Dunder
Mifflin Embraces the Technology of Podcasting
Michael
Scott (Steve Carell), regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company
on the Emmy Award-winning The Office, is not a fan of technology.
In the season four episode “Dunder Mifflin Infinity,” for
example, former temp-turned-corporate-manager Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak)
launches a new company website in order to give customers easier online
ordering ability. “New ideas are fine, but they are also illegal,”
Scott said at the time. He later tried to embrace technology by following
his GPS map system, but misinterpreted a direction and ended up driving
his car into a lake. “In the end, life and business are about
human connections,” he commented afterwards. “And computers
are about trying to murder you in a lake. And to me the choice is easy.”
Ironically
enough, new technology has played an instrumental role in the success
of the NBC comedy. In her book, The Television Will Be Revolutionized,
author Amanda Lotz mentions that when the network added episodes of
The Office to iTunes in 2006, not only did the then marginally-successful
show become the most downloaded television program on the site, its
broadcast viewership actually increased. In addition to this technologically-savvy
online fanbase, The Office also has two of the more popular
fan-produced podcasts covering television: The
Office Alliance Podcast and That's
What She Said. It appears that computers
are about “human connections” after all.
“The
Office online community is filled with creative people who are
inspired by the show and look for wonderful ways to express their love
for the show,” commented Kimberly, Melody and Sarah, the three
co-hosts of The Office Alliance Podcast. “Back during
the second season, the fandom pushed for a super-sized season finale,
which we got. More recently, the fans came together to donate money
for the crew who were unemployed due to the writers’ strike. Because
of issues of legality, that fundraising effort had to be discontinued,
but literally thousands of dollars had been raised in the name of the
people who make our favorite TV show, all through the efforts of a community
of fans.”
Listening
to The Office Alliance Podcast, it is obvious that Kimberly,
Melody and Sarah have a love for The Office that is indeed
“so serious we might have to register with HR,” as their
show’s tagline declares. The chemistry and camaraderie between
the three is evident as they examine the various nuances of The
Office while bringing their own amusing humor to the discussion.
The podcast is divided into sections that reflect the nature of the
sitcom, and uses quotes from the show as a means of introduction. Discussions
on a particular episode, for instance, fall into the “Performance
Review” category, and begin with an audio clip of Angela Martin
(Angela Kinsey) saying, “I actually look forward to performance
reviews. I really enjoy being judged.” Other segments include
“Conference Room,” “Faxes From the Future” and
“Fandomnicity.” And in a fitting homage to the show it covers,
each podcast ends with an Office Alliance “blooper”
from their recording session.
“We
found that we spent an inordinate amount of time discussing (The
Office) in an online chat, and one day we decided to talk over
Skype, which allowed us to have a voice chat,” the trio explain
in regards to how The Office Alliance Podcast came into existence.
“We continued to talk on Skype, and eventually our Skype conversations
evolved into the idea of trying to do a podcast. The Office
provides so many layers of character development, not to mention humor,
that we thought there would be myriad topics of discussion.”
Fans of
The Office appear to be favorably responding to The Office
Alliance Podcast. On iTunes, for instance, there are over seventy
reviews averaging ffour-and-a-half stars (out of five). “The discussion
is intelligent and interesting,” writes one reviewer, while adding
that “the segments are original and the hostesses are very personable.”
Another listener comments, “They know their Office stuff
and do a really good job of digging into the characters’ actions
and motivations while at the same time making me laugh out loud.”
“We’ve
found out through fan feedback that we have international listeners,
which is not something we expected at all, considering the show is shown
primarily in the US,” Kimberly, Melody and Sarah say about their
podcast’s audience. “It’s been a lot of fun to hear
the international perspectives that people have about the show. Also,
we’ve heard from people who have said they enjoy our podcast almost
as much as they enjoy The Office, which is incredibly flattering,
and frankly surreal. The number of people who listen to our show continues
to increase, and it’s mind boggling to think that there are that
many people out there who like to hear our ideas. We’re not anyone
special, we’re just fans like they are.”
Matt Sommer
is another avid fan of The Office, and his That’s
What She Said podcast is another popular addition to this budding
medium. Taking its name from the classic Michael Scott line, the podcast
features “Human Resources Coordinator” Matt being joined
each week by a “Senior Sales Associate” to break down and
analyze the latest new installment of The Office. With three-hundred-plus
reviews on iTunes and a four-and-a-half star average rating, That’s
What She Said is a nice “male” companion to the all-female
Office Alliance Podcast, and is equally well received by The
Office online community. One reviewer, for example, exclaims, “Between
the funny commentary, the in-depth episode discussions, and getting
to hear sound clips from the show reminding me of its comic genius,
this podcast rocks!”
It is rare
that a half-hour comedy draws the Internet attention that The Office
does, as dramas tend to attract the larger web fanbases. Joss Whedon,
creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, has
a tremendous online following, for instance, while fans of Jericho
demonstrated their strength in 2007 when they successfully organized
a “Nuts” campaign to save the CBS drama from cancellation.
Lost, meanwhile, has an overabundance of fansites and over
twenty-five active podcasts. Network comedies have also experienced
a downsizing in terms of both quantity and quality ever since Seinfeld
ended its nine-season run in 1998, adding to the apparent lack of interest
in the format. So what is there about The Office that makes
it different in comparison to the other sitcoms currently on the air?
“We
love the humor, the character development, the cast and crew; there’s
not much we don’t love about the show,” the three co-hosts
of The Office Alliance Podcast offer as an explanation. “All
of these elements come together to make this fantastic, funny, and above
all real show. We can relate to The Office, because at least
to an extent, we’re all living The Office, depressing
as that may sound. It’s such an accurate reflection of reality.
To an extent, some of the characters are exaggerated, but it’s
scary how true-to-life the situations are. It makes us feel better about
our own office jobs. It lets us know we’re not alone.”
Fans of
The Office are also not alone, as the show’s solid online
community clearly demonstrates. Michael Scott may not care for technology,
but the Internet and podcasts like The Office Alliance and
That’s What She Said have helped build a virtual Office
that compliments and rivals the actual. It’s just too bad that
corporate manager Ryan Howard wasn’t paying attention, as it might
have helped with his plans to build a better, more successful Dunder
Mifflin website.
