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The Office

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This article is about various versions of the television series The Office, comparing the UK, US, French, German, and French Canadian versions.

The Office is the title of multiple television situation comedy shows created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The first was the UK version, which was initially broadcast on BBC Two on 9 July 2001 and ran for two seasons plus a two-part Christmas special. The show's success prompted NBC to create an American version, which premiered on March 24, 2005, an entire two years after the original ended. Gervais and Merchant are credited as executive producers of the show along with Ben Silverman, Howard Klein and Greg Daniels. A French adaptation of the series, titled Le Bureau, aired in Spring 2006 on Canal+.[1] A Québec version of the show, produced by Anne-Marie Losique and called La Job, premiered on January 11th, 2007 (the lead character in this version is called David Gervais, a cross of Ricky Gervais, and his character, David Brent).

The German series Stromberg (first aired in 2004) also used The Office as a basis, but did not secure official rights; the German creators later on were made to add Ricky Gervais in the credits as having "inspired" the series (Ricky Gervais additionally said he "can't go into details but, yes, there was an agreement reached and we are very happy with it"[2]).

The Norwegian TV comedy series Fremtiden kommer bakfra (literally, The Future Comes from Behind) also resembles The Office in some ways, so much so that it has been described as an unofficial remake. However, few of the series' characters correspond directly to those in other versions.

In July 2006 it was reported in the Hollywood Reporter that BBC Films was considering a feature length version of The Office for cinematic release.[3]

Cast and character counterparts

Occupation British version
(Wernham Hogg
Slough branch)		 American NBC version
(Dunder-Mifflin
Scranton branch)		 French version (Le Bureau)
(Cogirep
Villepinte branch)		 German version (Stromberg)
(Capitol-Versicherung)		 French Canadian version (La Job)
(Les Papiers Jennings
Côte-de-Liesse, Saint-Laurent, branch)
Regional Manager David Brent
(Ricky Gervais)		 Michael Scott
(Steve Carell)		 Gilles Triquet
(François Berléand)		 Bernd Stromberg
(Christoph Maria Herbst)		 David Gervais
(Antoine Vézina)
Sales Representative Tim Canterbury
(Martin Freeman)		 Jim Halpert
(John Krasinski)		 Paul Delorme
(Jérémie Elkaïm)		 Ulf Steinke
(Oliver Wnuk)		 Louis Tremblay
(Sébastien Huberdeau)
Receptionist Dawn Tinsley
(Lucy Davis)		 Pam Beesly
(Jenna Fischer)		 Laetitia Kadiri
(Anne-Laure Balbir)		 Tanja Seifert (co-worker, not receptionist)
(Diana Staehly)		 Anne Viens
(Sophie Cadieux)
Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Gareth Keenan
(Mackenzie Crook)		 Dwight Schrute
(Rainn Wilson)		 Joël Liotard
(Benoît Carré)		 Berthold "Ernie" Heisterkamp
(Bjarne I. Mädel)		 Sam Bisaillon
(Paul Ahmarani)
Warehouse Employee
and Receptionist's Fiancé		 Lee
(Joel Beckett)		 Roy Anderson
(David Denman)		 Ludovic Correia
(Julien Favart)		 Roland (never shown on camera, broken up in second episode)
(N/A)		 Luc
(Martin Tremblay)
Traveling Sales
Representative		 Chris Finch
(Ralph Ineson)		 Todd Packer
(David Koechner)		 Didier Leguelec
(Jean-Pierre Loustau)		 Theo (friend, not co-worker)
(Andreas Schmidt)		 Rocky Larocque
(Yves Amyot)
Corporate Supervisor Jennifer Taylor-Clarke
(Stirling Gallacher)		 Jan Levinson
(Melora Hardin)		 Juliette Lebrac
(Astrid Bas)		 Tatjana Berkel (left the company at the end of Season 1)
(Tatjana Alexander)
Timo Becker (Berkel's replacement in Season 2)
(Lars Gärtner)		 Emmanuelle Sirois-Keaton
(Nathalie Coupal)
New employee Ricky Howard (intern)
(Oliver Chris)		 Ryan Howard (temp)
(B.J. Novak)
Accountant Keith Bishop
(Ewen Macintosh)		 Kevin Malone
(Brian Baumgartner)
Regional Manager of rival branch Neil Godwin
(Patrick Baladi)		 Josh Porter
(Charles Esten)		 Sinan Turculu (left the company at the end of Season 1)
(Sinan Akkus)

Not all corresponding characters have equivalent prominence across all versions of the program. For example, the charismatic manager of a rival branch has a significantly greater role in the UK version than in the US version.

Key awards won

Selected major awards won only

  • UK version: 2004 Golden Globes for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (Ricky Gervais); 2002, 2003 and 2004 BAFTA TV awards for Situation Comedy and Best Comedy Performance (Ricky Gervais)
  • US version: 2006 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (Steve Carell); 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series; 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
  • German version: 2006 Adolf Grimme Award for Fiction/Entertainment - Series/Miniseries

Video game

Main article: The Office (video game)

A video game using bobblehead dolls of the show's stars was announced on June 20, 2007, for Windows-based PCs, the Nintendo DS, the Playstation Portable and a rumored version for Xbox Live Arcade.[4] It will be based on the American version of the show.

References

  1. ^ The Office remade for French TV
  2. ^ Ricky Gervais Answers Your Questions
  3. ^ "The Office heading for big screen?", Radio Telefís Éireann, July 6, 2006, retrieved September 11, 2006
  4. ^ Coming to XBLA, The Office

See also

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Office.
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