Before
The Office became a big hit for NBC in the United States, it was a big hit in the UK in its original version, where Ricky Gervais wrote it, directed it, and starred in it. But it was producer Ash Atalla who worked to get the show on the air in the first place, directly leading to all the success which followed. Atalla won three BAFTA awards and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on
The Office. More recently, Atalla has turned his attention to one of the support teams in every company which keeps the main office running: the Information Technology department. Last year Atalla launched a new UK series on Channel 4, which has been nominated for a BAFTA award, too:
The IT Crowd.
Roy and Moss are the real brains in the IT Dept. at Denholm's company, but he's so taken in by Jen's technobabble that he puts her in charge of the group. Can they all work together? Will this concept work in the USA? Just as with
The Office, NBC-Universal is betting that it can, because they're
adapting The IT Crowd for a Fall debut on NBC. The actor who plays "Moss" in the UK version, Richard Ayoade, is even flying across the pond for the same role in the USA version. Hopefully this will be more successful like
The Office, and less like
Coupling's dismal American version.
Ahead of NBC's fall launch of their adaption, the folks at BCI/International Voyage will bring the original UK version to American shores with a
September 4th release of
The IT Crowd - Version 1.0: The Complete 1st Season. Look for BCI's usually terrific job on extras:
- Deleted Scenes
- Outtakes
- Documentary: "Behind The IT Crowd"
- "Hello Friend" film
- Audio Commentaries
- "Geek" subtitles
- and more!
Here's a look at the box art:
