Back in 2005, NBC remade a semi-popular British sitcom, and it went on to become one of the most important and influential American sitcoms of all time. The Office, a remake of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s 2001 mockumentary, arrived with a whimper, but after just one season was well on its way to the TV hall-of-fame.
The series, adapted by Greg Daniels, an Emmy-winning writer for SNL, The Simpsons, and King of the Hill, follows the day-to-day of the employees at Dunder Mifflin, a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Endlessly quotable and still just as funny, The Office set the standard for basically every comedy show that came after.
The Office Is Still Influential To The World Of TV Sitcoms
The Office ran for 9 seasons between 2005 and 2013, and in that time, was nominated for 44 Emmys and 9 Golden Globes. It was the series that everyone watched every Thursday. During the high point of the Golden State Warriors basketball team in the NBA in the 2010s, they had a rotation of players known as the “Death Lineup”.
A team of players so great that no matter who was on court, the other teams had no chance. NBC had its own Death Lineup in the 2000s with The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community airing back-to-back on Thursdays. The Office is the Steph Curry in this long-winded analogy.
It’s a show whose influence is so widespread and obvious that it’s almost easy to forget where these influences came from. While the mockumentary format had been around since the 1960s in one format or another, it was the American version of The Office that really set things off and popularized the conceit.
Parks and Rec, Modern Family, What We Do in the Shadows, and Abbot Elementary all owe part of their comedy success to The Office. It’s not just the documentary style, though. These are all ensembles set in typical, mundane settings (or atypical settings made mundane, as in the case with WWDITS), with strong character arcs and non-stop jokes.
Why The Office Is Still So Popular Over 20 Years After Its NBC Debut
20 years after The Office pilot, the show is just as popular as ever. It’s gone through a few iterations. As one of the early shows available on streaming, it was a classic binge-watch, and I would hazard more than a few people got the Netflix “Are You Still Watching?” screen while The Office was playing.
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Zach’s Death Lineup Comparisons |
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|---|---|---|
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Golden State Player |
NBC Thurs. Show |
Comparison |
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Steph Curry |
The Office |
The best. Still basically as great as they were during their heyday. |
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Kevin Durant |
30 Rock |
Different attitude than the rest of the lineup. Always felt neck-and-neck with Steph and The Office. |
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Klay Thompson |
Parks and Rec |
A huge star on their own merits, but owe a lot to Steph and The Office. |
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Draymond Green |
Community |
Consistently excellent, hybrid roleplayers. Difficult path after the Death Lineup ended. |
For a long time, it was one of the most memed shows online. Images of Michael (Steve Carell) screaming “No!”, Stanley (Leslie David Baker) rolling his eyes, and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) wearing wigs are still pasted all over Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram. Multiple generations know who these characters are.
Most importantly, The Office is still just so funny. The series seemed to have an unending supply of talented, funny actors, and a writing team who understood them perfectly. There are so many jokes crammed into each episode that even when going back again, you’re sure to hear something you completely missed before.
- Release Date
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2005 – 2013-00-00
- Showrunner
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Greg Daniels
- Directors
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Greg Daniels, Paul Lieberstein, Paul Feig, Randall Einhorn, Ken Kwapis