So The Office is 10 years old.
Well the first episode of Series One aired at 9:30 p.m. on a Monday night, 9 July, 2001.
Obviously the concept existed sometime before that. The BBC pilot was shot in January 2000, and we shot our own pilot two years before that. It was shot in a day in the “real Office” that I worked in for eight years from 1989 to 1997.
I had David Brent as a character from about 1995 I’d say, and he is based on people I’d met throughout my adult life.
The very first scene of the series, where he is talking to the forklift truck driver, is based on an interview I had at a temp agency when I was 17, in the school holidays. He was in his mid thirties wearing a bad suit. His opening sentence was, “I don’t give sh—y jobs”; I just looked at him and nodded. He said “If a good guy comes to me,” (he pointed at me to let me know he already knew I was a good guy), “and says I wanna work hard because I wanna better myself, then I will make that happen.” He phoned his friend and at one point said, “Yes of course he’s 18″; then he winked at me and did the Pinocchio nose mime. (It was nothing to do with fork lift truck driving but it was for work in a warehouse). I never saw him again, but I used to do impressions of him as I told the anecdote over the years. He was the very first Brent I can remember. There have been many since.
Category Archives: Ricky Gervais
The Office Turns 10 Today
Ricky Gervais on The Office
SPOILER WARNING!
UPDATE 3/22/2011:
EW.com:
NBC and producers of The Office are pulling out all the stops for the finale of this pivotal seventh season, lining up several major guest stars for the final episode.
EW can exclusively reveal that Ricky Gervais and Will Arnett will appear in the finale.
So does this mean that Will Arnett will replace Michael Scott? Hmmm What do you think Office fans?
To read older reported news, go here>>
Ricky Gervais Wants Will Arnett to be the next boss
Collider.com:
Show creator Ricky Gervais has other plans. His suggestion – Will Arnett. Here’s what Gervais had to say on his official blog:
“Had a little meeting with NBC about various things and recommended Will Arnett for a regular in The Office. Thoughts? I think he’s amazing.”
Ricky Gervais to receive Banff gong
www.tv.com:
The three-time Golden Globe award winner joins previous winners John Cleese and Kelsey Grammer to receive his gong at the glitzy three-day Banff World Television Festival in Alberta, Canada, from June 13.
“This is probably the greatest honour of my career – only the Nobel Peace Prize can top this, but I will only accept that in person if the ceremony is held somewhere as beautiful as Banff; I think they Fedex, luckily,” joked the funnyman.
Rick Gervais on “60 Minutes”
Ricky Gervais was on “60 Minutes” last night!
You can check out more clips over at CBS, go here.
Ricky Gervais to Host the Golden Globes
Ricky Gervais will host the 67th Annual Golden Globes in January.
He’s provided memorable moments on the Golden Globe awards in the past – and this year Ricky Gervais will have the chance to do so again. The British comedian will host the 67th Annual Golden Globes in January, PEOPLE has confirmed.
“Not only is this the biggest Hollywood celebration of the industry, which includes both film and TV, but also an environment where I feel I can get free reign as a host,” Gervais said Monday. “I have resisted many other offers like this, but there are just some things you don’t turn down.”
Continue reading PEOPLE.com, go here.
Ricky Gervais: The HeadCandy Interview
If you were to view Ricky Gervais’ entire oeuvre, you could start in the morning and be done by dinner. This is not much – two television series, a cameo appearance in films here and there, one starring role in “Ghost Town.” But what little we have on document is clear: Gervais may be one of our generation’s greatest comic minds.
Exhibit A: The Office (the BBC version, of course). Twelve episodes and a Christmas special of pitch-perfect character studies, set in the most mundane of settings. And what makes it so brilliant isn’t the cringe-inducing and oft-uproarious dialogue, it’s that it’s a love story at heart.
Continue reading go here.
