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Spotlight on Fandoms: The Office
Hello! I am here with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keds_champion to tell you about a wonderful little show called The Office. There are two of us doing this and we both have a tendency to ramble, so here is our spiel, all conveniently organized behind cuts for you.
The British Office
The Office began in 2001 as a BBC series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant with Gervais in the lead role. A fully scripted sitcom, the show was shot as if it were a reality television series depicting a typical workplace that was a bit more serious in tone than your typical office comedy. Even though there were plenty of office sitcom cliches, (the boss was a jerk and a buffoon, he has a sidekick who looked as weird as he acted, there was a lot of sexual tension between two of the workers), it was presented much more realistically and didn't pull any punches with the fact that the characters were ultimately miserable with their lives.
Despite that, it was hysterical.
The original show ran for two seasons and a two-hour Christmas special, won two Golden Globes in 2004 (for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for Ricky Gervais). It has since been adapted for France (Le Bureau), Germany (Stromberg), Quebec (La Job), and of course, America. These adaptations generally keep the same basic templates for the characters and change everything around to conform to the culture of the country in question. Wikipedia has an awesome chart on the character counterparts among the different versions.
Adapting The Office for America
The Office (an American workplace) originally debuted as a midseason replacement in March of '05. That would be why season one is a whopping six episodes.
The show keeps the unique format of the BBC version - it's entirely fictional and scripted, but it's shot as a mockumentary. The fourth wall? Totally not applicable here, since characters are nearly always aware that they're being filmed - and when they aren't, it's made obvious that the cameraman is obscuring himself so they won't be aware of his presence.
It was developed for American audiences by producer Greg Daniels, of SNL (hey, that used to be something to brag about), King of the Hill and Simpsons fame. It is co-produced by Greg Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio. The show is currently broadcast by NBC in the United States at 8:30 (7:30 Central) on Thursdays. It's a half-hour, though there have been some notable "super-size" episodes, running about forty-five minutes.
The American production has duplicated the UK version's success with awards, bringing home a 2006 Golden Globe for Steve Carrell's lead performance, a 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, and a 2007 SAG award for the ensemble cast.
Dunder-Mifflin (the name of the fictional paper company at which all of the characters work) may allude to the relationship between the Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Company's tower, shown during the opening theme, and its location in downtown Scranton near the northeast end of Mifflin Avenue. To coincide with the Season 3 premiere, an Office edition of Scranton's entertainment paper contained an interview with the real paper company's president, who said "They're (Dunder-Mifflin) more of a printing-paper company while we're a personal-service paper company - paper towels, packaging, toilet tissue. ... We have very little resemblance to the Dunder-Mifflin paper company. Put that in caps: VERY LITTLE."
The Characters of The Office
In handy-dandy bullet-point format (unless you'd rather just check out Wiki's list), the main characters are as follow:
*Michael Scott (Regional Manager, played by Steve Carrell): Michael is a childish idiot who is self-centered, has some assholish tendencies, and simply wants everyone to love him as much as he believes he wants to be loved. He has a terrible work ethic, overvalues his leadership skills, and is more focused on being friends with his workers than he is with running his branch. That said, he's not all bad. He did actually earn his position by being a truly excellent salesman, he sometimes has a keen insight into people and actually can help them with their troubles, is fantastic with children, and despite all of his issues he is a decent person at heart. You just have to dig for it sometimes. A lot.
*Dwight Schrute (Assistantto the Regional Manager/Sales Representative, played by Rainn Wilson): Dwight is weird. He is slavishly devoted to Michael and his duty as a Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff's deputy. He essentially believes the Schrute clan to be evolutionarily more advanced than most people and because of this he sees himself to be superior to everyone he meets except for Michael. Although he is a geek, like most of us, he is your typical worst case scenario fanboy. He's that person on the Star Wars message board that you avoid because he's way too serious about it even compared to everyone else there. That's how he approaches his real life, too. His grasp on reality is tenuous and he refuses to recognize that. He takes any tiny bit of power and exploits it for all it's worth. That's why Jim and Pam frequently play pranks on him.
*Jim Halpert (Sales Representative/current #2 in the office as of Season 3, played by John Krasinski): Jim is a fairly good natured salesman with virtually no ambition, a serious crush on a woman who is off-limits (Pam), a dislike of annoying people (Dwight), and a keen organizational mind that is wasted playing pranks on annoying people (Dwight). He keeps his hopes up that there's something better for him out there (a better job) (and Pam) but he never pushed for it until a certain critical moment in Season 2 which I'm not spoiling for you, haha. He acts as both the heart of the show and probably the main protagonist as well even though he's not the lead. He fights the forces of annoyingness and you root for him to get the girl in the end. He's a knight in shining tie.
*Pam Beesly (Receptionist, played by Jenna Fischer): At the start of the series, Pam has a crush on Jim that she refuses to admit to herself because she of her role in the Dundie Award winning longest engagement three years running with warehouse worker Roy Anderson. She's a talented artist who never truly developed that talent because she also had no drive to go out and get what she really wants or deserves (to be an artist) (and Jim). She is, however, confident enough to directly call Michael on his crap (usually when he's being creepy towards her) and prank people who have earned it (Dwight) with or without Jim's help.
*Ryan Howard (The Temp/Sales Representative, played by series writer B.J. Novak): Ryan doesn't like to challenge life. He hates his temp job at Dunder-Mifflin but stayed with it long enough to go full-time. Michael has a man-crush on him, but his only response is to flee when he can. He hooked up with the bubbly, scatter-brained, girly girl customer sales representative, Kelly, ON FEBRUARY 13TH and hasn't managed to get away from the relationship even though he doesn't really like Kelly. He doesn't participate in any office pranks, he tries not to have a personality at work, and he became known as "The Fire Guy" not long after arriving at the office. He tolerates the path of least resistance. He is going to business school, though, so that's something.
The rest of the office workers also get some play, but there are a lot of them, so here they are in brief:
Sales:
*Stanley Hudson: No nonsense salesman who enjoys crossword puzzles and the game "Work Hard So My Kids Can Go To College."
*Creed Bratton: The actor, Creed Bratton, used to be a member of The Grass Roots. The character is a parody of the actor's own life, although you would never know it without commentaries and Wikipedia. He is a homeless, money-grubby, kleptomaniac weirdo with a memory apparently destroyed by all those drugs he did.
*Phyllis Vance: She's dealt with Michael since high school. Poor woman. She's also a big fan of office gossip and is an IC Jim/Pam shipper. She recently married Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration
*Kelly Kapoor: She's very friendly, very girly, very talkative, and very annoying when you get right down to it.
*Meredith Palmer: She doesn't actually do much, but she's a massive alcoholic.
*Karen Fillipelli: A third season import from the Stamford branch of Dunder-Mifflin, Karen is in some significant ways a toned-down, female version of Jim.
*Andy Bernard: Another import from Stamford, Andy reminds Jim that Dwight is not the most annoying person in the world.
Accounting:
*Angela Martin: The head of the department, Angela is an uptight bitch who eventually develops a hidden office romance.
*Kevin Malone: He's fat. And not too smart. And yet he's not really a stereotype, he's just Kev. Also, complete pervert.
*Oscar Martinez: Possibly the most sane person on the accounting staff, Oscar is extremely mild mannered. And, as Michael would remind you, Mexican. And gay.
Warehouse:
*Roy Anderson: Pam's fiancee. He really does love her, but he's an idiot with some bad tendencies.
*Darryl Philbin: The warehouse supervisor, Darryl is a large man who doesn't take crap from Michael. He also taught Michael some slang (like "dinkin' flicka" which he made up on the spot) so that he could win the love of black people.
Corporate:
*Toby Flenderson: Michael's arch-nemisis, Toby is the human resources director. He's fairly soft-spoken except for when he needs to keep Michael from being an idiot. He usually fails to prevent that, though.
*Jan Levinson: Michael's boss, Jan has an amazing amount of patience and a bit of a self-destructive streak. She often has to deal with the fact that Michael's an idiot.
*Todd Packer: He's a travelling sales representative, Michael's BFF, and one of the most annoying people ever. When Michael says "That's what she said!" he's the one who thinks it's funny. His license plate reads "WLHUNG."
Big name directors
One of the amazing things about the show is how many big name directors are doing work on it. The first season finale was directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless), and Season 3 has featured the directorial skills of Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day), JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias), and Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity). Additionally, Gervais and Merchant wrote an episode this season because they genuinely like what has been done in this adaptation of their baby.
YouTube Links
Hey, some shiny YouTube links!
Watch a clip from Joss Whedon's episode!
At the Stamford branch, they play a video game. Please, enjoy these clips.
A shiny clip from the episode Diversity Day
The best of Jim and Pam. 'Cause yay canon shippiness.
How can I watch this amazing show?
The Office airs Thursday nights at 8:30 ET/7:30 CT on NBC. The first two seasons are available on DVD (Season 1 and Season 2). NBC.com puts up two-minute replays and deleted scenes every week, plus The Office tends to be one of the best sellers on iTunes.
Also give the BBC version a try. Both seasons and the Christmas Special are out on DVD.
Any questions? Comments? Kittens?
keds_champion to tell you about a wonderful little show called The Office. There are two of us doing this and we both have a tendency to ramble, so here is our spiel, all conveniently organized behind cuts for you.The British Office
The Office began in 2001 as a BBC series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant with Gervais in the lead role. A fully scripted sitcom, the show was shot as if it were a reality television series depicting a typical workplace that was a bit more serious in tone than your typical office comedy. Even though there were plenty of office sitcom cliches, (the boss was a jerk and a buffoon, he has a sidekick who looked as weird as he acted, there was a lot of sexual tension between two of the workers), it was presented much more realistically and didn't pull any punches with the fact that the characters were ultimately miserable with their lives.
Despite that, it was hysterical.
The original show ran for two seasons and a two-hour Christmas special, won two Golden Globes in 2004 (for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for Ricky Gervais). It has since been adapted for France (Le Bureau), Germany (Stromberg), Quebec (La Job), and of course, America. These adaptations generally keep the same basic templates for the characters and change everything around to conform to the culture of the country in question. Wikipedia has an awesome chart on the character counterparts among the different versions.
Adapting The Office for America
The Office (an American workplace) originally debuted as a midseason replacement in March of '05. That would be why season one is a whopping six episodes.
The show keeps the unique format of the BBC version - it's entirely fictional and scripted, but it's shot as a mockumentary. The fourth wall? Totally not applicable here, since characters are nearly always aware that they're being filmed - and when they aren't, it's made obvious that the cameraman is obscuring himself so they won't be aware of his presence.
It was developed for American audiences by producer Greg Daniels, of SNL (hey, that used to be something to brag about), King of the Hill and Simpsons fame. It is co-produced by Greg Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio. The show is currently broadcast by NBC in the United States at 8:30 (7:30 Central) on Thursdays. It's a half-hour, though there have been some notable "super-size" episodes, running about forty-five minutes.
The American production has duplicated the UK version's success with awards, bringing home a 2006 Golden Globe for Steve Carrell's lead performance, a 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, and a 2007 SAG award for the ensemble cast.
Dunder-Mifflin (the name of the fictional paper company at which all of the characters work) may allude to the relationship between the Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Company's tower, shown during the opening theme, and its location in downtown Scranton near the northeast end of Mifflin Avenue. To coincide with the Season 3 premiere, an Office edition of Scranton's entertainment paper contained an interview with the real paper company's president, who said "They're (Dunder-Mifflin) more of a printing-paper company while we're a personal-service paper company - paper towels, packaging, toilet tissue. ... We have very little resemblance to the Dunder-Mifflin paper company. Put that in caps: VERY LITTLE."
The Characters of The Office
In handy-dandy bullet-point format (unless you'd rather just check out Wiki's list), the main characters are as follow:
*Michael Scott (Regional Manager, played by Steve Carrell): Michael is a childish idiot who is self-centered, has some assholish tendencies, and simply wants everyone to love him as much as he believes he wants to be loved. He has a terrible work ethic, overvalues his leadership skills, and is more focused on being friends with his workers than he is with running his branch. That said, he's not all bad. He did actually earn his position by being a truly excellent salesman, he sometimes has a keen insight into people and actually can help them with their troubles, is fantastic with children, and despite all of his issues he is a decent person at heart. You just have to dig for it sometimes. A lot.
*Dwight Schrute (Assistant
*Jim Halpert (Sales Representative/current #2 in the office as of Season 3, played by John Krasinski): Jim is a fairly good natured salesman with virtually no ambition, a serious crush on a woman who is off-limits (Pam), a dislike of annoying people (Dwight), and a keen organizational mind that is wasted playing pranks on annoying people (Dwight). He keeps his hopes up that there's something better for him out there (a better job) (and Pam) but he never pushed for it until a certain critical moment in Season 2 which I'm not spoiling for you, haha. He acts as both the heart of the show and probably the main protagonist as well even though he's not the lead. He fights the forces of annoyingness and you root for him to get the girl in the end. He's a knight in shining tie.
*Pam Beesly (Receptionist, played by Jenna Fischer): At the start of the series, Pam has a crush on Jim that she refuses to admit to herself because she of her role in the Dundie Award winning longest engagement three years running with warehouse worker Roy Anderson. She's a talented artist who never truly developed that talent because she also had no drive to go out and get what she really wants or deserves (to be an artist) (and Jim). She is, however, confident enough to directly call Michael on his crap (usually when he's being creepy towards her) and prank people who have earned it (Dwight) with or without Jim's help.
*Ryan Howard (The Temp/Sales Representative, played by series writer B.J. Novak): Ryan doesn't like to challenge life. He hates his temp job at Dunder-Mifflin but stayed with it long enough to go full-time. Michael has a man-crush on him, but his only response is to flee when he can. He hooked up with the bubbly, scatter-brained, girly girl customer sales representative, Kelly, ON FEBRUARY 13TH and hasn't managed to get away from the relationship even though he doesn't really like Kelly. He doesn't participate in any office pranks, he tries not to have a personality at work, and he became known as "The Fire Guy" not long after arriving at the office. He tolerates the path of least resistance. He is going to business school, though, so that's something.
The rest of the office workers also get some play, but there are a lot of them, so here they are in brief:
Sales:
*Stanley Hudson: No nonsense salesman who enjoys crossword puzzles and the game "Work Hard So My Kids Can Go To College."
*Creed Bratton: The actor, Creed Bratton, used to be a member of The Grass Roots. The character is a parody of the actor's own life, although you would never know it without commentaries and Wikipedia. He is a homeless, money-grubby, kleptomaniac weirdo with a memory apparently destroyed by all those drugs he did.
*Phyllis Vance: She's dealt with Michael since high school. Poor woman. She's also a big fan of office gossip and is an IC Jim/Pam shipper. She recently married Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration
*Kelly Kapoor: She's very friendly, very girly, very talkative, and very annoying when you get right down to it.
*Meredith Palmer: She doesn't actually do much, but she's a massive alcoholic.
*Karen Fillipelli: A third season import from the Stamford branch of Dunder-Mifflin, Karen is in some significant ways a toned-down, female version of Jim.
*Andy Bernard: Another import from Stamford, Andy reminds Jim that Dwight is not the most annoying person in the world.
Accounting:
*Angela Martin: The head of the department, Angela is an uptight bitch who eventually develops a hidden office romance.
*Kevin Malone: He's fat. And not too smart. And yet he's not really a stereotype, he's just Kev. Also, complete pervert.
*Oscar Martinez: Possibly the most sane person on the accounting staff, Oscar is extremely mild mannered. And, as Michael would remind you, Mexican. And gay.
Warehouse:
*Roy Anderson: Pam's fiancee. He really does love her, but he's an idiot with some bad tendencies.
*Darryl Philbin: The warehouse supervisor, Darryl is a large man who doesn't take crap from Michael. He also taught Michael some slang (like "dinkin' flicka" which he made up on the spot) so that he could win the love of black people.
Corporate:
*Toby Flenderson: Michael's arch-nemisis, Toby is the human resources director. He's fairly soft-spoken except for when he needs to keep Michael from being an idiot. He usually fails to prevent that, though.
*Jan Levinson: Michael's boss, Jan has an amazing amount of patience and a bit of a self-destructive streak. She often has to deal with the fact that Michael's an idiot.
*Todd Packer: He's a travelling sales representative, Michael's BFF, and one of the most annoying people ever. When Michael says "That's what she said!" he's the one who thinks it's funny. His license plate reads "WLHUNG."
Big name directors
One of the amazing things about the show is how many big name directors are doing work on it. The first season finale was directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless), and Season 3 has featured the directorial skills of Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day), JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias), and Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity). Additionally, Gervais and Merchant wrote an episode this season because they genuinely like what has been done in this adaptation of their baby.
YouTube Links
Hey, some shiny YouTube links!
Watch a clip from Joss Whedon's episode!
At the Stamford branch, they play a video game. Please, enjoy these clips.
A shiny clip from the episode Diversity Day
The best of Jim and Pam. 'Cause yay canon shippiness.
How can I watch this amazing show?
The Office airs Thursday nights at 8:30 ET/7:30 CT on NBC. The first two seasons are available on DVD (Season 1 and Season 2). NBC.com puts up two-minute replays and deleted scenes every week, plus The Office tends to be one of the best sellers on iTunes.
Also give the BBC version a try. Both seasons and the Christmas Special are out on DVD.
Any questions? Comments? Kittens?