The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd title logo used from 2006 until 2013.
Genre Sitcom
Created by Graham Linehan
Starring Chris O'Dowd
Richard Ayoade
Katherine Parkinson
Chris Morris (series 1–2)
Matt Berry (series 2–4)
Noel Fielding
Theme music composer Neil Hannon
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 25 (+1 special) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Ash Atalla (2006–2008)
Producer(s) Talkback Thames (2006-2008)
Retort (2013)
Editor(s) Paul Machliss
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 24 minutes (special approx 47 minutes)
Distributor FremantleMedia
Broadcast
Original channel Channel 4
Picture format 576i (16:9 SDTV) (2006–10)
1080i (HDTV) (2013)
Audio format Stereo
Original run 3 February 2006 – 27 September 2013
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 the letters IT /ˌaɪˈtiː/, as in the abbreviation for information technology, or as the word "it".[1]

Set in the London offices of the fictional Reynholm Industries, the show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department: a geeky genius named Maurice Moss (Ayoade), the work-shy 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 later, his son Douglas (Matt Berry).

The comedy premiered on Channel 4 on 3 February 2006, and ran for four series of six episodes each. Although a fifth series was commissioned,[2] the programme was concluded with a special, one-off episode, aired on 27 September 2013.[3][4][5][6]

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).

Plot

The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictional British corporation in central London, located at 123 Carenden Road. 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". However; it is hinted that Reynholm Industries is a communications corporation, as Denholm Reynholm once claimed that the company, through buying mobile phone carriers and television stations, had created the largest communications empire in Great Britain. 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".[7]

Roy and Moss, 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.[8] Moss's 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. Moss is completely unable to deal with others in a rational manner, often citing bizarre facts about himself or technology, and is occasionally arrogant around others when it comes to computers.

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. After meeting Roy and Moss she redefines her role as "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.

Series 1

The first series of The IT Crowd features the entry of Jen, and how geeks such as Roy and Moss can build up a relationship with someone hopelessly computer-illiterate like Jen.

Series 2

Through the second series, Roy and Moss make an attempt at becoming more social by trying to make new friends. Meanwhile Jen has trouble with the new head of Reynholm Industries, Douglas Reynholm.

Series 3

Roy gets himself into more awkward situations with football fans, builders and general nerds. Jen shows how tech-illiterate she is to an even further extent, while Moss very briefly loses some of his computer skills and, on top of that, there are run-ins with bank robbers.

Series 4

The most recent series generally concentrates on the IT Department's interactions amongst themselves, and their relationship with outsiders: Roy's break-up from a long-term relationship, Moss's combat with his inner rebel, Jen's relationship with a new boyfriend, and Douglas' acceptance of the "loss" of his wife.

2013 special

"The Internet Is Coming" (sometimes incorrectly referred to as "The Last Byte"),[9][10][11] the final episode of The IT Crowd, aired as a one-off special on 27 September 2013.[3] Production began in 2011, and filming finished in July 2013. Chris O'Dowd (Roy) had this to say after filming the finale: "It was lovely to say hello to the characters again – but also to say goodbye to them. I think we've probably done it now and I'd be surprised if we did any more."[12]

The IT Crowd Night

On Christmas Eve 2013, Channel 4 aired a special IT Crowd Night. It featured Katherine Parkinson as her character Jen Barber, now acting manager at Reynholm Industries, introducing the segments of the IT Crowd Night as part of a "corporate webisode". The night started at 9PM with the special "The Internet is Coming". After that, the IT Crowd Manual aired. It is a behind-the-scenes documentary narrated by Stephen Mangan, featuring interviews with the main cast, and various other guest stars who appeared on the show, in the form of a manual, with each subject of the series (characters, studio, audience) having its own chapter. The night featured two favourite episodes: the fans' favourite was "The Work Outing",[13] and series creator Graham Linehan's favourite was "The Final Countdown".[14]

Cast and characters

Jen, Moss, and Roy

Cultural references

One of the Series 1 DVD menus in the style of isometric adventure games such as Knight Lore and Head Over Heels

The show adds 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 abbreviations, such as OMFG and RTFM. Series 3 Episode 1 has Roy wearing the Music Elitism Venn Diagram tee and I Screw Robots sticker from the webcomic Diesel Sweeties.[16] On occasion, there will be movie-style scenes that parody fight scenes and melodrama.

In August 2008, unable to provide 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".[17] 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. A Map Overlay and Statistical System (MOSS) manual, with the letters M-O-S-S 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"[18] poster and the "Actual Size!" sticker on Moss's computer, the Buddy Bradley doll, 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), a poster of the album The Campfire Headphase by Boards of Canada 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 the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("Fair Use has a POSSE", "MP3 is not a crime", "Coding is not a crime")[19] and the Open Rights Group. In the fourth series, some Ubuntu stickers were added, including one on Moss's monitor, Jen's office door, the mirror and the department's door.

Production

Linehan wrote the entire series alone. The show was 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.[20] 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".[20] 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. Cinematic-style footage were also recorded before live tapings.

The title sequence of the show was produced by Shynola.[21]

Episodes

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.[22]

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.[23] 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".[24]

In May 2013, Linehan confirmed that a 1-episode finale would begin filming in a few weeks.[4]

In July 2013, actor Chris O'Dowd confirmed that the finale special had been filmed in late June.[25] It was broadcast on 27 September 2013 on Channel 4.

Distribution

International syndication

The show is broadcast internationally. In Australia the show has been broadcast on ABC1 and UKTV. In Bulgaria, GTV began airing the show in July 2008, while Comedy Central Germany started airing the first series in September 2009. ETV has aired the show in Estonia. In Poland it has been shown on Comedy Central Poland and TVP2. In the Czech Republic the show was broadcast on Česká televize and HBO. TV 2 Zulu has aired the show in Denmark, as has Comedy Central in the Netherlands. Canal+ runs the show in Spain.

In the United States, episodes have been shown on IFC; all 4 series are also available for purchase in the iTunes Store. Canadian channel G4 ran the show during their Adult Digital Distraction block in July 2007. Presently, reruns air on BiteTV. In Brazil the show has been broadcast on I.Sat. In Mexico the show has aired on Canal 11 since 2010. It was also broadcast in Spain on Canal 3xl during 2011.[26]

DVD releases

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 Internet Is Coming' TBA TBA 18 December 2013[27][28]

Series 1

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).

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.[29] The American version does not contain the audio commentaries which are found on the British version.

Series 2

"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. While 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.[30][31]

The American region DVD was released on 30 June 2009.

Series 3

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 such internet games as GROW CUBE, Doeo and flow.

The American region DVD was released on 15 September 2009.

Series 4

The DVD for series 4 was released in the UK on 26 September 2010, also under the 2|entertain label.[32] 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.[33]

The DVD includes a documentary feature on the computer games which served as inspiration for the menus on each of the series' DVDs, culminating in the game Windosill, the basis for the Season 4 DVD.

Special

"The Internet Is Coming" was released in Australia 18 December 2013.[34]

It has yet to be released in the UK.

Streaming availability

As of May 2014 all four series of The IT Crowd are available via instant streaming on 4oD.[35]

Reception

The IT Crowd has been critically acclaimed holding a Metacritic critic score of 67/100 and a user score of 8.5.[36] The IT Crowd has a score of 8.6/10 on IMDb and TV.com.[37][38]

Ratings

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.[20] 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.

Awards and nominations

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.[39] In 2007, the series was voted Comedy of The Year at the 2007 Comedy.co.uk Awards, out of over 100 nominees.[40] 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[41] and the 2008 Rose d'Or for Best Sitcom.[42] 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.

In 2014, Richard Ayoade won in the 2014 BAFTAs for Male Performance in a Comedy Programme for his role in the 2013 special episode; Chris O'Dowd was nominated in the same category that year. On the same night, Katherine Parkinson won the BAFTA for Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for her role as Jen.[43]

Adaptations

The main cast of the American version (left to right) Jen, Roy, Moss and Denholm.
The main cast of the German version (left to right, from top) Jen, Roy, Moss and Denholm (bottom).

American version

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.[44] The show was produced by FremantleMedia for Universal Media Studios with Steve Tao as executive producer. (Linehan is also credited as executive producer, but states he had no involvement.)[45] 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.[46][47][48]

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.[49] In 2012 the pilot was leaked online.[50]

On October 2014, it was announced that NBC is going to produce another pilot for the show, produced by Bill Lawrence.[51]

German version

A German version of the programme was in production starting June 2007, starring Sky du Mont, Sebastian Münster, Stefan Puntigam and Britta Horn.[52] 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.[53]

References

  1. ↑ Graham Linehan. The IT Crowd version 1.0 (commentary track) (DVD). 2 Entertain Video Ltd.
  2. ↑ Vicky Frost (26 May 2010). "The IT Crowd gets fifth series". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jeffery, Morgan (12 September 2013). "'IT Crowd' finale, 'Agents of SHIELD' launch share night on Channel 4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The IT Crowd to return for special one-off episode". 8 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  5. ↑ "'The IT Crowd' to return for one-off final episode later this month". NME. 5 September 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "IT Crowd Night planned for October". British Comedy Guide. 22 July 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Return of the Golden Child". The IT Crowd. Series 2. Episode 2. 31 August 2007. 20:38 minutes in. Channel 4.
  8. ↑ Nicole Powers (9 May 2009). "Chris O'Dowd: The IT Man From The IT Crowd". SuicideGirls.com. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "The IT Crowd, Channel 4, review". Telegraph. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  10. ↑ "The IT Crowd - The Last Byte (2013 Special) - The Last Episode Ever [YouTube] [48:33] : geek". Reddit.com. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "The IT Crowd - The Internet Is Coming - British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  12. ↑ "Linehan's Twitter says IT Crowd to air in late September". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Season 2, episode 1 (2007)
  14. ↑ Season 4, episode 2 (2010)
  15. ↑ "Reynholm vs Reynholm". The IT Crowd. Series 4. Episode 6. 30 July 2010. Channel 4.
  16. ↑ "robot webcomic and geeky music t-shirts". diesel sweeties. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  17. ↑ "Sitcom writer appeals for props". BBC News. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  18. ↑ "Online Communities". xkcd. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  19. ↑ "EFF: Stickers". W2.eff.org. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Smith, Neil (9 February 2006). "IT Crowd writer looks to future". BBC News. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  21. ↑ "Shynola website obligation". Shynola.com. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  22. ↑ "The IT Crowd season 4 start date". channel4.com. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  23. ↑ "The IT Crowd awarded a 5th series – News – British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  24. ↑ "That's the end of IT". chortle.co.uk. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  25. ↑ "O'Dowd: IT Crowd have not aged well". Belfast Telegraph. 14 July 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  26. ↑ ""Els informàtics" arriben al canal 3XL - Televisió de Catalunya". Tv3.cat. 15 February 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  27. ↑ "The IT Crowd - The Internet Is Coming". ABC Commercial. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  28. ↑ "IT Crowd, The: Internet is Coming (DVD)". EzyDVD. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  29. ↑ "The IT Crowd: The Complete Season One; Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO". Amazon. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  30. ↑ "The IT Crowd Series 2 DVD Easter Eggs". narfation.org. 14 March 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  31. ↑ "Blog entry by Graham Linehan about Easter Eggs". Whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com. 22 July 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  32. ↑ "The IT Crowd Series 4 UK DVD information". amazon.co.uk.
  33. ↑ "The IT Crowd Series 4 USA DVD information". tvshowsondvd.com.
  34. ↑ "It Crowd, The: The Internet Is Coming". JB Hi-Fi. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  35. ↑ "The IT Crowd – 4oD". Channel 4. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  36. ↑ "The IT Crowd (UK): Season 1". metacritic.com. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  37. ↑ "The IT Crowd". imdb.com. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  38. ↑ Hughes, Heather. "The IT Crowd". TV.com. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  39. ↑ "The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2006". comedy.co.uk. British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  40. ↑ "The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2007". comedy.co.uk. British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  41. ↑ "Linehan wins an Emmy for sitcom on the IT set". Irish Times. 11 November 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  42. ↑ "Award Winners 1961 – 2009". rosedor.com. Rose d'Or Festival. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  43. ↑ "BAFTA Television Awards in 2014". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  44. ↑ "The IT Crowd – Cast/Credits". NBC. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
  45. ↑ Linehan, Graham (30 June 2013). "Twitter post". twitter.com. Twitter. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  46. ↑ "C4's IT Crowd secures pilot in US". BBC News. 22 January 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  47. ↑ "Richard Ayoade to star in U.S. IT Crowd too". British Comedy Guide. 17 January 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  48. ↑ "The IT Crowd". nbc.com. NBC. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  49. ↑ "NBC's 'IT' could be out". Hollywood Reporter. 13 September 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  50. ↑ "American 'IT Crowd' Pilot Leaked Online (VIDEO)". huffingtonpost.co.uk. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  51. ↑ "‘The IT Crowd’ Comedy Remake From Bill Lawrence, Neil Goldman & Garrett Donovan Gets NBC Put Pilot Commitment". Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  52. ↑ "German version". serienjunkies.de. 28 August 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  53. ↑ "Quotenmeter.de – Schluss mit lustig: Sat.1 wirft "Das iTeam" raus". quotenmeter.de (in German). 17 January 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2012.

Further reading

External links

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