Christmas In October: The Office Christmas Special
Tonight, Gothamist strongly recommends you to watch The Office Christmas Special on BBC America. A kind of "where are they now" for The Office characters, it reminds you why The Office is so good and manages to answer a couple questions - like "Does Keith get ladies?" Gothamist was able to see the special at the Museum of Television & Radio screening that co-creator and star Ricky Gervais also spoke at, thanks to reader Dan. Anglophiles, humorists, TV fanatics, hipsters and even some Brits converged to here TV Guide's Matt Roush ask Gervais some questions and confuse Gervais with his character, David Brent. Gervais is charming and low-key, relative to Brent, and we learned this much:
- While the boss of co-creator, Stephen Merchant, Gervais would try to distract Merchant all the time, creating a "Seedy Boss" character that would be the genesis of David Brent. Also, trying to distract co-workers reminded Gothamist of the Gareth-Tim relationship as well as what we do everyday in our own life.Dan has a wonderfully thorough wrap-up of the evening. Here's BBC America's The Office site; the special will air tonight and repeat over the weekend. The NY Times loved the special; The New Yorker preferred two seasons of the series, calling it "perfect."
- He loves American culture and count as his influences, The Simpsons, This Is Spinal Tap, and Laurel & Hardy.
- Roush pointed out that the only comedy that comes near what The Office achieve is Curb Your Enthusiasm; Gervais loves Curb, yet he is uncomfortable while watching it.
- Gervais doesn't have any worries about the US-version of The Office ("They are doing their own thing") and said the US version of Slough is Scranton, PA. [On the BBC website, Gervais earlier thought Newark was Slough-ish]
You can buy seasons 1 and 2, and the special, from Amazon (these stills of David Brent dancing, very Elaine's Little Kicks, are from season 2). And, if you're a spoiler freak, here's The Office site from the BBC.
