WHY A DOC?

Over in the blog by Alan Sepinwall, "What's Alan Watching?" (links to the left), a comment was left by "Big Sweet", which I felt had Toobworldian merit:

"But here's a question that's been bugging me for a while now. So the world's best sitcom is shot as a documentary, right? While the Brits were probably more adept at keeping true to form (think the mics coming off when Tim lays it out there to Dawn versus the camera shots like Michael and Jan's feet a few episodes back), the Americans have stayed pretty true to that concept as well.

My question is this: the British version definitely 'aired,' at least by the time of the special. Remember D. Brent, always explaining he wasn't the doofus boss from the BBC2 show? Is there a corollary on the US side? It's not clear to me that there is, which seems strange. Why are they filming?"

This was my response:

"Since the US version has been running for several seasons now, I'm thinking that they must be filming enough material for a documentary series, rather than just for a one-time-only special.Something similar to that series on A&E about the Southwestern airline terminal, I'm thinking...."

We could actually be seeing the finished product of that Toobworld series, instead of just the raw footage caught that particular day. And I still like that idea that within Toobworld, 'According To Jim' is a spin-off centering around Jim Halpert.

BCnU!
Toby OB