The Office debuted on NBC in spring 2005 and used a single-camera, observational documentary style that differed from traditional multicam sitcoms. The cast was largely unfamiliar aside from Steve Carell, and the actors were intentionally de-glammed so characters appeared ordinary rather than glamorized. Hair and makeup were applied before shooting but not touched up during the day to preserve a wilted-on-the-lights look. Casting favored improv-trained performers for supporting roles, expanding the pool of actors who could appear on network sitcoms and contributing to a tone of everyday awkwardness rather than idealized friend-group charisma.
What really made The Office stand out was its cast. Their faces were unfamiliar-apart from Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell, the actors were virtually unknown, unless you happened to remember who played "Messenger No. 3" in the Jimmy Fallon vehicle Taxi-but, more than that, they were different. The standard pitch for a TV sitcom was to make the cast look like a friend group you were dying to join, so funny and charismatic you could come back from an evening with them
Some of that was due to a deliberate overall de-glamming. Brian Baumgartner, who played the lumbering, slow-witted Kevin Malone, recently said that while the actors went through a traditional hair and makeup process before the beginning of the shooting day, they were forbidden from getting periodic touch-ups afterward, the better to preserve the sense that the characters, like the actors, had spent hours wilting under the lights.
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