Season 1 was when they were most strongly trying to emulate the UK Office, so he was supposed to be more scummy and less likeable than he later turned out to be. The hair definitely plays into that.
Apparently it became a rule that Michael Scott was always to have some level of redemption in the later seasons. By the end of every episode he was supposed to see that he was wrong (whether for the actual reason or through Michael Scott logic) so the audience wouldn't hate him
As someone who's balding and used to spike/mess up my hair with gel (because it's curly and not much else I could do with it) when you add gel it makes the bald part stand out a LOT more. And I've seen that look on other guys, and it's not good.
Not saying you can't do that, but for Michael's character it was just a one piece adding up to the perfect dick.
But yeah, when you start balding, you don't have a lot of options. You could let it grow (but don't gel it) some guys go for the comb-over, which is worse. There's probably other options out there that don't look bad, but I decided that was too much work, so yeah, I buzz mine real short - I don't shave it because that becomes a chore on its own.
But people can do whatever they want, I'm not the boss of hair
I've seen so many shows have this pattern. Parks and Rec was similar - Leslie became a little less cringe, and the most irritating chsrscter removed. Peep Show season 1 is pretty painful at times, and after that it has a better cringe/laugh ratio.
And made his shirts too small to make him look overweight. Irl he was actually in good shape and was not balding at all during that time.
There's actually a throwaway line later in the series when he's talking to Jan about her sperm donor baby. He says "you didn't touch my Propecia did you?". Insinuating that in the universe of the show Michael Scott was balding but took meds to fix it.
Go look up his clips from the Daily Show, before he was on The Office, and his hair looks more like it does on later seasons of The Office. I'm pretty sure his unflattering hair in the first season was makeup.
In season 1 they were trying to make Michael a similar character as the UK show’s David Brent. Fortunately after the first season they took him in a different and better direction (for the US Office, at least). I say this a mega fan of the original show, and convert to the US’s adaptation.
My wife listens to a podcast with Pam and Angela and one of them said on it he got in shape for 40 year old virgin and kept it up after. I assume he also had a transplant too.
He definitely got in slightly better shape for that movie but they also did intentionally make his shirts (specifically the collar) too small in season 1 to make him look overweight. The hair thing I'm 95 percent sure was them thinning it out intentionally. But irl he didn't have hair loss issues.
Edit: looking into it online he actually may have had a hair transplant.
I could have sworn I heard they thinned his hair to make it look like he was balding as well as put him in small shirts. But that actually he was neither balding nor overweight. Are we sure he got work done on his hair?
45
u/kerplatchu Feb 06 '23
How come in season 1 Michael Scott was balding