The Office is a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award winning and Emmy-nominated British television comedy that first aired in the UK on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough, Berkshire branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Although fictional and scripted, the programme takes the form of a documentary (a fictional documentary, i.e. a mockumentary), with the presence of the camera often acknowledged. Two six-episode series were made, along with a pair of 45-minute Christmas specials. As well as being shown internationally on BBC Worldwide channels such as BBC Prime, BBC America and BBC Canada, the series has been sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand and the pan-Asian satellite channel STAR World, based in Hong Kong. The Office is also a Golden Globe, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning American television sitcom airing on National Broadcasting Company (NBC). It was adapted for American audiences by executive producer Greg Daniels, a veteran writer for Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. Original series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who wrote "The Convict" episode, have production credits. It is co-produced by Greg Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studios. The show debuted on NBC as a midseason replacement on March 24, 2005, replacing the short–lived sitcom Committed. Unlike many American sitcoms, The Office is shot in a single-camera setup, without a studio audience or a laugh track, much like the original. It depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The main cast of characters does resemble the original series, with a pilot episode that closely reflects the original pilot script, but the characters quickly took on a life of their own as the series progressed, with increased emphasis on the secondary characters as well as character developments in the main cast.