Michael Scott (The Office)
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| Michael Scott | |
|---|---|
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| Portrayed by | Steve Carell |
| First appearance | Pilot |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 44 |
| Occupation | Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton |
| Spouse | Jan Levinson (on/off girlfriend) Carol (ex-girlfriend) |
| Parents | Un-named woman (mother) Jeff (step-father) |
| Based on | David Brent |
Michael Gary Scott (born March 15, 1964) is a fictional character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original version.
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[edit] Overview
He is the regional manager of the Scranton branch of a paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin. He is consistently portrayed as absurdly pathetic, yet invariably holds grandiose views of himself. He has no sense of social awareness, has few friends, and is quite lonely. He thinks of himself as an office comedian, but his attempts at humor prove to be unfunny at best and are often inappropriate, and sometimes offensive or unwittingly mean. Much of the humor of his character is driven by his loneliness, his efforts to make friends with people, but is also a result of his lack of self-awareness, which is highlighted by the awkward situations he creates for himself and his inability to extricate himself from them. His shortfalls are compounded by his seemingly huge ego. His subordinates, with the notable exception of Dwight Schrute, think of him as an inept boss. Before he was promoted to regional manager he was a great salesman, which sharply contrasts with his social awkwardness. He is sexist and racially insensitive at times, objectifying women and applying multiple black stereotypes to Stanley and the workers in the warehouse, particularly Darryl.
[edit] Biography
Michael insists everyone in the office think of him as a friend first and a boss second (he also claims he is "probably an entertainer/comedian third" - line taken directly from his UK counterpart, David Brent). Despite a general air of braggadocio, Michael can be exceedingly insecure. This results in a general spinelessness in dealing with the staff. At times he displays insensitivity and inappropriate behavior that would get most managers fired.
Michael's constant desire to be the center of attention often manifests itself in selfish behavior. For example, when he injures his foot in "The Injury", he expects Pam and Ryan to tend to his needs. When invited to be an usher in "Phyllis' Wedding", he assumes that his participation will be the high point of the ceremony and pouts when he is upstaged.
While ignorant, often unaware of what really goes on around the office and failing to research ideas thoroughly, Michael is not intentionally hostile; he often finds himself backpedaling after making a racist, sexist or ageist comment. This, combined with his penchant for lowbrow humor, gives Michael the ironic character flaw of being too juvenile to realize that he is generally incompetent as a manager and is considered to be quite pathetic.
In spite of everything he does wrong, Michael often comes off as a sympathetic character, due to his general lack of malice and a genuine desire to make everyone around him happy. Also, in rare instances, Michael has shown surprising insight and ability for decisive action to the benefit of those around him. He also genuinely cares about his employees. When he believed his branch was closing, he went to great lengths to save the branch saying all along that he was doing it to save all of his employees' jobs (in contrast to the actions of the David Brent character). On the other hand, Michael has been known to purposely point out other people's character flaws and personal problems when it serves his agenda. For example, Michael is quick to bring up Toby's troubled marital history whenever he feels jealous or threatened by Toby. Moreover, Michael can be exceptionally superficial. In Christmas Party, Michael buys Ryan a $400 iPod for Secret Santa and becomes particularly affronted when he receives an oven mitt that Phyllis knitted especially for him (complaining that Phyllis deemed him to be worth no more than a "homemade oven mitt"); his resultant replacement of Secret Santa with Yankee Swap fully discounted the sentimental and personal value of the gifts the employees had bought each other in favor of their monetary value.
Michael is also a poor judge of character, given his tendency to judge people based on their looks rather than their talents, and his impetuous nature often leads to bad decision-making. A big asset is his ability to interact with children (he has often been compared to a child himself), and his fondest desire is to have a child of his own. He believes that he makes a lot of money, but he has only received one raise, it was recent, and he has worked there for over a decade. He states that a boss should never share his paycheck/salary with his subordinates, because "it would depress them." Nevertheless, Darryl discovers that he actually earns very little.
The people who surround Michael are well-aware of his weaknesses, allowing him to be easily manipulated. For example, Jim goads Michael into challenging Dwight to a fight in "The Fight", and Jan easily wins back Michael's affections in "The Job" with the help of breast augmentation surgery. Moreover, Darryl regularly teaches him a laughable handshake and "black man phrases" such as "goin' mach five," "bippity boppity, give me the zoppity," "fleece it out," or convincing him that he has been part of numerous gangs.
Michael also writes song parodies. In Diwali, he writes a version of Adam Sandlar's Hanukkah Song. In Goodbye Toby, it is said that he said written songs such as "Beers in Heaven" (which he tells Holly are 'very sexual'") and "Total Eclipse of the Fart". He also changes the words to Goodbye Stranger for Toby's going away party.
There are many examples throughout the series detailing how alone Michael is. In the episodes "The Secret" and "The Convention", Michael refers to Jim as his best friend after Jim simply told him a secret and shared a drink with him. Online deleted scenes also reveal that he has never been to a museum when he confuses The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Ryan's apartment.
Michael's most common catch phrases are "That's what she said" (which seems to be said by impulse and not choice) and a whispered "Shut it" (most often said to Dwight, when he says something Michael deems inappropriate). When he does an impression or otherwise makes a reference to a person or character, he feels compelled to identify the source (although he often identifies it incorrectly).
According to Pam, Michael owns guitar but does not know how to play. "He thought his ukulele skills would transfer."
[edit] Education
Michael's plans for a college degree were thwarted when he lost his college savings (earned while employed at an Arby's Restaurant) in a pyramid scheme (a trap that would ensnare him again as an adult). He is moderately insecure about his lack of a degree, especially when he feels threatened by people with more education; Ryan Howard's business school attendance is especially destructive to his ego. His insecurities are magnified by Ryan's promotion to the corporate position that he also applied for. In the episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Michael reveals that he had to take the second grade twice.
At times, Michael struggles with his vocabulary and tends to mispronounce words such as "prodigal" ("The Convention"), or completely confuse words, such as when he calls himself a "philanderer" when he obviously meant "philanthropist" ("Casino Night"). He is also quite obviously intellectually-challenged - a discussion about politics, commerce or any other topic of conversation that the educated or enlightened would talk about, would doubtless leave him in a state of confusion, as would cultural aspects of society (literature, art etc.). This is not necessarily through lack of intelligence, but mainly through the ignorance and obliviousness of the world around him typical of any dyed-in-the-wool company man. In addition, Scott appears to have deliberately studied grammar or used a computer thesaurus to feign higher intelligence by using the following words correctly in the show: egregious, indubitably, and acrimonious. Conversely, he either misused, invented, or misinterpreted: "misogynistic," "un-understandable," "convalescences," "protruberance" (added the second r), "approachabler," "whom's," and "inferring" (instead of implying). Additionally, he knew what humanism meant in reference to Oscar's religious profession of agnosticism. He frequently is unable to form complete sentences or insults on the spot.
He is known to take things literally: when he was told that all his money problems would go away by declaring bankruptcy, he then shouted," I declare bankruptcy!", assuming no further action was necessary. Michael also seems to have difficulty with math; he once thought a 5K race was five thousand miles long ("Fun Run"). Occasionally, in order to fit in, he implies that he attended college, though his specious "recollections" of his college days come across as bizarre (e.g. inviting professors to a college party, although this might have been said just to have himself invited to Jim's party in the episode "E-mail Surveillance"). Other times, Michael boasts of his executive status despite his lack of a degree. He was on the fast track to upper-level management, enjoying a brief career as a sales rep before being promoted to his current position. In a deleted scene (from "The Coup"), Dwight Schrute tells Angela that Michael is the most successful salesperson in Dunder-Mifflin history and "I will never come close to putting up the numbers that he did", an impressive statement considering Dwight's own company-leading sales figures over the past few years (while Dwight's admiration of Michael may have brought some hyperbole into this statement, Michael's multiple "Salesman of the Year" awards for Dunder Mifflin indicate he was being accurate in this case).
[edit] Work demeanor and management style
Still a talented salesman, Michael has a way of relating to potential clients through regular conversation that has helped land his branch some big accounts. In addition, he advocates a personal touch in business relations. For instance, he initiated "old-fashioned" sales calls and has told one customer that he will personally deliver the order in his Sebring. However Michael's almost savant-like sales skills do not translate into good management skills. His laid-back approach more often results in workplace productivity not reaching 100% on a daily basis, particularly when Michael places his personal interests as a priority over work (such as his birthday, someone else's birthday, or a funeral for a deceased bird). To avoid being disciplined for his foolish actions, Michael often resorts to scapegoating employees to cover himself. This often backfires on him when he opens his mouth and ends up contradicting the facts. Nevertheless, Michael believes that Scranton is "the cool fun branch", and is genuinely upset when the top salesman from the Utica office trashes Scranton in a phone call by saying it's "worse than Camden".
Although his position as Regional Manager gives him broad decision-making authority on branch operations, he often places those responsibilities secondary to his desire to be friends with his employees. For example, he shirks the unpopular task of cutting medical benefits by assigning it to Dwight ("Health Care"), and he later lateraled the assignment to Toby. On the other hand, he also oversteps his authority by hosting events that Corporate disapproves of such as "The Dundies", and a "Booze Cruise".
Michael fancies himself an entertainer, particularly a comedian with a variety of middlebrow influences, including Dane Cook, Eddie Murphy's "Raw", and Chris Rock. He keeps several joke books in his desk for reference and has a turban so he can imitate Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent. Michael stages an annual full comedy show during "The Dundies" office party and awards show.
Michael enjoys telling jokes and tortures the office staff with them on a daily basis. Many of the jokes are offensive or insensitive to his diverse audience, which often results in his backing up and trying to deliver the joke in a less offensive manner to remain "popular" among his staff. Michael, on multiple occasions, has expressed interest in basketball (in "The Fire" and "Basketball") and idolizes players such as LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant.
One of the more frequent things Michael does is host seminars that range from diversity, sexual harassment, the handicapped, public speaking, drugs, homosexuality, grief counseling, prison, religion, and women's appreciation in an attempt to educate his staff, who all seem more aware of and more mature about the subject matter than Michael. Michael's ignorance results in these seminars being an embarrassing disaster every time, alternately amusing and shocking the staff. Michael does his best to thwart the efforts of other seminar leaders. He does seem to realize that he can pretty much force everyone to listen to him during seminar time.
Michael occasionally uses dated phrases such as "T.M.I." (meaning Too Much Information) and goofy slang, calling pizza "'za" and Starbucks "the 'Bucks". One of his favorite gags is adding the phrase "that's what she said!" to some perfectly normal statements, implying a sexual connotation. He has, however, retired "don't go there" from his phrasebook because it is "lame."
Michael also greatly enjoys franchise restaurants such as Sbarro, choosing to eat there on his visit to New York City instead of one of the local specialty restaurants. He has held business meetings and company award nights at Chili's and scheduled others at Hooters. He also enjoyed a day out at the Japanese steakhouse Benihana. In Goodbye Toby, it is revealed that his favorite breakfast place is IHOP
[edit] Co-worker Relations
Michael's relationship with the company warehouse employees, particularly supervisor Darryl, is tense as Darryl can barely tolerate Michael but seems to understand the branch manager's sensitive personality. Michael has a tendency to disrupt their daily work flow, even ending their record of more than two years without any on-the job accidents. In a talking head interview, Darryl reveals that they have never been able to make a full year since, because of Michael's antics. Lonnie, another warehouse employee, cannot stand Michael and shares Darryl's respect for workplace safety. Lonnie makes no attempt to hold back by insulting Michael in front of the staff after Michael makes another immature remark.
Salesman Dwight Schrute, Michael's assistant in name only, hero-worships Michael; Michael tends to put down Dwight but apparently likes the attention. Michael sometimes panders to Dwight by giving him more responsibility than he deserves, such as appointing Dwight to choose a health care plan for the office, ordering Dwight to urinate in a cup for him so he could pass a drug test, and changing Dwight's job title from "Assistant to the Regional Manager" to "Assistant Regional Manager" (which Michael later admits is meaningless).
Many of these duties stem from Michael's need to compensate for being liked, or to save himself from getting in trouble. While Michael often tries to distance himself from Dwight, they do spend some time outside of the office together: It is revealed in "The Fight" that they spent one New Year's Eve together watching Armageddon. Michael's respect for Dwight seems to be threatened by the presence of Andy Bernard, an obnoxious employee from the Scranton-Stamford branch merger with designs on moving up the corporate ladder.
Michael is particularly cruel toward Toby Flenderson, the human resources representative, partially because Michael considers his position "corporate," and therefore not a member of the Scranton branch "family." Ironically, Michael, being in "upper management" once claimed, "I am corporate." Completely resenting Toby, Michael freely insults him by either bringing up his divorce or making hurtful remarks. The resentment that Michael holds towards Toby is due to the fact that Toby is quite often trying to help Michael's mental health, just like a rebellious or somewhat emotionally frustrated child, Michael lashes out at Toby in an attempt to alienate him from the office, therefore protecting himself from Toby's ability to understand people's emotional needs.
Michael has asked employees on many occasions if Toby is the reason they are unhappy or want to leave Dunder Mifflin (it never is). More often than not, Toby has to correct Michael on Dunder Mifflin policy. However, on a personal note, Toby offers helpful one-on-one conversation with his enemy after a dejected Michael is forced to face the reality that he has not settled down with a family, and Michael bonds with Toby's young daughter.Michael also has made fun of Angela for her diminutive stature on two occasions, called Dwight an idiot twice,and doesn't seem to mind hitting Meredith with his car saying "it's only Meredith", although he visited her in the hospital to save face with the staff.
Michael also has a tendency to reveal personal information about staff members to the entire office. Notable examples include Michael reading aloud confidential complaints given to Toby by staff, revealing Jim's feelings for Pam, and outing Oscar Martinez. He additionally caused Kevin's anal fissures to be made public when he put Dwight in charge of choosing a healthcare plan.
After "The Merger", his attempts to "educate" the newly constructed staff resulted in three resignations from former Stamford employees. Michael thinks they are just quitters but has no clue it is actually his incompetence as a manager that is prompting them to quit.
Michael fixates on Ryan Howard, an employee (temp in Seasons 1-2, full-time in Seasons 3 and 4) at the office.
Michael views Jim as a friend due to the fact that Michael was the first person Jim admitted to that he has a crush on Pam (an admission Jim comes to regret). Shortly thereafter, Michael began mimicking Jim's appearance (rolling his sleeves up, loosening his tie and collar, combing his hair down). This phase of the relationship ended after Michael was unable to keep Jim's "secret," but Jim has since claimed to be Michael's "friend" ("The Convention") Also in this episode, Jim says that Michael was "a great boss" when Michael thinks he left the Scranton branch for a better job. Jim seems to be one of the few employees at the branch who recognizes Michael's good personality, and appreciates it. In season 3, when Jim transfers to a new branch, and his current boss uses his promotion as a way to get a better job offer from Staples, Jim says "Say what you will about Michael Scott, but he would never do that."
It may be inferred that Michael has a thing for Pam, since he once claims that he "likes her boobs" and suggests that his position as her boss precludes him from taking a bath with her ("Sexual Harassment"). Michael has been caught staring at her (or Ryan; this could be a habit, as Jim did it as well) from his office. In one instance, Michael attempted to kiss Pam ("Diwali"), who promptly rejected him. More often than not, Pam has had to deal with Michael not so much as a boss, but as a child behaving badly either by comments he makes or job duties he does not perform as required. Despite all his flaws, Michael genuinely cares for his co-workers. In ("Halloween"), he is very upset at having to fire Devon. Michael is very protective of his office and went to New York in ("Branch Closing") to stop his branch closing.
[edit] Romantic and personal life
In a childhood appearance on the fictitious children's show Fundlebundle, Michael stated his intentions as a grown-up: "I want to be married and have a hundred kids so I could have a hundred friends and no one could say 'no' to being my friend."
Even though he enjoys showing off how much he gets to have sex with women, he often shows traits resembling a fear of women. In the pilot, he refers to his nickname of Jan as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but he quickly and awkwardly explains that it is not because he is afraid of her. At the cocktail party in the episode "Cocktails," Jan attempts to have sex with Michael in David Wallace's bathroom, but Michael awkwardly refuses to go along with it, upsetting Jan. This was observed and first voiced by Ryan in "Initiation" when Dwight asked him what Michael Scott's biggest fear was, to which Ryan replied: "Loneliness...maybe women."
Michael also began dating Carol (played by Carell's wife, Nancy Walls), a real estate agent with whom Michael worked to buy his condominium; according to Michael, he and Carol have had sex. He frequently claims he is dating two women at the same time: Carol and Jan. Michael proposed to Carol during a "Diwali" celebration, but since they had only gone on nine dates up until that point, she rejected him and left the party angrily. Carol breaks up with Michael soon after due to a Christmas card of Carol's family that he sent out, with his head photoshopped in place of her ex-husband's head, leaving him heartbroken. But later in the same episode, Michael invites Jan Levinson to go on a trip to Jamaica with him that he originally intended for Carol.
In "Cocktails," Michael is thrilled at the prospect that he and Jan are making their first public appearance as a couple, though this leads to some friction between them at the cocktail party of CFO David Wallace (where their relationship is to first become public).
In "Safety Training", Michael admits his relationship with Jan is "complicated" and he is not happy. Two weeks later, in "Women's Appreciation", he breaks up with her after realizing Jan's increasingly bizarre and unpleasant behavior is making him miserable in the relationship. However, in the season finale "The Job", Michael gets back together with Jan, mostly because of her new breast implants. Michael is obviously not happy when she moves into his condo. Jan later spends a lot of Michael's money, which along with his terrible individual money management starts causing him severe financial problems.
Michael allows himself to be dominated throughout his dysfunctional relationship with Jan. He first mentioned that Jan would record videos of their lovemaking and immediately play them back to critique his form in the episode "Women's Appreciation", and a video camera is present in their bedroom in "Dinner Party". During that episode, it is also revealed that Jan makes him sleep on a small bench at the foot of her bed, and made him have a vasectomy, have it reversed, and then have another vasectomy while she debated whether or not to have children.
Michael also appears to have a history of playing ice hockey. In "Michael's Birthday", he takes the entire staff ice skating, and shows up in full hockey regalia, including pads, stick, and helmet. He is also an accomplished skater. Michael says he thought about playing in the NHL, but wanted to settle down with a family instead.
Michael attends classes in improvisational comedy and believes his skills are among the best in the world. In improvisational skits, he tends to play his tough-guy alter-ego (FBI agent "Michael Scarn", (see "characters" below) the main character in a motion picture screenplay he authored) or his prisoner counterpart, Prison Mike), and guns down all the other players to steal every scene. He constantly compliments his own performances, from joke-telling to impressions to videotape skits he creates for presentation in the office.
Michael also loves wearing jeans, in particular a white pair he refers to as his "Fun Jeans." ("The Convention"). He is so fond of his jeans that he gets them dry cleaned; Pam surmises that he instituted Casual Friday just to show off his jeans ("The Client").
Michael treasures his "World's Best Boss" mug, even though he bought it for himself at Spencer Gifts and presumably has multiple replacements. The audience knows that he has purchased at least two, because Dwight precariously places one of them on Michael's desk, and Michael accidentally knocks it off with a golf putter that he was using to practice with in his office.
Michael somehow fell in love with the new HR representative, Holly, despite having a prejudice against Human Resources workers. However he comes to realize that his heart will always be with Jan. Evidence of this was in seasons four's season finale after he learns Jan is pregnant. Holly invites him to dinner. He declines and then calls Jan.
The framed certificate behind Michael's desk reads "Michael Scott is the proud owner of a quality Seyko [sic] timepiece."
[edit] Family and childhood
Michael was born on March 15, at 11:23am. He notes the fact he and Eva Longoria share a birthday would make good conversation if he were to meet Teri Hatcher. Michael considers himself "a virtual United Nations" being of English, Irish, German, Scottish, and (according to him) "Native American Indian" descent.
Michael grew up in Scranton a lonely child. He mentions that he didn't speak before the age of five, but it seems more likely that he actually began speaking at a normal age and is simply ignorant about the age when children start to talk. Michael repeated the second grade once, bragging that he "aced" it the second time, and that he was the tallest in the class. By the end of fourth grade, the person he hung out at lunch with was the lunch lady. His high school classmates (among them Phyllis Lapin) believed he might have been gay since he wore matching socks and ties to school often. Although by the time he was in high school it is implied that many found him funny and was somewhat popular.
In eighth grade, Michael idolized a teacher named Mr. Handell that always had a friendly relationship with his students and often hung out and talked with them. Mr. Handell was later revealed as a sexual predator (which "totally ruined the eighth grade"), but that didn't stop Michael from wanting the same kind of friendly relationship with all his employees. He was evidently never invited to parties in high school, when he says "it's like when the freshman would throw a party, and wouldn't let any of the seniors come" (though this is an unlikely scenario).
In "Michael's Birthday," Michael recalled a number of childhood memories that revealed the unfortunate trend of something embarrassing or traumatic happening on his birthday. Michael has at least one sibling, who is an older brother, and came from a broken home, once comparing an office situation to the time his mother "moved in with Jeff," and he "had to fix it." At one time, he shows the camera the video of his performance as a ring-bearer at his mother's second wedding: he wet his pants and threw the ring at his step-father, screaming "I hate you!" before running off. These actions were pathetically mirrored in how he behaved as an adult at Phyllis' wedding to Bob Vance.
In a childhood television appearance, Michael said his goal was to grow up and have a lot of children because they would have to be his friends. When reminded that he has failed to find love as an adult, he gets very moody and depressed. He tends to attach himself too quickly to women, reading more into his evening spent with his boss Jan Levinson, proposing marriage to Carol Stills after only nine dates, and falling in love with Holly shortly after meeting her. He also invited a young waitress from Benihana to join him at Sandals, Jamaica despite not even knowing her name and confusing her with another young, Asian waitress from the same restaurant.
In "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", he mentions that his mother lives in nearby Dickson City.
[edit] Characters of Michael Scott
Given his proclivity of constantly trying to keep his employees entertained (and coupled with his juvenile personality), Michael has created a variety of different characters which he uses for both entertainment, and, at times, educational purposes.
Ping ("The Dundies"), a racist Asian caricature based on Michael's Chinese food deliveryman.
Agent Michael Scarn ("The Client", "E-mail Surveillance", referenced in "Money", "Dinner Party") is the star of Michael's action hero screenplay Threat Level: Midnight. Michael adopts the persona in his improv comedy class, forgoing the opportunity to base his dialogue off of his classmates and instead pretending to shoot everyone in the room, regardless of their participation in the scene.
- Michael also uses an alternate name for Scarn, the similarly named Michael Scoon, who always pulls out imaginary guns and shoots everyone in his improv class staged scenes.
Prison Mike ("The Convict") wears a purple bandanna over his head, speaking in a caricature of New York English, and explains that he is in prison for theft, robbery and kidnapping the President's son for ransom. In his Prison Mike persona, Michael paints an awful, and somewhat fanciful, picture of prison life.
Michael the Magic ("Cocktails") attempts to escape from a straitjacket but fails due to a lost key (actually hidden by Jim).
[edit] Comparison with David Brent
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This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
Although originally based on David Brent, Scott has developed into a significantly different character than his British counterpart. Whereas Brent is shown to be irredeemably incompetent[1], Scott is portrayed as an outstanding salesman, who was unwisely promoted to a management role to which he appears completely ill-suited (see Peter Principle). A scathing performance review written by Jan Levinson stated that he should be removed from the Branch Manager position and put into a more suitable position in Sales. However, in an odd way Scott actually has some good numbers as regional manager. When he took over the Scranton Branch he decreased costs by 13%, without firing any personnel. After the merger of the two branches Scott does not lose a single client despite a great deal of employee turnover (much of which he was directly responsible for). He received a $3,000 bonus for firing Devon, most likely because his doing so saved the company around $50,000. Although it is suggested that Brent has had similar success, such claims only ever come from Brent himself, thus making them unreliable.
Scott's social immaturity and inability to cope with responsibility is balanced with a personality that is much more caring than Brent, even if he retains the ability to make unwise comments in the heat of the moment. Unlike Brent, who pretends to be friendly with many of his employees purely for the benefit of the cameras, Scott seems to genuinely like his colleagues, with the sole exception of Human Resources Director Toby Flenderson. Brent appears much more aware of his own social awkwardness, whereas Scott believe that people see him as a genuine friend leads him to become very hurt when he realizes this is not the case.
The DVD commentary to the Pilot episode suggests that Scott's character continues a process begun in the second UK series, in which Gervais and Merchant intentionally made Brent less nasty, and more of a buffoon. It is said in the commentary that Gervais and Merchant suggested that this be applied to Scott. This also reflects a general change in the US version's attitude, which is more sympathetic to the characters, and tones down the cruel humor of the original. The commentary also says that Steve Carrell had not seen more than a few minutes of the original UK series when he was offered the role of Scott, and has since made a conscious decision not to watch it in case it influences his own performance.
The show's writers have said that the 2005 hit movie The 40 Year Old Virgin provided very useful guidance as they refined the character along with Steve Carell between the 1st and 2nd seasons. Michael Scott wore a large amount of hair gel and dressed sloppily in Season 1, but by Season 2 he had a more conventional haircut and was wearing normal-looking clothes. Also, while Michael is often rude and nasty in Season 1, he is generally nicer and less hard-edged in subsequent seasons.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- Creator Greg Daniels envisioned Michael Scott behaving as if "I was hoping that the documentary about this would one day be seen by Jennifer Aniston, and I was just trying to impress her any way I possibly could."[2]
- Creator Greg Daniels notes the occasional need to show Michael being competent or even effective, to justify why he is not simply fired.[3]
- Writer B.J. Novak explains that Michael Scott drives a Sebring because it is the most ostentatious car he can afford, opting for a convertible even though the climate in Scranton is cool even in the summer.[4]
- The script for "Gay Witch Hunt" called for Oscar to turn his head and Michael to kiss him on the cheek. Steve Carell improvised the lip-kiss.
- In most episodes written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupinsky, Michael will make a reference to Pam's breasts:
- In "The Secret", Michael tells Jim that what he likes best about Pam is "her boobs, definitely."
- In "Michael's Birthday", Michael tells Pam she should give herself a breast self-examination. "Those things are like ticking time-bags."
- In "The Convention", Michael advises Pam to "unbutton that top button, let those things breathe" when she goes on her date.
- In "Traveling Salesmen", Michael uses a speech synthesizer to say "boobs" after Pam leaves the room.
- In the producer's cut of "The Return", Michael holds a pair of maracas in front of his chest and tells Pam, "I will shake mine, and then you will shake yours."
- In "Women's Appreciation", Michael says, "If Pam wants to show more cleavage, she should be able to. I encourage it." In a deleted scene, Michael suggests that Pam "show 'em the twins" to entice a passing motorist to stop and help.
[edit] References
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brent
- ^ Writing 'The Office' Fresh Air
- ^ Daniels, Greg (Producer). 2005. "Valentine's Day" [Commentary track], The Office Season Two (US/NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.
- ^ Novak, B.J. (October 4, 2005). "Michael and Co. Hit the Road", TVGuide.com
[edit] External links
- The Office Fan Site / Michael Scott's Blog — a fan site written under the persona of Michael Scott
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