The Office

With unshaken enthusiasm, Michael believes he is the office funnyman, a fountain of business wisdom and his employees’ cool friend. He has no clue that his employees tolerate his inappropriate behavior only because he signs their paychecks. Painstakingly trying to be liked and to look cool, Michael comes off alternately absurd and pathetic. His prize possession is his “World’s Greatest Boss” mug — which he had to buy for himself.

Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer, “Walk Hard,” “Blades of Glory”) is the reasonable and friendly office receptionist who bears the brunt of Michael’s routines. The bright spots in Pam’s day are her conversations with Jim Halpert (John Krasinski, “Leatherheads” “The Holiday”), a likable sales rep with a good sense of humor who should have found a better job years ago, but is too comfortable with his office mates and routine to leave.

Jim shares his working space with Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson, “The Rocker,” “The Last Mimzy”), the arrogant assistant to the regional manager. Dwight is intensely irritating to normal people while Jim spends a lot of time finding new, interesting ways to drive Dwight crazy.

Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak, “Punk’d”) is the young, smart, former temp, who quickly figured out the real office politics despite Michael’s attempts to instill the official point-of-view.

“The Office” is executive-produced by Ben Silverman, Greg Daniels, who developed the series for American audiences, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein and Paul Lieberstein.