The Office: Greg Daniels reveals all the secrets of the Scranton office

A new special issue of Première hits newsstands this Friday, entirely devoted to The Office, with exclusive interviews, guests, and analysis. Find out everything about the little world of Dunder Mifflin.

A little over 20 years ago, an anonymous office sitcom debuted on American television. A slightly clumsy remake of a British farce by Ricky Gervais. Two decades later, the US version of The Office has established itself in the hearts of viewers, to the point of becoming one of the most popular “soft series” on the platforms. More than a success story, the small business led by Michael Scott has become a cultural phenomenon, which Première attempts to decipher in its new special issue. A special issue which recounts the birth of The Office with its American creator, Greg Daniels, and its star, Jenna Fischer (Pam), and analyzes its impact with numerous guests.

Greg Daniels explains to us, for example, why it was complicated to adapt the English series across the Atlantic at the start of the 21st century:

“It wasn’t so much because of British humor, but because everything revolves around a real anti-hero. And that’s not an easy sell to the American public. At the time, you have to realize that the most watched series in the United States was Will & Grace. We were on a very rhythmic sitcom, filmed with multi-cameras. The Office was quite the opposite: a slightly strange object, in an unusual format, based on an extremely delicate balance and capable of crashing at any moment with a central character like Michael Scott. I was really afraid that the network executives would completely sabotage the originality of The Office to make it an average sitcom.

The creator and screenwriter reveals to us that initially, he had planned to do the famous “Dundie Awards” by Michael Scott, from the pilot of the American remake. But he changed his mind, “because I was too afraid that NBC would not understand the concept, take over the script and massacre the project. So I preferred to directly adapt the pilot of the English series. That way, they knew where we were going. They no longer really had any reason to make comments to me, since it was a remake of the British pilot. I was then able to concentrate on the essentials: the casting and the setting, this office which occupies such an important place in the series.”

Camera operators from Koh-Lanta

And when NBC ordered the first season, in the wake of this pilot, Greg Daniels immediately felt the stress rising, casting authors capable of writing an entire series with the very particular tone of The Office: “In this recruitment process, I pitched The Office a lot. I wanted to explain to the writers why this series was exciting to write. Particularly in its form. A classic sitcom is a bit like theater filmed with several cameras. With The Office, we were more in a staging ” house”, like what people film themselves with their own cameras, for me, it was absolutely the first comedy of the reality TV era. I even went to find camera operators from Survivor (the American Koh-Lanta, Editor’s note) to benefit from their immersive experience. zoom in, zoom out… So much so that I gave instructions to the operators as if they were actors themselves…”

Visit newsstands on October 16 to discover this new Première special issue dedicated to The Office US.

You will find the long exclusive interview with showrunner Greg Daniels, who tells us all behind the scenes of the series, but also a meeting with Jenna Fischer (the eternal Pam), the secret history of the French adaptation of The Office, the top of Jim’s pranks, a portrait of Michael Scott, focuses on the abandoned spin-offs and the credits, a discussion with the director Emmanuel Marre or how Notre Salut was thought of as a kind of “The Office at Vichy”, an interview with the academic Sophie Rauch on “non-work” illustrated by the series…

Lots and lots to read in this special issue, available on newsstands this Friday.

This one you’re really going to want to get your hands on. “That’s what she said.”