The Office: The Scripts Series 1

by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

Scripts from the first series of "The Office," the BBC TV sitcom that shows how anyone can be a great boss and a funny person—according to the Brentmeister General, David Brent.

Genres: Fiction, Comedy, Humor, Drama

269 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and broadcaster.

Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. Besides writing and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras. Gervais has starred in a number of Hollywood films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. Gervais has performed on three sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast prior to March 2009, The Ricky Gervais Show.

He has accumulated a multitude of awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards and the 2006 Rose d'Or, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2010 he was voted third greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Channel 4, behind Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly. In 2010, he was named on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.

Reviews

[Chris Greensmith]

"You’ve seen how I react to people, make them feel good, make them think that anything’s possible. If I make them laugh along the way, sue me. And I don’t do it so they turn round and go "Thank you David for the opportunity, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the laughs." I do it so, one day, someone will go "There goes David Brent. I must remember to thank him."

[Alex Gregory]

I love The Office. I consider it to be one of the best British comedies of all time, and leagues above the various incarnations and adaptations that have been produced over the years. Yet, even I didn't care much for this compendium, which includes scripts for all of the first-season episodes. Why?

Simply put, The Office is a series that mines most its comedy material out of situational humor, with a heavy emphasis on the line delivery (or lack thereof) from the various characters. While there is a small amount of amusement to be found re-reading some of the jokes, it can't hold a candle to seeing the characters voicing the lines on television, and their humor and delivery was a big part of the show's success.

I have to wonder if anyone who previously reviewed this book actually read through it before commenting, because although the material is decent on its own, it loses a large amount of its value in the transition from screen to page. Likewise, you can already get the transcripts for these episodes online, so the value of the book doesn't seem be all that much. I wouldn't buy this unless it's packed-in with the complete series DVD set, which is where I obtained my copy.

[Daniel Ravner]

I once met Ricky Gervais. I told him he was my hero. he replied that "I should get out of the house more." Classic.

[Ronja (queer-is-the-universe)]

Yeah. It's not there any more. But there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about it. -Tim

[Jon Silvester]

Very funny 🤣 👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Francesca Astraea]

Just as painful to consume in script form as on screen, excruciating, excellent

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1078916.html[return][return]I caught most of the first series of The Office (the BBC original, not any subsequent version) on TV, and of course found it cringingly hilarious - appalled moments of recognition combined with surrealism (eg the stapler in the jelly). Rereading the scripts (which are nicely illustrated with screencaps from the series, particularly catching people's expressions at crucial moments) brought back fond memories.[return][return]But totally and utterly fails the Bechdel test.

[Scott]

One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

[Jason Leary]

I could read this once a month. Can you imagine scripts to a TV show being so entertaining? I couldn't until I jumped in. I recommend this to anyone I call a good friend of mine.

[Louise]

It’s the office , part one

[Glen]

I can pick this up whenever and it just makes me chuckle.

[Simon]

"stop looking up her skirt"