Why is there a US-version of "The Office"?

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I love this show. SBARRO.

gunther heartymeal (keckles), Friday, 10 February 2006 04:32 (eighteen years ago) link

The US version is fucking hilarious. Totally it's own creation. Fuck those who won't watch it out of reverence for the UK original.

Yeah, we here in Oz are getting Earl - I saw a few episodes while I was in the US, that shit is one of the funniest things I've seen on TV in years.

Mike Stuchbery (Mike Stuchbery), Friday, 10 February 2006 06:04 (eighteen years ago) link

AH YES, CREED. HE'S GREAT.

slow jamz and white guy indie acoustic shit (Chris V), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:47 (eighteen years ago) link

I liked when they were picking new health insurance and the annoying guy was like "Alright people are just making things up to be funny..anal fissures? There's no such thing!" - and then an embarrased man admits that there is such a thing and "some one has them" and then great awkwardness ensues.

yeah that was a great scene - I like this show a lot, started out weak but I think as its demise grows immanent it'll get better & better

Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 10 February 2006 12:58 (eighteen years ago) link

last night was amazing! i knew jan would kiss michael again, anytime he acts like a normal person (when he closed the deal with tim meadows, when he saved her ass at the conference) she looks at him differently.

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 13:10 (eighteen years ago) link

i haven't seen it yet, i fell asleep before. tivo'd it though.

i also found it incredibly funny when Michael had his jeans dry cleaned and danced around the office.

slow jamz and white guy indie acoustic shit (Chris V), Friday, 10 February 2006 13:11 (eighteen years ago) link

meredith who seems almost proud to be an alcoholic.

Hahaha -- "In five years, I'd like to see myself five years sober . . . well, four and a half years."

phil d. (Phil D.), Friday, 10 February 2006 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link

as its demise grows immanent it'll get better & better

it already got renewed for next season though, so I'm hoping that it will simmer around on nbc for a while.

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Sean, you should never watch the first season - it's six episodes, and only one of them is even remotely good. The second season is where it's at. I already listed the episodes to try upthread.

then when jim was using the spray bottle on michael and dwight in meredith's minivan!

"You can't fire me! I don't work in this van!"

Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, NBC is way committed to this show. It pulls in pretty respectable ratings and holds a good portion of Earl's lead-in audience. It also sells pretty well on itunes - it's usually all over the best-selling tv list, beating out heavyweights like Lost and Desperate Housewives.

Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link

A MICHAEL SCOTT JOINT

Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:40 (eighteen years ago) link

with Robin Williams and Steve Martin's heads

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

as someone who hated this show from the start (and in comparison to the bbc version obv.) i have to say that it seems to have gotten waaayyy better this season judging from last nights episode.

|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l| (eman), Friday, 10 February 2006 14:57 (eighteen years ago) link

I've never seen a whole episode of the British series so I can't compare, but after watching a few episodes this season, I'd say the American version is one of the more watchable things on current TV, which is entirely thanks to Steve Carrell. Without him, it would just be another lame sitcom.

o. nate (onate), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:43 (eighteen years ago) link

i would have to disagree, the entire cast is fantastic.

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I disagree too. The supporting cast is great.

"they have great restaurants here -- bubba gump shrimp, red lobster..."

gunther heartymeal (keckles), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:57 (eighteen years ago) link

My favorite line was this little throwaway during the "Michael burns his foot" episode. While Michael is thrashing in the bathroom, Ryan, and Toby are standing outside, eating string cheese. Ryan just peels back the wrapper and chomps down.

Toby: "Wow, you just dig right in."

Ryan: "Yeah. Around age 12, I just started goin’ for it."

or something like that.

schwantz (schwantz), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:08 (eighteen years ago) link

ryan (bj novak) writes most of the episodes.

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

from last night i also loved dwight's reaction to his present and the comment about his "animal needing a lot of love"

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:25 (eighteen years ago) link

the pimp look on his face when she smiles at his gift was genius

Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I disagree too. The supporting cast is great.

Nothing against the supporting cast, they do what they do quite well - which is mainly to play the set-up/straight-man/woman to Carrell's oddly endearing asshole.

o. nate (onate), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:27 (eighteen years ago) link

it's probably one of the best cast shows ever.

Putting Dwight's desk in the bathroom was classic as a show opener. I wish they would do a Dwight prank for every opener. Another good one was when all his stuff was in the vending machine.

don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:34 (eighteen years ago) link

which is mainly to play the set-up/straight-man/woman to Carrell's oddly endearing asshole.

there is nothing "straight" about dwight. or creed for that matter.

another amazing dwight-ism from the warehouse episode: "this is like on LOST when they met the Others."

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Dwight occasionally plays set-up man, but he also gets laughs on his own - true enough. I just don't think by himself he could carry a whole show, but that's a quibble. He's amusing, but his character seems directly descended from a long line of office comedy oddballs - a slightly more well-adjusted stapler guy from Office Space, let's say. whereas to me, Michael just seems more original as a personality - not a character we've seen done quite in this way before.

o. nate (onate), Friday, 10 February 2006 19:01 (eighteen years ago) link

One of the reasons the show is great is precisely because none of them could carry the show on their own. I'm not really sure that the BBC version would have been nearly as interesting without Ricky Gervais because he's such a catalyst. That's not nearly the case with the US version.

don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 10 February 2006 19:05 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, i think it was discussed upthread somewhere (or in some other thread) how michael scott =! david brent in so many ways.

also, the US office has already surpassed the UK office in # of episodes, so the characters (even the secondary ones) are beginning to become more fleshed out. the angela character for instance, i hardly thought about her first season, now i think she is hilarious.. "wound up"!

cutty (mcutt), Friday, 10 February 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link

I really like that when Michael went to corporate, he wasn't the only clueless idiot in the same position of power.

Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 10 February 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Some of them have individual myspaces it seems.

B.J. Novak's Music section has the band Tugboat on it. I thought the band name was a Galaxie 500 reference and sure enough it was (I found out about the band courtesy of an Allmusic.com review by Ned). To top it off B.J. Novak went to Harvard, where Galaxie 500 of course has its roots.

Now I'm really starting to believe in all that bullshit about the internet being used to economize knowledge for the good and bringing in a global village of people with common interests. (Or at least a global village of people who are fascinated by Dean Wareham's boredom).

http://www.myspace.com/bjnovak

Jenna Fischer aka Pam Beesley
http://www.myspace.com/pambeesley

Paul Lieberstein aka Toby
http://profile.myspace.com/i...7-769e-4587-bee2-c6fee91fbfdb

Angela Kinsey aka Angela Martin
http://www.myspace.com/accountinglady

Brian Baumgartner aka Kevin Malone
http://www.myspace.com/kevinmalone

Adam Beck
http://www.myspace.com/adambryantbeck

Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:18 (eighteen years ago) link

how did I miss that Creed was a guitarist for the Grass Roots? And that his character is actually himself?

kyle (akmonday), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:43 (eighteen years ago) link

According to another message board, the guys who play Roy and Darryl also have myspaces now. And so does the woman who plays Meredith. Crazy.

kyle because they cut out that entire segment where Creed rocks out on the booze cruise! You've probably already seen it but if not, go to

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

and click on videos, it's the first deleted scene called "There's a rock star..."

reddening (reddening), Monday, 13 February 2006 09:23 (eighteen years ago) link

isn't tugboat an ilx band?

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 13 February 2006 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

why am I Mr. Sparkle?

autovac (autovac), Monday, 13 February 2006 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link

"I'M the bobble head!"

kyle (akmonday), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:26 (eighteen years ago) link

for the record, i really enjoyed the first season aside the very first episode

Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:36 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...
webisodes?

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/index.shtml#main

sunny successor (katharine), Thursday, 13 July 2006 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link

two months pass...
So, season three. I thought the first episode was too over the top. Absolutely no one would ever put up with the treatment that Oscar got. I know it's a comedy, but that whole plotline really pushed the limits of believability.

The "comedy mixed with moments of shocking realism" thing might be getting to predictable. I loved it when Dwight threw up after a car accident, but Roy's monologue and DUI mugshot were too much.

Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 22 September 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Agreed

and PappaWheelie, author of Have You Ever Been Poxy Fuled? (PappaWheelie 2), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

i have been watching series 2 on dvd -- BIG LAUGHS. i am starting to love creed.

i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

creed is my favorite!

dwight puking after smashing the car was the best scene so far, hands down

sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 22 September 2006 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I was laughing my ass off and it never occurred to me to be annoyed by how unrealistic it was. My experience was more like "cover your eyes but peek through fingers" embarrassing to watch and "can you imagine if this guy was real" ridiculous type humor that is part of the original formula for sitcoms. I loved it.

IPSISSIMUS (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 22 September 2006 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

they've obviously thrown out any bit of "realism" they were trying to convay in season 1. i thought last night episode was GREAT

chaki (chaki), Friday, 22 September 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

i love this show and am not ashamed

davina q (dubplatestyle), Friday, 22 September 2006 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

It was still funny, I guess. Kelly was incredible, as usual.

Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 22 September 2006 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

haha, i actually put my arms over my face and peeked through during the conference room scene when michael's trying to hug oscar omg.

rrrobyn, the situation (rrrobyn), Friday, 22 September 2006 17:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I also literally covered my eyes, but it was when he attempted to kiss him!

IPSISSIMUS (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 22 September 2006 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

yes very excellent. kiss was maybe a little bit TOO much but whatever, still hi-larious.

mango selassie (teenagequiet), Friday, 22 September 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe I forgot to watch this, fuck!

a naked Kraken annoying Times Square tourists with an acoustic guitar (nickalici, Friday, 22 September 2006 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

mindy kaling is wifey material

and what (ooo), Friday, 22 September 2006 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

It was clever of them to follow up "kiss" finale with a more terrifying kiss in the season premiere.

Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 22 September 2006 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

So what happened with Jim/Pam? Just awkwardness or what?

a naked Kraken annoying Times Square tourists with an acoustic guitar (nickalici, Friday, 22 September 2006 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link


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