Why is there a US-version of "The Office"?

I'm liking it so far.

I was wondering what they would use for the American Gareth's sidejob. Any other time, it would've been the National Guard probably, but not with brigades being sent to Iraq right now.

"... and God would have to be number four on that list."

I'm still not convinced that this needed to be done, but I think it's as well-done as it could possibly be. I'm thinking that no one else but Carell could reprise the Gervais role and be anywhere close to as good. He's got it -- that terrible mix of asshole and... well, asshole that's so painful that sometimes you can't laugh until the show's over.

(I think that's why both versions tested so low -- people aren't used to watching a comedy on television where thy cringe through the whole thing.)

Yeah, but only because he owns the rights and gave them his blessing. He doesn't want anything to do with it, really. There's an interview in Entertainment Weekly where he explains that it would be like David Bowie going into Beck's studio and being like, "You can't put a trumpet in there! This is my song!"

They found someone uglier than Gareth?

Me neither. He always overplays -- very DO YOU SEE. His character on The Office is just GRATING and there's no reason to expect that he'll tone down in later episodes.

good night!

The new show didn't have nearly as much ambient office noise as the original. That added an element of percieved realism in the British version (as well as not knowing any of the British actors) that I enjoyed very much. This one, while staying true to the original, seemed kind of flat and polished in comparison. I think it's the lack of ambient office noise. Still good, but missing that element it seems like just another show.

But I will watch the next episode - the post-it note discrimnation exercise looks promising.

..My guess is that the bulk of the American audience will not find the show the least bit funny.

pam is ok? wtf it's the GARETH and the TIM who are disappointing. the logic is way off, our gareth (whatever his name is) is changed quite a bit (volunteer sherriff? does that even exist) (erm, can't make fun of nat'l guardsmen these days) but the everyboy has...the exact same haircut? nuh-uh.

Apparently, from what I read the parallels between the first episode last night and the first episode from the original series is intentional; they used the same "teleplay" for both. So I'm interested to see how the next few episodes go. I agree that next week's looks promising, what with the diversity training post-its.

It's still better than 95% of what's on network television, which means most people will hate it.

Also, Zebra's OTM about the ambient office noise.

oh and

http://www.myspace.com/theoffice

"tolerance...ignorance!"

it's aces!