Office Sitcoms Page 2

Quote: Perry Nium @ July 2 2008, 11:43 AM BST

Yep. Long as you've got a different angle it's still viable. Just be aware, is all I'm saying. I'd think twice about setting a sitcom in a prison for instance, cos the first thing people are going to think of is Porridge. They got around that with The Visit, setting it in a prison visiting room.

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Yeah but prisons are pretty limited in what you can do. They all house prisoners, life is pretty much the same.

Whilst offices are everywhere and are used for all sorts of organisations and businesses. The possibilities are endless.

You could even set it abroad and call it The Foreign Office

To me an "office" encompasses such a diverse range of environment that it's a non-issue. It's like saying "no more goatees...Brent had one"

and we recently had Admin on TV which shows, not only do shows still get set in offices.....they don't have to even be that good!

Quote: Marc P @ July 2 2008, 2:46 PM BST

You could even set it abroad and call it The Foreign Office

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Or set it following the characters after they've left Wernham Hogg and call it 'Post Office'.

Dan

Have the employees all made remote workers - The Home Office?

Have it set at a gynaecologist - The Orifice?

Just waiting now for the Gervais/c**t combo gag!

I feel I may have touched a raw nerve with my reservations about office comedies. Obviously it's not as if you have to completely rule out an office situation, but I'm only speaking from experience. I had an office-based sitcom idea and two producers on the same day turned it down. One said it was too like The Office, (even though it was an audience comedy) and the other said she's got a pile of office-based scripts in the back room about a foot thick.

That's just my experience though. All I'm saying is, be aware, and make it as different to Gervais's as you possibly can, because basically it's highly unlikely you're going to top it.

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but Peep Show is quite office heavy at times. Would you compare it to any other comedies set in offices? No.

People say "write what you know about" and a lot of people work in offices. It's bound to be a popular setting.

Quote: Winterlight @ July 2 2008, 8:03 PM BST

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but Peep Show is quite office heavy at times. Would you compare it to any other comedies set in offices? No.

People say "write what you know about" and a lot of people work in offices. It's bound to be a popular setting.

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But surely The Office isn't about an office, it's about people?

Okay, there were some 'office' jokes, but the theme and relationships could have worked in any setting.

I guess so.

I always wonder whether Fawlty Towers was too reliant on it's setting. What do others think?

I didn't find it so.

I don't actually like it when a studio based sitcom goes off somewhere else. Makes me uncomfortable.

Quote: Seefacts @ July 2 2008, 8:12 PM BST

But surely The Office isn't about an office, it's about people?

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Well, that could be said about any sitcom; it's generally more about the people in the surroundings rather than the other way around! But then, a lot of The Office was about how dull it is to work in an office.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 2 2008, 8:37 PM BST

how dull it is to work in an office.

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Tell me about it. Although when I bring my unicycle into the office, things liven up.

Quote: Griff @ July 2 2008, 10:08 PM BST

Brent, Gareth and Tim wouldn't have had the relationships they did in any other setting than a workplace. It's about work relationships (among many other things), ie Gareth desperately wanting to be the boss, Brent being the boss but wanting to be everyone's friend etc.

Show me how that would have worked in a flatshare.

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Sorry, in my head I posted 'worked in any other job'. That's what I meant, my mistake!

write it well and sell it cleverly and it doesn't matter what the damn setting is

Just watched a documentary on people interviewing PA's - sort of like The Apprentice crossed with ....err....retards!

Anyway, I'm SURE there must be more milage in the parody documentary despite The Office...maybe not in the docu-soap vein but something like People Like Us?

When the office came out it was all airport and driving school....normal bods made famous - nowadays we have sir alan, gordon ramsey, jamie oliver....surley there's a comedy about a "professional" telling us how its done out there?

You just get the feeling whenever a prod comp sees "glances to camera" they chuck in the pile of Brent copies!