It’s been two decades since Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office first graced our screens.
It marked the beginning of a monumental career for Gervais both in the UK and across the pond. Not only did The Office become a cult classic, it also inspired a successful US spin-off starring Steve Carrell and paved the way for a lucrative Hollywood career for Ricky Gervais.
Gervais has hosted the annual Golden Globes awards five times and starred in major films including The Invention of Lying, Ghost Town and Night at the Museum.
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All this success can be traced back to The Office, the satirical sitcom set in a mundane office environment in suburban Britain. To mark its 20th anniversary, here are some lesser-known facts about the series…
(Image: Unknown)
The show had dismal ratings when it first aired in 2001, the figures were so abysmal that the sitcom was nearly axed before its first season had even concluded, as per Digital Trends.
The same fate almost befell the first season of the American Office in 2005. Michael Schur, who played Mose in the series, wrote about how they’d essentially written off the series before it found success.
Viewers also gave it terrible reviews. “The first series got the lowest ever BBC focus group score,” Gervais revealed to Shortlist.
“It was joint bottom with women’s bowls. But we didn’t change a thing. We knew how good it was, but that doesn’t guarantee success on any level.
“There are loads of great things that get cancelled. For us, ‘success’ just meant getting our own way and having it turn out exactly as we wanted.”
(Image: © BBC)
The BBC gave the creative team complete freedom. Despite the feedback from focus groups, it’s surprising that Gervais and Merchant were given free rein with The Office.
Nonetheless, the BBC had faith in them to forge ahead and finish the first season. “It may still be unheard of in British TV to get left alone like we were as first-time directors,” Gervais told The Sun.
David Brent did an in-house Microsoft training video. Microsoft was not pleased when the training video, featuring Ricky and Stephen Merchant strolling through an office, surfaced online.
It wasn’t clear who leaked the videos, but Microsoft stated they were “never intended to be viewed by the public.” In one leaked video titled The Office Values, David Brent is heard describing himself as “too generous” with his time, interviewed by Merchant’s character Oggy.
Martin Freeman also auditioned for a different role. “I originally read for the part of Gareth,” Martin revealed to Beyond The Joke. “It was only as I was leaving that Ricky asked me to read for Tim.”
Pirates of the Caribbean actor Mackenzie Crook landed the role of Gareth. While dishing the dirt on Gareth’s character, Gervais spilled to The Sun that he was inspired by a real-life schoolmate.
Gareth is “based on a bloke I went to school with. He once said, ‘If you get captured by cannibals, they show you pornographic pictures so you get an erection and there’s more meat’. I used his gems for Gareth.”
(Image: Internet Unknown)
Talk about sticking to the script 95% of The Office was penned down to the letter, Gervais and Merchant confessed to the BBC. That makes the cringe factor of those awkward moments even more genius.
But hold up, one iconic scene was totally off-the-cuff! David Brent’s infamous dance wasn’t planned at all. “I just went berserk for about 30 seconds, then had to have a sit down for about 30 minutes,” Gervais admitted to the BBC.
Christmas chaos ensued when scripts for the festive special were sent astray and ended up splashed across the media. A producer meant to send them to a colleague but bungled the address.
The lucky finder knew they’d struck comedy gold and cashed in by selling them to the tabloids. “The woman who mistakenly received it did what any thoughtful, law-abiding citizen would do and sold it to the Mail On Sunday,” quipped Gervais and Merchant to the BBC about the script leak fiasco.
(Image: BBC)
And can you believe one scene took a whopping 74 takes? Filming Tim’s appraisal turned into an epic saga of giggles, taking a whopping 74 takes because Gervais and Martin Freeman just couldn’t keep it together.
“We kept laughing and couldn’t get through the dialogue,” spilled the show’s mastermind to the BBC.
Bet you didn’t know how far The Office has spread. Sure, we all know about the Yanks nabbing a Golden Globe with their take on The Office.
But did you clock that this telly gem has been given a whirl in loads of other tongues? France boasts Le Bureau, while Germany chuckles along to Stromberg. And it doesn’t stop there Canada’s got La Job, Chile enjoys La Ofis, Israel tunes into HaMisrad, and Sweden kicks back with Kontoret.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
