Michael Scott (The Office)

Michael Gary Scott
The Office character
Steve Carell as Michael Scott
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Steve Carell
In-universe information
Nicknames	Worlds best boss
Occupation	• Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton • Regional Co-Manager, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton • Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin Scranton • Sales Representative, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton • Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin, Scranton
Family	a Mother and Father (divorced) Jeff (step-father) a Brother
Based on	David Brent

Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, is currently the manager (formerly co-manager) of the Scranton branch of paper and printer distribution company Sabre. Prior to being co-manager, he was the regional manager of the branch, but on the September 24th, 2009 episode "The Meeting", he was made co-manager with Jim Halpert; however, they returned to their original roles in "Manager and Salesman". In the fifth season, Michael Scott briefly left his position to start his own company, The Michael Scott Paper Company. Dunder Mifflin purchased the Michael Scott Paper Company in an episode that aired on April 23, 2009 and as part of the agreement rehired Scott as the regional manager.

Michael insists everyone in the office think of him as a friend first, a boss second, and "probably an entertainer third", as did David Brent in the original version. Michael holds inflated views of himself and considers himself an office comedian, but his attempts at humor tend to fail. Often, he says things that are inappropriate, offensive, or unwittingly mean in the hopes of getting a laugh. He lacks maturity and self-awareness, has few friends, and is quite lonely, made worse because his efforts to make friends with people usually backfire. Michael will resort to any means possible to make himself the center of attention, and often takes credit for the successes of others. His subordinates, with the exception of Dwight Schrute, think of him as inept, and several of them remark that they get their work done when Michael is distracted.

Michael wasn't always an incompetent employee at Dunder Mifflin. Before he was promoted to regional manager he was a great salesman, able to relate well with clients and using his personable attitude to his advantage. However, his promotion put him into a position above his level of competence, making him an embodiment of the Peter Principle.

Casting

Further information: Steve Carell

All original series characters were adapted for the U.S. version. NBC programmer Kevin Reilly suggested Paul Giamatti to producer Ben Silverman for the role of Michael Scott, but the actor declined. Martin Short, Hank Azaria, and Bob Odenkirk were also reported to be interested. In January 2004, Variety reported Steve Carell of the popular Comedy Central program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was in talks to play the role. At the time, he was already committed to another NBC midseason replacement comedy, Come to Papa, but the series was quickly canceled, leaving him fully committed to The Office. Carell later stated he had only seen about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned. He did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais' characterizations.

Two supporting roles in films helped get the attention of audiences: Bruce Almighty, in which Carell plays Evan Baxter (an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey's character), who gets a humorous comeuppance while co-anchoring the news. In Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Carell plays another news personality, as slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. Although the series premiered to mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season because of the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the show subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award in 2006 for his role. He also received Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007 for his work in the series. He played the lead role in the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he developed and co-wrote. Although the film was a surprise success, Carell revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had no plans to leave The Office.

Character information

Biography

Michael was born on March 15, 1964 at 11:23 AM in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He came from a broken home and has talked about his loneliness as a child. In the episode Take Your Daughter to Work Day (The Office), it is revealed that Michael was a child star on a kid's show called Fundle Bundle. Michael did not attend college, having lost all his tuition money in a pyramid scheme. It is revealed in season 6 that Michael got his job at Dunder Mifflin by following an attractive woman to the office park and leaving with a job. He rose to his manager position by being one of the best salesmen in the company, winning consecutive awards for Best Salesman.

Michael is shown to be an incompetent manager, who injects a lot of his personal feelings into the work environment. He seems to have few relationships outside the office. In his interactions with other characters, he is shallow, callous, ignorant, and unaware of basic social mores. He tends to overestimate his own importance in the eyes of his co-workers and cannot understand why they don't seem to have much fun at work, as he believes an office to be the "place where dreams come true." However, Michael is fiercely loyal to the company and honestly tries to help his employees when he thinks they are having a problem.

Michael's constant desire to be the center of attention often manifests itself in selfish behavior. For example, when he burns his foot in "The Injury", he expects Pam Beesly and Ryan to tend to his needs, despite Dwight's much more serious concussion. When invited to be an usher in "Phyllis' Wedding", he assumes that his participation will be the high point of the ceremony and pouts when he is upstaged by Phyllis' elderly father. Michael appears to emphasize moments of sympathy or civility directed at him by his co-workers (mostly Jim) and inflate their importance in order to compensate for his loneliness.

Due to his overall lack of common sense, Michael can withstand significant abuse from his peers and is often the butt of jokes. He is quick to take offense when he realizes he is being wronged and his response is often disproportionate to the harm suffered. Even though he is generally oblivious to criticism, derision and sarcasm, Michael has some limits to his patience, and leaves to question the extent of offense that he can actually acknowledge (demanding professional respect from Stanley Hudson in "Did I Stutter" or standing up to the employees in favor of Holly in "Business Ethics"). He, however, will not tolerate any disrespect towards clients under any circumstance.

In The Meeting, it is shown that Michael does not aim for his employees' betterment or his own, thinking that this would put his job at jeopardy; he unwittingly turns down a promotion that would put Jim in his position, choosing the status quo over his employees' ambitions. He is eventually forced to budge, having to co-manage the branch with Jim.

Loyal to a fault, Michael goes through absurd lengths to make sure that his employees don't lose their jobs and has a great affection for the company that employs him. However, his mistakes often lead him to try and pin the blame on a lower level employee, usually Dwight. The people who surround Michael are well aware of his weaknesses, allowing him to be easily manipulated.

Interests

Michael's favorite catchphrase is "That's what she said!", or "that's what he said" for Oscar Martinez because he is a homosexual; inserted as a sexually suggestive double entendre even in the most inappropriate cirumstances, including business meetings and legal depositions. Michael finds uttering the phrase so irresistible that in "Sexual Harassment" he is goaded into saying it just seconds after Jan Levinson and a lawyer from Corporate specifically ask him not to do so.

Michael enjoys writing song parodies. In Goodbye, Toby, it is said that he had written songs such as "Beers in Heaven" (which he tells Holly is "very sexual") and "Total Eclipse of the Fart". In "Diwali", Michael performs his own parody of Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song", replacing the Jewish-themed lyrics with that of Hindu ones.

He also appears to have a history of playing ice hockey. On multiple occasions, Michael has also expressed interest in basketball even though he is terrible at it (in "The Fire" and "Basketball"). He also once stated that he is a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

Michael attends classes in improvisational comedy and although he believes his skills are among the best in the world, he is shown in "E-mail Surveillance" to be a frustrating and unpopular presence in the class. He is the playwright of such skits as Threat Level: Midnight (which was discovered by Pam and read by the entire office without Michael's knowledge), celebrating Michael's main character alter-ego Michael Scarn. He constantly compliments his own performances, from joke-telling to impressions to videotape skits that he creates for presentation in the office.

Michael loves wearing jeans, in particular a pair of Levi's he refers to as his "Fun Jeans" ("The Convention"). He is so fond of his jeans that he gets them dry cleaned; Pam surmises that he instituted Casual Friday just to show off his jeans ("The Client").

Michael treasures his "World's Best Boss" mug, even though he bought it for himself at Spencer Gifts and presumably has multiple replacements. The audience knows that he has purchased at least two, because Dwight precariously places one of them on Michael's desk, and Michael accidentally knocks it off with a golf putter that he was using to practice with in his office. This is also proven in "The Promotion", when Michael presents Jim with his own "World's Best Boss" mug at the end of the episode that they share gin with together.

He also greatly enjoys franchise restaurants such as Sbarro, choosing to eat there on his visit to New York City rather than one of the many independent pizzerias (though it is implied that he doesn't know the difference). He also takes clients and business associates to Chili's on several occasions, and even hosts the annual Scranton Branch "Dundies" ceremony at the restaurant. In an argument with Dwight, he adamantly defends IHOP as his favorite restaurant for breakfast.

Michael is also very passionate about YouTube. He is an avid fan of the HBO television series, Entourage. It is also established that Michael tends to be a bit "behind" when it comes to pop culture references, particularly in music. This is mainly shown through his cellphone ringtones, such as "My Humps" early on in the show, or "Salt N Pepa" in "The Lover".

Personality and Management Style

Still a talented salesman, Michael has a way of relating to potential clients through regular conversation that has helped land his branch some big accounts. In addition, he advocates a personal touch in business relations. However, Michael's almost savant-like sales skills do not translate into good management skills. His laid-back approach more often results in lower than expected workplace productivity, particularly when Michael places his personal interests as a priority over work (such as his birthday, someone else's birthday, or his various seminars). To avoid being disciplined for his foolish actions, Michael often resorts to scapegoating employees to cover himself. Although his actions often lead to more problems for his employees, Michael believes that Scranton is "the cool fun branch", and is genuinely upset when the top salesman from the Utica office trashes Scranton in a phone call by saying it's "worse than Camden".

Although his position as Regional Manager gives him broad decision-making authority on branch operations, he often places those responsibilities secondary to his desire to be friends with his employees. On the other hand, he also oversteps his authority by hosting events that Corporate disapproves of such as "The Dundies", and a "Booze Cruise".

Regularly, Michael hosts seminars. Broad and loose topics for the seminars include diversity, sexual harassment, the handicapped, public speaking, drugs, homosexuality, grief counseling, prison, obesity, religion, and women's appreciation; these are delivered in an attempt to educate his staff, who all seem more aware of and more mature about the subject matter than Michael. His ignorance results in these seminars being an embarrassing disaster every time, alternately amusing and shocking the staff. Michael does his best to thwart the efforts of serious guest speakers on these topics, mostly to gain attention for him himself or trying to take over their role of speaking while in the midst of a presentation, usually to little success.

It is revealed in the episode "The Duel" that, despite Michael's unorthodox and seemingly ineffective management style, the Scranton branch outperformed both Utica and Albany, reporting strong sales despite the floundering economy. Michael is called to Corporate to answer the question, "What are you doing right?" After several minutes of Michael's inarticulate babble, his superiors concede that while Michael is definitely doing something right, they will probably never know exactly what.

Michael seems to remain loyal to the company and Dunder Mifflin CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley) because he seems to give Michael a good deal of respect. However, there have been moments when Michael has questioned his loyalty to the company; after Michael becomes upset that the company transferred Holly out of Scranton, Michael says that he has stayed at the company for a long time not because of the pay, but because his superiors give him enough respect that he could talk them down and nothing would happen. After being denied a 15 year anniversary party, Michael quits to start the Michael Scott Paper Co. with Ryan and Pam, the venture lasts a few episodes before being bought out by Dunder Mifflin.

Relationships

Michael tends to overestimate his importance to his employees, and, despite constantly demeaning and offending some of them, has a close bond with them. Most of the employees have been the focus of Michael's jokes at one point or another, usually in reference to their race, sex, size, attractiveness, or sexual orientation. Examples of Michael's difficult relationship with his staff include getting slapped by Kelly for being racist, hitting Meredith with his car, getting kicked out of Phyllis and Bob's wedding, and outing Oscar to the entire office without his permission.

Michael's relationship with the company warehouse employees is tense. He has a tendency to disrupt their daily work flow, and in a talking head interview, warehouse supervisor Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) explains that they have never been able to make a full year accident-free because of Michael's antics. CFO David Wallace tolerates Michael's antics because his branch is the best in the company, but Michael offends CEO Allan Brand and the rest of the executives during his only meeting with them.

Dwight

Of the office staff, Dwight has the most respect for Michael, viewing him as a model for success, and is thrilled when asked to handle any task given to him however ill-conceived it may be. Although on the surface, Michael usually appears dismissive of Dwight and generally views him as a suck-up, he is genuinely hurt and angry at the few times when Dwight has deceived him, such as when Dwight went over Michael's head to vie for the manager's job or when Dwight refused to reveal office secrets to Michael's new company, the Michael Scott Paper Company. Michael also cares how Dwight feels about him. After Michael beats Dwight at his own dojo, later Michael finds out that Dwight no longer wanted Michael as his primary contact in case of an emergency which causes Michael to promote him to Assistant Regional Manager, with three month probational period.

Ryan

Michael has a one-sided mancrush on Ryan, which makes Ryan uncomfortable. Examples of this are when Michael gave Ryan a $400 iPod for the staff's Christmas Secret Santa exchange, despite an agreed upon office limit of $20 per person, and when in "The Dundies", Michael gives Ryan the "Hottest in the Office" award. Michael appears to view Ryan both as an idolized friend, such as when he grew a goatee just because Ryan also grew one, or as a son, which he says he views Ryan as in "Secret Santa". In "The Deposition", a page from Michael's diary reveals he describes Ryan as being "just as hot as Jan, but in a different way." He is horrified when he finds out of Ryan's arrest for fraud, and much to the horror of David Wallace, he re-hires Ryan despite the fact that he was fired by corporate office for his crime.

Jim and Pam

Michael doesn't hesitate to compliment or criticize Pam for her looks and he frequently mentions her breasts. Their relationship comes to a rocky point when he begins dating her mother Helene. This is only repaired after he breaks up with Helene and allows Pam to punch him in the face in the parking lot. He trusts and respects Jim, although their newfound co-management status has led to clashes due to their polar-opposite management style. In "Secret Santa", Michael mentions that in a future vision he sees himself and his future wife living next door to Jim and Pam and that their children will play together. He often also refers to Jim as his best friend in the office. Michael attempts unsuccessfully to have Jim and Pam over for dinner on many occasions, though he finally succeeds in the episode " Dinner Party"; the entire evening is a disaster.

Toby

Despite liking most of the staff, Michael genuinely and openly despises Human Resources Manager Toby, likely due to Michael's enjoyment of flaunting the rules and Toby's requirement to enforce them. Michael once declares that "Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for Corporate. So he’s really not a part of our family". His longtime goal is to get rid of Toby and any attempts at reconciliation between the two usually backfire. He is particularly cruel towards Toby, often making fun of him for his divorce and making him the butt of jokes. In the episode "Goodbye Toby", Michael is thrilled that Toby is moving to Costa Rica and gives him a going away present: a rock with a note that reads "Suck it". Michael is then horrified that Toby has returned to Dunder Mifflin in "Frame Toby", and goes to great lengths to try to get him fired, even framing him for possession of marijuana, though the plan fails.

Romantic Relationships

Michael is romantically hopeless during Season 1, but does manage to have a few relationships as the series progresses. Michael has dated Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), his boss from Corporate; Carol (played by Carell's wife Nancy Walls), a real estate agent with whom Michael worked to buy his condominium; and Holly Flax (Amy Ryan), Toby's replacement as HR Representative. Michael is reasonably successful in this last relationship, as Holly has the same odd sense of humor and social awkwardness (although this is less evident), and calls her his soulmate. However, after David Wallace witnesses Holly and Michael kissing, he transfers her to Nashua and the two are forced to break up. It is evident, however, that Michael still has strong feelings for Holly, and is suggested that Holly feels the same. After Jim and Pam's wedding, Michael is revealed to be dating Pam's mother Helene in "The Lover", but breaks up with her after discovering how old she is.

Alter egos of Michael Scott

Given his proclivity of constantly trying to keep his employees entertained (and coupled with his juvenile personality), Michael has created a variety of different alter egos which he uses for both entertainment, and, at times, educational purposes. Often at times he uses these characters names to hide transacting information, and at one point his credit card uses "Michael Scarn", instead of Michael Scott.

Ping (The Dundies), an Asian caricature based on Michael's Chinese food deliveryman.

Agent Michael Scarn (The Client, E-mail Surveillance, referenced in Money, Dinner Party, Prince Family Paper) is the star of Threat Level: Midnight, a derivative spy/action hero screenplay written and illustrated by Michael. He had kept it hidden in his desk drawer until it was discovered by Pam without his knowledge.

A thinly-veiled portrayal of himself, Michael also adopts the persona in one session of his improv comedy class, ignoring the rule to base his dialogue off of his scene partners, and ultimately shooting everyone in the room, regardless of their participation in the scene. He also uses the alias in another episode to go undercover in a local paper competitor to attain information from it. (Prince Family Paper)

Prison Mike (The Convict) wears a purple bandanna over his head, speaking in a caricature of New York English, and explains that he is in prison for theft, robbery and kidnapping the president's son for ransom (although he claims, in knee-jerk defensiveness, that he was never caught). He proceeds to paint an awful, and somewhat fanciful, picture of prison life. He states that the scariest part of prison is the Dementors. The character is likely the result of Michael's take on the Scared Straight documentary series.

Michael the Magician (Cocktails) attempts to escape from a straitjacket but fails because of a lost key (actually hidden by Jim). Michael's fondness for magic is referenced throughout the series, including an off-screen visit to a children's magic camp. Michael also attempts to utilize a magic prop briefcase (which included a working chainsaw) while speaking at Karen's Utica branch in Lecture Circuit.

Michael Klump (Weight Loss) attempts to show that overweight people are people too. Michael wears a partially-inflated sumo suit underneath a business suit, and is patterned after the Eddie Murphy character in the Nutty Professor remakes.

Michael Scotch (New Boss) was co-created when Michael and Dwight were trying to contact David Wallace to complain when Charles Miner cancelled Michael's fifteenth anniversary party because of budget cuts. Michael Scotch is an overly aggressive character who threatens that he has kidnapped David Wallace's son.

Blind Guy McSqueezy (The Lover) is a character Michael created at his improv class so he could feel up women.

Caleb Crawdad (Murder) Southern Persona used for the purposes of a game.

Comparison with David Brent

Although originally based on David Brent, Scott has developed into a significantly different character than his British counterpart. Whereas Brent is shown to be irredeemably incompetent, Scott is portrayed as an outstanding salesman, unwisely promoted to a management role to which he appears completely ill-suited (see Peter Principle). A scathing performance review written by Jan Levinson stated that he should be removed from the Branch Manager position and put into a more suitable position in Sales. However, Scott has been oddly successful as regional manager. When he took over the Scranton Branch he decreased costs by 17%, without firing any personnel. After the merger of the two branches Scott does not lose a single client despite a great deal of employee turnover (much of which he was directly responsible for). He received a $3,000 bonus for firing Devon, most likely because his doing so saved the company around $50,000. Although it is suggested that Brent has had similar success, such claims only ever come from Brent himself, thus making them unreliable.

Scott's social immaturity and inability to cope with responsibility is balanced with a personality that is much more caring than Brent's, even if both make unwise comments in the heat of the moment. Unlike Brent, who pretends to be friendly with many of his employees purely for the benefit of the cameras, Scott seems to genuinely like his colleagues, with the exception of Human Resources Director Toby Flenderson. Scott's need to be liked by his staff and his belief that people see him as a genuine friend leads him to become very hurt when he realizes this is not the case.

The DVD commentary to the Pilot episode suggests that Scott's character continues a process begun in the second UK series, in which Gervais and Merchant intentionally made Brent less nasty, and more of a buffoon. It is said in the commentary that Gervais and Merchant suggested that this be applied to Scott. This also reflects a general change in the US version's attitude, which is more sympathetic to the characters, and tones down the cruel humor of the original. The commentary also says that Steve Carell had not seen more than a few minutes of the original UK series when he was offered the role of Scott, and has since made a conscious decision not to watch it in case it influences his own performance.

The show's writers have said that the 2005 hit movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin provided very useful guidance as they refined the character along with Steve Carell between the 1st and 2nd seasons. Michael Scott wore a large amount of hair gel and dressed sloppily in Season 1, but by Season 2 he had a more conventional haircut and dressed much more neatly. Also, while Michael is often rude and nasty in Season 1, he is generally nicer and less hard-edged in subsequent seasons.

Behind the scenes

• U.S. Developer Greg Daniels envisioned Michael Scott behaving as if "I was hoping that the documentary about this would one day be seen by Jennifer Aniston, and I was just trying to impress her any way I possibly could" and notes the occasional need to show Michael being competent or even effective, to justify why he is not simply fired.
• Writer B.J. Novak explains that Michael Scott drives a Sebring because it is the most ostentatious car he can afford, opting for a convertible even though the climate in Scranton is cool even in the summer.
• The script for "Gay Witch Hunt" called for Oscar to turn his head and Michael to kiss him on the cheek. Steve Carell improvised the lip-kiss.
• In most episodes written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, Michael will make a reference to Pam's breasts:
  • In "The Secret", Michael tells Jim that what he likes best about Pam is "her boobs, definitely."
  • In "Michael's Birthday", Michael tells Pam she should give herself a breast self-examination. "Those things are like ticking time-bags."
  • In "The Convention", Michael advises Pam to "unbutton that top button, let those things breathe" when she goes on her date.
  • In "Traveling Salesmen", Michael uses a speech synthesizer to say "boobs" after Pam leaves the room.
  • In the producer's cut of "The Return", Michael holds a pair of maracas in front of his chest and tells Pam, "I will shake mine, and then you will shake yours."
  • In "Women's Appreciation", Michael says, "If Pam wants to show more cleavage, she should be able to. I encourage it." In a deleted scene, Michael suggests that Pam "show 'em the twins" to entice a passing motorist to stop and help.

External links

• SteveCarellOnline.com | Fan Website
• The Office Fan Site / Michael Scott's Blog — a fan site written under the persona of Michael Scott