Greg Daniels is at his best when he lets ordinary people be foolish without making them contemptible. We value the patience of King of the Hill more than the exaggerated embarrassments that sometimes trouble The Office.
Fi1m perspective
Four men stare at a lawnmower in King of the Hill (1997), and the shot lasts long enough to be the joke. We laughed because Greg Daniels and Mike Judge trust the pause, rather than making the men do anything more amusing than look. Their propane salesman, Hank Hill, wants things to work properly, and that modest wish supplies plenty of trouble. Daniels is worth watching for this willingness to stay with people whose problems need no enlargement.
Daniels joined the writing staff of The Simpsons (1989) in 1993, contributing episodes including Homer and Apu and Lisa's Wedding. That programme's sharpest stretches make room for tenderness amid the merciless jokes. With Judge, he built King of the Hill around people drawn at human proportions, in the flat browns and greens of an ordinary suburb. Its long run does wear some stories thin, but the restraint gives small disagreements enough weight to carry an episode.
The Office (2005) needed a more conspicuous adjustment: Daniels adapted the British series, then found a warmer American tone. The borrowed situations initially get in the cast's way, inviting comparisons before these characters have had time to become distinct. The mockumentary format lets them explain themselves to the camera while their behaviour gives us reasons to doubt them. Steve Carell's Michael Scott makes the boss's need to be liked funny, exhausting and occasionally touching. Daniels becomes more persuasive as the characters develop their own foolish habits, although an embarrassment can still be pushed so far that we stop believing anyone would behave like this.
With Michael Schur, he co-created Parks and Recreation (2009), taking workplace comedy into local government. Creating the digital-afterlife comedy Upload (2020) took him further from the familiar office and suburb. We are most interested when the premise leaves him time to notice how people irritate one another, then have to carry on together. He does not need a bigger embarrassment to make that funny. Start with King of the Hill, but allow yourself to leave the alley when the stories begin to feel familiar.
Biography
Greg Daniels is an American screenwriter, television producer and director. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon alongside Conan O'Brien.
Daniels began his career writing for Not Necessarily the News and Saturday Night Live. He wrote the Seinfeld episode 'The Parking Space' (1992) and joined the writing staff of The Simpsons in 1993, contributing episodes including 'Lisa's Wedding' and 'Bart Sells His Soul'. He later co-created King of the Hill with Mike Judge, adapted the British series The Office for American television, and co-created Parks and Recreation.
Daniels has received multiple Emmy Awards, including for writing on Saturday Night Live and animated programming on The Simpsons. He is married to Susanne Daniels.
