Who Really Cares, Anyway?: A Post About The Office

Golly, but there certainly was a surge of interest in (the American Version) of The Office during the pandemic lock-down.

I'm not talking about the Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant version of The Office, or even the 1995 CBS version of The Office which starred Valerie Harper. (Wait. What?)

From about 2003-on we were without any cable or satellite TV as an economy move. We caught a bit of the buzz about the British version from a brief snippet seen on BBC America. This lead to getting the DVD versions of Seasons one and two. Eventually we got hold of the two-part Christmas Party finale, which was richly rewarding.

Fayetteville, NC had no local broadcasters at this time. For the most part, signals had to be pulled in from Raleigh (about 90 miles away) or South Carolina. With our amplified rabbit ears the reception was somewhat snowy. If I really wanted to watch something, I'd put up with it.

Then came June 13, 2009 and the Digital Television Transition kicked in.

As a result, watching over-the-air broadcast TV pretty much ceased in our household. Oh, sure, we bought a digital-to-analog converter box with that $20-off coupon from the fed. All that did was allow us to see the blocky, no-signal-strength images that made me give up on network TV for the next few years. (Luckily, the PBS station came in pretty reliably, so there was that.)

Now, I mention all this to explain why I did not see the US version of The Office on it's first go-round.

Actually, I did manage to watch episode 10 of season 2, The Fire on a good night where the analog signal from Raleigh blew in strong enough to bear watching. I thought it was pretty good, even though seeing the US cast was a bit of a shock.

In 2014, I was living with my in-laws in Cheektowaga, NY (another story!) and, since I was one block away from the library, decided to start borrowing DVDs of The Office to watch with my hosts in the evening.

My Father-in-Law, sadly was in declining health, but every night around 9:00 he'd emerge from his Fortress of Solitude to say, "Let's see what that crazy bunch is up to tonight!" That he was so delighted by a recent TV show was heartening, as he was a hard-core classic films kind of guy.