The IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4. Let’ see some fun facts and trivia about it!
1.The IT Crowd was written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Noel Fielding and Matt Berry.
2. The comedy premiered on Channel 4 on 3 February 2006, and ran for four series of six episodes each. Although a fifth series was commissioned, it was never produced.
3. The programme was concluded with a special, one-off episode, aired on 27 September 2013.
4. The show adds a large number of references to geek culture and professionalism, mostly in set dressing and props. Dialogue (both technical and cultural) is usually authentic and any technobabble used often containsin-jokes for viewers knowledgeable in such subjects.
5. Roy regularly wears shirts that feature abbreviations, such as OMFG and RTFM.
6. Series 3 Episode 1 has Roy wearing the Music Elitism Venn Diagram tee and I Screw Robots sticker from the webcomic Diesel Sweeties.
7. On occasion, there will be movie-style scenes that parody fight scenes and melodrama that departs from the multi-camera format.
8. In August 2008, unable to provide the props himself, Linehan appealed to fans to donate items to use for series 3, to make the set look like “a geek’s Shangri-La”.
9. Graham Linehan was inspired to create the series after a visit to his home by a PC repair man with questionable interpersonal skills.
10. The Centre for Computing History loaned a collection of computers from the 1970s and 1980s. They included an Altair 8800, Oric Atmos, Amstrad CPC 464, Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2, Commodore 64, Commodore PET, Atari ST, Sord M5, Acorn RISC PC600,BBC Model B, an Astro Wars game, circuit boards from a Wang VS mainframe and several shelves of old computer manuals.
11. A Map Overlay and Statistical System (MOSS) manual, with the letters M-O-S-S on the spine, sits on the shelf behind Moss.
12. On the UK DVD of The IT Crowd, one of the subtitle options comes up in ‘1337’ or ‘leet’ speak. 1337, based on the term ‘elite’, is a language of slang predominantly used by gamers and Internet users, and so fits in with the characters and general humour of The IT Crowd.
13. Many items on the set reflect Linehan’s own personal taste. There are numerous examples of this, but most noticeable are the V for Vendetta (Guy Fawkes) mask, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, various xkcd references, such as the “Map of Online Communities poster and the “Actual Size!” sticker on Moss’s computer, the Buddy Bradley doll, the Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices posters.
14. Guided by Voices is one of Linehan’s favourite bands, cropping up in background music, on T-shirts and getting a specific mention in series 3, episode 3.
15. The main stickers found around the office include the Electronic Frontier Foundation (“Fair Use has a POSSE”, “MP3 is not a crime”, “Coding is not a crime”) and the Open Rights Group.
16. In the fourth series, some Ubuntu stickers were added, including one on Moss’s monitor, Jen’s office door, the mirror and the department’s door.
17. Linehan wrote the entire series alone.
18. The show was filmed before a live studio audience, which at the time was considered by some as risky, with the format thought to have been surpassed by more fly-on-the-wall type presentations.
19. This was a deliberate choice by Linehan, who sought to challenge the current vogue for hailing the “death of the sitcom”, stating “I trust my instincts, so I’m going to do it my way and hope people come to me”.
20. The first series was recorded in front of a live audience at Teddington Studios but moved to Pinewood Studios for series 2 onwards, with some additional location footage. Cinematic-style footage were also recorded before live tapings.
21. The title sequence of the show was produced by Shynola.
22. The IT Crowd has been critically acclaimed holding a Metacritic critic score of 67/100 and a user score of 8.5.
23. The premiere of the show on Channel 4 was watched by 1.8m viewers, described as “disappointing” by BBC News.
24. However, Linehan stated he was “playing the long game” and reflected how the first series of Father Ted also “went pretty unnoticed” but went on to gain viewers and awards.
25. The series 4 finale on 30 July 2010 saw the show reach its current ratings peak of 2.17 million and was highly successful in its time slot.
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