The Office (US Version)
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An obscure documentary series on the relatively unknown network NBC, The Office follows a group of characters in their day-to-day routines at a paper-selling firm. Lauded for its hard-hitting, factual style, it presents the workers in a clear, respectful manner. Amidst high ratings, it has gained a British offshoot, which is expected to tank within one season.
[edit] Characters
Michael Scott (Regional Manager) - The authority figure of the office. Also, a fully-trained improv actor. A genuinely hilarious man, he is misunderstood by his dour, humorless employees. Nevertheless, he tirelessly continues to lift everyone’s spirits with his one-of-a-kind, off-the-cuff humor. Michael Scott's name backwards is also the passcode for Osama Bin Laden's secret underground cave of forbidden mysterious pop songs.
Dwight K. Schrute (Assistant to the Regional Manager/Sales Rep) - The only member of the office staff who appreciates Michael's witty efforts to boost morale. He also attempts to maintain a light-hearted atmosphere, but his nonsensical efforts, such as encasing his own stapler in Jell-o, often fall flat.
Jim Halpert (Sales Rep) - A lackluster employee who often shows up to work only half-groomed with disheveled hair, and supporting a fish-hooked lip. Despite months of filming, he has yet to grasp that he is in a documentary and continually looks at the cameras in confusion. He is also possessed of a number of mildly disturbing facial tics.
Pam Beesly (Receptionist) - Often confused for a coat rack by other employees. Pam is so dull and unnoticed that she has resorted to placing bowls of candy around her workspace to entice and ensnare her coworkers into deathly boring small talk about how she has hopes and dreams.
Andy Bernard (Sales Rep) - A level-headed community-college graduate whose only quirk is an inexplicable fixation on seafood, to the point where he confuses the names of coworkers with those of types of fish.
Ryan Howard (Temp) - A known pyromaniac, he was a constant usurper around the office until his eventual termination due to his indecent advances toward coworker Kelly Kapoor. He is also an annoying fucker who should die, and happens to strongly resemble a baby vulture from those old Warner Bros. cartoons. Not to be confused with the Phillies first baseman of the same name.
Angela Martin (Accounting Supervisor) - The resident cat lady. Possessed of a giant stick lodged permanently up her ass.
Phyllis Lapin (Sales Rep) - A quiet, pleasant woman who was upswept in a whirlwind romance with a roguish refrigerator salesman.
Kelly Kapoor (Customer Service Representative) - A former Bollywood actress who took the job to gain exposure to an American audience. After the ruse was discovered, the producers allowed her to stay provided she wore more attractive clothing and adopted a perkier attitude to counterbalance the other, less attractive females.
Kevin Malone (Accounting) - A member of the up-and-coming band Scrantonocity. Despite little financial success the band’s popularity has lead to a cover band known as The Police (a reference to a Scrantonocity album name).
Creed Bratton (Quality Assurance Officer) - Possibly the only person in the office that can fathom the entirety of what is occurring.
Meredith Palmer (Supplier Relations Representative) - Once featured in the popular “Girls Gone Wild” series, she occasionally reverts and flashes a guy or two. It no big thang.
Oscar Martinez (Accounting) - He’s just polite and well-dressed, that’s all.
Karen Filippelli (Sales Rep) - A devotee of the fashion ideals set forth by Hillary Clinton.
Stanley Hudson (Sales Rep) - The token black dude.
“Toby” (?) - “Toby” is merely a nickname given by the producers to a mysterious shadowy presence sometimes sighted incidentally on camera. Other phenomena attributed to “Toby” are indistinct murmuring and a vague sense of self-deprecation. Kind of like Niles's wife on "Frasier", before he got with Daphne and screwed everything up. But hey, that's another sitcom.
[edit] Cultural Impact
Despite its virtually unknown status, The Office has given rise to the phrase “That’s what she said,” which has spread virally and become one of the iconic phrases of the time. This is somewhat ironic, as the line was only a throw-away joke in the pilot episode. The show’s style was uncertain at that time, and had not yet become firm. However, once everyone was aware of the presence of such a great thing, it was embraced and immediately set to work on.
That’s what she said.
[edit] Romantic Subplots
Part of the attration of such a show based on the mundane aspects of office life was the exclusion of a seething, barely-hidden web of inter-office relationships. As one review stated:
"Thankfully, the show stays away from trite romantic cliches, and avoids spinning out unnecessary pseudo-romantic tension between the only two pretty people on camera. This refreshing approach elevates it above its rating-grubbing reality show contemporaries."
Among its billion or so fans, the speculation has arisen that the characters Jim and Pam might have a romantic connection, but the show's producers have openly denied this repeatedly. As an inside source revealed, "There is every intention of killing off Pam Beesly as soon as the opportunity presents itself. And man, will it be hard. Coming up with something like that took us all awhile to do. Aha, that's what she said!"
