Product Description

In this hilarious and faster-paced adaptation of the popular British comedy series, Steve Carell is Michael Scott, the egotistical, insensitive and almost supernaturally incompetent regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin paper supply company. Michael sees himself as the office funnyman, a fount of business wisdom and his employees' cool friend. He has no clue that his staff merely tolerates his inappropriate behavior because he signs their paychecks. Michael acts as the obnoxious tour guide for an omni-present documentary crew who unflinchingly capture his many shortcomings along with Dunder Mifflin's petty workplace politics, simmering romances and side-splittingly awkward moments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 2005-08-16
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.com
The British sitcom The Office has the most devoted following this side of Monty Python, so an American remake seemed doomed. Amazingly, the remake actually finds its own enjoyable version of the original's uncanny comedy of embarrassment. Office manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The Daily Show, The 40 Year-Old Virgin) believes he's the beloved leader of the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of a paper products company--but his relentless and painfully forced efforts at comedy creep out everyone around him, including paranoid Dwight (Rainn Wilson, who had a memorable recurring role on Six Feet Under), nervous receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer, LolliLove), and aimless salesman Jim (John Krasinski, A New Wave), who's smitten with the already engaged Pam. The pilot episode suffers from closely replicating the British pilot, but after that The Office finds its own footing, turning diversity training, an office birthday party, and a basketball game into excruciating yet hypnotically funny rituals of humiliation. Carell, though clearly talented, can't match Ricky Gervais' unique performance as the aggressively needy British manager (it's hard to imagine that anyone could); as a result, the supporting roles become more prominent, and Wilson, Fischer, and Krasinski quickly create a rapport that matches and may even exceed that of their British counterparts. Be sure to watch the deleted scenes; remarkably, they're as good as the material that made it on the air in this six-episode season. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Comedy is Reborn
I love this show and I think NBC actually made one good decison this year by renewing it. Steve Carrell is genious as Michael Scott the manager with a little too much enthusiasm. The supporting cast is great and I'm glad that the bonus features are good because a 6 episode season of a half hour show is hardly worth twenty-two dollars but it's worth it. I didn't think the pilot was great but I tuned in again and I'm glad I did. I hope that if you don't watch this show that you decide to try it out because it is brillant. A lot of people say it isn't as good as the British version but it comes close. Check out Diversity Day it's the best in the set.

The Episodes
1. Pilot
2. Diversity Day
3. Healthcare
4. The Alliance
5. Basketball
6. Hot Girl

The bonus features include deleted scenes and audio commetaries. Even though it may seem pricey you'll probably get as much enjoyment out of it as you would any other show.

Unexpectedly funny version of a classic BBC original
Like most other fans of the great BBC series THE OFFICE, I was absolutely horrified when they announced that they were doing an American version of the show. Ricky Gervais's show was so perfect, so unique that it didn't seem possible for it to be successfully translated into an American context. Also, the show was unimaginable without Ricky Gervais, who was both the creator and lead performer of the original. And to be honest, when the American show straightforwardly imitates the original, especially in the first episode, it compares rather badly. The jokes were tailored perfectly to Gervais and his cohorts, and they just didn't translate all that well to the new set of actors. However, once you get past the first episode, and the American crew produces original material, it actually becomes a very, very funny show. In fact, if you have seen the BBC version, I would recommend just skipping the first episode of the American version and going on from there. My other complaint with the imitation is that they straightforwardly stole the British theme song, though they did pep it up a lot.

If you haven't seen the American version but have seen the BBC original, the first question is almost certainly going to be: how can they possibly do the show without Ricky Gervais in the lead? Does Steve Carell manage to make us forget Ricky? Well, not quite. There is absolutely no question that Ricky Gervais's David Brent is better than Steve Carell's Michael Scott. It isn't just that Gervais has a degree of ease with the role that Carell barely lacks: David Brent is a more complex character. While it is certainly true that Brent was a complete ass, he was also a lovable ass; we cared about him, and despite all of his blithe self-ignorance he is someone for whom we are on some level rooting. But Michael Scott, while incredibly funny, is essentially a lost cause. He is too complete an idiot to have any hope of redemption, and he is also fairly unlikable. Irredeemably unlikable. We laugh at Michael Scott, but we laugh with David Brent. That is the bad news. The good news is that while Carell's character is not as likable as Gervais's, he is possibly about 90% as funny, which means that the American show is quite unexpectedly a very funny show.

Once the show gets into original material, it is actually quite good. The second episode deals with diversity training (i.e., racial sensitivity training), with Michael Scott attempting to take over the training by injecting such stupid sensitivity questions as, "Name another race to which you are attracted to sexually." The irony is that the only reason the training was instituted because of racially charged jokes Michael had told, but he remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that he was the one being targeted. Another great episode is the one where Michael and the white-collar workers play the warehouse workers in a game of basketball. Michael ignores the overweight white guy (who later turns out to be a dead shot) and the Hispanic guy (who is also a dead shot) in favor of the office African-American, who turns out to be a simply horrendous player.

I have to add that those who are giving this one star are clearly fans of the original who have never bothered to watch the American version. As I pointed out above, while it isn't quite as good as the original, it is nonetheless quite good on its own merits.

Finally, a US production worthy of its UK predecessor
I am and always have been a huge fan of British comedy. The wry sense of humor and the intelligent wit has always held far greater appeal to me than the cheap/obvious laughs that many American sitcoms tend to go for. Sadly, many copies (or attempted copies) of British comedies have been overadapted for the American audience (Coupling is a perfect example) and the result is a weak translation that loses all or most of what made the series so funny/original in the UK.

Fortunately, this version of the original UK show is absolutely hilarious, perhaps because the producers are tied closely and stay faithful to the original version. There was no dumbing down of the comedy - the irony, the facial expressions, the unbelievable audacity of the characters - for the sake of easier/louder laughs. The fact that there is no studio audience here makes it even funnier - the viewers are left to laugh on their own, without canned tracks or cues from a studio audience.

While there are certainly things that would cause you to think "There's no way a manager would say/do/get away with anywhere near that bad of behavior" I can say that in 6+ years in leadership development that I've seen all this and more.. and we all know that one person who just has absolutely no clue how little others think of him/her.

This is truly brilliant comedy, but subtle and atypical when compared to other sitcoms on TV (with the exception of Seinfeld reruns and Scrubs). You won't be disappointed!