M. Guthrie      Do you have a favorite episode or a couple or some that stand out to you?

R. Gervais      Yes, I do.  I love the one where there are no photographs of Maggie and he’s got them where he needs them most at the nuclear power plant.  Chokes me, honestly chokes me every time thinking about it, it’s just beautiful.

M. Guthrie      Can I ask you just a follow-up on the series, the kids.  That television show you’re doing with turning your kids’ cartoons into a series?

R. Gervais      Oh, The Flanimals.

M. Guthrie      How do you spell that?

R. Gervais      F-L-A-N-I-M-A-L-S.  Flanimals.  That’s animals with a F-L.

M. Guthrie      Right.  Is that for the BBC?

R. Gervais      No, probably not.  We’re making it at the moment.  It’s going to be Claymation and we’re just working on that as an idea.  But, yes, I’m very excited about that.  It really lends itself well because it’s funny and gruesome and it’s quite action packed.  I think what’s nice about it is it’s on two levels and it’s silly and ridiculous.  It’s the opposite to The Office that tried to be realistic and subtle and this is mad.

M. Guthrie      I can’t wait to see it.

R. Gervais      Nor can I.  It’s just this two-year process that I could do without.

M. Guthrie      Thank you very much.

R. Gervais      Thanks.

Moderator      Thank you.  From the Hearst Newspaper we’ll go to the line of David Martindale.  Please go ahead.

D. Martindale  Thank you for doing the call.

R. Gervais      Hello.

D Martindale   If you are as you say just in awe of The Simpson’s, was it a surreal experience to actually be part of the doing of one, and did it take away any of the mystique to look behind the curtain?

R. Gervais      Not at all.  It was an honor.  It felt like an honor at the time.  It was surreal, I was very nervous.  It was that most joyous feeling of meeting your hero and they’re better than you imagined.  That’s across the board:  the actors, the writers, the directors.  The spirit of The Simpson’s is what’s kept it just the best show for 15 odd years.  They don’t forget why they’re doing it; they’re trying to be funny.  They’re trying to bring some joy into the world and it’s there.  It’s just apparent.  It’s fantastic.

D. Martindale  Do you think that you personally could ever wrap your mind around doing as many shows of any of your shows as they’ve done of The Simpson’s?  Is it—

R. Gervais      Absolutely no way, absolutely no way.  I have to, however, lie down after six episodes of something that I create, because it’s all or nothing with me.  What excites me about something is authoring a vision and seeing it through from beginning to end.  Obviously, that wasn’t the case for The Simpson’s because I didn’t create it and do the 15 years’ build-up, so I’m not counting that …  But with The Office, Extras and whatever else I do that’s my project, it’s all or nothing.  You can’t do more than six at a time to keep that control. 

And by control, I don’t mean administer it or the power struggle with the networks; I don’t get involved in that.  I make something and hand it over to them, but it’s just the intensity of worry about everything from creating the characters, writing the dialog, casting.  I worry about the font on the back of the DVD.  That can stress me out.  That can give me a sleepless night and it would send me mad to do more than six.

D. Martindale  Thank you very much.

R. Gervais      Thanks.

Moderator      Thank you.  Next we’ll go to the line of Don Kaplan with The New York Post.  Please go ahead.

D. Kaplan       Hello, Ricky.

R. Gervais      Hello.

D. Kaplan       Can you talk a little bit about what was going through your head when Matt Greening gave you a call and said that he wanted to meet with you?

R. Gervais      Just so excited, it was mad for me.  I just won two Golden Globes, which was up until meeting the Simpson’s, the highlight and the most surreal moment of my live, and then the next day, I get this call.  I’m going back to England the same day and we have a lunch and then I’m off to the airport, and it was just such a surreal weekend.  The most exciting thing for me was the fact that one of my heroes is a fan. 

And that for me is the only upside to this by-product of what I do, this fame, is that I get to meet people like Matt Greening and Christopher Guest and Jon Stewart, and I never take it for granted.  I know how lucky I am, and that’s why I keep my feet on the ground and remember why I’m doing this.  I’m not doing it for money or fame or anything like that.  I’m doing it because I can’t think of a better way to fill my day than make jokes.  Honestly, it’s just a joy for me, the creative process.

D. Kaplan       And you said you were nervous on the first day when you showed up to work with these guys.  What was the chemistry like there?

R. Gervais      It was mad, because everyone was so nice and accommodating.  And all I was thinking before I opened my mouth was there were people around the table interrupting themselves to do another character.  In mid flow, they’re doing all these voices, and I have to come up with one little weedy voice.  I can’t read at the best of times, I’ve never had an audition; I’m not an actor as such.  And I was thinking, “If I just get away with this, that’ll be great.”  And it went down very well and then you lose your nerves pretty quickly.  And then the recording process was one of the best days ever, just doing scenes with Homer and Marge, it’s ridiculous.

D. Kaplan       Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

R. Gervais      It was amazing fun.

D. Kaplan       Thanks a lot.

R. Gervais      Thanks.

Moderator      Thank you.  We’ll now go to the line of Bill Cavini of USA Today.

R. Gervais      I think I’m going to be interrupted by this other call.  If I take that call and tell them to call back, if I cut you off, can you call back?

B. Cavini        Hello, Ricky.  Thanks for taking the call. 

R. Gervais      Hello.

B. Cavini        I had a quick question about Greg Daniels.  Was his work on The Simpson’s, did that influence you at all in choosing him for The Office?

R. Gervais      When we first went over, we’d signed the deal to let them do the remake and they wanted our input.  As you know, we act as executive producers, which all that entailed is a few meetings in the early days.  The big thing was to choose the show winner.  The caliber of people we were meeting was ridiculous; I was mildly embarrassed that I had to decide between these people, because they had all done so much more than me.  We had people from The Simpson’s, Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, just ludicrous.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Laurel and Hardy had walked in. 

And so we chose Greg, really, because of his sensibilities, really.  He said all the right things, that he wanted to keep it very, very faithful and subtle.  He’s a very quiet man, which sort of excited us for some reason and, obviously, he was brilliant.  We obviously made the right choice; I’m not saying that the others wouldn’t have done a very good job, but we’re so happy the way it’s turned out. 

As I said earlier, it’s a tale with a moral.  Everyone could have panicked in the early days, particularly NBC.  They could have panicked and watered it down and pressured us to get in stars and joke it up and have a laugh track, and they didn’t.  They really stuck to their guns.  It’s heart warming to see something like this work. 

Again as I said earlier, the first time we got a result back from the pilot, the focus group, I think it scored the lowest ever NBC score and everyone was depressed.  And I sent back saying, “That’s a great omen.  That’s exactly what it did on BBC, too.”  Which is true, we scored the joint-lowest ever focus group score, along with Women’s Balls. 

So I said, “It’s an omen.  It’s an omen.”  The people that get along to focus group, it’s just nonsense.  They are people who are force fed big, broad comedies with laughter track and guest appearances.  They’re not going to like The Office the first time they see it because they’re not going to know what they’re watching exactly.  But if you stick to your guns and you really keep to your vision and author it the way you think it should be done, there are enough people in the world that are like minded and they’re going to find it.  They’re going to find it and it’s going to be their favorite show.

B. Cavini        One thing about Greg, I think you mentioned once that “Homer Badman,” the episode he wrote of The Simpson’s, it really tweaked kind of liberal political correctness, and it seems like that has so much in common with what you’ve done on The Office.

R. Gervais      Yes, well that was one of the themes.  I suppose that’s one of the things I’m interested in.  I suppose when you live in a safe, reasonably liberal society, where you don’t want for anything and you’re not dying or being attacked, the things you worry about are social faux pas.  And I think the things that get you to that place are taboos:  race, religion, disability.  Those things are a catalyst to show people’s true colors.  And so that’s been a theme of mine that continued in Extras, obviously.  I suppose it’s been a spate about its comedy of embarrassment seems to fit its mark here with things like The Office and Extras and Curve Your Enthusiasm and stuff like that.

But no, that was never a driving force.  That was one of the smaller themes of The Office.  The thing it was meant to expose was hypocrisy.  It was much more to do with people who have PC imposed upon them and they don’t really know the ins and outs.  And David Brent just showed a man who was free falling, trying to be accepted.  It’s certainly one of the themes that I enjoy exploring, yes.

B. Cavini        And just one quick follow-up to something earlier, you sing.  Do you sing your song on The Simpson’s?  I just wanted to make sure of that and how do you judge your own performance?

R. Gervais      Absolutely.  Yes, that’s me singing and playing guitar.  I wrote it and I judge the performance as excruciating, pretty much, I think one of the most embarrassing attempts to woo a woman ever.  The trouble is, there are probably worse songs that weren’t meant to be funny, but you can’t compete with real life.

B. Cavini        Yes, you’re competing against a lot of—

R. Gervais      Exactly.  I remember we’d written The Office and we were filming it, and I saw a TV program, it was the first Big Brother.  And there were things in there that depressed me because I said to Steve I said, “We can’t compete with this.  This is funnier; real life if funnier and more excruciating and more dramatic than we could ever write.”  And it’s true, it’s just true.  There is nothing as fascinating or as funny or as tragic as just real people.

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