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Ferrell’s familiarity with Steve Carell was palpable, writes Hadley Freeman , but so was an itchiness in his new role And all too soon, he was finished. That’s what she said. On Thursday night, Michael Scott – the double entendre-dropping boss played by Steve Carell on the hugely successful US version of The Office – started to take leave of the show. To ease the trauma for the 7.3m US viewers who watch it every week, not to mention its cast members, who have publicly admitted to concern about the show’s future without Carell, the producers hired a new boss to take over as manager. Scott introduced Deangelo Vickers to the staff at Dunder Mifflin, and he soon revealed himself to be boorish, cruel, and in possession of an inexplicable fondness for terrible paintings of deserts. On the plus side, he is played by Will Ferrell. The original UK version of The Office ran for only 14 episodes, whereas The Office: An American Workplace has been on air since 2005, providing more of the characters with more storylines than the original possibly could. Gervais’s Office has been adapted in many countries around the world but, thanks to the presence of Carell, the US version is the most high-profile, and has been one of NBC’s most consistently popular shows. The cast was made up of near-unknowns, with the exception of Carell, who, it is rumoured, now wants to concentrate on more serious film roles, like the one he played to critical acclaim in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. Ferrell and Carell have acted together before in the films Bewitched and – somewhat more successfully – Anchorman. From the moment the latest episode of The Office opened, with the two of them talking to one another in a bar without realising each was whom the other was waiting for, their familiarity with one another was palpable, but so was Ferrell’s itchiness in his new role. Ferrell is a broad comedian, one the big screen sometimes hardly contains, and watching him try to tamp down his natural tendencies so as not to overwhelm was like listening to someone speak muffled: painful and not very clear. In an interview with the New York Times, Ferrell, who will stay for only four episodes, admitted to feelings of anxiety about joining such a beloved show with such an established cast: “I just really wanted to fit in. [It's] that first day of school feeling.” He’s not the only one. The show’s network, NBC, has become such a byword for beleaguered in the US that it is a running joke on the comedy show 30 Rock, even though it, too, is shown on NBC. By the end of the episode, Deangelo was beginning to fit in nicely, and Michael Scott was packing up. Scott’s finale at the end of the month will guest star Ricky Gervais and will be, producers promise, huge. That’s what he said. US television Television US television industry Will Ferrell Steve Carell NBC Television industry United States Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk