"THE OFFICE" CATCHES FIRE

February 24, 2006

Something cool is happening on NBC right now, the network that's pretty much served as the antithesis of the word "cool" for the past few years. "The Office" has quietly turned into one of TV's most talked about comedies, a cult success with ratings that are rapidly approaching full-blown smash levels.

This fact is amazing when you consider what the show had to go through to get to this point. Based on the 14-episode, much-loved British series, the American version of "The Office" was first dismissed by fans of the original as another lame attempt by NBC to transplant a successful English show, ruining it in the process. (See: "Coupling.") Ratings for the first six episodes were disastrous, and most figured the show would be quietly terminated.

Except NBC execs got the idea that "The Office" could very well be the network's next "Cheers" or "Seinfeld" - both shows that started small but built audiences through word of mouth. (Keep in mind, this kind of thinking is nonexistent in TV today. ABC recently canceled "Emily's Reasons Why Not" after one episode.)

So, "The Office" came back last fall for season two, and since then support for the quirky comedy has swelled, not unlike the workplace crush shared by the show's two most endearing characters, secretary Pam and office worker Jim. How exactly "The Office" turned from a near TV fatality to a show NBC now touts, along with "My Name is Earl," as the future of the network is up for debate. And that conversation continues to pick up as the mainstream press pays more attention. (The show got the cover story in a recent Entertainment Weekly.)

The theories are many. They include: More people are watching because, thanks to the hit move "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Office" boss Steve Carell is a burgeoning star. Pairing the show with freshman fave "Earl," first on Tuesdays and now on Thursdays, created a 60-minute comedy block that offers laughs more twisted and original than those offered by the more generic sitcoms littering network schedules. NBC has cleverly promoted "The Office" to the youth market by offering the series for download for video-capable iPods and allowing the actors to have myspace.com pages where they file dispatches from their fictional paper-supply-company set.

The may be some truth to all those observations, but I think the real reason for the show's booming popularity is simpler - "The Office" started off kind of shaky, recently found its way to generally hilarious, and may well be headed toward inspired brilliance. Or, even more plainly, the series got real good fast.

Whereas Carell's Michael Scott originally came across as just a clueless, loudmouth boss from hell, the character has now developed into a real person, a guy who masks his loneliness by trying (much too hard) to become friends with the workers who report to him. Supporting characters that were once all shades of the same sketch (the annoyed American office worker) are now more individualized, and every week we see bits of their hopes and dreams peek through the cracks of those depressed Monday-morning faces. Witness office punching bag Dwight's secret attempts to write that kick-butt Hollywood action movie.

And then there's Pam and Jim, played so perfectly by Jenna Fischer and John Krasinksi. During the first season, I remember thinking, "These two are the one good reason to watch this show." That's far from true anymore, but they remain the best reason for watching. Their lovelorn tale of the perfect couple that just can't be together because one of them is engaged to a mindless hunk from the company warehouse (that would be Pam, not Jim) has made the twosome the heirs apparent to Ross and Rachel and, before them, Sam and Diane. Except none of them had to deal with a boss who once proclaimed, "Would I rather be feared or loved? Umm, easy -- both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."