Actor Ricky Gervais accepts the Golden Globe award he won for best lead actor in a television comedy series for his work on "The Office". The show has already won a host of awards in Britain, and an American version of the mockumentary is now being made. REUTERS/Chris Haston

Gallagher Collaborates With David Brent
By Vicky Roberts
GIGWISE.com
September 15, 2004

Noel Gallagher, not content with collaborating with Ian Brown, has moved further up the rock hierarchy by teaming up with Ricky Gervais.

Gallagher will make a special appearance on the 'The Office Christmas Specials' DVD, due for release on October 25.

The Oasis singer and guitarist will appear on the extra features of the DVD, providing backing vocals for the series main character David Brent’s song ‘Free Love Freeway’.

Gallagher apparently asked Jonathan Ross to introduce him to Gervais after watching his recent televised show ‘Politics’.

‘The Making On Free Love Freeway’ appears on the DVD and shows the pair recording a studio version of the song.

The DVD also looks set to feature the other Brent classic cover of ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Viewers?
By Lisa de Moraes
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
Friday, June 4, 2004; Page C07

The Television Critics Association announced yesterday that "despite much Hollywood hand-wringing over the state of the sitcom," the Fox comedy "Arrested Development" has walked away with the most TCA Awards nominations of any program this year, with a total of five.

Actually, the hand-wringing in Hollywood is about the fact that viewers, rather than critics, don't seem to be taking to sitcoms these days. But why rain on the TCA's parade?

Anyway, the group showered "Arrested Development" -- watched by an average of 6.2 million viewers to rank 122nd out of 204 programs on the six broadcast networks this past season -- with nominations: program of the year, new program of the year and best comedy of the year, with cast members Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor up for individual achievement in comedy.

And speaking of the great divide that separates critics and viewers, the TCA continued to snub the reality-TV genre, passing out only one nomination, to NBC's "The Apprentice," for program of the year. (To its credit, the TCA last summer named "American Idol" program of the year, but it was hard not to after the way it took over the pop culture consciousness.) The TCA has no category for individual achievement in reality and chose not to nominate the Donald for individual achievement in a drama -- or in a comedy, for that matter.

Trump's "The Apprentice" will duke it out for program of the year with "Arrested Development," HBO's two-parter "Angels in America," Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and HBO's "The Sopranos." Quite an eclectic bunch.

TV critics adore HBO, bestowing on the pay-cabler a list-topping 14 nomina . . . zzzzzz . . . oh, sorry, I must have dozed off during the "no kidding; tell me something I don't already know" portion of the critics' announcement.

But hey, here's something interesting: ABC got only one nomination and it's not for a sitcom, or a drama, or a reality series; it's to "Nightline," for outstanding achievement in news and information.

"Nightline" faces "The Daily Show," CBS's "60 Minutes," PBS's "Frontline" and NBC's "Meet the Press."

In addition to nominations for program of the year and news and information program of the year, "The Daily Show" is up for best comedy. That "Daily Show" -- it's like a Renaissance man.

Joining it in the running for best comedy are "Arrested Development," HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Sex and the City," and BBC America's "The Office."

Though we don't participate in the TCA Awards voting, we're rooting for "The Office" on this one because it may be the last chance the Brit-produced series has to pick up more U.S. trophies.

Thanks to the latest goofiness of the television academy, "The Office" is not eligible for a Primetime Emmy Award in any of the series competitions this year. According to trade paper the Hollywood Reporter, because the producers entered the first episode of the show's second season in the International Emmy Awards competition, it cannot be included in the episode count for Primetime Emmy Award consideration. This means "The Office" has only five eligible episodes but the TV academy says six episodes are needed for a show to qualify as a series.

An academy suit is quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying, "The last thing the academy wants is for the press, or the world, to think that once again we have some dumb Emmy rule keeping a great show like 'The Office' from getting in."

Too late.

The TCA has no such silly rules and "The Office" is up for best comedy. Creator-star Ricky Gervais is nominated for individual achievement in comedy, along with Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" and Tambor and Bateman of "Arrested Development."

("The Office" already has been feted in the States with a Peabody Award, and it was a surprise winner at the last Golden Globe derby when it beat out "Sex and the City," "Will & Grace," critics' darling "Arrested Development" and "Monk" for best comedy. Gervais also won the trophy for best sitcom actor.)

Next year maybe we'll ask readers to guess which drama series they think critics will nominate for best drama series. Would you have guessed HBO's "The Sopranos," "Deadwood" and "The Wire," FX's "The Shield" and Fox's "24" this year?

Notice the lack of "The O.C." That Fox prime-time soap is, however, up for outstanding new program of the year, along with "Deadwood," Fox's canceled "Wonderfalls," CBS's "Joan of Arcadia" and, of course, "Arrested Development."

The list of contenders for drama series work is nearly as tedious, including Edie Falco, James Gandolfini, Kiefer Sutherla . . . zzzz . . . oops, there I go again.

CBS didn't do much better than ABC at TCA Awards nomination time. The eye network landed three nominations, including "Joan of Arcadia." The other two are to "60 Minutes," both for news and information and the Heritage Award. The latter, the TCA says, recognizes a long-standing program with a lasting cultural or social impact. We call it the You're Canceled So This Is Our Last Chance to Salute You Award. Of course "60 Minutes" isn't going away, but creator Don Hewitt is stepping down as executive producer.

Also nominated in this category are NBC's "Friends" and "Frasier" and, because they needed two more shows to round out the list, PBS's "Frontline" and NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Or, maybe critics know something about these two shows we don't.

The Office gains worst ever NBC rating
Copyright World Entertainment News Network 2004
June 2, 2004

The American version of hit British sitcom The Office is poised to bomb in the US after viewers gave the pilot episode the worst ever rating in TV network NBC's history, labelling it "too depressing."

Comedian Ricky Gervais' show about a fictional office in Slough, England, scooped two Golden Globes earlier this year, but NBC bosses are now convinced the American cast and crew's efforts to repeat its success stateside will fail - so they've limited the series to just six episodes.

And British TV critics are not surprised the show has left American audiences baffled - because they say the two nations have very different comedy tastes.

US Office bombs
By Beth Hardie, icReporter
June 1, 2004

Plans to make an American series of The Office have been scrapped after a test audience dubbed it "too depressing".

According to the Daily Mirror, even though the British version won two Golden Globes, our friends across the water didn't find the dark fly-on-the-wall style remotely funny.

The pilot viewers gave it the worst rating for a sitcom in NBC TV's history.

Ricky Gervais - who played boss from hell David Brent in the Slough-based BBC comedy - was supposed to be executive producer on the US series.

However bosses have now ordered just six shows to be made.

An insider said: "Americans are used to sitcoms where good-looking people sit on a sofa and crack a joke every 15 seconds.

"The Office isn't like that."

Never a truer word spoken!

'Office' out of Emmy contention
By Ray Richmond
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
May 19, 2004

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Office," the critically lauded British-produced comedy/mockumentary series imported for U.S. TV audiences by BBC America, has rendered itself ineligible for Primetime Emmy Awards consideration this year because of a shortfall of qualified episodes during the show's second season.

The show, which has been universally praised by the TV press on both sides of the Atlantic, has already won a Peabody Award and a pair of Golden Globes this year. The Globes wins came as something of an upset, with "The Office" taking the top TV series/musical or comedy statuette over "Sex and the City," "Monk," "Arrested Development" and "Will & Grace." The show's creator and star, Ricky Gervais, also carted off the comedy acting trophy over the likes of Matt LeBlanc, Bernie Mac, Eric McCormack and Tony Shalhoub.

Even with heavy competition this year in the outstanding comedy category from such perennial nominees as "Friends," "Sex and the City" and "Everybody Loves Raymond," it was thought that "The Office" stood a better-than-average chance of landing a series Emmy nomination as well as one for Gervais among lead comedy actors.

Essentially, "The Office" took itself out of the running by making a critical decision that seemed benign enough at the time: It entered its first episode of Season Two for International Emmy Awards consideration, thereby removing that segment from consideration for Primetime Emmy honors.

Then, according to Jo Petherbridge, BBC America's acting chief operating officer, Gervais decided to use two specials that were produced following the second season and repurpose them into a single "Office" movie, which is now expected to air later this year.

"But it was really the fact that we used that one episode for the International Emmys that removed us from the Primetime Emmys," Petherbridge said. "We didn't think there was much awards risk at the time, because that brought us down from six episodes for the second season to five -- and you needed eight episodes to qualify for the Emmys anyway."

However, this year, quite coincidentally, it happens that Emmys organizer the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) lowered the episodic requirement for Emmy series eligibility from eight down to six. And so "The Office" wound up missing by just the one.

"We were victims of timing, really, but there was no way around it," Petherbridge said. "But we totally accept the situation, and it's actually been fantastic going back and forth trying to find a solution to this with the TV academy. It's disappointing. But quite frankly, we're all pretty thrilled to have won a Peabody, two Golden Globes and a massive number of BAFTAs lately."

ATAS said "The Office" wasn't caught in any sort of qualifications or semantics snafu of the group's creation.

"The last thing the TV academy wants is for the press, or the world, to think that once again we have some dumb Emmy rule keeping a great show like 'The Office' from getting in," said John Leverence, the academy's awards VP. "In fact, that's not true. BBC America and Ricky Gervais made a choice that they knew might take them out of consideration and decided to make that particular move."

NBC announced this week that it has ordered a U.S. adaptation of "The Office" for the network's 2004-05 midseason schedule.

'The Office' turns Ricky Gervais into the patron saint of lousy bosses
By Anthony Breznican
AP Entertainment Writer
April 20, 2004

If you're unhappy and you know it, quit that lousy 9 to 5.

That's the advice of Ricky Gervais, star and co-creator of Britain's "The Office," a BBC comedy series in which he stars as David Brent, the thin-skinned, desperately needy manger of a group of drones on a paper manufacturer's sales team.

In addition to serving as their boss, Brent is also a frustrated musician, poet, philosopher and comedian prone to such observations as: "Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do."

This little show from across the Atlantic has slowly built a rabid fan base in the United States, spreading mainly by word of mouth as newcomers discovered it and passed it on. The second, final season of the series debuted on DVD Tuesday.

"I worked in an office for seven or eight years," Gervais told The Associated Press. "I was afraid people would think the show it was a snobby look at 9 to 5 white-collar workers. It's not about that. It's about lying to yourself. If you are happy with it -- brilliant. But if you're not, don't stay there until you're 65 and then say, 'Oh no, I was meant to write a novel!"'

Apart from home video, the only other place to find "The Office" in the U.S. was on BBC America, and Gervais said the biggest splash the show has made in North America so far was winning best comedy show this year at the Golden Globes.

"The Golden Globes had about 20 million people going 'Who are they?"' Gervais giggled. "I don't know if it's true, but I really want it to be true -- apparently, someone overheard Clint Eastwood saying, when we won the Globe, he said: 'Who the (expletive) are they?' I'd like to think he said it like 'Dirty Harry' as well."

Gervais may be overstating his own anonymity. After a recent guest spot on ABC's "Alias" and a planned appearance on "The Simpsons," he is becoming better known in the United States every day. An Americanized version of his show is already in the works.

And "The Office" continues to grow in popularity. Advance orders have already put the second season DVD among Amazon.com's top 10 sellers, and the first season, which came out in October, still places about 53 on the site's top-sellers list.

"I like the fact that we came from nowhere," he said. "We're on a little channel on both continents. We had the smallest budget and we're all unknowns, so it could only be word-of-mouth. ... But that's more satisfying for fans. There's nothing like thinking you own something."

The key to its success, Gervais said, is empathy. The nitpicking. The rude remark that everyone overhears. Petty politics. Embarrassing outbursts and breakdowns. Anyone who has ever toiled for a paycheck can relate, he said.

Consider this running joke: Brent has a perpetual feud with his second in command, the sunken-eyed, wannabe soldier Gareth Keenan (played by Mackenzie Crook, the wobbly eyed buccaneer from "Pirates of the Caribbean") over whether Gareth is the "assistant regional manager" or "assistant TO the regional manager."

"Everyone's a bit like him," Gervais said. "Everyone is a little bit insecure, everyone wants to be loved, everyone wants to leave a legacy, everyone wants to be part of a team, everyone embarrasses themselves now and again and wish they hadn't and want a hole in the ground to swallow them."

"He's not bad after all. He's not a nasty person. He's wounded. He's a buffoon. You want to sit him down and tell him to stop trying so hard. You realize that his worst crime is that he has confused respect with popularity. And in the end, he gets neither."

Gervais and his collaborator Stephen Merchant wrote six half-hour episodes for both of the seasons and concluded "The Office" saga with a two-part, two-hour Christmas special that has yet to be shown in the United States.

He acknowledged that some American fans may be dismayed to learn the show is defunct by the time they catch on to it:

"I think that's quite nice that by the time you've seen a thing it actually finished ages ago. That's like looking at a dead star ... and the light actually left it in the 16th century."

Just another day at 'The Office'
By Randy A. Salas
The Minneapolis Star Tribune

(April 20, 12:13 pm PDT) - "The Office" is decidedly British - enough so that an American fan might have to turn on its new DVD's subtitles to catch every accented bit of slang. But chat up the TV show's co-creator and star, Ricky Gervais, and the talk is mostly American: Laurel and Hardy, "The Simpsons," "The Larry Sanders Show" - all inspiration for the deviously comedic minds of Gervais and his cohort, Stephen Merchant.

For anyone who has seen the show, though, it should be no surprise what had the biggest impact on its creators. After all, "The Office" does for the workplace what the great mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" did for rock music.

"That's a lovely thing to say," Gervais said in a call from London to talk about this week's release of "The Office: The Complete Second Series" (BBC/Warner, $24.98). " 'Spinal Tap' is one of the greatest comedy films of all time and a direct influence on me. In 1984 or '85, I watched it most days for about six months, even putting it on for 10 minutes (at a time) just to see it. I couldn't believe how good it was. I'd never seen anything like it before."

Like the 1984 film, "The Office" is presented as a pseudo-documentary. It focuses on three workers at the Wernham Hogg paper company - senior sales rep Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman), a "Fisher-Price man" who doesn't know what he wants; team leader Gareth Keenan, an odd duck applying what he learned as a milk monitor to his professional life, and receptionist Dawn Tinsley, a quiet observer with the hots for Tim. Domineering over them all is their clueless leader, David Brent (Gervais), a narcissistic Bluto given to saying the wrong thing at the worst time.

"He'd be one of those people who found it was cool to like 'Spinal Tap' and then slightly misquote it - loudly," Gervais said with a laugh.

That the show has caught on stateside is remarkable considering that it airs on BBC America, a network available only by satellite or to digital-cable subscribers. But two recent Golden Globe awards and continuing critical acclaim have translated into boffo DVD sales.

The show, which ended with two 45-minute Christmas specials in December (unreleased yet on DVD), was even bigger in England, where it won many awards, earned high ratings and set DVD sales records. Its success surprised Gervais, who expected a cult hit at best.

"There was no laugh track. There were no obvious jokes. There were no stars. There was no nothing," he said. "It was like it was created to be a failure. In fact, the BBC told me that in its focus groups, it scored the joint lowest ever - with women bowling, or something."

The second-season DVD includes some goofy outtakes and a 20-minute video diary of the show's behind-the-scenes madness. Also included are 13 minutes' worth of deleted scenes that are arguably as good as material that was kept. They were cut for reasons including timing or context, Gervais said, adding that he wasn't tempted to reinsert them into their respective episodes for the DVD.

"I like the DVD to be definitive," he said. "I like the restraint. I like the fact that we can write and do anything we want, but that we have to do it in 29 minutes."

The BBC reigns at Baftas' damp parade
By Jason Deans
Monday April 19, 2004
The Guardian

The Office leads the way as corporation carries off 11 of the 17 awards, though Channel 4's New Labour show is named best drama.

It was more about the brollies than the posh frocks last night as television's finest braved torrential rain and a slippery red carpet when they arrived at the Bafta television awards ceremony in London.

The event threatened to become a repeat of the Bafta film awards fiasco in Leicester Square two years ago when heavy rain reacted with chemicals in the red carpet to produce a white foam which the celebrities had to wade through.

But the weather could not dampen the BBC's celebrations when it came away with 13 of the 22 awards. It added to a critically successful year for the BBC, which picked up 17 of the 27 awards at the earlier Royal Television Society ceremony this year.

Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross led the way for the BBC last night, each picking up two awards for their respective shows, The Office and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Other winners included the political editor Andrew Marr, the actor Bill Nighy, the BBC3 sketch show Little Britain, and the current affairs documentary The Secret Policeman.

Channel 4 won four Baftas, but ITV had to settle for just two, for Coronation Street and its coverage of England's Rugby World Cup victory.

It was Gervais's third double Bafta win in a row. The co-creator and star of The Office was named best comedy performer and the show also won the best sitcom award.

He said: "People ask me how this compares to the Golden Globes in LA. There you look out and see Michael Douglas, Jude Law and Tom Cruise. Here I can look out and see... the painting bloke and the gardening bloke off the telly."

His rivals for the best comedy performance award were the Little Britain stars Walliams and Lucas, and his Office co-star Martin Freeman, who plays lovelorn Tim.

Gervais joked that he was delighted when his name was read out, not Freeman's. "It was brilliant. I loved the look on his face. He was tucking into his duck a l'orange and he actually stabbed his own hand."

Freeman said the best man had won. "Ricky totally deserved it and everyone knows that."

Gervais is now working on a new TV comedy with Stephen Merchant.

Nighy won best actor for the political thriller State of Play, adding to his film Bafta this year for Love Actually.

He beat co-stars David Morrissey, Jim Broadbent and Christopher Eccleston to the prize and said: "I'm truly surprised to win this. It was a pretty world class group to be in, like a group of death in the World Cup."

Ross's double success was his first at the Baftas. He won best entertainment performance and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross won the Lew Grade award for entertainment programme or series.

His chat show beat both Pop Idol and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, leaving the Geordie duo to walk away from an awards ceremony empty-handed for once.

Andrew Marr received the Richard Dimbleby award for the year's most important personal contribution on screen in factual TV.

The BBC also carried off the best actress award , Julie Walters winning for Canterbury Tales - The Wife of Bath. It was Walters's third best actress TV Bafta in a row. In previous years she has won for My Beautiful Son and Murder.

The controversial BBC1 documentary The Secret Policeman, which uncovered racism in the Greater Manchester police, and was described by Mr Dyke as the most important show he had broadcast during his director generalship, picked up the current affairs Bafta.

The BBC's digital channels have attracted criticism for their tiny audiences, but last night's Baftas brought critical recognition for both the youth channel BBC3 and the arts and culture service BBC4.

BBC3's sketch show Little Britain, created by Matt Lucas and David Walliams, was named best comedy programme or series; the BBC4 documentary The National Trust won the Hew Weldon award for factual series or strand.

Channel 4's reality show Wife Swap picked up its second award of the weekend, following Saturday's success at the Golden Rose TV festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. It was awarded the Bafta for best features programme.

Other Channel 4 winners included The Deal, which as about the Blair-Brown relationship, starring Michael Sheen as the prime minister and David Morrissey as Gordon Brown.

It was originally developed for ITV, but it got cold feet, allowing Channel 4 to step in.

Best news coverage went to Channel 4 news for its output on the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Q&A With Ricky Gervais
By Rebecca Winters; Ricky Gervais

From the April, 12, 2004 issue of TIME magazine:

Ricky Gervais created and stars in The Office, on BBC America, winner of two Golden Globes. The second season is out on DVD April 20.

Q - A U.S. version of The Office is in the works, but don't the British shows that cross the pond usually stink?

A - I think you always have an affection for what you saw first. [The producers] should aim it at the 249 million Americans who haven't seen our version.

Q - What's the difference between English and U.S. audiences?

A - English people want to knock you down more. Americans encourage success. British people don't think it'll happen to them and don't like it to happen to someone else.

Q - Any advice for the Tims of the world [EM] underachievers stuck in mediocre jobs?

A - Leave. You'll never be happy there. Don't wait till you're 65 and then go, "Oh, I was meant to write a book." I dunno, breed tropical fish.

Q - You were on Alias. You're going to be on The Simpsons. You can be the token Brit on every American show.

A - I know. That's what worries me. A butler. Always a butler.

LIFE AT 'THE OFFICE'
British comedy gets a marathon airing
By Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday March 31, 2004

For a comedy, the British import "The Office" has a most melancholy theme song.

"Handbags and Gladrags," an oft-covered ballad from the hippie era, mocks the false fronts we often erect to shield others from our inner selves, which are never quite as shiny.

A mock documentary, "The Office" exposes both sides of David Brent, the supervisor of a cheery/gloomy workplace in which paper is literally shuffled all day.

"He's a deluded man who thinks he should be the life of the party," said Ricky Gervais, who wrote and directed the series plus played Brent, during a recent telephone conversation from his London office. "The reality of it is he's a buffoon who wants respect but goes about it the wrong way."

If you noticed "The Office's" success during the recent Golden Globes awards broadcast and wondered what could be funnier than "Will & Grace" or "Sex and the City" -- two other nominees in the best-comedy category won by "The Office" -- here's your chance to find out.

The digital cable network BBC America will recycle the show's dozen episodes beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday. Cox Communications carries BBC America on cable channel 341. On the north shore, Charter Communications subscribers can find it at channel 100.

Flashing his canine smile at the viewer, Brent maintains an intimate relationship with the camera crew in his office, even when almost everything he says or does in the name of morale results in ruin.

"Brent looks for the camera so I can remind people at home that it's a fake documentary," Gervais said. "If it's a sitcom without a laugh track, they have to know what they're watching. His motivation is that he wants to show off. He thinks it's his big chance.

"Another type of look at the camera is when he goes, 'Oh, God, it's still there.' He's said something really stupid and he's saying, 'Oh, God, I've made a fool of myself again.' It shows you that he knows he's made a fool of himself.

"It brings the viewer in as another character. As a viewer, if someone made a fool of himself and looked straight at you, you'd want to crawl into a hole."

In this regard, "The Office" shares cringe-making power with another cable comedy that obsesses on its lead character's obsessions.

"When I watch 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' I sometimes literally turn away from the screen and mumble to myself 'Oh, God' just to get me through it," said Gervais. "And that's a compliment, obviously."

Talk about cringe-making: NBC is developing an Americanized remake of "The Office" for its fall schedule.

Gervais has consulted with the network on the remake, but fans of the show have to question whether the show's coal-black outlook on working life can ever play stateside.

"Where it's made sort of a dent in America is in the media and industry and in the metropolises of New York and Los Angeles," said Gervais of the original "Office." "I don't know what they have to do to get farmhands in mid-America to watch it."

Brent's repellent combination of personal neediness and professional ambition, in particular, may be impossible to translate, at least as a target for scornful humor.

"I still don't know if it means the same thing in America," Gervais said. "In America it's a good thing to want to be sort of rich and famous or successful. Americans are brought up very differently than Britons. They're told you can become president of the U.S. We're told, 'Don't bother with that. It won't happen to you. You're useless.'

"Being American is different."

Thanks to "The Office" (the first six episodes of which are available on DVD, with a late-April release date for the second six), Gervais has been in America a lot in recent months.

In addition to his consulting work for NBC and the Golden Globes triumph, he has done a couple of appearances on "The Late Show With David Letterman" and guest-acted -- as a villain -- in ABC's spy drama "Alias."

Back at home, he has been performing a live show about politics and planning a new TV series, to be titled "The Extras," about a band of actors.

There are also two "Office" Christmas specials that have yet to air in the U.S. (and may air on BBC America around Thanksgiving.)

Asked to recall a memorable interaction with an American fan, Gervais immediately mentioned one that occurred during that actual Golden Globes broadcast.

"My favorite so far, and I didn't experience it but it's well documented, is that someone overheard Clint Eastwood, when they announced our Golden Globe, say, "Who the (heck) are they?'

"And that is my favorite. I hope it's true."

Jennifer Garner, left, and Ricky Gervais appear in this scene from ABC's "Alias." Gervais guest stars as a bomb expert, a bad guy, in the episode that airs at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, March 14. Danny Feld / AP

Gervais dons 'Alias' but still draws laughs
Star of 'The Office' found plenty of humor in guest appearance
By Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer
March 10, 2004

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ricky Gervais made TV viewers guffaw over "The Office." He had Hollywood giggling when he accepted Golden Globe honors for his sitcom as casually as if he was picking up groceries.

But on the set of "Alias" recently, it was Gervais the comedian and small-scale sitcom star laughing at the oh-so-serious, big-budget American spy drama production.

Gervais guest stars as a bad-guy bomb expert in Sunday's episode, airing 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

"It's so like the opposite to 'The Office.' It's $2 million an episode as opposed to $200,000 an episode. There's special effects, there's stunts," he said, recalling the experience.

"All that pressure, it's like being in school when you can't laugh in assembly. It's all so expensive and all so important that I think it's the child in me," he said.

The result: "I was laughing at all the serious faces. Every time they looked at me in a serious way, I died laughing," he said of the cast that includes Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber.

The unlikely scenario was the result of "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams' admiration for "The Office." Abrams contacted him and sent tapes to Gervais in London, who liked what he saw and agreed to appear.

"It's the first thing I've done that I didn't write myself, so it was sort of a baptism of fire," he said of his role as bomb pro Daniel Ryan. (As befitting an espionage series, further details were withheld by Gervais and ABC.)

There were long hours, the nuisance of hitting marks for precise camera shots and 12-hour days with maybe two hours of filming. With "The Office," the schedule was kept to a more civilized eight or 10 hours, with nearly all of that spent acting.

The BBC sitcom, airing here on BBC America (10 p.m. EST Thursday) and being adapted for NBC, is a "mockumentary" about a sales team for a paper supply company and smug middle manager David Brent.

Gervais co-wrote the series, directed it and brought Brent to gratingly funny life. A hit in Britain and a cult favorite here, "The Office" was a surprise winner at the Golden Globes, claiming the best comedy series award over nominees including "Sex and the City."

A best actor trophy went to Gervais, a former disc jockey who has the kind of pudgy cheeks made for comedy. He put on quite the performance that January night in Los Angeles.

"I'm not from these parts. I'm from a little place called England. We used to run the world before you," he joked in a relaxed acceptance speech. When he said he was lingering on stage to get kicked off, he was playing for more laughs -- his own.

"A big sign flashes 'Wrap it up,"' he said. "I had seen a couple people get the wrap sign and I thought that was hilarious. They might as well have said, 'Shut up."'

Asked his reaction to his sitcom's major splash here, Gervais demurs.

"A little one, a little ripple. Where we've made the dent in America is actually in the media and the industry," he said. "I think it seems a lot bigger than it is. I think if you go to a Texas farmhand, he's probably never heard of me or 'The Office."'

But he concedes that word has gotten out where it counts: "It's enough for remakes and awards."

Gervais was approached about being part of the American version of the series, which has a shot at landing on NBC's schedule next year. He speedily declined.

"I worked in an office for eight years and that is based on true-life observations," he said of "The Office" humor. "I know how the English office ticks, how the people think. I don't know the same for America."

But passing up a chance to star in an American sitcom?

"It's the work that excites me. I've never particularly cared about the money. I don't like the fame ... that's the worst thing about it for me. I don't like being recognized shopping for pants."

Instead of recreating "The Office" here, Gervais is working on a new sitcom in England and planning a standup tour. His first was "Ricky Gervais Live: Animals."

The second is about politics -- or his brash stage persona's take on the subject.

"I get things slightly wrong. For example, about Nelson Mandela: incarcerated for a quarter of a century, released in about 1990. So he's been out for about 14 years and he hasn't reoffended ... It shows you prison does work."

The show, which will play in Britain and possibly New York (U.S. fans will get to see the DVD), "is not really me getting political. It's me using that as an in, and then I go off on tangents. It's just like 'Animals' wasn't really a natural history lesson. This isn't a political lecture."'

So no plans to run for office? "God forbid."

On the Net:

BBC America

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Ricky Gervais Gets Serious
He plays a "very, very bad man" on Alias
TV Guide - March 6, 2004

What was it like starring in a big TV action-drama?

The hardest part was keeping straight-faced. Everybody around me was in black and cool wearing Gucci and Armani and guns, and there I was in a jumper looking like a country fisherman. I just pretended to be Jack Bauer from 24.

Who do you play?

All I can tell you is he's a very, very bad man indeed. Let's just say he's somebody I most certainly wouldn't like to sit next to on an airplane.

Is Jennifer Garner as beautiful as she appears on TV?

Not compared to me, actually. People will realize why they had to get me on the show. They needed my body.

What did you learn about Hollywood?

Contrary to popular belief, people in Hollywood aren't hung up on agents and helpers and how they look. At least not all the time. But more to the point, I realized I am a writer and not an actor.

Does this mean you're not staying stateside?

I don't want to pop up as a Mr. Bit on every other television program. I've done it once. Now I need to go home to where it rains and where I can walk everywhere.

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The British comedian is currently enjoying better fortunes than his fictional alter-ego, David Brent, who was famously laid off Photo: © Alphapress.com
BAFTA Awards - 2003