" Basketball " is the fifth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series The Office . This episode aired on NBC in the United States on April 19, 2005. The episode was written and directed by producer Greg Daniels, marking both his first solo credit credits and first directing credits for the series. This episode also marks the first appearance of comedian Patrice O'Neal.
In this episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and office staff take workers in a warehouse in a basketball game. Due to racist and sexist stereotypes, Michael selects many unskilled office workers for the team over their more talented athletic colleagues. Michael claimed "a striking private offense," stopping the game, and declared his team the winner. The warehouse finds unfair calls and Michael's caves under pressure, and confesses victory to the warehouse staff.
This episode was inspired by a deleted scene from the first episode where Michael talked about a basketball pick-up game. For two days, the players The Office played the actual basketball game, which then spliced ​​together to give effect from one game continuously. In addition, several lines from the episode become fans and choose favorite songs. "Basketball" was seen by some 5.0 million viewers and received a 2.4/6% share rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This episode received positive reviews from critics.
Video Basketball (The Office)
Synopsis
Michael Scott (Steve Carell) came to work ready to pitch office staff against a barn in basketball game, with losers having to work on Saturday. Michael chose Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), and Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker), the latter of whom believed to have significant basketball skills based on racial stereotypes. In addition, he also reluctantly chose Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith), but refused to choose Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) or Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner).
The game starts and Stanley proves to be a terrible player. Furthermore, Michael can not make shots, nor is his fans passing or defending. After getting the ball, Michael plays and deliberately acts foolishly to tease an opponent, which results in Roy Anderson (David Denman) grabbing the ball and scoring against Michael's team. Despite the fact that Michael is the one who foolishly lost the ball, he blames the score on his team's inability. Jim switched with Michael in defense and defended Roy. When Jim began to show his greatness in the game, Roy and Jim gradually became aggressive towards each other, with Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) searching. At an important point in the game, Michael accidentally crashed into his face and claimed it was a "flashy personal offense". He painstakingly stops the game and announces the winners of the office as they win when the offense occurs. The warehouse finds unfair calls and Michael's caves under pressure, admitting victory to the warehouse staff. When everyone returns to work, Kevin shows his superb shooting ability.
After that, Michael, in a rare moment of heart, told the office that they did not have to come on Saturday as well. However, the justification is not much to appease them: "As coming in an extra day will prevent us from downsizing."
Maps Basketball (The Office)
Production
"Basketball" was written and directed by producer Greg Daniels. Although he wrote the episode, Daniels was originally not scheduled to direct "Basketball." Rainn Wilson says that he really encourages Daniels to direct the episode. John Krasinski praised Daniels for being the first writer to "take [the characters] out of the office." Daniels later said that his favorite shot from the episode was when Michael took Ryan around the barn because "you have to see the whole basketball [set]." The editor cuts for the episode are 40 minutes. During the comments for the episode, Steve Carell argued that the American version of The Office was more difficult to pick up because the English version was 29 minutes, while the American version could only be 22 minutes.
The inspiration for the episode was a scene removed from the pilot episode in which Michael talked about a basketball pick-up game. During the filming, the cast and crew were filmed playing real basketball games for two days. The pickup was then put together to make it appear as if only one match had happened. NBC is worried about the episodes because some of their other pilots have done basketball episodes. The network puts a lot of pressure on the cast and crew to make the episode seem "realistic as it should be." Donald Lee Harris designed a set of warehouses, which Krasinski described as "extraordinary" and "detailed."
Some actors have basketball experience, such as Krasinski, who plays for his high school team. Brian Baumgartner, who described Kevin, actually managed to make 14 free throw shots, some of which were included in the last recording. Steve Carell then said about his basketball skills, "The thing about looking like a bad basketball, like any other, you have to be very good to look bad [...] but that's not the case with me and basketball.I'm just bad." However, Carell joked that he would "kick ass" in hockey episodes, references to his real life hockey skills.
"Basketball" contains several lines that become fan and cast favorite. Two lines of Michael, "The hand invades and gives flowers" and "Blessed are those who sit and wait" described by Wilson as Confucian and Bible, respectively. Carell joked that Michael Scott himself had to publish an inspirational book himself. Jenna Fischer reveals that her phrase, "Please do not throw garbage at me" is her favorite sentence in the first season. Michael's phrase, "Try not to be too gay on the ground" is improvised by Carell's reaction and Krasinski is real, because he does not know that Carell will say it.
Reception
Ratings
In the original American broadcast on April 19, 2005, "Basketball" was seen by some 5.0 million viewers and received a 2.4/6% share rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it is seen by 2.4% of all people aged 18 to 49, and 6% of all children aged 18 to 49 watch television on broadcast. The episode, which aired after Scrubs , retained 92 percent of its main audience.
Reviews
This episode received positive reviews from critics. Travis Fickett of IGN retroactively gave episodes 7.5 out of 10, signaling a "good" episode. Fickett commented that "Basketball" is stylistically different from most of the other episodes in the new series, showing the lack of sub-plot and characterization of Michael Scott. Fickett, when discussing the latter, chose the moment that Michael hurt Phyllis's feelings by saying he could not play basketball, wrote, "This moment is played mostly straight-and it feels more realistic and uncomfortable and in that way, the show is more inclined to "It's a great moment, but it feels like a different show." Overall, he writes that, "There are still lots of funny things [in 'Basketball'], but in many ways, this episode shows what will going on like that has taken a slightly different direction in terms of tone and style. " Miss Alli from Television Without Pity gave the episode "A-". Jenna Mullins from E! News was called "Basketball" as "the all-time favorite episode of The Office " in an article about the last episode of Steve Carell's last series.
However, not all reviews are positive. Erik Adams from The A.V. Club awarded the episode "C" and criticized the characterization of Michael. Mostly, he feels that Michael's antics made him a jerk because the series did not succeed in showing that he really was "not a complete bastard". Adams notes that Michael "can really force Darryl and his staff to work on Saturdays, and he can really fire them for winning a basketball game, but that would be an outrageous, unlucky, official power abuse." Finally he argues that the basketball scene lasts too long; He said "the original piece of the episode was too long to air, and it's clear where the basketball scene is tinkering with other threads from the episode."
References
External links
- "Basketball" on NBC.com
- "Basket" in IMDb
- "Basketball" on TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments