The Office Premiered 16 Years Ago Today

On March 24th, 2005, NBC premiered The Office, their adaptation of the British series starring Ricky Gervais as David Brent, an office manager who says and does the wrong thing all the time. In a case of fortuitous timing, the new series had already cast Steve Carell before The 40 Year-Old Virgin made him a movie star) giving The Office enough cache to survive a critically-mixed first season to ultimately become one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time.

In this compilation of highlights from the show's pilot episode, we see Michael Scott (Carell) being his forever-cringey self, plus hints of the future relationship between Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), the never-ending antagonism between Jim and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and even "the new guy" Ryan (writer B.J. Novak) getting a zinger in.

The Office is now streaming on Peacock.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.