Mattlocked wrote:

In German tv there is the US version at the moment.
I think we have a German one too, based on "Office", called "Stromberg". I recognized some of the characters when watching an episode of the US Office.
Sad that they don't broadcast the UK version here. Somehow the German directors are hooked to the US series only....

Yes, the other countries' versions are spin-offs from this one. The UK one was made in 2001.
I have not seen the US version & doubt I would bother honestly.


There was also a special made in 2009 "A Night at the Office"




And some deleted scenes made it onto a DVD. I quite like some of these, shame they didn't make it.

I just found that netflix has this series in their line-up  so  I've added it.  Should be interesting, but I'm only interested cos of Martin.  I don't care much for comedy, but I'm gonna give this one a try.

I have NO  idea.   But I do know that Americans like to take UK  productions  and make it their own.  They did it with Who wants to be a millionaire,  Roseanne,  The Office (I think that had alec Baldwin in the amer version)  Oh,  and Ugly Betty.   those are just a few that I know about.   Most new versions DO  have different character names and settings.   That's all I know.

Here's a great Martin Freeman blooper.  I wonder if John Krasinski was cast because he gets the giggles as badly as Martin does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojqX7sIVKTU

Michele wrote:

I had the DVD's sitting on my shelf for ages. I actually watched some of the US Office on TV and liked it so thought I should go back to the original material. The first episode of both is pretty much identical. I really liked the UK version. I agree that Ricky's character is really hard to like but I think that is the way he's meant to be. He's meant to be that annoying overbaring boss lots of people have experienced. He reminded me a lot of a parent trying to be cool.
I have to say that I loved Martin in it. Tim is so sweet and I totally relate to the being stuck in a dead end job thing! If only I had the guts to jelly peoples stuff! It's funny now to go back and look at it because Martin seems so young!

 
Just wanted to say it's interesting you brought this up again and said that, because I finally (amidst the gazillion things plan to watch), recently got around to it as well.  I'd seen a good handful of the US version re-runs here and there, and liked it/the premise/the 'different'-ness of the show, but not really caught enough by it to check the UK version when I became aware of the original.  Obviously, discovering Martin changed that.  ;P   ;D

And... well... I watched two episodes out of curiosity, and having a little trouble deciding if want to get back to it between my other shows.  Enjoyed Martin (the best part of it), and some of the stark humor/office jokes, but perhaps some of you know what I mean with how it just plodded and seemed more bleak satire than funny.  Maybe because I've never found Gervais very entertaining, just annoying.  Isn't it interesting though, the sense of comedy, and, heck, especially comedic timing... even going back and finding the US pilot, which kept the majority of the plot and dialogue, was quite different in that regard to its British counterpart's style?