NBC has been well known for their incredible and creative story telling throughout their days on network television. Shows such as Star Trek, Law & Order, and ER always found a way to captivate an audience. But its presence of comedy have truly shown competitive networks they are not to be trifled with.
Saturday Night Live, Will & Grace, Scrubs, Golden Girls, and more all proved that comedy was growing throughout their years, but NBC's more successful shows: Seinfeld and Friends, will without a doubt remain comedy's largest sketch and sitcom treasures of the 90's and early 2000's.
So how exactly does one trump Cosmo Kramer and Joey Tribbiani? The formula is simple.
Take a highly successful and accomplished comedian/producer (Ricky Gervais) and a writer from two successful TV animated comedies (Greg Daniels: The Simpsons, King of the Hill), and what do you have?
The first season was not favored well among viewers. The show creator himself Greg Daniels felt hesitant that viewers would not receive the show as well as he had envisioned. Through some miracle, NBC decided to continue the show for a second season, and a second chance.
This second chance was all Michael Scott and crew needed to survive. However NBC alone was not the cause of its spike in popularity. Believe it or not, iTunes sales of the show brought it to its full glory and realization of how incredible "The Office"'s storytelling was. Ratings skyrocketed throughout the second half of season 2, and the rest is history. But what is it about this show that made it so popular?
Despite it being derived and based on another show, 'The Office' managed to remain unique and original throughout most of its tenure on network television. It was a show like none other and completely evolved the mockumentary genre from that point forward.
The direction, writing style, never-ending memorable quotes, and of course, the perfect cast all coming together in one made this show what it is today. 'The Office' went on to help Steve Carell win his first Golden Globe award, but the cast believes it was a win for them all seeing how far they had come.
Everyone at some point has had that high figure in their lives whether it be a teacher, mentor, or in this case, a boss, who is either arrogant or annoying, in the most un-comical way possible. But in comes Steve Carell to parody this somewhat-exact person and completely raid the accounting department. Possibly one of the most memorable characters in all of television history, Steve Carell excels in his performance of rendering both the boss you've always hated but also wished you'd had in your life.
Other characters include Jim Halpert, a salesman who hates his job but loves to get to work on his next upcoming prank for co-employee Dwight Schrute, another salesman who happens to be a complete beet-loving Battlestar Galactica maniac, and Pam Beesly, an artist enthusiast who works reception across from Jim, her apparent-platonic friend.
The entire cast for this show is fairly large, which makes it all the more exciting to watch as there are more characters to fall in love with. But the reason why 'The Office' remains the talk of the water cooler still to this day is the fact on how relatable it is to society and most american's lives, while at the same time, is something most americans have never experienced and wish that they had.
The show has gone on to inspire other successful mockumentaries such as Parks and Recreation (also by Greg Daniels), Community, and 30 Rock.
The Office was influential in the US alright, but sorry, it doesn't hold a candle to the original The Office from UK. That was a masterwork. The US version isn't unique at all - it's just a dumbed down variant of the UK version.
Great article!
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