Season 4
The Office is an American television mockumentary developed by Greg Daniels as an adaptation of the BBC series The Office and co-produced by Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studios.
A fly-on-the-wall docu-reality parody about modern American office life, the series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
The Office is shot in a single-camera setup, without a studio audience or a laugh track, and is made in the form of a documentary. Although fictional and scripted, the presence of the camera is openly acknowledged by the series' characters.
Regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is a single, middle-aged man who is the boastful tour guide for the documentary.
With unshaken enthusiasm, Michael believes he is the office funnyman, a fountain of business wisdom and his employees' cool friend. He has no clue that his employees tolerate his inappropriate behaviour only because he signs their paycheques.
Painstakingly trying to be liked and to look cool, Michael comes off alternately absurd and pathetic. His prize possession is his World's Greatest Boss mug - which he had to buy for himself.
Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) is the reasonable and friendly office receptionist who bears the brunt of Michael's routines. The bright spots in Pam's day are her conversations with Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), a likable sales rep with a good sense of humour who should have found a better job years ago, but is too comfortable with his office mates and routine to leave.
Jim shares his working space with Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), the arrogant assistant to the regional manager. Dwight is intensely irritating to normal people while Jim spends a lot of time finding new, interesting ways to drive Dwight crazy.
Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) is the young, smart, former temp, who quickly figured out the real office politics despite Michael's attempts to instil the official point-of-view.
Also starring are Melora Hardin as Jan Levenson, Ed Helms as Andy Bernard, Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson, Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone, Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer, Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor, Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin, Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson, Oscar Nuñez as Oscar Martinez, Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Lapin, Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton and Craig Robinson as Darryl Philbin.
The Office is executive-produced by Ben Silverman, Greg Daniels, who developed the series for American audiences, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein and Paul Lieberstein.
Broadcast Notes
There are 19 episodes in the fourth season, which was shortened from an initial order of 30 by the 2007/8 WGA strike.