The Office (American TV series)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Office, an American mockumentary sitcom about a paper company's branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania, began on the 24th of March 2005 with a trial run. NBC aired a preview episode straight after The Apprentice, and 11.2 million people watched. The show won its time slot. Then NBC moved it to its intended Tuesday night for the official premiere, and nearly half of that audience disappeared. Only 5.9 million viewers showed up.

  A series with that kind of start looks like a candidate for quick cancellation. Instead, The Office ran for nine seasons and 201 episodes at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, and it ended in 2013 with a two-part finale.

  So how does a remake of a British hit survive a stumble like that? Who was first offered the part of its oblivious boss, and who turned it down? And how do you make an office on a soundstage feel like a place where a documentary crew has been filming for months? The answers begin with a decision to borrow.

  37425014

• 2. A Risky Copy

  ›

  Greg Daniels, who adapted the show for NBC, laid out his reasoning in blunt terms: "completely starting from scratch would be a very risky thing to do." So the American pilot became a direct adaptation of the first episode of the British original. That series was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and aired from 2001 to 2003.

  Critics were not kind. The New York Daily News said the American version was "so diluted there's little left but muddy water." USA Today called it a "passable imitation of a miles-better BBC original." A review in Guardian Unlimited went after the lead directly, saying Steve Carell "just seems to be trying too hard" and calling him a pale imitation. The Washington Post's Tom Shales compared the remake to a copying machine about to give out.

  The writers took the criticism as a design problem. They set out to make the series more optimistic and the boss, Michael Scott, easier to like. They gave the supporting characters relatable personalities of their own. They even made the office lights brighter, which helped the show look different from its British cousin.

  The second season landed differently. James Poniewozik of Time wrote that Daniels had created "not a copy but an interpretation" that satirized distinctly American work habits. He ranked it the second-best show of 2006, behind Battlestar Galactica.

  The trophies followed. The series collected 42 Primetime Emmy nominations and won five, including Outstanding Comedy Series for its second season. Many cast and crew members said they were angry that Carell never won an Emmy for his performance. He did win a Golden Globe in 2006, and the show also took a Peabody Award that year.

  Gervais, the man whose character started it all, eventually stepped into the American office himself. He appeared twice as David Brent in the seventh season.

  2221505114

• 3. Auditions and Near Misses

  ›

  NBC programmer Kevin Reilly first suggested Paul Giamatti to producer Ben Silverman for the part of Michael Scott, and Giamatti said no. Martin Short, Hank Azaria and Bob Odenkirk were reported to be interested. Silverman then offered the role to Gervais, who turned it down. He felt it would not make sense for him to play it, and he did not want to move to the United States.

  In January 2004, Variety reported that Steve Carell, then on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was in talks. He was already committed to another NBC midseason comedy, Come to Papa, but that show was canceled quickly. Carell later admitted he had watched only about half of the British pilot before auditioning. He stopped there for fear of copying Gervais.

  Rainn Wilson went the opposite way and watched every British episode. He first read for Michael and later described that attempt as a "terrible Ricky Gervais impersonation." The casting directors liked him far more as the power-hungry Dwight Schrute. Seth Rogen, Patton Oswalt and Judah Friedlander also tried out for Dwight.

  John Krasinski had been close friends with B. J. Novak since school. He told Stephen Colbert's audience that he moved to New York City and gave himself two to three years to succeed as an actor. His mother urged him to wait out the end of the year. He booked The Office just three weeks later.

  Jenna Fischer prepared for Pam by looking as dull as she could, which produced the character's original hairstyle. In the final round, the producers paired four candidates for Pam with four for Jim to test their chemistry. After her scene with Krasinski, each told the other they were their favorite choice.

  Several supporting actors landed in roles they had not planned to read for. Angela Kinsey auditioned for Pam, but the producers found her "too feisty" and called her back for Angela Martin. Brian Baumgartner read for Stanley and became Kevin. Casting associate Phyllis Smith read so well with the other auditioners that pilot director Ken Kwapis cast her as Phyllis.

  Mindy Kaling arrived as a writer with no obvious on-screen place. The script for the second episode, "Diversity Day," needed someone to slap Michael. "Since that slap, I've been on the show," Kaling said, as Kelly Kapoor.

  3136333239

• 4. Look and Sound

  ›

  Randall Einhorn was best known for directing episodes of Survivor when the producers hired him as cinematographer. He gave The Office its rough and jumpy look. The set helped. Daniels, production designer Donald Lee Harris and Kwapis planned the open floor so camera operators could catch characters unaware. The walls were built immovable, which made the room feel airless and trapped the imaginary film crew with the staff.

  The rules were taken seriously. For the fourth-season episode "Did I Stutter?", Michael takes a long route to reach the bathroom without passing Stanley. The producers argued over whether a camera operator could follow that path. Einhorn walked it himself to find out.

  The Scranton footage in the opening credits came from Krasinski, who shot it after learning he had the part of Jim. He toured the city and interviewed employees at real paper companies. Back on set, the characters, especially Jim and Pam, glanced at the lens whenever Michael created an awkward moment. Confessional interviews let them speak to the camera one-on-one. Later seasons loosened the format, sometimes putting the crew where a real documentary team never would. Some reviewers and fans criticized that inconsistency.

  The first season was shot in a real office space in Culver City, California. The rest moved to Chandler Valley Center Studios in the San Fernando Valley.

  The theme music took a vote. Daniels considered "Better Things" by The Kinks, "Float On" by Modest Mouse and "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra. He let the cast choose from four options, and most wanted "Mr. Blue Sky." That choice turned out to be unavailable because the drama LAX had already used it. The winner was an original piece by Jay Ferguson, performed by The Scrantones.

  Ferguson described it as "against type; it has this vulnerability, this yearning to it that soon explodes into this overdone optimism which then gets crushed." He added that this was pretty much what the show is about. With no laugh track, most songs were heard as the characters would hear them, from radios, computers or their own singing. Michael's ringtones, "Mambo No. 5" and later "My Humps," were meant to make him seem hip. He also confused Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" with Britney Spears' "Gimme More."

  5960625332

• 5. Scripts and Improvisation

  ›

  The script for "Search Committee" ran to 75 pages, ten more than a regular episode could hold. According to Novak, that was a common problem. Scripts tended to overrun the 22-minute slot and lost scenes in cuts.

  Every episode did have a complete script. Fischer insisted on the point: "Our shows are 100 percent scripted. They put everything down on paper. But we get to play around a little bit, too. Steve and Rainn are brilliant improvisers." That play produced a heap of deleted scenes, which Daniels regards as part of the canon. Some were restored in repeats to give viewers a reason to rewatch.

  One experiment tested how far that idea could go. A deleted scene from "The Return" went onto NBC.com and iTunes, and it explained why a character was missing from the next several episodes. Daniels hoped fans would spread the word. He eventually judged the experiment a failure.

  Behind the scenes, the writers' room was small and strangely familiar. Kaling, Novak, Daniels, Paul Lieberstein and Michael Schur made up the original team. Kaling, Novak and Lieberstein also wrote, directed and produced while playing regular characters. Kaling is the most prolific writer on the staff, with credit on twenty-four episodes. Before the second episode aired, the writers visited real offices for research, a method Daniels also used on King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation.

  Daniels was showrunner for the first four seasons. He stepped back when he co-created Parks and Recreation with Schur. Lieberstein and Jennifer Celotta took over for season five. Celotta left after the sixth, and Lieberstein left after the eighth to pursue a possible Dwight spin-off. Daniels came back for the final season.

  Guest directors included J. J. Abrams and Joss Whedon, both fans, along with Jon Favreau and Harold Ramis. Several actors also took turns behind the camera, among them Carell, Wilson, Krasinski and Ed Helms.

  1626272118

• 6. Scranton Stories

  ›

  At the end of the second season, during a company event in the episode "Casino Night," Jim kissed Pam and admitted he loved her. She was still engaged to the warehouse worker Roy. Jim transferred to the Stamford branch. In the third season, Pam called off the engagement, and Jim eventually turned down a corporate job to stay in Scranton and ask her on a date. He later proposed at a gas station halfway between Scranton and New York City. In the sixth season they married and had a baby, Cecelia Marie Halpert.

  Michael's own story ran differently. His relationship with his boss Jan Levinson grew into what the show treats as toxic and unhealthy. After Jan, he fell for Holly Flax, whose personality was close to his own. At one point he quit in protest at a new vice president's rigid management and started the Michael Scott Paper Company in the same building. It threatened Dunder Mifflin's profits, though its business model was unsustainable. In the seventh season, he left Scranton for Colorado with Holly to support her elderly parents.

  Ryan Howard rose from temp to the company's youngest vice president. His new-media innovations turned out to be corporate fraud, and he was arrested and fired. He later worked at a bowling alley and spent time in rehab before ending up as a temp in Scranton again.

  The corporate ground kept shifting. Sabre, a printer company, bought Dunder Mifflin in the sixth season. In the eighth, James Spader arrived as Sabre's new CEO, Robert California. Andy Bernard later joined former CFO David Wallace to buy the company back from Sabre.

  In the series finale, set a year after the documentary's release, the staff gathered for Dwight and Angela's wedding. Michael returned to serve as best man. Jim had been Dwight's first choice for that job. Elsewhere, Stanley retired to Florida and Oscar ran for the State Senate. Creed was arrested for his many crimes.

  7881798599

• 7. Paper and Products

  ›

  In some versions of the episode "The Merger," Kevin Malone feeds a Staples-branded CD-R into a Staples-branded shredder, along with plenty of items that are not paper. One of them is a salad. The Office had product placement deals with Staples and Olympic balers, and Cisco Systems paid to have its IP telephones shown in close-ups.

  Other brands appeared because the writers wanted realism. They chose Chili's for the party in "The Dundies" and the lunch in "The Client" because it seemed like a believable choice for a company. The chain was not a paid placement, but the producers had to give Chili's final approval of the script. A scene in "The Dundies" was hastily rewritten after the restaurant objected to the original.

  Apple received over four minutes of exposure for the iPod in "Christmas Party," where it is the most coveted gift. The company did not pay for it. Wegmans, a Rochester, New York supermarket chain, has had a working relationship with the show since the fall of 2007, and its cereal, popcorn and soda quietly turn up in many episodes.

  The fourth season featured TripAdvisor after Jim and Pam post an online review of Dwight's agritourism bed and breakfast, Schrute Farms. The show reportedly approached the travel site, which set up a page for the fictional business. It collected hundreds of reviews. The Second Life appearance in "Local Ad" was ranked eighth among the most effective product placements of 2007.

  5253758291

• 8. Beyond the Broadcast

  ›

  "You're watching this on the Internet, a thing that pays us zero dollars," Schur said in a YouTube video that Daniels and writing cast members posted shortly after the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike began. "We're supposed to get 11 cents for every two trillion downloads." The strike also cut the fourth season short. NBC ordered thirty half-hours, and only 19 episodes of material were completed.

  The complaint had real weight. Of the 12.4 million total viewings of the fourth-season premiere, "Fun Run," 2.7 million, or 22%, were online. Between online viewing and digital video recorders, 25-50% of the audience watched after the scheduled airtime. An NBC researcher explained that an episode-driven sitcom without special effects played well on laptop and iPod screens. The writers were especially upset about the summer webisodes "The Accountants." The webisodes won a Daytime Emmy, but NBC treated them as promotional material.

  The show had been an early adopter. On the 16th of March 2005, NBC webcast "Diversity Day" on MySpace, its first complete online debut of a network series episode. Downloads on iTunes began that December. In the 2020s the habit continued. The Office left Netflix in the United States on the 31st of December 2020 and moved to Peacock the next day. It was the most streamed show of 2020, at 57 billion minutes watched in the United States.

  Scranton, long known mainly as a coal and rail center, took on a new identity. The Dunder Mifflin logo hangs on a banner outside City Hall. In 2008 the former Irish head of government, Bertie Ahern, named the city as the home of Dunder Mifflin during a St. Patrick's Day speech. The first fan convention was held downtown in October 2007.

  The real world kept answering the fiction. Republican candidate John McCain joked on The Daily Show that he might pick Dwight Schrute as a running mate. After the episode "Garage Sale," in which Michael decides to move to Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper issued a press release naming Scott director of paper distribution in the Department of Natural Resources.

  838288863