Awards News

To understand what the TV comedy world is losing with the departure of the Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant-created "Extras," which aired in the U.S. on HBO, look no further than the climax of the series' two-hour finale that aired in December (and will compete in the made-for-TV movie category).

While "Extras" was not unique in finding humor in both the high- and lowbrow, few TV comedy writers tread into such psychologically dark waters as Gervais and Merchant, twice nominated for comedy writing Emmys and once for directing (in addition to the Emmy that Gervais won for acting).

The pinnacle was a carefully honed three-minute monologue, simultaneously blunt and heartbreaking, that Andy Millman (played by Gervais) delivers as a "Big Brother" reality show participant, in which he curses out those -- including himself -- who have fallen victim to the cult of celebrity at the expense of their friends.

"Shame on you," Millman says at one point. "And shame on me. I'm the worst of all. Because I'm one of these people that goes, 'Oh, I'm an entertainer. It's in my blood.' Yeah, it's in my blood 'cause a real job's too hard. I would have loved to have been a doctor. Too hard. Didn't want to put the work in. Would love to be a war hero. I'm too scared. And so I go, 'It's what I do.' "

No, that's not the clip that'll have 'em rolling in the aisles. But it is the one that shows how you can take craft a bumbling actor like Millman, living from role to role, and have him mean much more than the sum of his parts.

"It wasn't an indictment of film and TV in the 21st century -- it was about friendship," Gervais says. "The obvious way to bring that together was moving away from a friend and being caught up in this terrible machine. Andy was nearly bodysnatched in the end, and that gave me my favorite arc in anything I've ever done or will ever do."

But just as they did with "The Office," Gervais and Merchant bid farewell to "Extras" after barely a dozen episodes, with little remorse at all.

"I killed Andy in the same way I killed David Brent," Gervais says. "I killed David when I gave him self-awareness, and I killed Andy when he learned his lesson. That's what you do with characters. You don't need to get them shot or run over. You change fundamentally what was there."