On March 24, 2005, NBC aired the first episode of The Office, an American remake of the universally acclaimed, Golden Globe-winning BBC comedy of the same name. The premiere, a mockumentary that introduced the staff of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania, pulled in a decent-sized audience that night. It drew 11.2 million viewers following an episode of The Apprentice — but even with that start, expectations for the show were not high.
NBC had produced a pilot for The Office, written by King of the Hill co-creator Greg Daniels, in early 2004, just after Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s BBC show won the Golden Globe for best comedy and Gervais took home the award for best actor in a comedy. The network ordered the show to series that spring but picked up only five more episodes. After premiering on a Thursday, the remaining episodes ran on Tuesday nights, where it struggled.
