The Office - Personas

The Office - Personas

Defective Yeti wrote an unsolicited script for The Office.

SNL Digital Short: Japanese Office: Saturday Night Live

Love this Japanese The Office parody from Saturday Night Live.

See also Slate’s take on the (actual) British, American, French, and German versions of the show.

What's Wrong with The Office

Slate asks What’s wrong with _The Office, and correctly, I think, points to the hour-long format of the first few weeks. I’ve said this before, but comedy should be very compressed. Write an hour’s worth of jokes and then throw out the least funny half. A joke a minute is always preferable to one every other minute, or even a funny one and then a not funny one. The writing staff could easily be saving some of these subplots and germinating them into entire episodes. _Slate is dead wrong, though, in saying:

PB&J are a disappointment for those of us who saw the couple as a worthy successor to Ross and Rachel, NBC’s will-they-or-won’t-they couple of yore.

Friends was a great sitcom, but it’s as typical a sitcom as you can get. The Office is not a traditional sitcom. It has no laugh track, no three camera setup, and few easy double entendre jokes. The original BBC Office did the will-they-won’t-they plot perfectly with Tim and Dawn, and then wisely got them together after twelve episodes. Hollywood has a hard time grasping the concept that couples can be funny, too—and bad writing hasn’t helped over the years—but if any show can find humor in a steady couple, it’s The Office. They’re already doing it with Michael and Jan’s bizarre relationship.

On the topic, Rolling Stone provides a list of The 25 Greatest Moments from _The Office_. Good stuff, but 1) 25 moments? The show’s only been on three years, and the first season was a shortie; and 2) Dear God, they broke a “top 25” list down into five separate pages?

Super-Sized Office

Though it’s been recanted, there was talk a few days ago that NBC would start airing The Office as an hour-long show every week. I’m glad they’re not sticking to that plan. I love the show (as I did the British version), but I’ve always felt that the super-sized episodes didn’t quite work. The extra material fits great onto a DVD, but when you’re watching the episode, you want those jokes that didn’t quite work out to be trimmed away. Sitcoms should be lean and funny, not long and wordy.

A Quick Observation Comparing Two Versions of the Office

A Quick Observation Comparing Two Versions of the Office

True, but I’ve never seen the American version as an actual documentary like the BBC one was supposed to be. Gervais said himself that they ended it after 2 seasons b/c no documentary would go on longer than that.

How iTunes saved The Office

How iTunes saved The Office

Interesting article with the absurd news that they’re moving Scrubs and 30 Rock to 9:00 on Thursdays against the two most popular shows on TV.

The Office, Around the World

The Office, Around the World

Great piece on how four different versions of The Office all reflect their own countries, even while being basically the same show.

The Office April Fool's Day PSAs

The Office April Fool’s Day PSAs

I had only seen one of these (the one about being short).

Newsvine - 'The Office' Makes Home in Scranton, Pa.

Newsvine - ‘The Office’ Makes Home in Scranton, Pa.

NBC: iPod Boosts Prime Time

NBC: iPod Boosts Prime Time

Rating of The Office are up, in part due to people getting a taste from iTunes.