Like his counterpart in the original British version of the show, David Brent, he is characterized as a largely incompetent, unproductive, unprofessional boss, though he is depicted as kinder and occasionally shown to be effective at his job in key moments.

Carell later said that he had seen only about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned, and that he did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Ricky Gervais's characterizations.

On the audio commentary of the pilot episode, director Ken Kwapis says that Carell's unfamiliarity with the British version of The Office and their experience working together on Watching Ellie influenced his being cast as Scott.

[7] Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Dan Castellaneta, David Koechner (who went on to play supporting character Todd Packer), David Arquette, Richard Kind, Robert Townsend, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Guest, Kevin Nealon, Dave Foley, Owen Wilson, Jason Lee, Matthew Broderick, Jon Favreau, William H. Macy, and John C. Reilly were also considered for the role.

Pam Halpert and Ryan Howard are impressed watching him make sales and negotiate their contracts for The Michael Scott Paper Company, which he starts when he leaves Dunder Mifflin.

After being promoted to regional manager at a young age, he continued to treat work-related relationships as personal friendships, which he acknowledged was complicated because his colleagues were lower than him in the workplace's hierarchy.

Similarly, when he unintentionally offends people, he is remorseful and apologizes; the most notable example is in "Gay Witch Hunt", when he cries after realizing his use of the term "faggy" hurt Oscar's feelings.

Michael loves the theatrical stylings of Meryl Streep, describing her in "The Job" as the "best actor around," and mimics her character from The Devil Wears Prada after seeing the film.

His other interests include a pair of Levi's he refers to as "fun jeans", which he has professionally dry cleaned and are the reason he started casual Fridays, his self-bought "World's Best Boss" mug from Spencer Gifts, and Chrysler automobiles.

After their relationship, he drives a red PT Cruiser convertible and later a newer-model Sebring as a benefit of the buyout of the Michael Scott Paper Company to Dunder Mifflin in "Broke".

Despite his ineptitude, Michael is prone to brief bouts of surprising insight and is shown to have a kind heart as he shows deep, family-like affection towards the people working in the Scranton branch.

In "Initiation", Pam balks at Michael's sugar-fueled phone calls to a local business, but later realizes that his silly conversation (including a Bill Cosby imitation) helped to secure a major sale for Dunder Mifflin.

Examples of Michael's difficult relationship with his staff include getting slapped by Kelly for being racist, hitting Meredith with his car, getting kicked out of Phyllis and Bob's wedding, and outing Oscar to the entire office without his permission.

He has a tendency to disrupt their daily work flow, and in a talking head interview, warehouse supervisor Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) explains that they have never been able to make a full year accident-free because of Michael's antics.

Although many Dunder Mifflin employees are initially barely able to tolerate Michael, they gradually grow to appreciate his sincere intentions, even at times coming to find amusement in his sophomoric humor and behavior; this transition is most apparent in Pam Halpert, with whom he eventually develops a genuine friendship.

Pam is visibly touched when, after many art show attendees (including Oscar and his boyfriend Gil) dismiss her artwork, Michael is so impressed that he asks to buy her painting of their office building.

After Pam sympathetically but emphatically asks him to acknowledge that he won't be Cece's godfather, he is disappointed but does so, and is hurt to learn that the godparents are a couple they'd only recently met.

[17][18][19] Within the context of actual aired scenes, Human Resources Manager Toby often has to reprimand Michael for violating company policies, which is consistently a source of friction between the two.

Unlike her predecessor, Erin loves working as a receptionist, admires Michael and cheerfully accommodates many of his unusual requests (such as serving him a plate of ants on a log every day at 2:30 and spinning him in his chair until he's dizzy).

Erin relishes the opportunity to spend time with her boss, while Michael finds their conversation awkward and mentions that her then-boyfriend Andy Bernard was previously engaged to Angela Martin.

Around Christmas in Season 7, Toby is forced to leave the office due to being selected as part of the jury duty for a local murder case, resulting in Holly returning as the temporary HR replacement.

After Michael fails to defend Jan in her wrongful dismissal suit against Dunder Mifflin, they remain together for a short while, but end up blowing up at each other during an ill-fated dinner party and eventually break up.

[21] In the original BBC version of The Office, Ricky Gervais's character David Brent frequently uses the similar phrase "as the actress said to the bishop" as an inappropriate joke.

Whereas Brent is shown to be irredeemably incompetent in all professional domains, Scott is portrayed as an outstanding salesman who is unwisely promoted to a management role to which he appears completely ill-suited.

This is attributed, in part, to his weakness of procrastination wherein he typically forfeits a bad choice by seeking the advice of his more competent subordinates (such as Jim, Oscar, or Darryl) and uses their recommendations.

Unlike Brent, who pretends to be friendly with many of his employees purely for the benefit of the cameras, Scott seems to genuinely like his colleagues, with the exception of Human Resources Director Toby Flenderson.

The DVD commentary to the pilot episode suggests that Scott's character continues a process begun in the second UK series, in which Gervais and Merchant intentionally made Brent less nasty, and more of a buffoon.

The commentary also says that Steve Carell had not seen more than a few minutes of the original UK series when he was offered the role of Scott, and has since made a conscious decision not to watch it in case it influences his own performance.

During an interview on Marc Maron's podcast, Jenna Fischer said that, when initially developing the show, Gervais explained that it is much more common in the UK for people to spend many years working at jobs that they dislike or are unfit for than it is in the US, which is why Michael Scott is portrayed as being significantly more successful in the workplace than was Brent.

In the seventh-season episode "The Seminar", Michael in fact briefly meets David Brent in an office lobby and they establish an immediate rapport, joking together and generally signalling that they would have been good friends.