He didn't write the American version or something as you put it. He wrote the original British The Office. He created David Brent, a major comic creation and a way of filming which was as another poster put it was like a documentary. It was apparently a bit subtle for some Americans and our younger posters to grasp. In spite of you reckoning you have never met anyone who liked it a lot of Americans did which is why it won a load of awards and the Americans copied it.
Finally, something an MA in TV Scriptwriting qualifies me to talk about! First of all, I'm really surprised Gavin and Stacey made it on, it's a good show but how on Earth are Peep Show, Father Ted or Doctor Who not on there?! The British and Amerian Offices are incomparable, simply because the premises are slightly different; the US Office seems to be more situation based whereas the comedy in the UK Office stemmed from the character of Brent and his interactions with his employees (and superiors). It's obviously funny to a lot of people, Ricky won the BAFTA for best comedy performance three years running and he in himself is a funny guy. Humour comes down to opinion, but it's quite obvious that while he's an obnoxious ****, he's a pretty funny guy. Extras, The Office, Derek, Idiot Abroad, The Ricky Gervais Show, they're all top shows and he is actually responsible for the American version, as he serves as Executive Producer (alongside, among others, Stephen Merchant). There's a lot not to like about him, but it's hard to deny that he's a funny guy. I recentley met Ash Atalla (who was a producer on The Office) and he said that "Gervais could be almost impossible to work with, because he's both the funniest man in the world and the biggest bastard you'll ever meet." He knows he's a ****, he's counting on you thinking it, it's part of his get up. American comedy can be awesome, I love South Park, Parks and Rec, Archer (obviously), Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, My Name is Earl and the like, there's some gold in there. David Mitchell, however, continues to make me laugh on a daily basis. His rants are so apoplectic and spot on, I don't think I've ever laughed at somebody so much in my life. If only he did stand up.
He did some of the writing and was executive producer on the Office in the US. Its not his character or your humor that i don't like, it's him. It isn't hard to grasp. I also probably know more Americans than you, and I am telling you I have never talked to a single person who likes his work.
David Brent David Brent please log in to view this image Character David Brent is the type of boss who wants to be a friend and mentor to those who work for him. He imagines his workers find him very funny and enjoy his company, while still respecting him and looking up to him as a boss, even a fatherly figure. However, his employees generally find him pretentious, arrogant and mean. A key aspect of the character of Brent is his obliviousness to how other people actually see him, causing him to lash out whenever the veil of ignorance and vanity he maintains is pierced. Brent often asks other characters how old they think he is, only to be dismayed and offended when their guesses — even when accurate (39 in Series One) — are older than he wishes to hear. He has a consistent need to be acknowledged as a renaissance man and to be recognised as exceptionally skilled at his many desired accomplishments. These include writing poetry and lyrics, composing and playing music, being a rockstar, managing his adoring team, dancing, and even dating and marriage. He especially believes himself to be a remarkably talented stand-up comedian, and rarely misses an opportunity to show off to the cameras. His "material", however, is invariably unoriginal and badly executed, consisting almost entirely of poor impressions and banal routines recycled from British comedy shows such as Fawlty Towers, The Two Ronnies and Harry Enfield and Chums. He also boasts frequently about the amount of alcohol he consumes, believing this will gain him respect. He also revealed that he was in a rock band called Foregone Conclusion, and claimed that they were once supported by Texas. He is a supporter of Reading F.C.. Brent has a tendency to promote himself as an intelligent and politically correct middle-class man, but often demonstrates an unwittingly offensive attitude towards ethnic minorities, disabled people and women. However, his various attitudes and faux-pas — cringeworthy and insulting though they may appear — are rarely maliciously intended; they are frequently the result of extreme naivety and self-delusion, combined with a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is usually compounded by clumsy attempts at retractions, after realising the insulting interpretations of his remarks. Similarly, while wanting to be regarded by his staff as "A friend first, and a boss second, probably an entertainer third", he displays a chronic lack of awareness and regard for others' feelings. In the first episode of the series, he brings Dawn to tears by joking that she is to be fired for stealing Post-it notes. At the end of Series One, a not-unexpected restructuring of Wernham-Hogg sees Brent's boss pose Brent an unattractive choice: he can accept a promotion to the Corporate board, which would lead to the Slough office being merged to Swindon and most of his employees ending up unemployed, or he can keep his post in Slough and the Swindon office would then be merged to Slough, with his workers remaining on the payroll. Brent, failing to see any dilemma or conflict of loyalty, immediately and delightedly accepts the job and is later bewildered by the failure of those who will be made redundant to be pleased for him. However, he later fails a medical test and the plan for the branch merger is reworked, with Brent's Swindon counterpart moving to Slough as David's superior and bringing several of his own genuinely loyal personnel with him. An unctuous older worker named Malcolm, tries to confront his (in Malcolm's view) falsely noble tale of "turning down" the corporate job with the medical news by faking high blood pressure, Brent refuses to admit this to Malcolm.
In Series Two, Brent thus has to deal with the arrival of Neil Godwin in a role immediately above his own. Unlike Brent, Neil is genuinely funny, friendly, hard working, and confident in himself. Recognising this, Brent quickly grows to despise Neil, and spends most of series two trying to one-up him at every point, most memorably with a dance routine in episode five, which he describes with typical false modesty and inaccuracy, saying "I've sort of fused Flashdance and MC Hammer ****".[2] Brent argued that the documentary crew "stitched him up" and portrayed him as the "boss from hell".[3] Although depicted on-screen as incompetent, it is suggested that he has been successful in the past. In the first episode he lists achievements (e.g. raising profitability without losing staff), and in the second series, he is both interviewed for a trade magazine, and invited to be a motivational speaker, suggesting that his reputation is not as bad as viewers are led to expect. Many of Brent's insecurities may stem from the fact that he is no longer able to handle his own job, and his desperation to be liked may be a failed effort to hide this fact. In the The Office Christmas specials, he is heard complaining that the “documentary” made him look stupid - an observation which also demonstrates some rare self-awareness. Interestingly, Gervais said once that in the show's universe, Brent did have many moments when he did his job well and even showed an effective sense of humour, for example during season 1 in which Brent is met with genuine laughter after telling what appeared to be a joke during a small meeting with his staff - These moments were deliberately NOT included in the documentary, but presumably helped shape viewer perceptions that Brent wasn't just a worthless empty suit and an idiot. For all his many unlikeable and contemptible characteristics, Brent is not without redeeming merit and is largely depicted as a tragic figure, increasingly so as the show progresses: a lonely and somewhat forlorn man who places too much value in his unrewarding job. At several points, the audience is prompted to feel sympathetic towards Brent. This is especially true in the final episode of the second series — as Brent faces redundancy — and in parts of the Christmas special where he is seen struggling with life after losing his job and his fifteen minutes of fame (thus acknowledging that the supposed "documentary" filmed at Wernham-Hogg has been shown on television). These are the few times Brent is seen trying to hold on in the face of a somewhat bleak situation. Brent's future appears happier at the end of the Christmas special, when his lively and attractive blind date appears to genuinely enjoy his company. In the final scene, Brent also succeeds in achieving what he failed to do for the whole series up to that point: he makes the staff laugh. The Christmas special also reveals that Brent owns a pet Labrador Retriever named Nelson, which he named after Nelson Mandela. It has been acknowledged that Brent's character was deliberately made more sympathetic as the show progressed. In the DVD commentary of the pilot US episode of The Office, writer B.J. Novak recalls Gervais and Merchant saying that they deliberately altered Brent to become more of a "buffoon" in the second series, and thus more likeable. This mingling of comedy and pathos in a superficially grotesque character is characteristic of some of the classics of British comedy, such as Hancock and Steptoe and Son. It is said that the duo advised that Brent's US equivalent, Michael Scott, to be the same from the beginning. Scott's character loses much of Brent's nastier traits, and concentrates on his failed and often desperate attempts at humour. Also, more obvious emphasis is placed on Scott's loneliness. Also, while Brent is never shown to possess any business skills at all, Scott is portrayed as a great salesman who was unwisely promoted and became a hopeless manager. Due to the popularity of the show, Brent's persona has entered British office-life culture as the epitome of the "bad boss". He is frequently ranked alongside many classic characters of British comedy, including Basil Fawlty, Captain George Mainwaringand Alan Partridge. He arguably has a more recent precursor in Gordon Brittas and The Fast Show's Colin Hunt.
Don't know if you meant created the mockumentary - he certainly didnt - Spinal Tap was long before and Python sketches , Brass eye and Day today were much earlier . As i mentioned in an earlier post Operation Good Guys (police mockumentary ) contains all of the elements found in the office , just not done nearly as subtle .
Bad phrasing on my part. I was meaning he created Brent and filmed it in the way of a documentary which made it funnier (though it seems to have made it hard for some people to get), not that he invented that style of filming. Talking of great comedy, Spinal Tap is at the very top, in my opinion.Especially if you are aged over 60 and were around to see the things they were taking the piss out of. The bit about the name changes and how they renamed themselves The Originals but found out there was already a band with that name so they became The New Originals was funny and also typical of the early 1960s. Amazing how a bunch of non-Brits had such a knowledge of what happened in this country regarding music from the 1960s and 1970s.
Good call Quill, such a good show. When Chris Pratt got cast in Guardians of the Galaxy I really didn't think it would work just because your used to seeing him act like an idiot playing Andy, but he was great in that too. If you haven't already seen it then try watching Community, it has a similar sense of humour, most people that like Parks and Rec are fans.
I think as brilliant as the UK Office was, it was a limited format and couldn't have lasted longer than it did, the premise, the humour, the direction everything would have become tedious had the Americans reproduced it for 24 episode seasons. Handing the writing over to Greg Daniels and Micheal Schur was a genius move, they took the premise and made it a completely different show, so much so that the two are hardly comparable. By season 2/3 the only thing that was copied was that it was a sitcom set in an office, everything else had evolved.
Mitchell and Webb are great. All of their work, but particularly Peep Show, is top quality stuff. Mitchell in particular, as you said, has the best rants and really should consider some form of standup. The closest thing to standup he has done is probably his appearances on Mock The Week. I'm surprised there hasn't been another series of Peep Show, seems like ages since it was last on. South Park is just genius.
I don't think it was intended to last any longer. It wasn't intended to be a long running series and reached its conclusion. The American version was written to a format American audiences are used to.
Funny how people's perceptions differ. I think Mitchell is a smug, self-satisfied twat. But each to his own. I used to laugh at anything Peter Cook said or did but others didn't find him as funny.
Although both Coupling and Friends had 3 male + 3 female leads the similarities really stop there. Coupling was a comedy. Friends was a soap opera with some humour associated. In that respect it like many American "sitcoms".
