Share:The Office is a popular comedy and mocumentry. Unlike most television shows these days it is shot with a single camera, without a live studio audience and no laugh track. This leads to the feeling that the show is a documentary. Greg Daniels a writer of Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and King of the Hill adapted The Office from a television series that aired previously in the United Kingdom on the British Broadcasting Company's television channel.
The Office is also unique in the fact that while each episode is scripted actors are allowed to improvise and change the show while filming it. This often leads to greater to scenes like the episode Gay Witch Hunt' in the third season when Michael kissed Oscar and with the actors not knowing what to expect while acting it adds a more lifelike experience to viewers of the show.
The show is created to look like a documentary that follows the employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The actors often acknowledge the camera, even acting shy in its presence or even using the camera to promote their own side businesses. The episodes also include interviews with the characters one on one with the camera leading more to the feeling that it's a documentary. In later episodes the camera crew often followed the shows characters into their personal lives and often features voyeur like conversations filmed through doors or cracks.
The show has been renewed by NBC for a seventh and what is commonly believed to be the last seasons of The Office. The cast maintains in character blogs online that run concurrently with the episodes on NBC. Often deleted scenes are available online as well as on DVD. For people who watch The Office online there are exclusive full length episodes that viewers enjoy often containing content that could not be aired on network television.
Overall The Office is a great and unique television show. The actors do a great job and their improvisation adds to the reality of the show. This has led to the shows great success and very large and loyal fan base over the seven seasons it has run on NBC.