20 years of 'The Office,' the comedy that marked the history of television

BarcelonaIt had all the makings of a flop—it was an adaptation of a cult British comedy by Ricky Gervais—but, in the end, luck and talent were on its side. This week The office has celebrated twenty years since its premiere with the pride of continuing to be one of the most influential series in the history of television and remain present in the lives of viewers thanks to streaming platforms, which they consider one of their star shows (in Spain it can be seen on Netflix, SkyShowtime and Amazon Prime Video). The celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the American version of The office It doesn't just draw on nostalgia, but also looks to the future: a good part of the series' team is working on a spin-off series that will be called The paper and in the United States it will premiere on the Peacock platform, owned by the NBC network that aired the original series.

The office It emerged as a version of Gervais's comedy about the daily lives of a group of paper company workers, a reality followed by a team working on a documentary. They were dull characters, some even pathetic, who had to do work that didn't motivate them at all. The original series had two seasons of six episodes, plus a double Christmas episode, and was a true critical success. led to numerous adaptations being made, the American one being the most famous and longest-running of all (it had nine seasons in total). "I was a big fan of the The office British. Adapting it seemed like a terrible idea to me, as it seemed to everyone else," he explained to Hollywood Reporter Michael Schur, the series' screenwriter and producer.

Schur's fear was shared by many people, including the network that was to air the series, NBC, which already had experience with failed adaptations of successful British products. Perhaps that's why they were especially cautious when ordering a first season: after the pilot, they greenlit another five episodes, an extremely short season by American broadcast television standards. Although ratings were modest, the network granted the series a second season, and that was when the winds began to turn in its favor. The key to success? According to Greg Daniels, showrunner of the series, moving away from the British mold and modifying the personality of the protagonist, Chief Michael Scott (Steve Carell), so that he was not so absolutely unbearable for the viewer. "In the first season, he was not a good person," Daniels admits.

With the second season, The office won an Emmy for Best Comedy and the numbers just kept growing. Although Steve Carell never won an award for his portrayal of Michael Scott (he was nominated six times), the thuggish head of Dunder Mifflin is one of the most iconic in American comedy. Some of the opening gags in the series' episodes have gone viral on social media, such as the fire drill inside the office or the parkour session involving Scott, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms). In fact, when singer Amaia Romero released her latest album, If I open my eyes it's not real, reproduced the gag of The office in one of the promotional videos. The Navarrese resident living in Barcelona isn't the only Gen Zer fascinated by the comedy: Billie Eilish is a true fan of the series and, in addition to using its theme song in her concerts, she sampled dialogue for the opening of the song. My strange addiction, from his debut album, When we all fall asleep, where do we go? At the time he said that he had decided to use the audio of the series so that The office It was his strangest addition, as the song title says, because he has seen him more than a dozen times.

The legacy of 'The Office'

Thanks to the platforms, The office It has never completely gone out of fashion, and with the pandemic, it experienced a revival. According to the consulting firm Nielsen, 2020 was the most-watched series across platforms, with 57 billion minutes watched. The office It has been the germ of many later comedies, such as Parks and recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine either The good place, and served to launch the careers of some of the actors and screenwriters who participated, such as John Krasinski or Mindy Kaling, one of the most prolific television producers and creators today.

A good example of the popularity that it still has The office It is NBC's decision to create a spin-off series that is currently in the works. The new fiction would be called The paper, will follow the lives of a group of newspaper workers in the Midwest of the United States and will also be formatted as a mockumentary. The link between The office and The paper will be the character of Oscar Martinez (Óscar Núñez), the accountant from the original series who often had to put up with Scott's racist comments. The two main characters will be the Irishman Domhnall Gleeson and the Italian Sabrina Impacciatore, popular thanks to the second season of The White Lotus.