I was irrationally exuberant about the Robert California character on the revamped The Office, replacing Steve Carell as the office manager (OK, technically he’s now the CEO of the company, Linda Hunt apparently having bailed on that role). Played by the great James Spader, California first showed up as an interviewee for the job last spring. He seemed like a cube-dweller’s existential nightmare, somebody who had no idea who he was or why he was there but was designed to unsettle the person he was talking to in a very laid back, California way.
The first couple of shows this season were some of my all time favorites on The Office… including a Halloween episode in which he prowled the office gathering each employee’s worst fears, then told a horror story that incorporated all those fears. But that was also the show where he brought his kid to work, and now he’s taken to attending employee off-duty parties and making self aware statements like “you don’t know me at all, do you?” Robert California has jumped the shark.
There’s a lesson in this for marketers. The producers didn’t just decide out of the blue to emasculate the character. They must have done lots of audience testing that told them viewers were confused by “the boss” (and everybody knows that stereotype) behaving in such an unpredictable way. It made them nervous so it had to be changed. Similarly, sometimes our best copy and creative ideas are just too weird for our prospects and we have to bite our tongues and pull back to the tried and true.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Maybe James Spader can be persuaded to do a one man show based on the “real” Robert California.
Hey, fun entry. Love to hear more on what’s happening on The Office, since there must be some conflict that I’m not getting it. Just changed over to directTV about a month ago, and have not had the time to work on learning how to program it. Someday i will watch some TV again. But i was elated last season to see that James Spader was going to be on. He is one intriguing guy. Loved watching him in Boston Legal, which i ended up watching AFTER it had been cancelled, via the gift of reruns and syndication.
That aside, you make a great point about how sometimes clients simply don’t understand a concept.
This is an opportunity. We have to listen to their reactions as as
1. a way to giving us insight to help us manage our communication with ALL of our clients, and
2. recognize that some clients just won’t get it at all, even if they say they do. Bless their hearts, I love their enthusiasm when i show three different concepts, but we’re in trouble when the client likes them all so much they want to combine them all into one project, usually resulting in a doggie’s dinner. That is, unless I can wrangle the situation and get them to see that by doing that, none of the concepts work anymore. Too much of a good thing usually results in heartburn, LOL
Thanks Carol. If you haven’t watched the Robert California arc on The Office be sure to start with the extended length episode called “The Interview” (I think) last spring where he was introduced.
Re clients that don’t get it, I’m with you. But my presumption about the producers and audience testers of The Office is that they DO get it which is why the change was made. We don’t like it but it’s based on research which is better than a client giving in to their personal feelings.
I’ve soured on The Office over the last year. There are so many episodes where there is singing, dancing and the like. It’s ridiculous. It just seems like the writers are either bored or lazy with the subject matter. Nowadays I don’t care if I miss an episode.
Marc, I agree. The last episode I watched was the one with California and his chums jamming in the warehouse… a gag that went nowhere… what’s up with that? Maybe I’m over analyzing. Maybe, as you say, the writers are just bored.