Michael Schur and the workplace sitcom

Growing up, I was obsessed with The Office. I would watch any re-run I could find on TV and re-watched the two episodes that my family for some reasoned owned on iTunes time and time again. I don't know what it was, but I couldn't get enough. This sitcom had a grip on me, a little kid far outside the target audience of the show.

In 2012 (and in the middle of a construction project on our house), I pitched my parents on Netflix just so that I could watch one show the service provided. After binging and binging, I finally completed the series start to finish, and as I let the credits roll Netflix served me with a recommendation of Parks and Recreation, which took a bit longer to hook me, but eventually grabbed me all the same. I watched the last season of the show as it aired on cable. Right around then, I also found Brooklyn Nine-Nine in its second season and was a big fan of that until it finished out its run in 2021.

While I didn't know it for a while, all of these shows were created or written by Michael Schur.

The Office (U.S.) was Michael Schur’s earliest sitcom, where he worked as both producer and writer, eventually becoming an executive producer of the show in its heyday. While Schur didn’t create the show, as it was adapted from a British original starring Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman, he played a large part in the show’s success. Schur wrote 10 episodes, including classics like “Branch Closing” (Ep 307), “Christmas Party” (Ep 310), “The Job” (Ep 324 & 325), and “The Negotiation” (Ep 319). Schur’s first credit on the show was writing “The Alliance” (Ep 104), one of the more well-received episodes of the first season, which had a rocky start. Adapting a British comedy requires a certain precision and understanding of the comedic differences between the United States and the United Kingdom. While US audiences tend to enjoy light, tongue-in-cheek humor that makes light of the daily grievances we all experience, UK audiences tend to gravitate toward darker humor, with many of their shows leaving the problems of its characters unresolved or on a rather grim note. The Office (U.K.) ends with the company shutting down and David Brent, Michael Scott’s British counterpart, out of a job and listless. As much of the first season of the US adaption was akin to the UK’s take, the show didn’t hit its stride until season 2. Michael Schur’s season two episode, “Office Olympics”, helped mark the turn away from British stylings when it ended on an uplifting note with Michael Scott receiving a gold medal, despite his absence from the day’s events. The show chose to show the compassion and camaraderie of the office workers despite their disdain for their boss, instead of ending on the note of Michael’s real estate failures and the sense of hopelessness. Being one of the first reruns I caught on TV as a kid, it sold me on the show.

Much of The Office (U.S.) relies on “cringe comedy,” a style of comedy that heightens the social awkwardness of everyday situations to an extreme that can make audiences physically recoil in discomfort. Some episodes, like “Dinner Party” and “Scott’s Tots,” can be hard to rewatch because of the extremes to which these episodes take cringe humor. While Schur’s episodes have elements of this styling, he doesn’t turn to it often, nor does he make it a central theme of his episodes. Instead, his episodes dive more into the motivations of the characters and the relationships between them that make them well-rounded and complex characters. Branch Closing shows Michael and Dwight’s dedication to their coworkers and branch as they spend the day doing what they can to save the branch (despite all they do being sit outside of an executive’s house and accomplish nothing). “The Negotiation” gives Darryl, the warehouse manager played by the talented Craig Robinson, some of his first character development and agency in the series and explores the relationship between the office and warehouse. “Christmas Party,” the episode in which Schur uses the most cringe comedy, explores the layered relationship of Jim and Pam in the clear metaphor of the layered gift Jim get Pam – the teapot. In the end, Pam gives away an iPod for the teapot because she understands how much it meant to Jim that she have it, despite not yet knowing all the deeper meaning behind it. Finally, “The Job” delivers on three seasons of relationship build-up between Jim and Pam, which makes sure not to minimize Karen’s weight in all of it. These episodes are what really make the show what it is and they are thanks to Michael Schur.

Schur’s next project was Parks and Recreation, which he co-created with Greg Daniels, who adapted The Office for American audiences. After Daniels had been given serious latitude for his next project after the success of The Office (U.S.), he brought in Schur and they came up with the idea of a comedic West Wing on a much smaller scale. Originally meant as a spin-off of The Office (U.S.), evident in the carry-over of the mockumentary style, the pair decided it would work better as its own project. Schur brought in Amy Poehler, giving up a post-Super Bowl premiere slot to do so. He knew he needed someone with the comedic chops that Steve Carell had brought to The Office (U.S.) and had worked with her during his time on Saturday Night Live, where he worked as a writer and then a producer for the “Weekend Update” segment before joining the team at The Office (U.S). While the show had the same rocky start that The Office (U.S.) did, it received the same acclaim in its later seasons. Credited with writing 19 episodes, Schur’s heartfelt explorations of relationships that he brought to The Office (U.S.) are only more prominent here. Many of the themes explored in Parks and Recreation deal with finding who and what makes you feel fulfilled and happy.

While the ensemble cast is akin to that of The Office (U.S), Poehler’s Leslie Knope is more prominently defined as the primary protagonist than Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, whom some fans argue isn’t the main protagonist in favor of Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute or John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert instead. Still, not a single character in Parks and Recreation’s ensemble goes unexplored or underdeveloped. Schur delivers on the task of juggling a variety of complex characters without diminishing their individuality or agency. Fascinatingly, Mark Brendanawicz, Parks and Recreation’s straight-man and Jim Halpert counterpart, was not long for the show, only appearing in the first two seasons. Actor Paul Schneider is quoted as leaving for creative differences over the direction of the character and while Schur left the door open for Mark to return, Schneider was never officially asked to reprise the role (Hedash 2019). Additionally, no straight-man character was brought in as a replacement, as each subsequently introduced character had his or her own quirks and oddities.

While there is no way to know why this is, Schur potentially could’ve recognized that he didn’t need a straight man and that allowing each member of the cast to feel more unique, and, therefore, more real. An episode that summarizes this understanding of the Parks and Recreation ensemble well is “The Camel,” in which the Parks department is submitting its design for a new mural in the government building. When the team cannot agree on a single design, they cut up bits from each one of them and create a horrible collage. In fear that they will lose, they turn to Mark to design one instead. His design is simple and inoffensive – an old man sitting on a park bench feeding the birds. While the design is sure to be a winner, no one’s heart is in it anymore, so in the end, they abandon Mark’s design and return to their own hideous collage and present it proudly. The straight-man character is Mark’s design, simple and inoffensive. It is who we all want to be within our own stories – to be the ones rolling our eyes at the camera, not the ones eyes are rolled about – but that isn’t really the case. We all have our own oddball traits and goofy quirks that make us who we are. Understanding that allows for more complete enjoyment of the stories we live and tell, as well as the ones we are told.

Michael Schur’s next project was a team-up with Dan Goor for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. No longer styled as a mockumentary, this workplace sitcom also builds on what came before. Like Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t feature a straight-man, nor does it need one. Brooklyn Nine-Nine still presents the same goofy attitude of the shows that came before but also tackles more serious topics with an understanding and sincerity that the other shows did not. There are episodes that deal with PTSD, LGBT dynamics in personal life and the workplace, and women’s rights and the harassment they face. As the show is about cops, episodes feature some of the hardships of the job, like “Show Me Going” in which Rosa Diaz, played by Stephanie Beatriz, is on scene at an active shooting, and the squad must deal with their worry for her safety. Having aired through the COVID-19 pandemic, the show also deals with topics surrounding the virus and matters of police brutality. What makes this show so great is its tact when approaching these subjects and the well-balanced mix of sincerity and comedy the show strikes.

While Michael Schur only wrote two episodes, the pilot and “Operation: Broken Feather,” the themes of complex relationships and heart are felt throughout the series. Even in these episodes, those themes are prominent aspects of the plot lines. “Pilot” explores the nature of a new boss and the dynamics of the workplace during such a shift. We see the squad all deal with the new workplace standards in their own ways and come to terms with them through various avenues and realizations. “Operation: Broken Feather” explores Jake’s relationship with Amy Santiago, played by Melissa Fumero, and how his background makes him feel like she is abandoning the squad, and more specifically him. Additionally, once again, no character of the ensemble goes underdeveloped, even down to the two old-timers that aren’t meant to be more than bumbling fools.

Michael Schur’s projects include diverse ensemble casts that leave no individual character on the wayside. He explores deep themes that dive into the relationships between the characters and their motivations for what they do. He is the heart behind the camera, behind the page, behind the creative vision that has allowed the workplace sitcom to thrive in the 21st century.