The Office

American adaptations of revered British TV shows have a way of crashing and burning (Anyone remember Coupling?), so it was natural to think that the U.S. version of The Office would be, at best, tolerable. Remarkably, show developer Greg Daniels (The Simpsons, King of the Hill) had the smarts to take the awkward essence of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's beloved creation and completely retool it for stateside use in the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. Brought to life by its brilliantly selected cast, the American Office is everything that an exceptional TV comedy should be—laugh-out-loud funny, disarmingly poignant, and slightly subversive. As gaffe-spewing boss Michael Scott, Steve Carell brings ineptness to an amazingly high level, and each of his unfortunate employees, including nice guy Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and beet-farming sycophant Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), are fallible and endearing in their own specific ways. Breaking free from any ties to the U.K. series after its formative stage, The Office has not only extended far beyond its predecessor in terms of longevity, it has carefully crafted its own charmingly mundane reality, with broad humor ("That's what she said.") mixing with moments of pure absurdity and surprising warmth to create a truly extraordinary show about very ordinary people.