The Office’s Greg Daniels

Posted by Maximum Fun on 22nd March 2006


Greg Daniels is the Executive Producer of The Office on NBC, which is the funniest show on television right now, and in my book, the best sitcom since Seinfeld (really? yeah, I’m pretty sure). There’s a very interesting chat with him up on the Washington Post’s website.

Greg Daniels: It was hard to adapt this show because the British series is so perfectly executed and tailored to Ricky G, who also co-wrote and co-directed it. The pilot was close to the British series because I adapted it before casting the American actors, and after casting I didn’t want to open the whole process up to network notes. Once we got past the pilot though, we came up with new stories and wrote the first six. Then we shot the first six, and after that I edited the first six. It was after they were completed that we learned the most about what was working and how to tailor things more to Steve. By the time the second season started, we had also been blessed by Ricky and Stephen Merchant and the critics and the lovers of the English show, so some of the pressure was off and we could start to play around a little more.

Link

Thanks Jon!