| The IT Crowd | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Created by | Graham Linehan |
| Starring | Richard Ayoade Chris O'Dowd Katherine Parkinson Matt Berry |
| Theme music composer | Neil Hannon |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 24 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Ash Atalla (2006–2008) |
| Producer(s) | TalkbackThames |
| Editor(s) | Paul Machliss |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Channel 4 |
| Picture format | 576i 16:9 (SDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | 3 February 2006 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
The IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4, written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry. The "IT" in the show's title can be pronounced as either the word it /ˈɪt/, as in "the 'it' crowd", or as the letters IT /ˌaɪˈtiː/, as in the abbreviation for information technology.[1]
Set in the London offices of the fictional Reynholm Industries, the show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department: a genius named Maurice Moss (Ayoade), the workshy Roy Trenneman (O'Dowd), and Jen Barber (Parkinson), the department head/"Relationship Manager", who knows nothing about IT. The show also focuses on the bosses of Reynholm Industries: Denholm Reynholm (Chris Morris) and his son Douglas (Berry).
The comedy premiered on Channel 4 on 3 February 2006, and has run for four series of 6 episodes each. Although a fifth series has been commissioned,[2] Graham Linehan announced on 20 October 2011 that there won't be a fifth series, only an extended special in 2012.[3]
The show was the third successful sitcom creation of Graham Linehan, following Father Ted (co-written with Arthur Mathews) and Black Books (co-written with Dylan Moran).
Contents |
The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictional British corporation in central London. It focuses on the shenanigans of the three-strong IT support team located in a dingy, untidy, and unkempt basement – a great contrast to the shining modern architecture and stunning London views enjoyed by the rest of the organisation. The obscurity surrounding what the company does serves as a running gag throughout the series – all that is known is that the company bought and sold ITV (a fact which Denholm Reynholm forgot completely), and once made part-year profits of "eighteen hundred billion billion". Douglas Reynholm claims his father Denholm Reynholm described the IT department as being run by "a dynamic go-getter, a genius and a man from Ireland".[4]
Moss and Roy, the two technicians, are portrayed as socially inept geeks or, in Denholm Reynholm's words, "standard nerds". Despite the company's dependence on their services, they are despised, ignored, and considered losers by the rest of the staff. Roy's exasperation is reflected in his support techniques of ignoring the phone in the hope it will stop ringing, and using reel-to-reel tape recordings of stock IT suggestions ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?" and "Is it definitely plugged in?"). He expresses his "personality" by wearing a different geek T-shirt in each episode.[5] Moss' wide and intricate knowledge of all things technical is reflected in his extremely accurate yet utterly indecipherable suggestions, while he demonstrates a complete inability to deal with practical problems like extinguishing fires and removing spiders.
Jen, the newest member of the team, is hopelessly non-technical, despite claiming on her CV that she has "a lot of experience with computers". As Denholm, the company boss, is equally tech-illiterate, he is convinced by Jen's interview bluffing and appoints her head of the IT department. Her official title is "relationship manager", yet her attempts at bridging the gulf between the technicians and the business generally have the opposite effect, landing Jen in situations just as ludicrous as those of her team-mates.
The first series of the IT Crowd sees the entry of Jen, and how 'tech-heads' such as Roy and Moss can build up a relationship with someone hopelessly computer-illiterate like Jen. Series 1 also starts to show a small amount of romantic tension between Roy and Jen.
Throughout the second series, Moss and Roy make an attempt at becoming more social by trying to make new friends. Meanwhile Jen has trouble with the new head of Renholm Industries...
Roy gets himself in to more awkward situations with Football fans, builders and general nerds. Jen shows how tech-illiterate she is to an even further extent, while Moss also loses some of his computer skills; and on top of that, meetings with cannibals and bank-robbers.
The final series generally concentrates on the IT Department's relationships with each other and outsiders, with Roy's breakup from a long-term relationship, Jen's new boyfriend, Moss dealing with his inner-rebel, and Douglas coming to terms with the "loss" of his wife.
The show tries to add a large number of references to geek culture and professionalism, mostly in set dressing and props. Dialogue (both technical and cultural) is usually authentic and any technobabble used often contains in-jokes for viewers knowledgeable in such subjects. Roy regularly wears shirts that feature Leet speak, such as the acronyms OMFG and RTFM.[6] Series 3 Episode 1 has Roy wearing the Music Elitism Venn Diagram tee and I Screw Robots sticker from the webcomic Diesel Sweeties.[7] On occasion, there will be movie-style scenes that parody fight scenes and melodrama.
In August 2008, having not had time to source the props himself, Linehan appealed to fans to donate items to use for series 3, to make the set look like "a geek's Shangri-La".[8] The Centre for Computing History loaned a collection of computers from the 1970s and 1980s. They included an Altair 8800, Oric Atmos, Amstrad CPC 464, Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2, Commodore 64, Commodore PET, Atari ST, Sord M5, Acorn RISC PC600, BBC Model B, an Astro Wars game, circuit boards from a Wang VS mainframe and several shelves of old computer manuals. One manual with the letters MOSS on the spine sits on the shelf behind Moss.
Many items on the set reflect Linehan's own personal taste. There are numerous examples of this, but most noticeable are the V for Vendetta (Guy Fawkes) mask, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, various xkcd references, such as the "Map of Online Communities" Poster and the "Actual Size!" sticker on Moss' computer, the Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices posters (Guided by Voices is one of Linehan's favourite bands, cropping up in background music, on t-shirts and getting a specific mention in series 3, episode 3), and the War on Terror board game, which is played by Moss and Roy in series 2, episode 4. The main stickers found around the office include Electronic Frontier Foundation ("Fair Use has a POSSE", "MP3 is not a crime", "Coding is not a crime"[9]) and Open Rights Group. On the fourth season some Ubuntu stickers were added, including one on Moss's LCD, Jen's office door, and the department's door.
Linehan wrote the first four series alone, but later said he intended to use a team of writers for a fifth series.[2]
The show is filmed before a live studio audience, which at the time was considered by some as risky, with the format thought to have been surpassed by more fly-on-the-wall type presentations.[10] This was a deliberate choice by Linehan, who sought to challenge the current vogue for hailing the "death of the sitcom", stating "I trust my instincts, so I'm going to do it my way and hope people come to me".[10] The first series was recorded in front of a live audience at Teddington Studios but moved to Pinewood Studios for series 2 onwards, with some additional location footage.
The title sequence of the show was produced by Shynola,[11] with the soundtrack closely resembling the Tubeway Army hit Are 'Friends' Electric?.
All four series have run for 6 episodes each. The first series premiered on 3 February 2006, the second on 24 August 2007, the third on 21 November 2008 and the fourth on 25 June 2010.[12]
In a first for Channel 4, each episode of the first series was available for download from the station's web site for the seven days preceding its initial television broadcast. Downloads were only available for UK and Ireland viewers and were supplied in Windows Media Video format. All but the first two episodes were encoded with DRM restrictions.
The opening episode of series 4 was released by Channel 4's online service 4oD a week before the television broadcast, though in order to protect the programme this was only available to registered and logged-in viewers, whereas much of 4oD's post-broadcast output is freely available.
A fifth series had been commissioned for 2011.[13] In May 2011 Graham Linehan was quoted as saying that he intended the fifth series to be the last as he wanted "one more series to really say goodbye to the characters and the fans" and did not want it to become "a zombie series where the show is dead but its body is still moving around."[14]
In October 2011, Graham Linehan stated that there will not be a fifth series - just a one off special in 2012.[3]
The show is broadcast internationally. In Australia on ABC1, as well as being aired on UKTV. In Europe, GTV began airing the show in Bulgaria in July 2008, while Comedy Central Germany started airing the first series in September 2009. In Poland on Comedy Central and TVP2. In the Czech Republic the show was broadcast on Česká televize and HBO, TV 2 Zulu has aired the show in Denmark, while it has also been shown on Comedy Central in The Netherlands. Canal+ runs the show in Spain. In the United States, episodes have been shown on IFC, and all 4 series are available for purchase in the iTunes Store and streamable on Netflix. Canadian channel G4 Canada ran the show during their Adult Digital Distraction segment in July 2007. In Latin America is airing in Mexico since 2010 on Canal 11
| DVD | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete Series 1 | 31 March 2009 | 13 November 2006 | 6 December 2006 |
| The Complete Series 2 | 30 June 2009 | 1 October 2007 | 19 March 2009 |
| The Complete Series 3 | 15 September 2009 | 16 March 2009 | 1 April 2010 |
| The Complete Series 4 | 14 December 2010 | 27 September 2010 | 2 December 2010 |
The first series was released in the UK as "The IT Crowd - Version 1.0" on 13 November 2006 by 2 Entertain Video Ltd. The DVD start-up sequence and subsequent menus are designed to resemble a ZX Spectrum. The DVD also included a short film written and directed by Linehan called Hello Friend, his directorial debut, and a tongue in cheek behind-the-scenes documentary presented by Ken Korda, a film maker created and portrayed by Comedian Adam Buxton (of Adam and Joe).[15][16]
An American region (NTSC) release of the DVD was delayed due to a delay in the broadcast of the American adaptation. MPI Home Video released it on 31 March 2009.[17] The American version does not contain the audio commentaries which are found on the British version.
"The IT Crowd - Version 2.0" DVD was released in the UK on 1 October 2007, together with a box set containing both the first and second series. Retail chain HMV sold an exclusive limited edition version featuring a set of four postcards in the style of popular viral photos such as Ceiling Cat — here replicated as Ceiling Goth. Whereas the first series DVD menus parodied 8-bit games, the Series 2 DVD menus parody 16-bit games and make reference to Zero Wing (all your base meme), Mortal Kombat, Tetris and Lemmings. There are also several 'hidden' extras encoded into the subtitles. These are done in much the same way as the base64 subtitles from Series 1, and include three JPG images and a text adventure game file. Episode 4 has a BBC BASIC listing, and Episode 6 has light bars in the corner of the screen which can be decoded using a light reader.[18][16]
The American region DVD was released on 30 June 2009.
A box-set containing series 1-3 was released in the UK on 16 March 2009 under the 2|entertain label. A single DVD featuring all six episodes was also released on 16 March 2009. As with both the series 1 and 2 DVDs, the menus are based on different games. In particular, such internet games as GROW CUBE, Doeo and flow.
The American region DVD was released on 15 September 2009.
The DVD for series 4 was released in the UK on 27 September 2010, also under the 2|entertain label.[19] A box-set containing all four series was also released on the same day, which includes an IT Crowd-themed board game.
The American region DVD was released on 14 December 2010.[20]
A USA version of The IT Crowd was almost aired by NBC. It starred Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss, with Joel McHale as Roy, Jessica St. Clair as Jen and Rocky Carroll as Denholm.[21] The show was produced by FremantleMedia for Universal Media Studios with Linehan and Steve Tao as Executive Producers. There were four writers involved - David Guarascio, Moses Port, Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. A pilot was filmed in January 2007, and a full series was ordered, advertised by NBC to be aired in 2007–08.[22][23][24] According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter in September 2007, the show had not gone into production and was to be cancelled, despite the fact that a number of scripts had already been written, stating the series "didn't quite spark" with new NBC chairman Ben Silverman.[25]
On 30 July 2010, Linehan confirmed that a US version of the show is back on, with possible changes due to negative reactions.[26]
A German version of the programme was in production starting June 2007, starring Sky du Mont, Sebastian Münster, Stefan Puntigam and Britta Horn.[27] Originally titled Das iTeam - Die Jungs mit der Maus (The iTeam - The Boys with the Mouse), the title was changed to Das iTeam - Die Jungs an der Maus (The iTeam - The Boys at the Mouse) at the last minute. The premiere episode was aired on 4 January 2008 on Sat.1. After the first episode was broadcast online, the adaptation received a mainly negative response from Internet forum users and blog writers. It was criticised for the quality of its translation and direction, and the poor performance of Stefan Puntigam as Gabriel (German version's name for Moss). The show was dropped by Sat.1 in January 2008 after the second episode due to low ratings.[28]
The premiere of the show on Channel 4 was watched by 1.8m viewers, described as "disappointing" by BBC News; however, Linehan stated he was "playing the long game" and reflected how the first series of Father Ted also "went pretty unnoticed" but went on to gain viewers and awards.[10] The series 4 finale on 30 July 2010 saw the show reach its current ratings peak of 2.17 million and was highly successful in its time slot.
The show has won awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs), the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the International Emmys), the Rose d'Or television entertainment awards, and also from the fan voted Comedy.co.uk Awards organised by the British Comedy Guide. Individual awards have also come in the British Comedy Awards and Irish Film and Television Awards.
In 2006, the series was voted Best New British Sitcom at the 2006 Comedy.co.uk Awards out of seventeen nominees.[29] In 2007, the series was voted Comedy of The Year at the 2007 Comedy.co.uk Awards, out of over 100 nominees.[30] Nominated in the 2007 BAFTAs for Best Situation Comedy alongside Green Wing and Pulling, it lost out to eventual winner The Royle Family. In 2008, the series was awarded the International Emmy Award for Comedy[31] and the 2008 Rose d'Or for Best Sitcom.[32] Nominated in the 2008 BAFTAs for Best Situation Comedy alongside The Thick of It and Benidorm, it lost out to eventual winner Peep Show. In 2009, the series won the Best Situation Comedy award at the 2009 BAFTAs. Also in 2009, Graham Linehan won best script television actor at the 6th Irish Film and Television Awards for the show, while Katherine Parkinson won the Best Comedy Actress award at the 2009 British Comedy Awards.