The Office (US) Pilot Analysis
“Pilot” is the first episode of the American comedy TV series “The Office”. The episode was debuted in the United States on NBC on March 24, 2005. Greg Daniels adapted the episode’s teleplay from the first episode of the British version composed by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. The director of the episode was Ken Kwapis. The protagonist of the episode is Michael Scott played by Steve Carell. He is the controversial manager who rose to his degree of inadequacy. In the pilot, he is simply such a screwed man. He pokes chauvinist fun at Jan, calling her Hillary Clinton since he is anxious about her (laaaaame). Likewise, he walks around the office acting like Hitler to dazzle Ryan. Scott additionally pretends to fire Pam as a trick. She cries and it is frightful. In fact, Pam makes the viewers extremely sorrowful. She has no voice and as such her character is once in a while whispering. She is clearly caught in between her job and relationship. Realizing the amount she gets once she leaves Roy gives the audience hope. In any case, without knowing how things end up, the pilot throws a pitiful shadow for her.
Ironically, this arrangement is among the most extraordinary and imaginative comedies on NBC. The truth of the matter is, The Office is not an unfit achievement, but it is famously watched. Also, it does not make the viewers to overlook the original version. Instead, it really motivates friendship, rather than cries of ‘sacrilege!’ from this out of control Office fan. “The Office” script for the “Pilot” episode is the basis for one of the most well known comedies in history. However, there were a few things in the episode that did not appeal to the American viewers. The “boss” of The Office Michael Scott is interviewing prospective employment applicant (Krasinski, 2005). Despite the fact that the anonymous man failed in his fork-lyft driver’s test, Michael suggests that the warehouse hires him.
An exciting incident in the episode is when a camera crew is pursuing Scott around the office and interviewing employees for obscure reasons. Corporate boss, Jan Tarnovsky-Gould, advises Scott that his branch might be merged if he cannot demonstrate its value. Consequently, two more youthful office employees, Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly, play with each other and regret about the craziness of their occupations. In the process, bits of gossip spread around the office that the Scranton branch might be scaled down by the corporate. In the mean time, Scott is introduced to Ryan, another worker from a temp-agency. He forms a group to discuss the potential scaling back where he assures everyone that he will effectively prevent that from occurring. Dwight Schrute and his desk mate, Jim, compete with each other in a series of jokes and practical tricks.
Jim approaches Pam to go out for drinks with the other staff members while Scott explains to Ryan that the office has a lot of fun by pranking one another. To show how fun the workplace is, Scott calls Pam into his office and pretends to be firing her. Nevertheless, this joke fails terribly and Pam almost experiences a mental breakdown. Finally, Pam’s partner Roy reveals to her that she cannot go out for drinks with Jim. In spite of all the unrest, Scott says that what he really adores about his activity are the individuals. Jim remains at the office to comfort Pam who is crying in the washroom. Considerably after she leaves, Jim stays and messes around on his PC.
Clearly, a pilot will just go the extent that its characters take the viewers. If the viewers care less about the characters, there will be less motivational need to continue with the series. One reason behind why “Pilot” keeps audience glued is on the grounds that the director did a great job in developing characters.
In the next scene, there is a strong plot line, which captures the growing romance between two lovely characters, Jim and Pam. The scene begins timid enough with Pam playing with Jim’s hair. The two appear to be mutually interested on each other, and seeing as the vast majority of different characters in the office are crazy, it is difficult to work against their trust in each other. Obviously nothing is as simple as it appears to be. However, Pam’s lover, Roy, appears and complicates the flirting mood. This dynamic change causes strain and strife in the supporting story-line also.
Critics of “The Office” might be shocked to read the script of the episode, “Pilot.”Over the period the comedy run, the jokes became tamer and the comedy progressively became lighter in serenity. This scene is an incredible example where a joke did not land, which consequently prompted the director to change Michael Scott’s character. The Office pilot develops the character of Scott as an entirely dislikable person (Krasinski, 2005). This is majorly due to the fact that he imagines that he is cooler, more astute and cleverer than he truly is. One area where Scott demonstrates this point is when he introduces the job seeker to Pam by saying, “At one time or another everybody in the office has sprayed on Pam.” This joke fails since it makes viewers despise Scott.
It is dreadfully difficult to have prolonged success with a protagonist who repulses many viewers. Nonetheless, if the tone of the episode was moved to dramatization over comedy, it could work in such a scenario. In any case, to downplay the joke that “everybody’s sprayed on Pam” and have audiences think that it is amusing is a terribly difficult task. This is one of the reasons behind why Greg Daniels and the entire crew for “The Office” changed Michael Scott’s character after season one of the show (Krasinski, 2005). What had worked in Gervais’ and Merchant’s versions of the show was not working in the U.S. Accordingly, Scott changed from a character that drives everybody away to one that welcomes everyone in. This change likewise helped “The Office” to locate the funny, absurdist tone it had gotten so used to.
The best part of The Office pilot script might be its reasonable structure. Each significant beat is hit, notwithstanding the fact that the pacing is somewhat poor. Each story needs a conflict and each pilot should utilize the first episode to develop the greatest conflict. For this situation, the general conflict is that the Scranton branch will downsize if Michael cannot demonstrate its value. Since The Office pilot script has an incredible first episode, the viewers are ready to know what the main conflict is and where the story-arc needs to push ahead.
In reality, this pilot was not an adherent of the first. It was for many American viewers who used to see Friends and Seinfeld. Here was a single camera comedy with a totally different musicality than the many of the primetime audience was used to. The characters were not all friendly; particularly Michael Scott. The jokes were not composed by a track and numerous minutes that felt like they should be amusing, were just extremely awkward.
As a pilot, this one is a disappointment to a great extent. Nonetheless, it succeeds in bringing the general comedy of the first and its interpretation of the working environment. The characters are badly developed here, and fortunately the Michael Scott seen now is very different (considering his hair) and undeniably progressively unpredictable and fascinating. This flimsy beginning figured out how to appear unique compared to other American TV comedies in years.
In sum, the pilot is not the best portrayal of what “The Office” brought to the table. It was somewhat discouraging between Michael’s mischief, Roy’s treatment of Pam, and Jim’s lonely love. There were entertaining minutes too. The pilot utilized the majority of indistinguishable lines and stifles from the British Office pilot. This led to a great deal of American versus English TV contrasts that did not help the show arise and act as an entity. Luckily from that point, the directors digressed from its parent show and achieved its very own existence.
References
Krasinski, J. (2005). “Pilot” [Commentary track], The Office Season One (U.S./NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal