Why The Office & Michael Scott Changed So Drastically After Season 1 Explained By Showrunner Greg Daniels
The Office showrunner Greg Daniels explains why Michael Scott underwent such a drastic change after the first season. The show debuted on NBC in March 2005, and endured mixed reviews after its debut season before going on to achieve critical acclaim over the course of its run. Based on the British mockumentary series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the show was developed for a U.S. audience by Daniels. The Office had a stellar ensemble cast during its time, with Steve Carell’s Michael undergoing big changes over the course of the series.
During a 20th anniversary oral history with The Hollywood Reporter, Daniels reflected on how The Office evolved over time, particularly when it came to Michael’s character. As the show tried to be faithful to the original British series in the first season, Michael Scott came across as not a particularly good person. Daniels went on to say that after the first season, he chose to make changes to the direction of the series, and to Michael as a character. Check out Daniels’ comments below:
The learning process for me over the course of the first two years was to not be as reverent of the original. The main thing was that Michael Scott was pretty heavily criticized by the show. He was not a good person in the first season.
[After season one] I was like, OK, we were very faithful to the British show, and we are barely surviving. I decided to be less faithful to the British show and to incorporate more of what I had learned on King of the Hill. In the very first iteration of that show, Hank Hill was a little bit more of an unlikable character, and I made various changes to articulate to myself what was unlikable about him and then fix it so that by the time the pilot aired, he was in good shape.So I said [to NBC], I think I know how to change Michael Scott, and I made a list of maybe eight things that I would do to change Michael in the minds of the audience, and each one of them became the ending of an episode. For instance, in “The Dundies” I was proving the point that the staff can complain about him, but when someone outside the staff picks on him, they defend him.
It was basically nudging him from a person who is not part of your group, and you don’t really like them, to a person who you’re frustrated with often, but is part of your group — he’s more of the frustrating uncle or something. There were other things. We had an episode where he actually turned out to be very good at sales, and that his incompetence was more a Peter Principle thing of being promoted past what he was good at to being the manager.
What This Means For Michael Scott’s Development In The Office
The Character Has Become A Comedy Icon
Michael Scott is one of the most iconic characters in TV history, but things could have been so different for the character. The poor reception to Michael clearly caused Daniels to plan a change of direction for the character, so Michael evolves from someone who isn’t a good person to a character who most people feel a little sorry for, and who is integral to many of The Office‘s most cringeworthy moments. The changes were inspired, as Daniels and Carell managed to craft a comedy icon who is still a memorable character more than a decade after the show finished.
Ironically, considering that Daniels was looking to move away from the British show, his changes actually made Michael Scott more like David Brent.
Daniels’ comments show that one of the core changes he made was to focus less on replicating the British show, get to the bottom of what made Michael unlikable, and focus on changing the character in the minds of the audience. He then set about incorporating this into some of the best episodes of The Office, and changed the character to one who is frustrating, but who also belongs to a collective, and is part of a group. This resonated much better with audiences and led to a more fun and awkward dynamic for the rest of the show’s run.
Our Take On The Changes To Michael Scott
The Character Actually Evolved To Be More Like His British Counterpart
Ironically, considering that Daniels was looking to move away from the British show, his changes actually made Michael Scott more like David Brent. Brent’s genius was always the fact that his character was the perfect excruciating mixture of smug, socially awkward, and cringeworthy, but he was harmless, and often just needed to feel like he belonged. It’s fair to say that Daniels’ changes to Michael Scott’s character painted the character in a similar light, a man desperate to fit in at any cost, and it helped to make The Office one of the most successful shows of all time.
Source: THR
Source link
