If you go by his coffee mug, Michael Scott is the world’s best boss. But if you ask Jim or Pam or most certainly Toby, you’re going to get a very different answer. Ask Steve Carell himself, and he might describe him in the best way possible: a lovable asshole.
While short-lived, the original British version of The Office’s own Michael Scott, David Brent, made his mark as maybe the world’s worst boss, the sort of brash, arrogant type that you wouldn’t want in charge of you five days a week. And while Michael Scott would take on a number of these traits – especially early on – he had to be adapted for American audiences, lest viewers tune out.
As Paul Feig – who directed great episodes like “Dinner Party” and “Niagara” – recalled, Steve Carell had become huge through The Office and movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Thus, they had to turn Michael Scott into a more likable figure. That decision was made during season two’s “Office Olympics”, which Feig also directed. “It was the scene we were shooting when everybody was supposed to be working and they’re screwing off doing this thing. And in order to not get in trouble with Michael, they’re going to give him a gold medal. But we’re shooting it and Steve gets emotional. Steve as the character, ‘cause he’s had this terrible day. And so he starts like kind of crying, like a tear goes down his eye and we’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I’m going like, ‘Oh, do that again. Do that again. This is a great.’ And I think that was this moment of like, that’s him.”
This turn may not have helped Carell win an Emmy, but helped mark Michael Scott as someone who actually had depth and, when it came down to it, tried his best…however inept, childish and inadvertently harmful he could be. “He’s got a humanity about him and everybody figured out, ‘No, he’s not an asshole. He’s a misguided idiot who is an asshole because he’s trying to be funny.’ Right. So you go like, ‘Okay, he means well.’”
Through Michael Scott and his Dunder Mifflin employees, The Office remained one of the most rewatchable shows in modern television.
What is your all-time favorite Michael Scott moment from The Office? Fly high in the comments section below.