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Candid discussion with Chris O’Dowd of “The IT Crowd”
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Did you see last night's match?
The April 7 release of series one, my people call it the first season, of the hilarious britcom “The IT Crowd” provided a chance to speak with series star Chris O’Dowd. My review of the incredible first season will appear next week. I learned recently as well that the DVD set of the equally incredible second season is being released in June. This show is one reaason for my love of British television.
This is another show that a past career allows me to enjoy particularly. I was a help desk specialist/computer instructor at the Federal Communications Commission for roughly one year. I can relate to the phrase “Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?” that was a frequent joke in the first season of “The IT Crowd”
“The IT Crowd,” which runs on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) in the U.S., has O’Dowd and his co-star Richard Ayoade playing Roy and Moss, who are ultra-computer geeks with the stereotypical social skills of people who provide technical support. Katherine Parkinson plays the straight person as their manager Jen, who bluffed her way into her job and has very limited computer skills or aptitude.
Talking with O’Dowd confirmed that he had the frantic energy, cynicism, and limited attention span of his terrific character Roy. O’Dowd’s response to whether he chooses the tech-oriented t-shirts that Roy wears was that he and series creator and producer Graham Linehan select the shirts.
O’Dowd stated as well that “I thought that it would be a fun character trait to not wear the same t-shirt twice.” When I mentioned that I liked the t-shirt that had the acronym “RTFM” in the pilot, O’Dowd shared that it was one of his favorites. This acronym stands basically for “Read the Manual.”
I also referred to a “ripped from the headlines” episode from a later season in asking if a German cannibal had eaten Jen’s predecessor. Thinking that I was referring to Jen, O’Dowd said “He tried, but she was too bitter.”
When I clarified the question, O’Dowd stated that Roy and Moss had not had a manager before Jen. He shared too that they used to store old hard drives in what became her office.
I also asked O’Dowd about the large corporation for which Roy and Moss worked having only two tech. guys. He responded that “He [Roy] is incredibly good at what he does, and I am incredibly good at watching him.”
O’Dowd was unsure if the DVD had Easter eggs but stated that one episode had subtitles in “Leet-speak,” which I understand is a process of converting letters into numbers and other symbols. The better geeks out there are encouraged to correct me if I am wrong.
I learned as well that the final episode of the third season which is called “Nude Calendar” in the U.S. is called “Calendar Geek” in the U.K.
When asked if there would be a fourth season of “The IT Crowd,” O’Dowd responded that they would be filming a Christmas special this summer and would probably film a new season of the show later this year.
Regarding other future projects, O’Dowd told me that he was beginning work on a new film version of “Gulliver’s Travels” in three weeks. Jack Black is playing Gulliver and O’Dowd is playing an enemy of a character that sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” star Jason Segel is playing. O’Dowd added that the enemies were battling over a princess that Emily Blount is playing.
When O’Dowd announced that “Gulliver” was opening in July 2010, I remarked that it might be competing with the film version of the last Harry Potter novel. This prompted a hilarious stream-of-consciousness monologue that basically had O’Dowd saying in an amusing crude and entirely joking manner that his film would be much more popular and essentially that he would treat Potter star Daniel Radcliffe as the new fish on the cell block.
O’Dowd stated too that he had a bromance with Segel and loved Segel’s current film, “I Love You Man.”
When asked whether he was a p.c. or Mac guy, which is the geek version of asking “boxers or briefs,” O’Dowd responded that he was a Mac guy because it was so much easier than using a p.c. He joked as well that Macs facilitated looking at massive amounts of pornography. He also liked my comment “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”
Our conversation veered further into personal aspects of O’Dowd’s life. In discussing a bestiality joke that O’Dowd made during an interview that is on a special feature on the “The IT Crowd” DVD, I remarked that he likely would have referred to sheep if he was from Wales or was Scottish. He responded “We’re all about cows in Western Ireland.”
I told O’Dowd that I had lived in Vermont and that there were a lot of cows there. I also asked if he had ever gone cow tipping; he said that he had many years ago but that it was much more difficult than he had thought that it would be. He shared that you need to get a good running start and really put your shoulder into the cow. For the record, I have never gone cow tipping and do not advocate this activity that really hurts these animals.
O’Dowd stated too that the pancakes and waffles in the U.S. were much better than those in the U.K. and that he would like to move an entire Denny’s restaurant there. He did not seem to grasp my sentiment, as a native of New Hampshire, that the real maple syrup is much better than what they serve at Denny’s and that he should ship tons of it to the U.K.
When asked if O’Dowd had any other words for his U.S. fans, he said “Geeks of the U.S. unite.”
Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding this terrific actor and all around good guy no matter what he says as additions to this entry or as e-mail to tvdvdguy@gmail.com.
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