The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell : NPR The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell Embed Embed The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell Embed Embed Steve Carell spent six years as Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott on NBC's The Office before departing the show in 2011. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Steve Carell spent six years as Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott on NBC's The Office before departing the show in 2011. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 24, 2007 . By the end of The-40-Year-Old Virgin, the title character had lost his virginity — and actor Steve Carell had become a star. The actor, who was a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show for several years, has gone on to films including Little Miss Sunshine and Evan Almighty.

He has also starred as hapless secret agent Maxwell Smart in a Hollywood adaptation of the vintage TV series Get Smart and as a newspaper columnist who dispenses advice about parenting — never mind his own problems on the home front in the comedy Dan In Real Life. Carell of course also spent five years on the hit NBC comedy series, The Office, where he played paper company Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott. Carell left the show in 2011. Although there were rumors he would return for a cameo on the series' May 16 finale, Carell has denied this. NPR thanks our sponsors DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm TV critic David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. Next week, NBC presents its special final episode of "The Office," the Americanized version of the 2001 BBC mockumentary series starring and co-created by Ricky Gervais. Steve Carell starred in the U.S.

version for most of its eight-year run, and his is one of the interviews we'll feature on today's FRESH AIR salute to "The Office." We'll also hear from Ricky Gervais himself, from executive producer Greg Daniels, who worked with Gervais and Stephen Merchant to create the NBC adaptation, and from NBC "Office" co-stars Mindy Kaling, Jenna Fischer and Rainn Wilson. When the original version of "The Office" premiered in England, it was a tight little masterpiece, only 12 episodes - like the classic "Fawlty Towers" - plus a concluding telemovie that was so endearing and emotional, it made me cry. That version of "The Office" was so perfect and so boldly original, it took me a while to warm up to NBC's incarnation. American TV history is littered with epic failures of attempts to remake great British shows. For every one that works, like "All In the Family," there are dozens of flat-out disasters, such as the recent tries to Americanize "Prime Suspect," "Cracker," even "The Prisoner." But the American "Office" - thanks to tight writing and some especially shrewd casting - defied the odds.

Steve Carell's Michael Scott turned out to be an even more endearingly pathetic boss than Gervais' David Brent, and other key character types were just as resonant. Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute was a certifiable office oddball, and John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer as Jim and Pam - whose long-simmering attraction was the heart of the show - were just as sweet as the central couple in the original series. But after Carell left and James Spader came and left as a corporate executive, "The Office" lost some of its momentum and arguably, its focus. But now that it's finally reaching its finish line, after producing almost 15 times as many episodes as its British counterpart, "The Office" is going out with a clever premise. The documentary crew, which supposedly has been following the paper company employees for almost a decade, finally has finished its work; and the documentary is about to appear on public television. The gang from "The Office" heads to the local bar to watch and for some reason, even without a TV film crew to document them, we can still see them. In Thursday's episode, they arrived just in time to beg the bartender to change channels.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE OFFICE") ELLIE KEMPER: (As Erin Hannon) You have to change the channel to PBS. BRIAN BAUMGARTNER: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) College baseball is on. KEMPER: (As Erin) Well, there's a documentary coming up. Everyone in the bar will love it. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) What's it about? KEMPER: (As Erin) A paper company! BAUMGARTNER: (As Kevin) (Chuckling) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) How many people want the game? UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (As bar patrons) Yeah! UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) Who wants PBS? CAST OF 'THE OFFICE': (As characters) Woo! Yeah! UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) Sorry, tie means I do nothing. BAUMGARTNER: (As Kevin) Sir, please, this show is about me and my attempts to find love in all the wrong places. ED HELMS: (As Andy Bernard) One more for the doc!

CAST OF 'THE OFFICE': (As characters) (CHEERS, APPLAUSE) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As bartender) All right. BAUMGARTNER: (As Kevin) Yes! BIANCULLI: Next week, NBC presents both the final episode of "The Office" and a retrospective special. Today, we'll present a retrospective of our own, beginning with a 2007 interview with Steve Carell. When Terry spoke to him, he was still with the TV show, even though his 2005 comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" had made him a movie star. Let's start with a clip featuring a typical Michael Scott appearance, on a day when a seminar for women only is taking place. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE OFFICE") KEMPER: So, I'm happy to be here. It's very nice to see all of you. You're all looking well. Today's a women in the workplace thing. Jan's coming in from corporate to talk to all the women about I don't really know what, but Michael's not allowed in. She said that about five times.

Women today, though we have the same options as men, we often face a very different set of obstacles in getting there, so... STEVE CARELL: (As Michael Scott) Hey, what's going on? KEMPER: Michael, I thought we agreed you wouldn't be here. CARELL: (As Michael) Yeah, you know what? I just, I thought about it. I just have a few things I want to say. KEMPER: What are you doing? CARELL: (As Michael) Just hear me out. What is more important than quality? Equality. Now, studies show that today's woman - the Ally McBeal woman, as I call her - is at a crossroads. KEMPER: Michael... CARELL: (As Michael) And - just - you have come a long way, baby, but I just want to keep it within reason. They did this up in Albany, and they ended up turning the break room into a lactation room, which is disgusting. KEMPER: You are not allowed in this session, OK? Now you're really not allowed in this session.

CARELL: (As Michael) Well, I'm their boss, so I feel like... KEMPER: I'm your boss. CARELL: (As Michael) Anybody want any coffee or anything? KEMPER: We're fine, Michael. We just need you to leave, please. TERRY GROSS, HOST: Steve Carell, welcome to FRESH AIR. How would you describe Michael? CARELL: Michael Scott is someone with an enormous emotional blind spot. He is someone who truly does not understand how others perceive him. And if he did gain any knowledge, his head would explode. He would not - it would not be able to - he wouldn't be able to assimilate. He wouldn't be able to take in all of that information, because it's just - certain people exist on a different level, and they are only able to exist because they're in a sense of denial about who they are or how other people view them. And I think that's who he is. But he's not a bad guy. I think he's - he's a caring person. He wants what's best. But he doesn't always do the best things in order to achieve what he hopes to achieve.

GROSS: You know, a lot of people who have worked in offices feel like they've worked with somebody like Michael Scott, but you've never worked in offices. It's just, you know, you're an actor. So who do you draw on for the character? Are there teachers that you had or other people who you knew who were as clueless? CARELL: Primarily, yeah. It - I think, for me, it stemmed mostly from various teachers that I had growing up. Because many, many teacher that I had - especially fifth, sixth, seventh grade - would be people who were trying to be as cool as the students or wanted the students to think that they were cool, but indeed, they were not. And the harder they tried, the less cool they would appear to be. And that's basically what Michael is up against. He thinks people think he's cool. He thinks people like him and think he's funny and charming, but he's really none of those things.

And incidentally, when you say everyone knows a Michael Scott, I guess the rule of thumb - Ricky Gervais told me this, in regards to the character that he played, David Brent in the BBC version of "The Office" - is that if you don't know a Michael Scott, then you are Michael Scott. (LAUGHTER) CARELL: So better that you actually have a frame of reference for a Michael Scott. BIANCULLI: Steve Carell, speaking with Terry Gross in 2007. Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Michael Scott | Dunderpedia: The Office Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit In the episode of Paper Planes" of season 9, Pam has a flashback of the day she and Jim got married at the church and in the row of people you can spot Michael Scott sitting down ( Paper Airplane ). Jim and Michael's conversation from the Pilot is heard as the employees watch the premiere of the documentary, The Office: An American Workplace at Poor Richard's. ( A.A.R.M. ) Michael appears at Dwight's wedding after Jim passes being Dwight's best man to Michael as his "greatest prank ever". He is then seen during the reception showing pictures of his kids to Pam. His final appearance (new/unseen in any prior episode) on the show is him talking to camera about how proud he is that his "kids" (Dwight, Angela, Jim, Pam) have grown up and married each other. His final time on screen is prior footage of him straightening a drawing of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton building, which was created by Pam. This also happens to be the last scene any character is shown (the final scene depicts the Scranton branch building).

Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell) Casting Edit Michael Gary Scott is played by Steve Carell. All original series characters were adapted for the U.S. version. NBC programmer Traci Mclaughlin suggested Paul Giamatti to producer Ben Silverman for the role of Michael Scott, but the actor declined. Martin Short , Hank Azaria , and Bob Odenkirk were also reported to be interested. [2] In January 2004, Variety reported Steve Carell of the popular Comedy Central program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart , was in talks to play the role. At the time, he was already committed to another NBC midseason replacement comedy, Come to Papa, [3] but the series was quickly canceled, leaving him fully committed to The Office. Carell later stated he had only seen about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned. He did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais' characterizations. [4] Two supporting roles in films helped get the attention of audiences: Bruce Almighty , in which Carell plays Evan Baxter (an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey 's character), who gets a humorous comeuppance while co-anchoring the news.

In Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy , Carell plays another news personality, as slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. Although the series premiered to mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season because of the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin , [5] and the show subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award in 2006 for his role. He also received Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007 for his work in the series. He played the lead role in the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin , which he developed and co-wrote. Although the film was a surprise success, Carell revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had no plans to leave The Office. However, on the BBC Radio 5 Live Film Review show he stated in an interview that his time on the show will probably come to an end when his contract runs out after Season 7. [6] This was later confirmed on June 28, 2010, when Steve Carell confirmed that the seventh season of the show would be his last when his contract expired.

Biography Edit Michael was born on March 15, 1964 at 11:23 AM, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He came from a broken home and has talked about his loneliness as a child. In Diversity Day , Michael claims to be of English, Irish, German and Scottish ancestry. He also claims that he is 2/15 Native American. In " Nepotism ", it is revealed that Michael had a half-sister, from whom he was estranged from 1995 through 2010. As a consequence of their reunion, Michael hires his nephew Luke as an intern for the office. Michael is reminded of an older brother in Email Surveillance , but he is never mentioned again. In the episode " Take Your Daughter to Work Day ", it is revealed that Michael was a child star on a kids' show called Fundle Bundle. Michael did not attend college, having lost all his tuition money in a pyramid scheme . In the season 5 premiere episode Weight Loss , Michael says he once went twenty eight years without having sex, implying he was a virgin until his late twenties.

It is also revealed in season 5 that Michael got his job at Dunder Mifflin by following an attractive woman to the office park and leaving with a job. He rose to his manager position by being one of the best salesmen in the company, winning consecutive awards for best salesman. When it comes to leaving the personal life out of work Michael does not seem to understand the concept. He will continually make awkward, inappropriate, or sometimes ignorant comments during conversations with people. He believes that his co-workers idolize him because he is their boss and he looked up to his previous boss for everything. Michael believes that the work place should be a fun environment for everyone and “place where dreams come true.” He emphasizes this to his co-workers to help make them understand that he looks to them as his fellow friends instead of colleagues. Michael is a devoted loyal employee to Dunder Mifflin and will do what he believes is best for the company. He has the same dedication to his co-workers as well and will do whatever it takes to make sure they continue with Dunder Mifflin.

As of "Michael's Last Dundies", Michael has worked at Dunder Mifflin for 9,986,000 minutes, meaning he would have started work on April 6, 1992. Michael's constant desire to be the center of attention often manifests itself in selfish behavior. For example, when he burns his foot in " The Injury ", he expects Pam Beesly and Ryan to tend to his needs, despite Dwight 's much more serious concussion. When invited to be an usher in " Phyllis' Wedding ", he assumes that his participation will be the high point of the ceremony and pouts when he is upstaged by Phyllis' elderly father. Michael appears to emphasize moments of sympathy or civility directed at him by his co-workers (mostly Jim ) and inflate their importance in order to compensate for his loneliness. Due to his overall lack of common sense, Michael can withstand significant abuse from his peers and is often the butt of jokes. He is quick to take offense when he realizes he is being wronged and his response is often disproportionate to the harm suffered.

Even though he is generally oblivious to criticism, derision and sarcasm, Michael has some limits to his patience, and leaves to question the extent of offense that he can actually acknowledge (demanding professional respect from Stanley Hudson in " Did I Stutter " or standing up to the employees in favor of Holly in " Business Ethics "). In " The Meeting ", it is shown that Michael does not aim for his employees' betterment or his own, thinking that this would put his job at jeopardy; he unwittingly turns down a promotion that would put Jim in his position, choosing the status quo over his employees' ambitions. He is eventually forced to budge, having to co-manage the branch with Jim. He believes he has more power over Jim even though he doesn't. Following his departure from The Office in Scranton PA., Michael received an appointment from Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to be the new Director of Paper Distribution for the Department of Natural Resources.

Said Governor Hickenlooper: Scott has a unique management approach, where he spends 80 percent of his time “distracting others,” 19 percent of his time “procrastinating,” and 1 percent of his time “critical thinking.”“Scott will be a wonderful addition to our paper team, focusing particularly on the use of beetle kill in paper production,” Hickenlooper said. “We hired him based on his skills, personal drive and love for ‘That’s what she said’ jokes.” It is revealed in Season 8 (the first mention of Michael in this season) that Michael's code name in the warehouse was "Dennis the Menace". Interests Edit Michael's favorite catchphrase is " That's what she said! " inserted as a sexually suggestive double entendre even in the most inappropriate circumstances, including business meetings and legal depositions. Michael finds uttering the phrase so irresistible that in " Sexual Harassment " he is goaded into saying it just seconds after Jan Levinson and a lawyer from Corporate specifically order him not to do so. Michael enjoys writing song parodies.

In Goodbye, Toby , it is said that he had written songs such as "Beers in Heaven" (which he tells Holly is "very sexual") and "Total Eclipse of the Fart" . In " Diwali ", Michael performs his own parody of Adam Sandler's " The Chanukah Song ", replacing the Jewish-themed lyrics with that of Hindu ones. He also appears to have a history of playing ice hockey and is, as Jan once noted when trying to find a compliment to give him, a very talented ice skater. On multiple occasions, Michael has also expressed interest in basketball even though he is terrible at it (in " The Fire " and " Basketball "). He also once stated that he is an Oakland Raiders fan. Michael attends classes in improvisational comedy and although he believes his skills are among the best in the world, he is shown in " E-mail Surveillance " to be a frustrating and unpopular presence in the class. He is the playwright of such skits as Threat Level: Midnight (which was discovered by Pam and read by the entire office without Michael's knowledge), celebrating Michael's main character alter-ego Michael Scarn.

He constantly compliments his own performances, from joke-telling to impressions to videotape skits that he creates for presentation in the office. Michael loves wearing jeans, in particular a pair of Levi's he refers to as his "Fun Jeans" (" The Convention "). He is so fond of his jeans that he gets them dry cleaned; Pam surmises that he instituted Casual Friday just to show off his jeans (" The Client "). Michael treasures his "World's Best Boss" mug, even though he bought it for himself at Spencer Gifts and has multiple replacements. The audience knows that he has purchased at least two, because Dwight precariously places one of them on Michael's desk, and Michael accidentally knocks it off with a golf putter that he was using to practice with in his office. This is also proven in "The Promotion", when Michael presents Jim with his own "World's Best Boss" mug at the end of the episode that they share gin with each other. Michael is a passionate fan of YouTube , although he may not be entirely clear about what it is and seems to believe that it is a news media organization. He is an avid fan of the HBO television series, Entourage .

It is also established that Michael tends to be a bit "behind" when it comes to pop culture references, particularly in music. This is mainly shown through his cellphone ringtones, such as "My Humps" early on in the show, or "Salt N Pepa" in "The Lover". Michael likes Chrysler cars. For the first three seasons, he drove a silver 2004 Sebring convertible , until the season four episode " Money " in which he mentions he traded it in (along with Jan's car) for a Porsche Boxster . After breaking up with Jan, he buys a red PT Cruiser convertible . He drives the PT Cruiser until the season 5 episode " Broke " in which he asks for a new Sebring convertible as part of his agreement to return to Dunder Mifflin. Michael's PIN is YMCA (9622) as illustrated in the season 6 episode "Secret Santa". Michael is a big fan of the film 'The Devil Wears Prada', implying that he has rented it multiple times.

He is also a fan of animated movies with mentions of 'Finding Nemo' and 'Toy Story' in episodes, allowing an insight into Michael's naive, simple side which appreciates warmth. Personality and management style Edit Michael is almost inexplicably lacking in any skills, management or otherwise. Co-manager Jim Halpert once made a color graph of how Michael spends his time: 80% "distracting others," 19% "procrastination," and 0.1% "critical thinking." His laid-back approach more often results in lower than expected workplace productivity, particularly when Michael places his personal interests as a priority over work (such as his birthday, someone else's birthday, or his various seminars). To avoid being disciplined for his foolish actions, Michael often resorts to scapegoating employees to cover himself. Although his actions often lead to more problems for his employees, Michael believes that Scranton is "the cool fun branch", and is genuinely upset when the top salesman from the Utica office trashes Scranton in a phone call by saying it's "worse than Camden ". Although his position as Regional Manager gives him broad decision-making authority on branch operations, he often places those responsibilities secondary to his desire to be friends with his employees.

On the other hand, he also oversteps his authority by hosting events that Corporate disapproves of such as " The Dundies ", and a " Booze Cruise ". It is revealed in the episode " The Duel " that, despite Michael's incompetence, the Scranton branch outperformed both Utica and Albany, reporting strong sales amid the floundering economy. Michael is called to Corporate to answer the question, "What are you doing right?" After several minutes of Michael's inarticulate babble, his superiors concede that while Michael is definitely doing something right, they will probably never know exactly what. Altogether, Michael's management style seems to rely on making his subordinates feel comfortable in the work place. This method proves to be successful, indicating that Michael is, after all, a capable manager and, at one point, showed great potential, also evidenced by the fact that he was promoted to Regional Manager and retained the position for over a decade despite lacking higher education. When referring to sex, Michael says that he likes cuddling and spooning, revealing his true romantic side.

He mentions on a number of occasions that he would love to get married and have children and is hurt when Jan reveals that she is pregnant to a sperm donor and was inseminated when her and Michael were dating. When witnessing PDAs from his employees, Michael sometimes smiles and looks happy for them. He creates a thoughtful and romantic scrapbook for Pam's mom, Helene, for her birthday when he is dating her, showing he is a very romantic character. Relationships Edit Michael tends to overestimate his importance to his employees, and, despite constantly demeaning and offending some of them, has a close bond with them. Most of the employees have been the focus of Michael's jokes at one point or another, usually in reference to their race, sex, size, attractiveness, or sexual orientation. Examples of Michael's difficult relationship with his staff include getting slapped by Kelly for being racist, hitting Meredith with his car, getting kicked out of Phyllis and Bob's wedding, getting slapped by Pam for dating her mother, Helene, and outing Oscar to the entire office without his permission. Michael's relationship with the company warehouse employees is tense.

He has a tendency to disrupt their daily work flow, and in a talking head interview, warehouse supervisor Darryl Philbin ( Craig Robinson ) explains that they have never been able to make a full year accident-free because of Michael's antics. CFO David Wallace tolerates Michael's antics because his branch is the best in the company, but Michael offends CEO Alan Brand and the rest of the executives during his only meeting with them by making lunk-headed comments and creating false claims to Dunder Mifflin's investors that he can't back up. Dwight Edit Of the office staff, Dwight has the most respect for Michael, viewing him as a model for success, and is thrilled when asked to handle any task given to him however ill-conceived it may be. Although on the surface, Michael usually appears dismissive of Dwight and generally views him as a suck-up, he is genuinely hurt and angry at the few times when Dwight has deceived him, such as when Dwight went over Michael's head to vie for the manager's job or when Dwight refused to reveal office secrets to Michael's new company, the Michael Scott Paper Company.

In the episode "Heavy Competition" of Season 5, Dwight steals Michael's Rollodex and finds his own business card, on the back of which, Michael had written (before leaving Dunder Mifflin): Dwight Schrute, tall, beets. Michael also cares how Dwight feels about him. After Michael beats Dwight at his own dojo, later Michael finds out that Dwight no longer wanted Michael as his primary contact in case of an emergency which causes to promote him from "Assistant to the Regional Manager" to "Assistant Regional Manager," with three month probational period. Dwight told Michael in Season 6 that Michael's pathetic career path hurt Dwight and he regretted working for him instead of taking a fast-track job at Office Depot, but they buried their differences later on. In Season 7, Dwight is hurt that Michael didn't recommend him for the job. However, he changes his mind when Michael writes a letter of recommendation, and the two play a game of paint ball together. Ryan Edit Michael has a one-sided mancrush on Ryan, which makes Ryan uncomfortable.

Examples of this are when Michael gave Ryan a $400 iPod for the staff's Christmas Secret Santa exchange, despite an agreed upon office limit of $20 per person. He also gave Ryan the "Hottest in The Office" Dundie for 6 years straight until Danny Cordray broke his streak. Despite admiring Ryan, Michael eventually acknowledges that Ryan makes bad decisions, but still opts to believe in him. Ryan often uses Michael to get what he wants as seen in " WUPHF.com ". Jim and Pam Edit Michael doesn't hesitate to compliment or criticize Pam for her looks and he frequently mentions her breasts. Their relationship comes to a rocky point when he begins dating her mother Helene. This is only repaired after he breaks up with Helene and allows Pam to slap him in the face in the parking lot. He trusts and respects Jim, although when they were co-managers they clashed due to their polar-opposite management styles. In " Secret Santa ", Michael mentions that in a future vision he sees himself and his future wife living next door to Jim and Pam and that their children will play together. He often also refers to Jim as his best friend in the office.

Michael attempts unsuccessfully to have Jim and Pam over for dinner on many occasions, though he finally succeeds in the episode " Dinner Party "; the entire evening is a disaster. In a Season 5 episode, Michael also shows his admiration for Jim, when Jim wears a tuxedo to work and goes on and on about having a 'classy party' for the party planning committee, and frequently suggests all of the ideas Dwight had offered that Michael had then rejected, only to bother Dwight by having Michael accept the same ideas from him. He seems to think that both of them are his best friends. During season 2, in episode 7 " The Client ", Michael and Jim share a mutual special glance at each other after both being rejected by Pam and Jan. In " Goodbye, Michael ", Jim mentions what a great boss Michael has been over the years and Pam gives Michael a big hug at the airport before he goes off to Colorado to begin his new life with Holly. Toby Edit Michael, despite liking most of the staff, fiercely hates Human Resources Manager Toby Flenderson, likely due to Toby's requirement to enforce the rules of proper office behavior that Michael loves to flout.

Michael once reasoned that "Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for Corporate. So he’s really not a part of our family". His longtime goal is to get rid of Toby and any attempts at reconciliation between the two usually backfire, with Michael resorting to name calling or jokes at Toby's expense. In the episode " Goodbye, Toby ", Michael is thrilled when Toby decides to move to Costa Rica and gives as his going away present a rock with a note that reads "Suck on this". The next season, after Toby's replacement Holly is transferred, Michael is horrified when Toby returns to Dunder Mifflin. In " Frame Toby ", he goes to great lengths to get him fired. In " The Chump ", Michael says if he had a gun with two bullets and was in a room with Adolf Hitler , Osama bin Laden , and Toby, he would shoot Toby twice (which disgusts the rest of the office). During " Nepotism ", Toby is able to deduce that Luke, the surly, universally disliked intern is Michael's nephew. When Michael makes an example of Luke by spanking him in front of the staff, it's perceived as assault on a company employee.

To avoid termination, Sabre employee Gabe Lewis suggests Michael's spanking of Luke as a stress-related outburst, which can be addressed as therapy with Toby, the certified HR rep to do it. Obviously displeased but with no other options, Michael reluctantly agrees. In " Counseling " Toby tricks Michael into telling about his life which upsets Michael but at the end, Michael and Toby share a laugh together. In Michael's home movie Threat Level Midnight , Toby plays one of the hostages of Goldenface (played by Jim Halpert). When Goldenface kills a hostage, it is Toby's character that gets shot in the head. The scene repeatedly shows the bullet and Toby's head exploding in slow motion. Though Goldenface expects Scarn to be shocked, Scarn happily informs him that Toby's character was a wanted animal rapist. Romantic relationships Edit Michael is romantically hopeless during Season 1, but does manage to have some relationships as the series progresses. One of Michael's earliest relationships was with Jan Levinson ( Melora Hardin ), his original-then-former boss from Corporate. Despite the tumultuous aftermath of spending the night together talking and kissing, Michael and Jan eventually holiday together in Jamaica.

Michael and Jan begin dating, become an official couple, and eventually move in together after Jan is fired from her job, though Jan usually treats Michael with contempt. After Michael fails to defend Jan in her Wrongful Dismissal suit against Dunder Mifflin , they remain together for a short while but end up blowing up at each other during an ill-fated dinner party and eventually break up. He also dated Carol (played by Carell's wife Nancy Walls ), a real estate agent from whom Michael bought his condominium. Michael was much more interested in Carol than vice versa, and after he made an unwanted and rejected impromptu public marriage proposal, Michael's decision to Photoshop pictures of himself over Carol's ex-husband in her family pictures resulted in their break up. Michael then dated Holly Flax ( Amy Ryan ), Toby's replacement as HR Representative, who appears for a while to be Michael's best chance at love, with the two sharing a similar sense of humor and social awkwardness. However, after David Wallace witnesses them kissing, Holly is transferred to the Nashua branch and she and Michael break up after choosing not to pursue a long-distance relationship.

On a business trip to Winnipeg, Michael & "Concierge Marie" become close, and Michael does not wish to leave her after they are caught necking in her suite. After Jim and Pam's wedding, Michael begins dating Pam's mother Helene (much to Pam's horror), but he breaks up with her after discovering her age. Near the end of season six, Michael begins dating Donna ( Amy Pietz ), the manager of a local bar, but later finds out that she's married and he is, as he puts it, "the mistress". He continues seeing her until the disgust of his employees drives him to listen to his conscience and break things off with her. In Season 7's " Sex Ed ", Michael reunites (in person or by telephone) with all of his aforementioned past girlfriends when he believes that he has contracted Herpes . In doing so, he realizes that Holly was the only one he truly loved. He will marry her in the near-future, but unfortunately he will be leaving Dunder-Mifflin to move in with Holly to her home-state of Colorado. In Finale Holly and Michael are happily married with children, In a Where Are They Now on NBC's website reveals that Michael and Holly are expecting their fourth child.

Alter Egos of Michael Scott Edit Given his tendency of constantly trying to keep his employees entertained coupled with his juvenile personality, Michael has created a variety of different alter egos which he uses for both entertainment and educational purposes. "Carnac" ("The Dundies") Michael dons a jeweled turban and reads the content of a letter before opening. Although this character's name is never revealed, he says, "This is a little character I like to do; it's loosely based on Carnac, one of Carson's classic characters," based on Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent. Ping (" The Dundies ", "The Seminar", "Goodbye Michael"), an Asian caricature based on Michael's Chinese food deliveryman. Agent Michael Scarn (" The Client ", " E-mail Surveillance ", referenced in " Product Recall ", " Money ", " Dinner Party ") is the star of Threat Level: Midnight, a derivative spy/action hero screenplay written and illustrated by Michael. He had kept it hidden in his desk drawer until it was discovered by Pam without his knowledge and photocopied so the staff could stage a rollicking reading of it while Michael was on a sales call.

Michael Scarn ("Prince Family Paper") Michael pretends that he is a lawyer at a law firm to get information about Prince Paper so that Dunder-Mifflin can run them out of business. A thinly-veiled portrayal of himself, Michael also adopts the persona in one session of his improv comedy class, ignoring the rule to base his dialogue off of his scene partners, and ultimately shooting everyone in the room, regardless of their participation in the scene. Prison Mike (" The Convict ") wears a purple bandanna over his head, speaking in a caricature of New York English , and explains that he is in prison for theft, robbery and kidnapping the president's son for ransom (although he claims, in knee-jerk defensiveness, that he was never caught). He proceeds to paint an awful, and somewhat fanciful, picture of prison life. He states that the scariest part of prison is the Dementors . The character is likely the result of Michael's take on the Scared Straight! documentary series. Michael the Magic (" Cocktails ") attempts to escape from a straitjacket but fails because of a lost key which was actually hidden by Jim.

Michael's fondness for magic is referenced throughout the series, including an off-screen visit to a children's magic camp. Michael also attempts to utilize a magic prop briefcase (which included a working chainsaw) while speaking at Karen's Utica branch in " Lecture Circuit ". In the cold open for Nepotism , he is seen performing numerous, albeit repetitive, magic tricks. Michael Klump (" Weight Loss ", referenced in "Garage Sale") attempts to show that overweight people are people too. Michael wears a partially-inflated sumo suit underneath a business suit, and is patterned after the Eddie Murphy character in the Nutty Professor remakes. Michael Scotch (" New Boss ") was co-created when Michael and Dwight were trying to contact David Wallace to complain when Charles Miner cancelled Michael's fifteenth anniversary party because of budget cuts. Michael Scotch is an overly aggressive character who threatens that he has kidnapped David Wallace's son. Blind Guy McSqueezy (" The Lover ") is a character Michael created at his improv class so he could feel up women. Caleb Crawdad (" Murder ") is a Southern persona used for the purposes of a game. Date Mike (" Happy Hour ") is a personality Michael takes on when on a date.

Michael creates this personality when Jim points out to him that Pam's friend likes him. Up to that point, Michael had been charming and likable, but Date Mike completely ruined things and the friend fled in disgust. Ironically, Michael felt Date Mike was successful because he impressed Donna, while Jim thought Date Mike was a disaster because he didn't know about Donna. Michael says Date Mike is inspired by "the winners of reality dating shows. AND the losers". Catch phrase: "Hi I'm Date Mike, nice to meet me." Orville Tootenbacher ( The Search ) is a character Michael created who is a millionaire that farts popcorn. Mike Leno is an interview personality that is a parody of Jay Leno . [9] Reginald Poofda ("The Seminar") is an English character that Michael mentioned that he was working on when he bumped into David Brent . Classy Santa ("Classy Christmas") Michael's version of Santa Claus at a 'Classy Christmas Party' which Michael throws when Holly Flax is temporarily transferred back to Scranton while Toby Flenderson is on jury duty.

Classy Santa wears an untraditional Kangaroo-style Santa hat, a black dress shirt, a red smoking jacket, dress slacks, and smokes a pipe. Mykinos ("The Seminar") is a Greek character (based on Spyros) made up when Andy held a seminar to increase his sales. "Mykinos" was the character to buy one ream of paper from Andy to get other potential customers and local business owners to buy paper and increase his sales. Comparison with David Brent Edit Although originally based on David Brent , Scott has developed into a significantly different character than his British counterpart. Whereas Brent is shown to be irredeemably incompetent, [10] Scott is portrayed as an outstanding salesman, unwisely promoted to a management role to which he appears completely ill-suited (see Peter Principle ). A scathing performance review written by Jan Levinson stated that he should be removed from the Branch Manager position and put into a more suitable position in Sales. However, Scott has been oddly successful as regional manager. When he took over the Scranton Branch he decreased costs by 17%, without firing any personnel.

After the merger of the two branches Scott does not lose a single client despite a great deal of employee turnover (much of which he was directly responsible for). He received a $3,000 bonus for firing Devon, most likely because his doing so saved the company around $50,000. Although it is suggested that Brent has had similar success, such claims only ever come from Brent himself, thus making them unreliable. Scott's social immaturity and inability to cope with responsibility is balanced with a personality that is much more caring than Brent's, even if both make unwise comments in the heat of the moment. Unlike Brent, who pretends to be friendly with many of his employees purely for the benefit of the cameras, Scott seems to genuinely like his colleagues, with the exception of Human Resources Director Toby Flenderson . Scott's need to be liked by his staff and his belief that people see him as a genuine friend leads him to become very hurt when he realizes this is not the case. The DVD commentary to the Pilot episode suggests that Scott's character continues a process begun in the second UK series, in which Gervais and Merchant intentionally made Brent less nasty, and more of a buffoon .

It is said in the commentary that Gervais and Merchant suggested that this be applied to Scott. This also reflects a general change in the US version's attitude, which is more sympathetic to the characters, and tones down the cruel humor of the original. The commentary also says that Steve Carell had not seen more than a few minutes of the original UK series when he was offered the role of Scott, and has since made a conscious decision not to watch it in case it influences his own performance. The show's writers have said that the 2005 hit movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin provided very useful guidance as they refined the character along with Steve Carell between the 1st and 2nd seasons. Michael Scott wore a large amount of hair gel and dressed sloppily in Season 1, but by Season 2 he had a more conventional haircut and dressed much more neatly. Also, while Michael is often rude and nasty in Season 1, he is generally nicer and less hard-edged in subsequent seasons. Behind the scenes Edit U.S.

Developer Greg Daniels envisioned Michael Scott behaving as if "I was hoping that the documentary about this would one day be seen by Jennifer Aniston , and I was just trying to impress her any way I possibly could" [11] and notes the occasional need to show Michael being competent or even effective, to justify why he is not simply fired. [12] Writer B.J. Novak explains that Michael Scott drives a Sebring because it is the most ostentatious car he can afford, opting for a convertible even though the climate in Scranton is cool even in the summer. [13] Quotes Edit "You know what they say. 'Fool me once, strike one, but fool me twice... strike three'." "I tried to talk to Toby and be his friend, but that is like trying to be friends with an evil snail." "They say that on your deathbed you never wish you spent more time at the office. But I will." "Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both.

I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." "If I had a gun with two bullets, and if I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, & Toby, I would shoot Toby twice." "Drumroll please!" "That's what she said!" "New York, New York, the city so nice, they named it twice. Manhattan is the other name." "We must deceive them so as not to hurt them and in that way, we honor them." (Quoted from Michael by Dwight) "Well, well, well. How the turntables." "I hate, hate being left out. Whether it's not being picked for a team...Or being picked for a team and then showing up and realizing the team doesn't exist. Or that the sport doesn't exist! I should've known. 'Poop ball?' " "WHERE ARE THE TURTLES!?!??!?" "NOOO, GOD!!! NO, God, PLEASE no! NOO! NOO! NOOOOOOOOOO-" "There's no such thing as an appropriate joke.

That's why it's a joke." "I am Beyonce, always." "Don't ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone, for any reason, ever, no matter what." "My mind is going a mile an hour," "Abraham Lincoln once said that "if you're a racist, I will attack you with the North." " 'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. - Wayne Gretzky' - Michael Scott" Video One Last Cringe for ‘The Office’ Finale - The New York Times The New York Times Television |One Last Cringe for ‘The Office’ Finale Search Continue reading the main story Photo The cast of “The Office” during filming of the sitcom’s final episode, which will be shown on NBC on May 16. Credit Chris Haston/NBC LOS ANGELES — Sometime in Season 3 of “The Office,” its creator, Greg Daniels, conceived the premise for what would be the show’s finale.

Not the actual documentary about the Dunder-Mifflin paper company of Scranton, Pa., that a fictional camera crew shot for what turned out to be nine years, he decided — but a reunion show, in the fashion of the post-competition cast rehashes familiar from reality shows like “Survivor.” “At one point I actually approached Jeff Probst,” the host of “Survivor,” Mr. Daniels whispered as the big reunion scene unfolded here in the auditorium of an AT&T office building. Standing in for the Scranton cultural center, it was one of many locations for the ambitious one-hour finale, to be shown on May 16 on NBC. Onstage at the reunion were most of the prominent characters — minus the biggest one, Steve Carell ’s Michael Scott — arrayed in a long arc of folding chairs. They were answering questions about how the documentary, supposedly recently presented on Scranton’s PBS affiliate, had changed their (fictional) lives. Why PBS? “I tried to think what outlet would shoot something like this and take nine years to do it,” Mr. Daniels said.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story That idea is almost as improbable as the notion that a comedy adapted from a British sitcom and initially poised for oblivion (after NBC’s screening of the pilot, it was headed for exile on Bravo, one executive related) would become a bellwether of many of the changes that have overtaken television today. As the anchor of NBC’s once-heralded Thursday-night lineup, it played a role in pioneering alternative entertainment forms like TV offerings on iTunes and Webisodes on the Internet. It helped executives recognize the value of delayed viewing. Equally important, it opened broadcast television to a new concept in humor: the sitcom that makes you uncomfortable. “ The Office ,” never qualified as a blockbuster hit (though it attracted one of the most affluent audiences in television). Yet it clearly paved the way for a style of filmed comedy — smart, multilayered and subtle, sometimes so much so that a portion of viewers never understood its humor. The genre has since been embodied by other highly regarded comedies like “ 30 Rock ,” “ Parks and Recreation ,” “Community” and “The Mindy Project” (starring an “Office” graduate, Mindy Kaling ). The show also had striking worldwide appeal.

The original British version , starring Ricky Gervais, has been copied in places as disparate as Chile and France, proving that office life under a bumptious boss is apparently universal. “ ‘The Office’ was like a high-wire act,” said Ken Kwapis, the show’s first and last director. He cited, among other things, the absence of a laugh track, the exclusion of any kind of background music and a completely untraditional filming style. “Some of the things most compelling about the show aren’t even funny,” Mr. Kwapis said. “But they make you cringe. Now I go to pitch meetings where executives say, ‘I want that cringe-worthy comedy.’ ” That any of this happened is mind-boggling for almost everyone who was involved at the show’s inception, beginning with Ben Silverman, the executive producer (and later, head of NBC’s entertainment division), who chased Mr. Gervais all over London to secure the American rights. “What was required to get this show on was almost herculean,” Mr. Silverman said. The NBC chief executive at the time, Jeff Zucker, had proclaimed that no single-camera comedy could ever be a hit show.

(Single-camera shows are shot on sets and locations and feel like movies; three-camera comedies like “The Big Bang Theory” are shot on stages in front of audiences and feel like theater.) Mr. Zucker was not an initial fan of NBC’s version of “The Office,” and he wasn’t alone. “A lot of people didn’t get it,” Mr. Daniels said. John Krasinski , who memorably inhabited the show’s male romantic lead, Jim, recalled that during the shooting of the first six episodes, a network executive would show up every Friday and say, “This episode is so good — unfortunately, it’s the last one we’re going to do.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Expectations among critics were also low because the British version, created by Mr. Gervais and Stephen Merchant, had been deemed an instant classic, and NBC had misfired two seasons earlier in a remake of the British comedy “ Coupling .” Mr. Daniels recalled watching the British “Office,” with its ironic tone, and thinking, “Oh my God, how did they pull this off?”A breakthrough came when Mr.

Daniels realized that between Americans’ newborn fascination with reality shows and their growing habit of recording even mundane events in their own daily lives, “being in front of a camera and talking to a camera became a most relatable experience.” The idea of allowing characters to speak directly to the camera, another device straight out of “Survivor,” also opened up possibilities, Mr. Daniels said, because “you can tell stories in a first-person point of view.” That technique is now commonplace on shows like “Modern Family” and countless commercials. With his own experience in the reality genre, Mr. Silverman reached out to camera operators with reality-television credits to film the pilot. To direct, Mr. Daniels hired Mr. Kwapis, who had cut his teeth on observational single-camera comedies like “Freaks and Geeks,” and especially “The Larry Sanders Show.” And Mr. Kwapis brought in Peter Smokler, who had worked on the beloved mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” as director of photography. Casting also required new thinking. “The actors who were workers at Dunder-Mifflin had to look, frankly, like people who don’t belong on prime-time television,” Mr. Kwapis said.

Phyllis Smith was the assistant casting director for the pilot when she intrigued the producers with her line readings opposite actors at auditions. Mr. Daniels asked her if she might want to switch jobs and act in the pilot. She did, creating the slyly funny sales rep Phyllis Lapin-Vance, who lasted all nine seasons. Several other regulars jumped from the writing staff, including B. J. Novak (Ryan), Ms. Kaling (Kelly) and Paul Lieberstein (Toby). Early on, Mr. Silverman alighted on the idea of casting Mr. Carell as the boss, Michael Scott, the American version of Mr. Gervais’s David Brent . With a cult following from his days as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” Mr. Carell was also coming off a breakout role in the 2003 film “Bruce Almighty.” Mr. Daniels loved Mr. Silverman’s suggestion, but before committing to a lead actor, he thought he should hire a casting director. In the meantime, Mr. Carell took a lesser role in an NBC comedy called “Come to Papa.” Their plan up in smoke, the producers selected Bob Odenkirk as Michael.

When they presented the pilot cast to network executives, Mr. Odenkirk was still in the role. But an NBC insider told Mr. Daniels privately that it was likely that Mr. Carell would become available again once the public saw “Come to Papa.” (It was canceled after four episodes.) Advertisement Continue reading the main story When it came time to start production on the pilot, the shooting rules were turned upside down. “There are things I’m going to ask you to do in this pilot that on any other job you’d be fired for doing,” Mr. Kwapis said he told the crew. These included being late to capture an actor’s line on camera or even initially filming out of focus. Those flaws would be acceptable — even desirable. “The idea was, how do we create the illusion that we’re not prepared for the action that’s about to unfold?” he said. The tiny share of viewers in the United States who had seen the British version recognized that the American pilot was almost a line-by-line remake. But a scene in which Michael browbeats the thoroughly likable Pam (Jenna Fischer) left an uncomfortable aftertaste. The harshness of the characterization worked for Mr. Gervais, who wears his edge proudly.

It did not seem as appropriate for the sweeter Mr. Carell. “David Brent was a darker and more pathetic character,” Mr. Krasinski said. “We needed more of that lovable doofus.” Mr. Daniels set about dropping in moments that could “rehabilitate the character,” like having co-workers come to Michael’s defense after he was heckled at the Dundies, the company’s annual awards ceremony, and allowing Michael to actually offer some good advice to Jim about his pursuit of Pam. “It took a little while for American audiences to get used to the conventions of the mockumentary, the interviews and the sometimes jarring rhythms,” said Steve Levitan, a creator of “Modern Family” on ABC. “ I’ve always felt ‘The Office’ helped pave the way for ‘Modern Family’ because by the time we debuted, people weren’t thrown by the form at all. They just accepted us without the need for explanation.” For Ms. Kaling, the show was akin to “an eight-year intensive grad school” in television writing and comedy acting, not to mention other lessons courtesy of Mr. Daniels and Mr. Carell.

“Greg also showed me how to lead a show ,” she said, “and Steve showed me how to lead a cast.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story When the first six episodes aired in spring 2005, the ratings were tepid. NBC announced it would bring the show back, but only after insisting that Mr. Silverman and Mr. Daniels cut the budget. Between the first and second seasons, however, the show received several breaks. Foremost was “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” a hit that established Mr. Carell as a movie headliner. “It made Steve a much bigger star,” Mr. Daniels said, “but it also helped us to understand how to write him.” What truly turned their fortunes, however, was that in the first week that NBC shows were available for purchase on iTunes, episodes of “The Office” occupied four of the top five spots. Suddenly NBC was impressed, especially by the makeup of the audience: young, college-educated and affluent. Most shows were made available to such outlets as networks sought new revenue, but “The Office” fit the iTunes audience precisely.

“We thought people from the workplace would be our audience,” said Rainn Wilson , who portrays the fan favorite Dwight Schrute. “Then it turns out it’s kids in college who embrace us first.” Mr. Krasinski said: “A lot of shows say they owe it all to their fans, but we legitimately owe it to our fans who went out of their way to purchase the show when they could watch it for free. I think that changed the game for a lot of television.” Mr. Silverman sees it somewhat differently. “I think iTunes was the best thing and the worst thing that happened to us,” he said, “because it made it so possible for our audience to watch there instead of on the network.” The show’s audience was so heavily populated by tech-savvy early adapters that as the use of DVRs proliferated and more viewers chose to watch episodes later, the ratings of the Thursday broadcasts fell. In pure ratings terms, “The Office” peaked in Season 5, when it averaged 9.3 million viewers and scored an impressive 4.9 among the viewers who attract the most advertising dollars, adults from 18 to 49.

By the final season, the ratings — factoring in delayed viewing over seven days — had dropped to an average of just under 5 million viewers, and a 2.5 in that 18-to-49 group (still near the top for all NBC entertainment). Advertisement Continue reading the main story The decline was undoubtedly accelerated by Mr. Carell’s departure after Season 7. NBC announced long ago that he would not be back for the finale, but a suspicion lingers that a potential surprise scene may have been filmed with Michael — there is an event in the finale that would probably call for his presence. Emotions among the unusually tight-knit cast spilled over in the final week of shooting. Mr. Daniels confessed to choking up while writing a few of the characters’ final words. Ed Helms, who like Mr. Carell, Ms. Fischer and Mr. Krasinski saw his film stock soar while in “The Office,” gives the comedy full credit. “The show’s importance to me personally and professionally can’t be overstated,” he said. “Some people say my big break was ‘The Hangover.’ But I would not have gotten ‘The Hangover’ without this show.” Mr.

Wilson, who made much the same point about the show’s impact on his career, witnessed something even more extraordinary: the cult of Dwight Schrute. “Here I am playing this nerdy character and he’s become an icon,” Mr. Wilson said. “I turn on college sports events and the fans are waving giant Dwight heads in the stands. People have gotten tattoos of my face. I’m just so happy to have done this.” Beyond the laughs it delivered, Mr. Kwapis views the legacy of “The Office” in how it made the audience feel. “You didn’t hear words like cringe-worthy or cringe-inducing in a complimentary way before,” he said. “Does that make the show a classic? I don’t know. But I do like the fact that the show made people appreciate the entertainment value of cringing.” Correction: May 12, 2013 An article last Sunday about the final episode of “The Office,” misstated the point at which Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott, left the show. It was after Season 7, not 5. And an accompanying picture caption misstated the surname of the actress who plays Meredith Palmer.

She is Kate Flannery, not Flaherty. A version of this article appears in print on May 5, 2013, on Page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: One Last Cringe. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Question: Which TV character is the British equivalent of Michael Scott played by Steve Carell on US television?
Answer: David Brent