NBC partners with MySpace to stream

March 16, 2005 3:22 PM

The Office on MySpace Even though the leaked pilot met poor reviews on Metafilter, it's interesting that NBC turned to massive social networking group MySpace to launch the American version of The Office. MySpace will stream the whole first episode of The Office on March 16th at 8PM while the episode will air for the first time on NBC March 24th. Maybe BitTorrent has really gotten to them.
posted by jonknee (24 comments total)

if the show is like the british version itll be so funny lol lol lol david brent is one of the funniest guys out lol "peace big poppa" goodluck with tha show !!
posted by jimmy at 3:36 PM on March 16, 2005

After having seen the original British version and subsequent American ass-raping of Coupling, and after having seen and loved the original British version of The Office, I am not optimistic.

Why MySpace, anyway?
posted by salad spork at 3:42 PM on March 16, 2005

Can anyone point me to a torrent of it?
posted by randomstriker at 3:56 PM on March 16, 2005

Perhaps someone can explain to me why American TV producers go to such lengths to take a gold nugget from British telly and inevitably turn it into a steaming turd hardly fit for television.

How about... oh, I don't know... just purchasing the airing rights to the original? Seriously, I haven't seen a single instance where one can say that the American copy has been worth watching at all. That goes for Ab Fab, Cracker and Coupling, to name only three, and I've no doubt at all that the US version of The Office will turn out to be no less awful than those previously mentioned.
posted by clevershark at 3:57 PM on March 16, 2005

There was a U.S. version of Ab Fab? I know Rosanne Barr optioned the rights, but it never went into production AFAIK?

I'd love to see the stream, but I'll be leaving my office at the exact time that it starts :(
posted by Juicylicious at 4:05 PM on March 16, 2005

Perhaps someone can explain to me why American TV producers go to such lengths to take a gold nugget from British telly and inevitably turn it into a steaming turd hardly fit for television.

I think it may be the language barrier.
posted by roue at 4:16 PM on March 16, 2005

The problem with the American version of The Office, at least as far as I can tell from the leaked pilot, is not that it isn't funny -- it IS funny, and as far as remakes go, it's fairly competent and accurate. The problem is that it's too much like the original to even bother -- it comes off looking like a cover-version of a really good song. The script is nearly verbatim to the pilot of the British series, so what's the point?

Were this something original and not just a copy, people would be raving about it a pre-ordering DVD box sets.
posted by Robot Johnny at 4:22 PM on March 16, 2005

The Entertainment Weekly review was fairly positive. I was surprised.

Also, only the pilot script is the same, and all the rest will be originals. Probably cause they'd run out of scripts in half a season otherwise.
posted by smackfu at 4:32 PM on March 16, 2005

The problem is that it's too much like the original to even bother

That was one of the problems with the US version of Cracker. The plot for each of the shows was EXACTLY the same as the British one, even when that made absolutely no sense in an American context. Add this to acting which simply didn't measure up, and the obvious pitfalls of converting a 90-minute commercial-free show into 46 minutes of airtime, and you have something not worth bothering with, especially when the excellent original series could be seen on A&E or through video.
posted by clevershark at 4:36 PM on March 16, 2005

I found the pilot of the American version really quite good, considering it was a slavish copy of the first episode of the British version. (I happen to like Steve Carrell quite a lot, though, from his Daily Show days.) I have heard (perhaps even in the initial thread here about it) that the rest of the episodes do not follow the original series, and this is supported by the "diversity training" clips I've seen on this myspace link. I've got high hopes that this will actually be a quality show. This of course means it will get yanked off the air faster than you can say "Arrested Development."

FWIW, I work for another TV network (no affiliation with NBC, or FOX for that matter), and we're also doing an online premiere in a couple of weeks. I think more and more we're going to see networks exploring alternate distribution mechanisms, making an endrun around the cable and satellite operators which have controlled the pipeline to the audience for quite a while now.
posted by TonyRobots at 5:22 PM on March 16, 2005

At least it'll be better than the - two different versions of - the American 'Red Dwarf'...
posted by tapeguy at 5:37 PM on March 16, 2005

This of course means it will get yanked off the air faster than you can say "Arrested Development."

But Gail Berman keeps telling us how much Fox loves AD! And that it's not cancelled! Sure, they amputated this season, but that was to prevent ratings gangrene during sweeps!
posted by macrone at 5:44 PM on March 16, 2005

Myspace is such a p.o.s. I'm amazed ABC is trusting The Office to it. I've got my band on Myspace, and it's near impossible to do anything -- upload songs, edit the profile -- without the service throwing error after error. It's a train wreck.
posted by schoolgirl report at 7:06 PM on March 16, 2005

Perhaps someone can explain to me why American TV producers go to such lengths to take a gold nugget from British telly and inevitably turn it into a steaming turd hardly fit for television.... I haven't seen a single instance where one can say that the American copy has been worth watching at all..

All in The Family was an Americanization of British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. Likewise Steptoe and Son begat Sanford and Son.

At the other end of the spectrum, the successful but atrocious Three's Company started out as the even more unwatchable Man About the House
posted by IndigoJones at 7:23 PM on March 16, 2005

The flip side is that ITV has remade That 70s Show as Days Like These, and BBC did Who's the Boss? So far, we've gotten the better of the deal, all things considered.
posted by dhartung at 9:40 PM on March 16, 2005

How about Little Britain making the transatlantic trip? I don't want that one, I want that one!
posted by Onanist at 12:41 AM on March 17, 2005

Little Britain works as a one-of special. As a series, each episode is a rehash of the same sketches over and over again.

I love Matt Lucas and David Williams, but they really squeezed two series out of the same amount of material in one episode of Mr. Show.
posted by BigFatWhale at 12:51 AM on March 17, 2005

BigFatWhale, I had a problem with that as well but I didn't watch every episode of the first series (which finished its first run on Australian tv just last night) and I found that the later episodes were getting more laughs out of me than the earlier ones. Either way, they be some seriously funny blokes!
posted by Onanist at 1:57 AM on March 17, 2005

I went to a recording of Days Like These in Twickenham. It was on a Saturday during the (as was then) 5 Nations. I'd been sitting in the pub all day watching the rugby, so I was pretty drunk by the time I went in. It was so shit we didn't bother watching to the end - we left for the pub to catch last orders.
posted by salmacis at 2:20 AM on March 17, 2005

I think MySpace was developed using COMA, schoolgirl.

/geekhumor
posted by fletchmuy at 4:40 AM on March 17, 2005

I think it may be the language barrier.

But Americans have no problem understanding AbFab, Blackadder or any of the other UK shows that are now shown in the US. Even Eastenders has a devoted following.

I think it's some kind of pact to only trade mediocre or bad shows. We send you guys Fraiser and Will and Grace and you send us Keeping Up Appearances. Keen Eddie was an example of co-operation resulting in genius and it was axed almost immediately. Seinfeld wasn't shown in the UK and I doubt either Shameless or Green Wing will make it to the US.
posted by fshgrl at 6:03 AM on March 17, 2005

Seinfeld was shown in the UK, it was on BBC2 if I recall correctly.
posted by zeoslap at 8:10 AM on March 17, 2005

Yeah, but BBC2 at about 11.40 on a weeknight. And you weren't allowed to know which weeknight in advance, because they changed it all the time...
posted by flameproof at 3:56 AM on March 22, 2005

If only there were a British comedy about the staff of a department store, which we could import....

Going down!
posted by orthogonality at 4:25 AM on March 22, 2005