stevenberlinjohnson.com: The IT Crowd

Thanks in part to Cory's evangelizing, I've become completely obsessed with the UK geekcom "The IT Crowd", which apparently has now finished its (rather short) first season after six hilarious episodes. As much as I enjoy all the low-key, laugh-trackless, pseudo-documentary cool of most recent smart sitcoms (both Offices, Curbed, etc.) it's refreshing that The IT Crowd's creators went in the other direction with this show, bringing in all sorts of Pythonesque absurdisms and broad comedy. (Even the laugh track doesn't bother me here, for some reason.) My favorite moments from season one: the iPhoto slideshow at the end of episode one; the fire in episode two; the former-rising-business-star-turned-goth discovered living in the basement in episode four; and Jen's back-from-the-dead haunting of her would-be boyfriend in episode five.

My interest in the show is a bit of a personal threshold point in terms of television distribution. This is the first time I've been able to have an early adopter relationship with a TV series from another country while it's still airing new episodes of season one. (I remember hearing about The Office second-hand on and off for about a year or two before I actually watched it.) I'm curious if the show is perceived to have been a success over in the UK, and if so, how much the international success online has been factor. And why isn't it on iTunes? Why is anything not on iTunes by this point? This is one of those products that I'm genuinely eager to pay for, not just because I think it's easily worth a couple bucks, but mostly because I want to fund more episodes. Six is not nearly enough.

Update 9:30 PM EST: Cory correctly writes in to point out in the comments that it is not a laugh track you're hearing on the show, but in fact a "live studio audience." (Though most of the scenes shot outside the actual IT headquarters in the basement presumably don't have a live studio audience, since they seem to be location shots of some kind.) I generally find both forms of background laughter distracting and overly choreographed, but it's true that canned laughter is more annoying.

Secondly, according to Wikipedia, another eight episodes have been commissioned for season two. Excellent.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

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The IT Crowd

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