Smash-hit TV sitcom, The Office was first broadcast on Monday 9th July 2001 at 9:30pm on BBC Two.
This is because no-one expected it to be a smash hit.
A Monday night? At the beginning of the Summer when ratings are already traditionally low? Expectations were not high.
Two and a half years later, The Office was a BBC1 two-part Christmas special. The nation wanted to know what was going to happen with Tim and Dawn. And would David Brent finally get his come-uppance? What about Finchy? We were agog to find out.
How did The Office get from off-peak BBC2 obscurity, to primetime seasonal viewing? And what does this have to do with the Bible, storytelling and Jesus changing water into wine?
Rewriting Comedy History
In previous posts, I’ve been writing about how we rewrite history to justify ourselves in the present, or excuse past acts. BBC2, in hindsight, would undoubtedly say that they were ‘protecting a risky show’. They were ‘giving it chance to find an audience’. Or maybe it was the beginning of ‘a summer season of entertainment on BBC2’.
It would not have felt that way at the time. A July Monday night premiere suggests that BBC2 had very little confidence in this slow, downbeat, comedy mockumentary about the world’s worst boss, who is convinced he is the world’s best boss. Their lack of confidence, or at least inability to predict the future, does not need to be excused.
Over on my Sitcom Geeks podcast, you can hear my conversation with Anil Gupta, the executive producer of The Office, and the entertaining story on how the show came to pass.
It’s easy to forget what TV was like in 2001, when I was starting out as sitcom writer. The expectation was that most people were watching the show as it was being broadcast. You rushed home to watch it. You timed your meal so you wouldn’t miss it.
If the show was on BBC1 at 8.30pm on Friday night, 95% of the audience were watching there and then. Pausing live TV, or streaming on the iPlayer, was the stuff of science fiction. Sure, everyone had video recorders, but you needed to be a ten-year old boy to operate them. Maybe only 5% had recorded that sitcom episode on a VHS tape and were watching it later (usually within a few days).
What a difference a DVD makes
In the early 2000s, there was boom in DVD sales. Word-of-mouth spread about quirky toe-curling comedy on BBC2 that was quickly repeated and then made available on DVD. Within about two years, Series 1 sold 840,000 copies1. That’s a lot.
The boxed set was born, catapulting The Office into a mainstream success. We had been there from the beginning and seen every episode. We were now emotionally invested.
Millions of people were spending hundreds of millions on DVDs, and watching every episode of a comedy or drama or movie franchise from the beginning.
It sounds surprising, but this was new.
You used to stumble across a new show on TV, and it was already episode three. And then you’d forget about it, watch half of episode five a fortnight later, and then resolve to watch it when it was repeated. And then find it again the following year, only to realise this was the one episode you’d already seen.
And TV was written with this reality in mind. That’s why virtually every episode of Open All Hours or Magnum PI is pretty much like every other. And you don’t need to watch them in order.
The DVD boxed set changed that media landscape. Plenty of people still switch on the TV and watch what’s on. But is anyone under 50 watching TV live, as it’s being broadcast? Only sport attracts an audience in the old-fashioned way.
Series 1, Episode 1
This new era of streaming has only accelerated and reinforced the change. The DVDs that Netflix used to send out have now been replaced by code sent through the internet. Fancy watching Stranger Things? Or Breaking Bad? Or Game of Thrones? Great. Find it on a streaming service – and you go to Series 1, Episode 1. You only start on series 2 if you’ve heard that series 1 is bad. (eg. Parks and Recreation).
These days, people start from the beginning and expect the story to unfold from there. From a storytelling point of view, that is very exciting.
And your point is?
I mention the boxed set because this is the approach I take in my new Water into Wine show. It’s what I call a ‘stand-up theology’ show about the most famous miracle in the Bible. What is going on? And why is it the first of seven signs in John’s gospel?
On the surface, Jesus turning water into wine is a perfectly readable and understandable story. Wedding. No wine. Then wine. Done. It is potentially the first in seven episodes of season 1, building up to a season finale with Lazarus. And then Season 2 builds up to it’s own finale of Christ on the cross.
But the seven signs in John aren’t just seven self-contained stories. How could they be? Jesus turning water into wine in John 2 is Scene 2 of Episode 2 of Season 13 (of a third Gospel reboot), if Season 1 is Adam to Noah, and Season 2 is Abraham and so on.
The Ultimate Boxed Set
The Bible is the ultimate boxed set. Take this approach to the stories we read in scripture and the colours are brighter, the shocks are bigger and the laughs are a whole lot louder. We need to rediscover and represent those stories with joy. The sooner we do that, the sooner our congregations and those outside will be enthralled at the story of the Jesus Christ.
If you’d like me to come and have a go at that, and bring Water into Wine to a church near you (esp those in the South and West of England, and South Wales), please do get in touch and we can probably make something work.