and thus went largely unseen by the broad American television audience.)

In their most honest moments, even some NBC executives have doubts that this conception can work. "The Office" is quirky, untraditional, shot on film (not tape) and has neither audience nor laugh track.

Yet a certain buzz has started to form around the show, both inside NBC and wherever else tapes have circulated. "I've gotten more positive reaction to this than anything I've ever worked on," said Greg Daniels, one of the show's executive producers, a man who has worked on some pretty fair shows, including "The Simpsons."

And at least one NBC executive, the president of entertainment, Kevin Reilly, sees in "The Office" an intriguing possibility.

"The audience has been pretty bored with what the networks have been delivering to them in comedy over the past five years," Mr. Reilly said. "Maybe this is the antidote."

He went even further, daring to use the "S" word - as in "Seinfeld."

"The institutional memory of 'Seinfeld' will live forever at NBC," Mr. Reilly said. He was making the comparison to illustrate that shows like "The Office," which break the traditional comedy mold, are often the ones that take time to break though as hits.

But he was also sending a message about "The Office": This is not "The Single Guy" or "Suddenly Susan." In his view, this is a show that belongs to the more storied area of the NBC comedy tradition.

"I think a part of the audience will really love this show," Mr. Reilly said. "Part maybe won't get it. It's a polarizing show. But I would much rather, especially in a static genre, have a polarizing response."

Polarizing? It is a show in which the lead character is a bumptious, insensitive lout, given to making racist or sexist remarks that he thinks are jokes, and even to pretending to fire the office receptionist as a gag, only to drive her to tears. He is, in every sense, the jerk of a boss that almost everyone has encountered.

That's one reason Mr. Reilly spoke with such enthusiasm about the show. "There is just such honesty to it," he said.

Still, if "The Office" does turn out to be the comedy that everyone is talking about in the next few weeks, it is likely to be because it has arrived at time when its offbeat style and rhythms are quite familiar to television viewers.

Not from comedies - from reality shows. Other recent shows have tried to borrow a bit of the look and feel of reality shows, but "The Office" is overtly made in the form of a reality show. It is, by all appearances, a documentary about life in an office populated by mostly average people whom anyone would recognize from their own lives.

Ben Silverman, another executive producer, played a central role in the British invasion of reality shows early in this decade. As an agent based in London for William Morris, Mr. Silverman put himself in the middle of deals that brought "Survivor," "Big Brother" and other shows to the United States.

He also paid attention to another British genre, the "docu-soap": a show set in some place of business, which made stars out of real-life workers. One of the first productions he was involved with was the NBC series "The Restaurant," a docu-soap.

Three years ago Mr. Silverman found himself back in London, visiting friends, when he turned on television one night and found an unusual new show, the first episode of "The Office" on the BBC.

"I thought, this is the best thing I've ever seen," Mr. Silverman said. That was a conclusion even Britons did not come to for several more weeks. Mr. Silverman jumped into action. He learned that the international rights belonged to the show's star, Ricky Gervais, and his partner, Stephen Merchant. Mr. Silverman chased Mr. Gervais until he met him in a Starbucks in London. "I walked him straight to his agent's office," Mr. Silverman said.

That's how he acquired the American rights. What he did not acquire was Mr. Gervais, whose performance as the painfully inappropriate office manager David Brent was hailed by British and American critics as one of the most brilliant comic creations in recent memory.

Mr. Silverman recruited Mr. Daniels, who said "daunting was the word" for the assignment of remaking a show he himself loved extravagantly. For the pilot, Mr. Daniels relied heavily on the first episode of the British version, though he reshaped the characters for the American setting, which has become the office of a paper products company in Scranton, Pa. The David Brent character took on the more average American name of Michael Scott.

Both Mr. Silverman and Mr. Daniels concluded that, beyond its one-of-a kind characters, the special appeal of the show was its format. Making the show part of an apparent documentary on life in an office opened the door to recreating both the look and rhythm of reality shows.

"I don't think we could have done this three years ago," Mr. Silverman said. "But now people have seen 'Growing Up Gotti' and the 'Airline' show and 'The Restaurant.'

The production even hired as its principal camera operator a veteran of the first several "Survivor" series. "We told him to follow the cast around like it was a reality show," Mr. Daniels said.

Then came the hard part: Casting an actor who could at least approximate the magic Mr. Gervais brought to the part. What American actor could play a self-deluded obnoxious loser that convincingly?

Steve Carell had been playing exactly that sort of guy for years, in movies like "Bruce Almighty" and "Anchorman," and for years as one of the outrageous faux reporters on "The Daily Show."

"I seem to play a lot of jackasses and losers and idiots," Mr. Carell said.

But he instantly realized that duplicating Mr. Gervais's classic jackass was a hopeless task. He tried to come at Michael Scott as a "a blank slate." Mr. Carell said he concluded, "This is an archetype character: the loser with an enormous blind spot."

The rest of the casting was done through improvisational sessions. Rainn Wilson, late of "Six Feet Under," became Dwight, the Americanization of the unhinged Gareth character. The romantic pair of Dawn and Tim became Pam and Jim, played by the winning young actors Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski.

With the cast in place, Mr. Daniels began adding more American touches to the pilot (like references to "The Six Million Dollar Man" and Hillary Clinton). He and the writing staff came up with original stories for the other five episodes completed for this season. One episode is devoted to a "Diversity Day," which turns into an occasion for Michael Scott to offend almost every ethnic group with his ham-handed efforts to be tolerant.

Mr. Carell said he had his own take on his character: "He is unrelenting. He will not give up. He will follow through even in the face of everyone else's contempt."

The British version, in typical British fashion, did just 12 episodes over two seasons, then walked away. NBC, not showing a lot of faith, ordered only six this season. But if even a hint of promise is discerned, the show could be back in the fall for 24 more.

Mr. Silverman said Mr. Gervais remained involved, sending ideas for stories via e-mail. But the show has become an American operation now.

In one sense, Mr. Silverman has been here before. He is the producer who imported "Coupling" from England two seasons ago, only to see it crash and burn in the high profile of NBC's Thursday night. "I thought I learned something about being on Thursday night at 9:30, and here I am again," Mr. Silverman said (though it's only for one week this time). There is a difference, he said. "The execution of this show is just so much better," he said. "No matter what happens, I'm really proud of this show."

[TJL]

That's an interesting article Janice.

The only problem with shows that are "polorizing" is that usually the people who love the show are in the minority, and they're the ones networks ignore when they decide to cancel a great show.

[Zebra 3]

Originally Posted by The New York Times

Yes, it's an American adaptation of a British show that is already considered a classic, and that probably puts it down in the count by at least two strikes. Networks have not been very good recently at taking British shows and making them work over here ("Men Behaving Badly" and "Coupling.")

I don't follow much what's going lately with US sitcoms, but back in the 70s CBS hit a grand slam home run with All in the Family which was adapted from the British Till Death Do Us Part.

Originally Posted by The New York Times

In their most honest moments, even some NBC executives have doubts that this conception can work. "The Office" is quirky, untraditional, shot on film (not tape) and has neither audience nor laugh track.

Many believe including myself that Happy Days' first seasons which were produced in the same format were artistically the series' best and the last US sitcom that used to watch The Job was also produced the same fashion as well as some of todays most successful Canadian sitcoms like Trailer Park Boys and Les Bougons.

[Eddie Haskell]

Ughhhhh!!! Awful.......