Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character in the NBC sitcom The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell. Michael is the regional manager of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company, for the majority of the series. Like his counterpart in the original British version of the show, David Brent, he is characterized as a largely incompetent, unproductive, unprofessional boss, though he is depicted as kinder and occasionally shown to be effective at his job in key moments.
Towards the end of the seventh season, he marries human resources representative Holly Flax and moves to Colorado with her in "Goodbye, Michael", an extended episode. He is then absent from the series until the finale.
Carell received significant critical acclaim for his performance. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy and received six consecutive nominations both for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series.
Casting
All original series characters were adapted for the American version. NBC programmer Tracy McLaughlin suggested Paul Giamatti to producer Ben Silverman for the role of Michael Scott, but the actor declined. Martin Short, Hank Azaria, and Bob Odenkirk were also reported to be interested, with Odenkirk auditioning. Silverman offered the role to Ricky Gervais, who played David Brent in the British version, but he declined as he felt it didn't make any sense and didn't want to move to America. In January 2004, Variety reported that Steve Carell of the popular Comedy Central program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was in talks for the role. At the time, he was already committed to another NBC mid-season replacement comedy, Come to Papa.
With Carell unavailable, Odenkirk was selected as Michael Scott and was part of the cast presented to NBC executives. Paul Rudd advised Carell that the American version of The Office would never be as good as the British version. However, Come to Papa was quickly cancelled, allowing Carell to commit to The Office. Odenkirk went on to appear in the series in a brief role as an office manager reminiscent of Scott. Carell later said that he had seen only about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned, and that he did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais's characterizations. On the audio commentary of the pilot episode, director Ken Kwapis says that Carell's unfamiliarity with the British version of The Office and their experience working together on Watching Ellie influenced his being cast as Scott.Carell, Steve (Actor). 2005. "Pilot" [Commentary track], The Office Season One (U.S./NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.
Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Tim Blake Nelson, Stephen Colbert, David Herman, Mike White, Greg Kinnear, David Cross, Rob Schneider, and Noah Emmerich, among others, turned down the role.
Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Dan Castellaneta, David Koechner (who went on to play supporting character Todd Packer), David Arquette, Richard Kind, Robert Townsend, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Guest, Kevin Nealon, Dave Foley, Owen Wilson, Jason Lee, Matthew Broderick, Jon Favreau, William H. Macy, and John C. Reilly were also considered for the role. Louis C.K. and Nick Offerman also read for the role. C.K. was not able to get it as he had a deal with CBS.
Two of Carell's supporting film roles helped get audiences' attention: in Bruce Almighty, where Carell plays Evan Baxter, who gets a humorous comeuppance while co-anchoring the news, and in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, where Carell played slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. Although The Office premiered to mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season because of the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award in 2006 for his role, and received Emmy nominations from 2006 to 2011.
Although The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a surprise success, Carell said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had no plans to leave The Office. However, on the BBC Radio 5 Live Film Review show, he said that his time on the show would probably end when his contract ran out after Season 7. This was later confirmed on June 28, 2010, when he announced that the seventh season would be his last.
Character details, arc, backstory Biography Michael Gary Scott was born on March 15, 1965,In the episode Broke, which aired April 23, 2009, Michael states that he is 44 years old.In the episode Michael's Birthday, which aired March 30, 2006, Michael states that he shares a birthday with Eva Longoria. in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He came from a relatively difficult childhood of loneliness. In the pilot, he mentions having a brother. Michael had some trouble with his early education (shown in "Dunder Mifflin Infinity") as Michael tells the camera crew he was held back in second grade. In "Diversity Day", he claims to be of English, Irish, German and Scottish descent, and also claims to be "two-fifteenths" Native American. He has also mentioned a stepfather, Jeff. In "Nepotism", it is revealed that he had a half-sister, from whom he'd been estranged for 15 years. After their reunion, Michael hires her son (and his nephew) Luke as an office intern, but eventually confronts him about his incompetent, rude behaviour and spanks him in front of the office staff, causing him to burst into tears and quit.
In the episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", Michael claims that he was a child star on a kids' show called Fundle Bundle; however, it becomes clear that he simply appeared on the show as one of many guest children. As the office staff watch an old recording of his episode, the young Michael speaks touchingly about what he wants when he grows up: to get married, and to have "100 kids" so none of them could say no to being his friend. In "The Fire", it is revealed that Michael did not attend college, having lost all of his tuition money in a pyramid scheme.
Michael started at Dunder Mifflin as a salesman in the early 1990s. In "Dwight's Speech", he shows the plaque and certificates he received in 1996 and 1997 for 'Top Salesman of the Year'. Dwight also praised him in a deleted scene from "The Coup" for winning consecutive awards for the best salesman. In "Two Weeks", he claims to have acquired half of the Scranton branch's client base. In "The Client", he impresses his then-manager, Jan Levinson-Gould, by single-handedly acquiring an important client through somewhat unorthodox methods. Pam Halpert and Ryan Howard are impressed watching him make sales and negotiate their contracts for The Michael Scott Paper Company, which he starts when he leaves Dunder Mifflin. In "Koi Pond", Jim Halpert concedes that he might never become as good a salesman as Michael.
During a candid conversation in "The Fire", Michael tells Ryan that he became a salesman because he loved making friends. After being promoted to regional manager at a young age, he continued to treat work-related relationships as personal friendships, which he acknowledged was complicated because his colleagues were lower than him in the workplace's hierarchy. He seems to have few relationships outside the office.
In his interactions with other characters, Michael is oblivious to most social norms. He tends to overestimate his own importance in the eyes of his coworkers, and can't understand why they don't share his enthusiasm for his unconventional ideas and interests. He believes an office should be the "place where dreams come true."
He is loyal to the company and tries to help his employees when he thinks they are having problems. Michael has been at Dunder Mifflin (as of "Michael's Last Dundies") 9,986,000 minutes, which means that he has worked there since April 1992.
Michael's constant desire to be the center of attention often manifests itself in selfish behavior. When he burns his foot in "The Injury", he expects Pam and Ryan to tend to his needs, despite Dwight's much more serious concussion. When invited to "Phyllis' Wedding", he assumes his participation will be the high point of the ceremony. He pouts when he is upstaged by Phyllis' elderly father, eventually giving an insulting, overly familiar toast that gets him banned from the reception. His desire to be liked often leads him to make unwise decisions and unfeasible promises without considering the consequences, only to back out when they result in an undesirable comeuppance. He appears to emphasize moments of sympathy or civility directed at him by his coworkers (mostly Jim) and inflates their importance to compensate for his loneliness.
Michael is irresponsible with his finances, and at one point is so heavily in debt he must take a second job as a telemarketer. Oscar, an office accountant, makes a chart of Michael's spending habits and chides him for spending too much money on things "nobody ever needs", such as multiple magic sets and professional bass fishing equipment. Eventually, Michael is forced to declare bankruptcy.
Due to his lack of common sense, Michael is often the butt of jokes. He is quick to take offense when wronged and his response is often disproportionate to the harm he suffers. Similarly, when he unintentionally offends people, he is remorseful and apologizes; the most notable example is in "Gay Witch Hunt", when he cries after realizing his use of the term "faggy" hurt Oscar's feelings. Even though he is often oblivious to criticism, derision and sarcasm, there are limits to his patience—for example, when he demands professional respect from Stanley Hudson in "Did I Stutter?", and defends Holly against the staff's criticism in "Business Ethics".
In "The Meeting", it is shown that Michael does not always consider his employees' success, or even his own, when he sabotages Jim with a bad recommendation, mistakenly believing Jim's promotion would lead to Michael's firing. He does, however, concede to a co-managerial position with Jim to avoid losing him.
A hopeless romantic, Michael has had several romantic relationships, most notably with executive Jan, who becomes so domineering that he ends their relationship. He eventually settles down with Holly, who shares his sense of humor and "gets him". He eventually quits Dunder Mifflin and moves to Boulder, Colorado to help Holly care for her ailing parents. In unseen events, they marry and have four children.
Interests
Michael's catchphrase is "That's what she said!", which he utters—even in places such as business meetings and legal depositions—whenever someone says something that can be made into a sexually suggestive double entendre. He finds the phrase so irresistible that in "Sexual Harassment", Jim induces him to say it just seconds after Jan Levinson and a corporate lawyer specifically asks him to stop.
Michael has diverse interests in media. Song parody writing is often referred to: In "Goodbye, Toby", he relates the titles of two of his songs, "Beers in Heaven" (a "Tears In Heaven" parody) and "Total Eclipse of the Fart" (a "Total Eclipse of the Heart" parody), before singing a rendition of "Goodbye Stranger" as a departing gesture to Toby. He performs his parody of "The Chanukah Song" to reflect the Diwali celebration Kelly hosts.
In "Dream Team", he comes up with "Achey Breaky Fart (an "Achy Breaky Heart" parody) and "My Stumps" (a "My Humps" parody) during a brainstorming exercise. He aspires to finish filming his original movie, Threat Level: Midnight, whose script the staff finds and gives a table reading. After ten years of production, often using areas of the office as sets, Michael screens the completed movie for the staff in the seventh-season episode of the same name.