The Office (U.S. season 5)

Production

The fifth season of the show was produced by Reveille Productions and Deedle-Dee Productions, both in association with Universal Media Studios starting from late July 2008. The show is based upon the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom are executive producers on both the US and UK versions. The Office is produced by Greg Daniels, who is also an executive producer. Daniels would have a limited role in this season, not writing an episode, as he was busy writing his new show, Parks and Recreation which he co-created with Office writer/producer Michael Schur, who left the writing staff of The Office to focus on the new show. Returning writers from the previous season include Mindy Kaling, B. J. Novak, Paul Lieberstein, Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky, Lester Lewis, Brent Forrester, Justin Spitzer, and Jennifer Celotta. This season saw many new additions to the writing staff, including Ryan Koh, Aaron Shure, Charlie Grandy, Anthony Q. Farrell, Warren Lieberstein, and Halsted Sullivan. Lieberstein and Celotta were promoted to executive producers, with Lieberstein becoming the new showrunner, to take over from Daniels. Kaling, Novak, Eisenberg and Stupnitsky were co-executive producers; Lewis and Forrester were consulting producers; and Spitzer and Grandy were producers.

This season featured 28 episodes directed by 16 directors. Paul Feig, Jeffrey Blitz, Ken Kwapis, and Randall Einhorn each directed several episodes during the season, while Greg Daniels, David Rogers, Stephen Merchant, Jason Reitman, Dean Holland, Asaad Kelada, Ken Whittingham, and Paul Lieberstein directed an episode each. While writers Jennifer Celotta, Gene Stupnitsky and Brent Forrester each made their director debut, with series star Steve Carell directing his first episode.

Cast

Many characters portrayed by The Office cast are based on the British version of the show. While these characters normally have the same attitude and perceptions as their British counterparts, the roles have been redesigned to better fit the American show. The show is known for its generally large cast size, with many of its actors and actresses known particularly for their improvisational work. Steve Carell stars as Michael Scott, Regional Manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch. Loosely based on David Brent, Gervais' character in the British version, Scott is a dim-witted and lonely man, who attempts to win friends as the office comedian, usually making himself look bad in the process. Rainn Wilson portrays Dwight Schrute, who, based upon Gareth Keenan, is the Assistant to the Regional Manager, although the character frequently fails to include "to the" in his title. John Krasinski portrays Jim Halpert, a sales representative, assistant manager, and prankster, who is based upon Tim Canterbury, and is in love with Pam Beesly, the receptionist. Jenna Fischer portrays Pam, who is based on Dawn Tinsley. She is shy, but in many cases a cohort with Jim in his pranks on Dwight. B. J. Novak portrays Ryan Howard, based on Ricky Howard and Neil Godwin, who at the end of the fourth season was arrested while acting as Vice President, North East Region and Director of New Media, returns to Scranton as a temp on the fifth season. On the episode "Frame Toby", Novak's character leaves the office to travel to Thailand. Novak actually took a leave of absence from the show to appear in Quentin Tarantino's film, Inglourious Basterds, although he still resumed his role later in the season.

The show includes many supporting characters playing roles of office workers. Angela Martin, Oscar Martinez, and Kevin Malone, based on Keith Bishop, are the office's accountants, and are portrayed by Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, and Brian Baumgartner, respectively. Schrute, Halpert, Phyllis Lapin-Vance (portrayed by Phyllis Smith), Stanley Hudson (portrayed by Leslie David Baker), and Andy Bernard (portrayed by Ed Helms) compose the sales division of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Although not one of the original cast members, Andy is considered by many people one of the lead roles and in the season 6 episode "Sabre" he was added to the opening credits. Kate Flannery portrays Meredith Palmer, the promiscuous Supplier Relations Representative, writer-actress Mindy Kaling portrays Kelly Kapoor, the pop-culture obsessed Customer Service Representative, writer-actor Paul Lieberstein portrays Toby Flenderson, the sad-eyed Human Resources Representative who left to Costa Rica on the fourth season finale, who returns to replace Holly Flax, portrayed by Amy Ryan, Michael's love interest. Creed Bratton plays a fictionalized version of himself as the office's Quality Assurance Officer. Other characters include Warehouse Supervisor Darryl Philbin, played by Craig Robinson, and Jan Levinson, former Dunder Mifflin employee and Michael's ex-girlfriend, who is portrayed by Melora Hardin, although she was only present in the beginning of the season. Also Erin Hannon played by Ellie Kemper, debuted in season five as the new receptionist after Pam left for the Michael Scott Paper Company. She is the new love interest of Andy.

Ratings

The fifth season premiere "Weight Loss" received a 4.9/11 in the Nielsen ratings meaning that it was seen by 4.9% of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 13% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This marked a rise in the ratings set by the fourth season finale, "Goodbye, Toby". The season reached a high with "Stress Relief" due to it airing after Super Bowl XLIII. The season finale, "Company Picnic" became the lowest-rated episode of the season with 6.72 million viewers and a 3.9 rating/12% share in the 18–49 demographic. Ratings taken at the end of the season placed it at #52 out of 193 programs. This marked a significant rise in the ratings from the previous season.

Review

The Office: Season Five received generally positive reviews. DVDTalk.com rated the season four stars out of five saying that "After a truncated and ever-so-slightly uneven fourth year, Season 5 of The Office stands tall as one of the finest to date. The show's effortless balance of drama, intrigue and pitch-perfect comedy remains remarkably consistent, thanks to strong performances, clever writing and a devoted creative team." Film.com gave the season a positive review saying "Season five reminds us why we continue to root for Michael Scott". Sitcoms Online reviewed the Season 5 DVD set, and in the final comments section of the review said "It's a great show, and a great set, and it'll be extremely interesting to see how the show is continued this fall. It's the funniest show on broadcast TV right now, in my opinion, and I highly recommend the fifth season." Travis Fickett of IGN stated that it "feels a lot like the downward slope of a great series. I don't believe this was a bad season, but it is a season that let us see the show's age and put the concept to the test." He appreciated the writers for trying to change the status quo calling it "both necessary and appreciated". He ultimately gave the season a 7.9/10. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, while reviewing "Company Picnic", called the season "my favorite season of The Office to date" commenting, "I don't know that it's ever been this consistently satisfying, because the characters have become so richly-drawn, and because the writers [...] have really learned to trust their actors to convey so much emotion in really quiet moments".

Awards

The fifth season has received a significant number of nominations, including 10 for Emmy Awards, 3 for Teen Choice Award, and 2 for TCA Awards. The ten nominations for the 2009 Emmy Awards were announced on July 16, and include the categories: "Comedy Series" for the entire season; "Comedy Series Lead Actor" for Steve Carell for the episode "Broke"; "Comedy Series Supporting Actor" for Rainn Wilson in "Heavy Competition"; "Comedy Series Directing" for Jeffrey Blitz for the episode "Stress Relief"; "Comedy Series Editing" for Stuart Brass for "Two Weeks", Claire Scanlon for "Dream Team", and David Rogers and Dean Holland for "Stress Relief"; "Comedy Series Sound Mixing" for "Michael Scott Paper Company"; "Comedy Series Casting" for Allison Jones; "Interactive Media - Fiction" for 'The Office Media Experience, NBC.com. It won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Jeffrey Blitz for the episode Stress Relief.

The three Teen Choice Awards nominations were for the show, the actor and the actress categories. The Television Critics Awards nominations were for the "Outstanding Achievement in Comedy" and for "Individual Achievement in Comedy" categories. The show also received nominations from TCA for best TV of the decade for Comedy Series and two for Comedy Actor.

Episodes

In the following table, "U.S. viewers (million)" refers to the number of Americans who viewed the episode on the night of broadcast. Episodes are listed by the order in which they aired, and may not necessarily correspond to their production codes. ^‡ denotes an hour-long episode (with advertisements; actual runtime around 42 minutes).

Media release

The fifth season was released as boxsets on DVD and on Blu-ray on September 9, 2009. The 5 DVD box set includes, aside from the episodes, multiple deleted scenes, episode commentaries by various members of the production team, a "Gag Reel", a presentation of the show made by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, show ads that ran during the Super Bowl and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as several webisodes. The Blu-ray version has 4 discs and includes, in addition to the DVD content, BD-LIVE, a program which allows access to BD-Live Center for accessing online content such as trailers and downloading exclusive content. Another software included is "One-Liner Soundboard" which allows users to create audio mixes from stringing one-liners and quotes from the show, and to share these online via BD-LIVE. On the same date, The Office: Seasons 1–5 Collection was also made available.