The Office has become one of those shows that continue to live on years after it’s long been finished and still stirring up conversations among fans, whether it’s about what was originally planned for Jim and Pam or throwaway jokes that cost $60K. But all this wouldn’t have happened to The Office had it not been for The 40 Year Old Virgin (and Steve Carell by extension).
Speaking of Hollywood, the GOAT team talk about Robert Pattinson’s chaotic energy on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
When The Office premiered in 2005 on NBC, it landed with a whimper rather than the big splash folks were hoping. The ratings were in the gutter and the reviews weren’t much better as many critics weren’t too pleased that the show was busy trying to emulate the original UK Office rather than be its own thing. It was on its way to an early cancellation but then two big things happened.
First there was then-NBC boss Kevin Reilly, who, according to Office creator Michael Schur via Vox, believed that the show deserved more time to find its feet rather than prematurely cancelled and decided to give it a second season. Now this is a welcome relief but sort of pointless if no one turns up to watch.
Thankfully, a second thing happened that made The Office mega popular: The 40 Year Old Virgin.
The 40 Year Old Virgin was a surprise hit when it was released in 2005 and it made Steve Carell an overnight Hollywood star, which in turn helped draw people’s attention to this little show called The Office that he happened to be starring on at the same time.
This led to a dramatic uptick in the show’s ratings and the rest is TV history as The Office going for nine seasons, seven of which had Michael Scott as its memorable (for better or worse) lead character.
So in other words, Steve Carell getting his chest hair ripped off in The 40 Year Old Virgin and yelling out Kelly Clarkson‘s name in pain helped save The Office from a premature grave.
There’s a lot of luck in order to make it in Hollywood and it turns out that The Office was no different as it required some fortuitous timing, the right people giving it a chance, and audiences who were keen to see what that funny bloke from The 40 Year Old Virgin was doing next.
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