Office
Website Perfect Companion for NBC Comedy
More
than any other network, NBC appears to have embraced the World Wide
Web the fullest. The main NBC.com
home page is a virtual wonderland, with links to celebrity blogs, interactive
games, posting boards and exclusive screensavers, as well as deleted
scenes and full episodes of popular shows available for viewing twenty-four
hours a day. Although many NBC series receive an even larger online
treatment—such as Chuck, which allows visitors to enter
the title character’s “brain”—the most extensive
features are reserved for the network’s biggest shows, including
its Emmy Award-winning comedy The Office.
“We
are fortunate to be working with some incredibly talented executive
producers who share a common goal with us—to give the fans the
best possible entertainment experience that continues after the broadcast
ends,” Jeff Gaspin, President of NBC Universal Cable and Digital
Content, said last May. “Through these innovative collaborations,
we are allowing our users to interact with their favorite shows on a
deeper level, and are providing full immersion in our content.”
A quick
tour of NBC.com quickly reveals the full scope of that content. The
main Office page, for instance, has links to two character
blogs, that of Dwight Schrute and Creed Bratton. Although the Dwight
blog, called Schrute-Space,
is not updated on a regular basis, there are still plenty of entries
giving advice (“Spelling is a Cornerstone of Communication”
and “Giving Thanks is a Sign of Weakness”) and insights
into the Schrute psyche (“I Do Not Believe in Lycanthropes”);
they also accurately reflect the character both in tone and persona.
Creed’s blog (Creed
Thoughts) likewise keeps with the
supporting character’s personality but is also updated on a more
frequent basis—there has been a new entry every week since May
13, 2007, each offering a taste of the Creed lifestyle. “You know
what I found out?” one entry observes. “Menorahs make great
weapons. Just swap out the candles with razor blades and you’re
good to go.”
The Just
for Fun
section offers numerous ways for visitors to entertain themselves. Bobblehead
Bash
features a showdown between Dwight Schrute and Donald Trump; viewers
play as one of the two in bobblehead form, using the arrow keys on their
computer to move across the screen while the “a” and “s”
buttons throw punches in a rock-em, sock-em attempt to knock the opponent’s
head off. The Donald announces “If you do it again, you’ll
be fired so fast your head will spin” upon defeating Dwight, while
The Office’s Assistant (to the) Regional Manager simple
says “It was an honor to have worked with you” when victorious.
The popular Dwight Schrute bobblehead is also featured in Adventures
with Dwight,
with photos taken by fans of their bobbleheads (available for purchase
at the NBC.com online store) in various locals and situations.
The Finish
the Quote Game,
meanwhile, challenges visitors to complete quotes from the series and
earn points for also correctly guessing who said it and in what episode.
Virtual tours of the set, recaps of episodes, photo galleries and behind-the-scenes
videos featuring the supporting cast, such as “Adventures with
Angela,” are also available. Lastly, there is a “Personality
Quiz” where fans answer twenty multiple-choice questions to determine
which character on The Office they most resemble.
In addition
to utilizing the comedic nature of The Office, the website
likewise takes advantage of the show’s blue-collar premise by
allowing viewers to share their own employment experiences. There is
a Tell
Toby About Your Office HR Nightmares,
where fans are encouraged to either film or write about their own work-related
horror stories, with the best then spotlighted on the site. Others sections
allow visitors to post photos from their actual offices or from personal
versions of the Finer
Things Club, the Oscar-Pam-Toby cultural
luncheon from the season four episode “Branch Wars.” Motivational
posters are also available for download,
featuring each of the large ensemble cast on individual placards with
words like “leadership,” “patience” and “commitment”
followed by amusing definitions—the “commitment” poster,
for instance, features Dwight and the statement “If at first you
don’t succeed, try to solve the situation with a spud gun.”
Exclusive
web-produced
content
from past years are still available, including the ten webisodes
from the summer of 2006 that featured the accounting staff of Dunder
Mifflin investigating a missing three-thousand dollars, as well as the
classic PSAs
(public service announcements) that spoofed the “More You Know”
PSAs from NBC’s past. “You might be out with your friends
on the weekend in a cool part of town when someone offers you a beer
for nine dollar,” says then-temp Ryan Howard in one of them. “Don’t
do it. Nine dollars is way too much to pay for a beer. Just walk away.”
Although
there is a “generic” Dunder
Mifflin website, containing general
information about the fictitious paper company, the recently launched
Dunder
Mifflin Infinity is the true crux
of the online Office experience. The premier of the website
coincided with the fourth episode of the current season, likewise entitled
“Dunder Mifflin Infinity,” in which newly promoted Ryan
returns to Scranton to reveal his plans to pull the paper company into
the digital age.
The Dunder
Mifflin Infinity website allows visitors to join Dunder Mifflin as “employees”
of one of approximately two-hundred newly created branch offices. The
cities where these branches are located are smaller communities along
the lines of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the actual show takes place.
Long Beach, California, is currently the most popular branch, with over
four-thousand “employees,” while Arnsberg, Delaware, has
just under ten. Each branch has a Regional Manager, who acts in the
role of site “administrator” for their location. Every week,
corporate tasks are assigned for the employees to perform, ranging from
creative assignments to skill and arcade-based games; prizes in the
form of “SchruteBucks” are rewarded for the best performances.
Accumulating SchruteBucks is a fundamental part of the Dunder Mifflin
Infinity experience, as they form the basis for promotions as well as
allow participants to purchase items for their “virtual”
work stations.
From further
advancing its characters to allowing visitors to share their own experiences
to tying in key elements of the actual series (the Dwight bobblehead
and SchruteBucks were all featured prominently in past episodes), NBC
has created an online companion for its cutting-edge comedy that goes
further than similar network shows currently on the airwaves. The
Office may only be “open for business” on Thursday
nights, but the virtual world created by NBC.com allows the experience
to continue 24/7 for diehard fans with a simple click of the mouse.
January
7, 2008
