The Office - US

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I was one of those who thought that another American rehash of a British idea was never going to work, but I was completely wrong. I think it's better than the original...

[RaulRipp]

They were ace! Any chance of any more?! Cheers!

[nekokate]

I was also pleasantly surprised at how decent these were. It's not just "The Office" but with Americans, it's the same concept but totally changed - which I like.

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Glad you both enjoyed them - I think it's the best american sitcom for years. I didn't actually upload these ones, I just found them while searching on humyo and copied them into my account. I'll keep my eye out for more though.

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The Branch 'Office' Thrives
By DOROTHY RABINOWITZ
May 30, 2008
Wall Street Journal

The American version of "The Office" began its first season in March 2005 on NBC with just six struggling episodes inevitably shadowed by memories of the remarkable -- and remarkably popular -- British original created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The popularity of that first "Office" both in the U.K. and the U.S. (it aired on BBC America) is noteworthy above all because its vision was so relentlessly bleak, its exquisite parody of every ghastly affectation known to our age so knowing and so implacable. That parody is the heart of the David Brent character (Mr. Gervais). Not only was the show's portrait of this middle manager of the (fictional) Werner-Hogg paper company bleak, so was its portrait of most of the office staff and, indeed, all life in Slough generally -- a place already reviled by the British poet John Betjeman in his 1937 poem of the same name, written in a fit of anti-industrial fervor. "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!" the first line implores.

In that British "Office," subjects like job loss and threats thereof were built into those sendups of the boss, David Brent. In one scene, an angry employee who was just informed by a smoothly philosophical David that he has been made redundant isn't buying the vague, luck-of-the-draw reason given. He demands to know whether another employee was favored to keep his job because he happened to be a dwarf. An insane colloquy follows, led by David and his chief toady, Gareth (Mackenzie Crook), on the physical difference between dwarfs and midgets and, possibly, elves -- till the employee walks away.

Virtually every spoof and comic turn in this "Office" has an edge of darkness, but nowhere is the dark deeper than in the tone of another scene about employment fears. In this one the staffers await David's return from a higher management meeting with the answers he promised about their job status. They need to know now, a staff member insists, when David finally comes back. What they hear is in fact bad news -- namely that many of them will lose their jobs. But there is also good news, David tells the stricken staff, which has the look of people about to lose everything -- no joke about it. And that news, a beaming David informs the gathering, is that he himself has been promoted.

"Satire is what closes Saturday night," said a long-ago wit, writing about audience tastes in the theater. Not this TV satire, so well loved however bleak, and built so unyieldingly -- and brilliantly -- around a character incapable of exciting the smallest shred of human sympathy.

That said, the American "Office" (developed by Greg Daniels) is, in its vitality, something of a miracle itself, with an ensemble cast that has, this season, reached its peak. Whether in the jobs fair episode where the preening branch manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) can find no one interested in working for the Dunder Mifflin paper company, or the one in which Michael -- refusing all acknowledgment that his angry employee, Stanley, has openly dissed him -- insists that Stanley is a "beautiful sassy black man" and a good friend, or the spectacular finale, it has been clear that this "Office" has been producing at high levels.

The tone has, from the beginning, borne small resemblance to that of its British progenitor. Scranton, Pa., home of Michael's Dunder Mifflin branch, isn't the kind of place that would inspire calls for friendly bombs. All that's wrong with it, you can occasionally divine from the terminally envious manager, is that it offers no high life or New York-style sushi (as he calls the sushi available in Manhattan).

This "Office" -- loaded with honors, its fan base by now immense -- has worked its way into a satiric mode that's at once flinty and soft-hearted. It's a combination perfectly jelled in the character of Michael, a believer in every new fashion and all the worst that has been thought and said in our own or any other times. Also a boaster and narcissist of the first order -- needy, tone-deaf, pathologically suggestive, and still a sympathetic sort often enough. Which doesn't make him any less infuriating. Mr. Carell juggles all of this with sublime ease, or so he makes it appear -- no small trick.

Abetting Michael is Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), a lackey more credible, in his unearthly way, than Gareth, his British counterpart -- and now a significant name on the American scene. Not for nothing did John McCain answer "Dwight Schrute" -- one of the candidate's better jokes -- when he was asked who his vice presidential pick might be.

In the Scranton office, mass job losses don't seriously threaten, love can blossom unexpectedly for unlikely couples -- as it did between the remarkable Dwight and the upright and dour, bordering-on-vicious Angela (Angela Kinsey) -- and then go wrong as it invariably does. The worst that happens to the Dunder Mifflin crew are things like being made to work Saturday because of some piece of bureaucratic idiocy, or having to endure one of Michael's lectures on advancing tolerance and equality. That, and its like, is suffering quite bad enough, or so the Dunder Mifflin crowd manages, so beautifully, to persuade us week after week.

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Here's an article by some tosspot from the Guardian's blog section - what an idiot this guy is. The comments from people of Scranton (one offering him a fight) are pretty funny though... haha

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British model tweaked for U.S. 'Office'
Sitcom retooled for longevity, new audience
By ROBERT ABELE
variety.com

It wasn't the ideal situation: Turn a beloved, game-changing British sitcom that ran only 12 episodes (with two specials) into an American network show that could possibly run for years. Now, 100 episodes later, the U.S. version of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's cubicle-life series "The Office" is an Emmy-winning NBC stalwart on Thursday nights, showing no signs of creative slowdown.

"They've made the show their own," says managing director Howard T. Owens of Reveille, which produces "The Office." "(Showrunner) Greg Daniels and his writing staff have created a template totally unique to American TV." The two versions can be seen as representative of their respective countries, according to Merchant, who believes "there's a lot to be said" for the virtues of going short as well as for going long.

"Ricky and I did everything ourselves," Merchant says, "so there's no way we could have sustained that momentum. And syndication is not an option (in the U.K.), so you can't invest in a show in the hopes of paying everyone later. We're these little old ladies running a tea shop in Devon, while the American show has a momentum and ambition and energy. It's the Henry Ford model, but something special is coming out the other end."

Like the British "Office," NBC's kicked off (in the spring of 2005) with only six episodes. The order was small enough, says Daniels, to let him and his team get the subtly wince-inducing tone of the original right, while forging their own version of the single-camera mockumentary format. "I was worried about the habits NBC had at the time, coming off a mostly multicamera sensibility," Daniels says. But the network kept referring to the example of "Seinfeld" as the model for building an offbeat comedy. "The fact that ("Seinfeld"), too, started with little bursts of small orders helped them figure out how to do the show."

Whereas fans of the British "Office" love laughing at Gervais' pathetically self-deluded paper company tyrant David Brent, Daniels knew Steve Carell's Michael Scott needed positive elements for the show to go the distance. "We started the romance with Jan, gave him moments of intelligence and competence," says Daniels, who says Carell's performance in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" helped him see all Michael could be. "It's the Peter Principle a bit. Michael's a very good salesman who's just not a very good manager."

Also, Gervais and Merchant wrote out all their episodes to carefully hone its off-the-cuff appearance, while Daniels embraced the spirit of looseness in the mockumentary format. "We can pile the cameramen in the back of the van and just go places," he says. "I like it when we're being guerrilla."

Merchant crossed the Pond to direct an episode last season, and he marveled at the team effort involved. "I've never had more fun than being in the writers' room and seeing a pool of very talented people throw ideas around," he says. "They're working flat-out all the time. It's not like being stuck in a room with Ricky Gervais wanting to take a nap under his desk because he's had too many sandwiches for lunch. This was a lot more dynamic and youthful."

With a cast of more than a dozen adept at improvising, actors who are also writers, and writer-producers who also direct, Daniels has assembled a creative community he likens to a jazz troupe. "If the spirit moves somebody, they can take a solo, and you won't feel scared as much," he says. "The volume is daunting. We did 28 episodes this year, but to know there are so many talented people around you, if you're not on that day, it's OK. There's a lot of depth."

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I see the streaming episodes are missing from the player above - I'll try to sort some more.

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[mamasue]

I love the US office... although I loved the UK one...I have to admit the US one's tons better.
it's the only American comedy I find funny.....but to be fair, it's a British creation...I love Ricky Gervaise!
In spring, we took a road trip across the USA.....Scranton (yes it really exists!!) was top of my visit list!
now that Michael Scott's left it's slightly lost its way..... but I still love it!!!

[luke]

i was another one who thought the american office wouldn't be much good, and i didn't bother with it to start with. when i found out it wasn't just a copy and there were new episodes i checked it out and i'm really enjoying it

[SpursFan1902]

Most of American TV is American versions of UK tv...and thanks btw for American Idol, America's Got Talent, Big Brother and Simon Cowell, but you could have kept them on your side of the pond!

I have never seen the US version of The Office. I am not a big fan of Steve Carell, so I avoided it.

My brother lives in Germany and has gets his cable from the UK and I noticed a lot of American shows on...not even remakes, just the American show. I guess someone over there likes them.