The original Office aired from 2001 to 2003. The episodes were written by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, and Gervais starred as “David Brent,” a role later adapted into Steve Carrel’s “Michael Scott.”
Gervais now acts as a writer and executive producer on the American series, which has become one of America’s highest-rated sitcoms. In fact, since its underwhelming debut season in 2005, the American Office has nearly doubled its viewers, and its critical response has generally improved.
After all, the original Office was a difficult act to follow, and not all of its fans were happy to hear about the remake (and some were even less happy when they actually saw the remake).
The original Office was perhaps more esoteric in its appeal than the NBC version, but it was no less good for that. In fact, the original series could well be considered the funniest show of the last decade, or at least one of the funniest.
Why Was The Office So Good?
The premise of The Office was brilliant in its simplicity. 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap revolutionized the mockumentary, and 1999’s The Blair Witch Project revolutionized the fake documentary (which is not quite the same thing as mockumentary). The Office brought a sort of hybrid of the two mediums to television. It purported itself to be a real documentary, one that followed the everyday events at a typical workplace.
And what a typical workplace it was. The original Office took place within the fictional Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Werhman Hogg looked stale and bland enough to be a real office building, and it was located in a rather dreary-looking English borough called Slough. (Fans of the American version are surely aware that their Office takes place in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Apparently the writers at NBC saw Scranton as an American equivalent of Slough… and that’s not saying much for Scranton.)
If the setting of The Office was realistic, its characters could be described as “ultra-realistic,” in the sense that they possessed traits that were realistic but exaggerated. Gervais, for instance, took the pompous, socially-inept executive-type that everyone is familiar with (because everyone knows someone like that), and multiplied that stereotype by ten. Brent is in good company with overcompensating nerd Gareth, meathead construction worker Lee, put-upon secretary Dawn, and loveable “everyman” Tim.
And yet even with all those stereotypes running around, the series maintained a refreshingly dry, refreshingly…English sense of humor. Great lines from The Office include Brent saying, “People see me, and they see the suit, and they go ‘You’re not fooling anyone.’ They know I’m rock n’ roll through and through.” He says that without a trace of irony, despite the fact that he’s a chubby forty-something middle manager. In another episode, he proudly explains that he used to be in a rock band called “Forgone Conclusion.” He says this with an deliciously subtle shrug that implies that this is obviously the best band name anyone has ever come up with ever. That’s what so great about the original Office: characters say incredibly stupid things with such assuredness that you just have to hate and love them all at the same time. Because they aren’t buffoons, they’re slightly exaggerated versions of the real people working in offices all over the world.
The Office Closes at the BBC
The BBC Office went off the air after only two seasons and one two-hour holiday special. Merchant and Gervais had voluntarily pulled the plug, preferring to go out on a high note rather than run out of material and end up basing episodes on paper-thin premises (hear that, Simpsons writers?) Their move was arguably premature – and the show’s cult-like fans were crushed – but the original version of The Office lives on in DVD form. Fans of the American version should pick up that DVD set and see what The Office was like when it was still just a low-budget show written by two rather frumpy-looking guys from across the pond. They won’t be disappointed.
Emily Caswell - I am a recent college graduate, having received my B.A. in English. I am an Associate Editor at Hotcars of Connectict magazine and have ...
