The
Office of Every Day Life
The
NBC comedy The Office began life as an American adaptation
of the classic BBC series of the same name. During its initial six-episode
first season, the show established its ensemble cast of characters as
well as documentary-style format and introduced viewers to the Scranton
branch of the Dunder Mifflin, a fictional paper company anybody who
has ever worked in an office environment could easily relate. Despite
a small handful of enjoyable episodes, however, it wasn’t until
the show’s second season that The Office was able to
distance itself from the British original while likewise becoming a
comedic masterpiece in its own right.
In many
ways it is The Office’s ability to take every day work
situations that millions of Americans experience and turn them into
comedic fodder that is the show’s greatest strength. Season one,
for instance, explored ethnic diversity at the work place, cutbacks
in health care benefits and pending layoff anxiety despite its shortened
format. Subsequent seasons, meanwhile, tackled such subjects as sexual
harassment, downsizing, kitchen cleanliness, performance evaluations,
corporate restructuring and even “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.”
Not only does The Office address such relevant topics but does
so in a way that is familiar to its audience while being hysterically
funny as well. Watching events unfold at Dunder Mifflin is not unlike
a stress-release therapy session for the millions of American who suffer
through similar situations on a daily basis.
Although
such relatable subject matter keeps one laughing, it is inevitably the
characters of The Office that keep viewers tuning in. While
the employees of Dunder Mifflin could easily have turned into mere caricatures,
showrunner Greg Daniels and his writing staff have done an excellent
job over the years of making the characters not only two dimensional
but actual people viewers can care about, root for, feel sympathy towards
and connect with.
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An
Ode to Michael Scott
“People
say that I am the best boss. They go, ‘God, we’ve never
worked at a place like this before. You’re hilarious.’”
With those
words, America was introduced to Michael Gary Scott. For seven seasons,
the NBC sitcom The Office followed the trials and tribulations
of the regional manager while making Michael both the epitome of business
ineptitude and a truly iconic character in the process. From the small
Pennsylvania town of Scranton, the exploits of Michael Scott and the
equally small Dunder Mifflin Paper Company personified the struggles
of every day Americans who likewise work in a white collar office environment.
Who hasn’t, after all, labored alongside the bevy of supporting
characters on The Office, or suffered under a manager that
was unfit for the position?
Michael
Scott may have been an extreme exaggeration brought to life in order
to make viewers laugh, but he was identifiable nonetheless. The time
period in which The Office aired was witness to an upheaval
in both the financial and economic fabric of the nation in ways seldom
seen in the past. Proper behavior and etiquette within the workplace
has been a topic of debate for decades, but The Office brought
the subject matter to the forefront in humorous yet recognizable ways.
As the economy crashed and millions of Americans lost their jobs and
companies struggled to stay afloat in the aftermath, Dunder Mifflin
suffered through its own round of layoffs, downsizing, consolidations,
stock market plunges and corporate takeovers. It appeared that as the
country went, so too did The Office—and at the forefront
of it all was Michael Scott.
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The
Fictitious Creed Bratton
According
to Wikipedia, Creed Bratton was born on February 8, 1943. He developed
a love for music at an early age and got his first guitar when he turned
thirteen. Later he tried his luck as a traveling musician, performing
across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. As fate would have it, Creed
met another California guitarist during his excursion and the two founded
a band that eventually morphed into the Grass Roots. From 1965 through
1969, the group recorded four albums and numerous singles, two of which—“Let’s
Live for Today” and “Midnight Confessions”—landed
in the top ten. Although the band continued after 1969, Creed Bratton
left the Grass Roots that year to pursue other endeavors.
There is
another Creed Bratton, however, one who is arguably better known and
more popular than the original: the quality assurance manager of paper
company Dunder Mifflin on the NBC comedy The Office. Not only
is this Creed Bratton portrayed by, as well as named after, the real
Creed Bratton, the fictitious version is eerily similar to the original.
“Back
in the Sixties I was with the Grass Roots,” Creed explains in
a deleted scene from the season three episode “Booze Cruise.”
“We toured with Janis Joplin, The Doors, Cream. We had a lot of
fun. Now I do quality assurance for a paper company. As you can imagine,
drugs played a part. They still do. My work calls last about ninety
seconds and that’s about as long as I can concentrate.”
Although
Creed can be seen in the background during early installments of The
Office, he did not play a prominent role—or even given a
speaking part—until the season two classic “Halloween.”
In that episode, Scranton branch manager Michael Scott is forced by
his superiors to layoff a member of his staff. After much stalling and
procrastination, Michael decides upon Creed Bratton and calls him into
a closed-door meeting to tell him the bad news. Fortunately for fans
of the show, the discussion does not go as planned.
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