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Dwight Schrute
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Dwight Kurt Schrute is a fictional character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. His counterpart in the original UK version of The Office is Gareth Keenan.
Dwight is the top salesman for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for his successes, despite lacking social skills and common sense. Additionally, despite his personal dislike of Jim Halpert, the two have been shown to be a very effective sales team.
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Encyclopedia
Dwight Kurt Schrute is a fictional character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. His counterpart in the original UK version of The Office is Gareth Keenan.
Dwight is the top salesman for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for his successes, despite lacking social skills and common sense. Additionally, despite his personal dislike of Jim Halpert, the two have been shown to be a very effective sales team. Dwight's ability as a salesman, though, has rarely commanded the respect of his peers or led to higher levels of professional success. He is a physically imposing man at with little, if any, sense of humor.
In an episode commentary on the season-one DVD, Wilson refers to Dwight as a "fascist nerd." In a featurette on the season-three DVD, Wilson describes Dwight as "someone who does not hate the system, but has a deep and abiding love for it".
Dwight is a former volunteer sheriff. He has been trained in the art of surveillance. He enjoys Battlestar Galactica, the "Harry Potter" franchise, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Lost. Dwight lives on his family's beet farm, in a nine bedroom farmhouse (with one bathroom), with his cousin Mose (played by producer/writer Michael Schur), where they grow beets. Dwight also likes paintball and Karate and many weapons. Not much is revealed about Dwight's parents except that his father used to take him hunting, and also that his father battled cancer. Dwight once mentioned that his grandfather fought in WWII and ended up in an Allied Prison Camp.
Casting
Dwight Schrute is portrayed by American actor Rainn Wilson. The character is based on Gareth Keenan of the original British version of the show, who was played by actor Mackenzie Crook. On February 24, 2007, Wilson hosted Saturday Night Live, becoming the second cast member from The Office to host after Steve Carell.
All original series characters were adapted for the U.S. version. Rainn Wilson had watched every episode of the original British series before he auditioned for the show. Wilson had originally auditioned for Michael, a performance he described as a "terrible [Ricky] Gervais impersonation"; however, the casting directors liked his audition as Dwight much more and hired him for the role. Wilson based Dwight's hairstyle on his own style he had when he was sixteen. In an interview he said that he went to a barber to get "the worst haircut possible."
Character information
When the series begins, Dwight Schrute is a salesman at the Scranton branch of the paper-goods distribution company Dunder Mifflin. Dwight formally held the title of "Assistant to the Regional Manager" but constantly refers to himself as "Assistant Regional Manager," attempting to elevate himself to second-in-command to Michael Scott. Dwight craves authority over others and relishes any minor task that Michael or anyone else gives him. Though Dwight acts like a know-it-all, he is actually quite gullible and naïve. For this reason, he is easily tricked and tormented by his desk-mate and fellow salesman Jim Halpert. Dwight speaks in a halting, dramatic manner, even in casual conversations. Dwight almost always wears a beige short-sleeved dress shirt with a dark tie, often with a brown suit jacket. A running joke on the show is to refer to the color of Dwight's shirt on a particular occasion as a particular shade of "mustard".
Family and childhood
Dwight was a twin, but he "resorbed" his twin while still in his mother's womb (this occurrence is called chimerism). He believes that he now has "the strength of a grown man and a little baby".He says he performed his own circumcision as a child. He claims to have been born weighing , rendering his mother incapable of walking for three months and two days. Dwight was shunned by his family between the ages of four and six for forgetting to save the excess oil from a can of tuna. He lost a grade school spelling bee by misspelling the word "failure" in front of the entire school, and subsequently lost the spelling bee to Raj Patel. In seventh grade, Dwight played the invented role of "Mutey the Mailman" in a production of Oklahoma!. He explains that there were not enough roles for all of the children, so they made up roles. Dwight's father — also named Dwight Schrute — battled high blood pressure and obesity all his life, but often went hunting with his son. In the Season Two DVD bloopers it is revealed that Dwight's father would take him and his brothers to a swimming hole on hot summer days as a child until 10:00 AM, then they would work the beet fields until well after midnight.
Dwight's maternal grandfather, whose surname is Manheim (according to Dwight's web log on NBC.com), fought in World War II and killed twenty men before ending up in an Allied prison camp. In "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", Michael refers to Dwight's grandmother as a "Nazi war criminal". In "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Dwight reveals that Grandpa Manheim is still alive at 103-years old, and relates his attempt to visit him in Argentina. His travel visa was protested by the Shoah Foundation.
Dwight's paternal great-grandfather, Dweide Schrude, was Amish.
In "Casino Night", Dwight arrived at the event wearing the tuxedo in which his grandfather was buried. A coffin is seen in the barn on the Schrute family farm. In "Grief Counseling", Dwight said that his grandfather was reburied in an old oil drum.
Dwight has German roots. In the Episode "Money" he answers the phone with, "Schrute Farms, Guten Tag", German for "Good day". He ends the call with "Auf Wiedersehen", (Goodbye). In the episode where Jim links up Dwight's cellphone to his own Bluetooth headset, Jim says "Hello, Mutter. Good news, I've married. Tell Vater." Mutter is the German word for mother and Vater means father. Additionally, in "Night Out", Dwight begins to sing Ryan a lullaby in German. Also, in a deleted scene from "The Surplus" Dwight remarks that half his family arrived in America on a U-boat.
According to one of Dwight's web logs on NBC.com's "Schrute-Space," he had an uncle named Gunther, a goat farmer, who fled the Allied invasion of Germany and married a Finnish woman with whom he had 17 children. He also had an Uncle Grit who revealed that the Schrute family has an ongoing hatred of Harry S Truman because they were staunch supporters of Thomas Dewey. In another blog, he mentions a cousin named Heindl, who lost 12% of the hearing in her left ear because of a ninja. In a deleted scene from the third season episode, Gay Witch Hunt, Dwight reveals he had an uncle, Harvey, who worked at Hershey Chocolate in Hershey, Pennsylvania as a fudge packer, and he himself worked there as an intern one summer.
Dwight lives in a nine-bedroom, one-bathroom (which is located under the porch as revealed in "Office Olympics"), farmhouse on his family's beet farm with his cousin Mose, selling beets to local stores, restaurants and roadside beet stands. It is also revealed that Dwight uses part of his farm to grow hemp, which a pizza delivery boy refers to as "crappy weed." Teenagers have been known to use the farm for sex. Dwight and Mose have also turned Schrute Farm into a very ramshackle bed & breakfast that was visited during "Money" by Jim and Pam. The bed and breakfast had three theme rooms, "America, Nighttime, and Irrigation". Jim and Pam stayed in the Irrigation Room which had many pipe fittings for decoration.
Interests
Dwight is trained in the art of surveillance and is a former Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff's deputy. He is also a purple belt in Goju-Ryu karate. Dwight is a pop culture and sci-fi buff who has expressed fanship of many sci-fi movies and popular TV shows. In the episode "The Fire", he referenced the movie The Crow as being his favorite. He hints at belief in fictional creatures such as androids and zombies. He enjoys playing ping-pong and states that many of his heroes are table tennis players. He is also shown to be very good at the sport. His musical tastes vary, but classic rock seems to be a recurring theme. His personal musical talents are not lacking, as he plays guitar and recorder, and sings. He has a fascination with cars; he usually checks a car's suspension, especially muscle cars. He is technologically talented and shows a passion for the online role playing game, Second Life, in which the only difference between himself and his avatar is that his avatar can fly.
Dwight owns an impressive array of weaponry. In addition to laser tag and paintball equipment, he has a crossbow range at his farm ("Office Olympics"), hinted that he may bring a bo staff to work when he is named official security supervisor of the Scranton branch. He maintained a hidden arsenal of weapons at his desk, including pepper spray, nunchucks, throwing stars, a stun gun, a boomerang, handcuffs, a nightstick, a pair of brass knuckles, and a samurai sword, all of which were confiscated. Dwight also claimed to have sat at his desk for an entire day with a Spud Gun without any trouble from security. Dwight also uses a real gun, a Smith & Wesson Model 686, fired within city limits, to start off the race in Fun Run. He also produced a disturbing amount of Molotov cocktails for a panty raid on Utica in "Branch Wars". In "Survivor Man", it is revealed that Dwight still has many knives (and other weapons) strategically positioned throughout the office ('Mr. A Knife' in a filing cabinet and water cooler, sword in ceiling tile, blow dart in a toilet, a compound bow under a couch) and he even owns a .22 rifle with scope.
Dwight is vocal about his views on justice. In "The Negotiation," Roy attacks Jim because he kissed Roy's fiancee, Pam, but Dwight intercepts the attack with pepper spray. Jim wants to show his appreciation, but Dwight refuses to accept his gifts: "Citizens do not accept gifts for being citizens." In "Drug Testing," Dwight finds half of a joint in the parking lot, which incites him to carry out a full-out investigation. When he discovers that Michael might have been exposed to drugs at a concert he substitutes his own urine during the drug test. Dwight then resigns from his volunteer position at the Sheriff's Department because he feels he is no longer worthy of working there. In "Frame Toby", Dwight states that he is good at framing people and animals, saying that he once framed a raccoon for opening a Christmas present and a bear for eating out of the garbage.
Coworker relations
Inexplicably, Dwight worships his boss, viewing him as a model for success, and often jumps in on Michael's ill-conceived schemes. He craves authority, and is thrilled when asked to handle any task given to him. He has also been known to assume authority even when it is not handed to him. Dwight does seem to understand sometimes that Michael views him with a large dose of contempt. With the exception of going over Michael's head to vie for the manager's job, his loyalty to his boss rarely flags. His ruthlessness also shows, given that Dwight isn't afraid to change jobs if it means more money, stating he'll go "where they value loyalty to the most". He also shows a drive to help Dunder Mifflin compete, going so far to to help destroy a friendly family that runs a rival company in "Prince Family Paper", by chasing after Michael over their business leads when Michael chooses not to give the information to corporate because of his conscience. Dwight also steals a sale from Jim, which deprived Jim of his biggest commission of the year, having earlier sabotaged Jim's sales meeting with the client.
Dwight feels threatened by Ryan, to whom Michael often assigns personal tasks, and he continues to resent Ryan, a temp, throughout the second season, often addressing him as "Temp," even after Ryan took Jim's job. In the beginning of season 2, Dwight's friendship with Michael was slightly torn during one of the episodes when Michael must evaluate Ryan. Dwight has been cautious ever since.
In Season One and the beginning of Season Two, Dwight has a mild crush on Kelly. In a "Diversity Day" exercise, he lists Caucasian and Indian as two races he finds sexually attractive. Kelly acknowledges their history in a deleted scene from "The Job".
He is frequently the victim of practical jokes by coworkers Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly (see Jim's pranks), though he frequently remains oblivious to Pam's involvement. As a result of this, Dwight and Jim have an ongoing feud that reaches a head in "Conflict Resolution", when Dwight threatens to quit unless Jim is transferred. Professionally, Dwight wins the 2005 Salesman of the Year Award, though this is likely due, at least in part, to his stealing Jim's largest client. Somewhat surprisingly, Dwight was regretful during "Initiation" as he told Ryan he and Jim never got along, and since that point and Jim's return from Stamford they have generally gotten along better. Jim is annoyed when Andy replaces Dwight in the brief time Dwight has quit. Jim even consoled Dwight during the painful aftermath of his break up with Angela, although Dwight maintains a supercilious attitude towards Jim. Dwight did plan to demote Jim from the Assistant Regional Manager spot and make his life a living hell during "The Job" but Jim mocked his plans and they did not produce any concrete impact on Jim.
Dwight bonds temporarily with Pam during "The Injury" when he suffers from a concussion and begins to act friendly towards her. However the bond is seemingly short lived, as it lasts for that episode only as Pam glumly expected once she realized his injury was the reason he was being nice. In "Back from Vacation", Dwight shows that he does care about Pam as he gives her a handkerchief while she is crying and comforts her despite not knowing she is crying over Jim's relationship with Karen. The friendship between the two is re-kindled during "The Job" when Dwight secretly makes Pam Assistant to the Regional Manager and sincerely thanks her for her service. In "Money", after Pam and Jim stay at Dwight's family farm, which he turned into a Bed and Breakfast, they write a good review about their stay to help cheer up Dwight from his break up with Angela.
As a result of the Scranton-Stamford merger, Dwight loses his number two position to Jim and engages in an ongoing battle with new salesman Andy Bernard to gain Michael's favor as his right-hand man. The struggle comes to a head in "Traveling Salesmen". In Season 4, Andy and Dwight work well together as a sales team, but Andy's successful pursuit of Angela after she broke up with Dwight has annoyed him.
Relationship with Angela
Towards the middle of Season Two, Dwight develops a secret relationship with Angela Martin. The relationship is hinted at in the episode "Performance Review". The couple are caught by the documentary camera canoodling in the backyard during Jim's party in the episode "E-mail Surveillance". The pair discuss the rearing of children during the episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Dwight also tries to attack Oscar when he pushes Angela out of his way after she makes a snide remark about his homosexuality in the episode, "Gay Witch Hunt".
Pam begins to suspect a relationship between Dwight and Angela in the episode "E-mail Surveillance" by observing their interactions, suspicions which are strengthened in "The Injury" and "Conflict Resolution" and confirmed by "Traveling Salesmen", where Angela confides in Pam about her relationship, using code names. Ryan discovers the relationship between the two when he overhears a coded conversation between the two in the kitchen. Jim discovers the relationship while coming out of the office bathroom after quitting time to find Dwight and Angela kissing, although he unwittingly glimpsed Angela lying in Dwight's hotel room dressed in lingerie, when they are at a conference. On most occasions, Dwight and Angela will only talk at work in the kitchen, and when facing opposite directions.
In the episode "Fun Run", Angela asks Dwight to care for her sick cat, Sprinkles. Instead of caring for the cat, Dwight feels it should be put down and feeds it antihistamines until it falls asleep and then places the sleeping but not dead cat in Angela's freezer. He lies to Angela, however, and tells her that he put it in there after it died to contain the smell. Angela figures out the truth when she discovers claw marks in her bags of frozen french fries. In the episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Dwight and Angela go out to eat after work to discuss their relationship. While there, Angela decides that she can no longer be with Dwight because every time she looks in Dwight's eyes she sees Sprinkles cold lifeless body and they break up despite Dwight telling her to use an old sales trick and look him between the eyes. Dwight becomes depressed in a typically eccentric manner and moans in the stairwell at work, but a brief conversation with Jim helps him work through it and he becomes his own, somewhat difficult, self again, to the obvious satisfaction of Jim and Pam. In the fourth season finale "Goodbye, Toby", Dwight is obviously hurt when Angela's boyfriend, Andy Bernard, proposes to her. Before giving Andy her answer, Angela looks at Dwight to see him standing in silence, so she accepts which upsets Dwight. He later tells the camera it was his own fault, taking the blame for the breakdown of their relationship. However, in the final scene of the episode (and the season), coworker Phyllis Vance comes back into the office following Toby's farewell party and catches Dwight having sex with Angela, strongly indicating a reconciliation between the two is very much in the cards.
In the fifth season Premiere, "Weight Loss", Dwight and Angela have resumed a covert relationship, using a storage room in the warehouse to have intercourse whenever Angela finds Andy too unbearable. In "Business Ethics", it is revealed that it takes Dwight nineteen minutes and forty-eight seconds to make love to Angela. In "Crime Aid", Dwight once again becomes depressed when Andy and Angela have set a date for their wedding. Dwight gives Angela an ultimatum: call off the engagement or lose out on him. She ultimately says no to him.
After Phyllis told everyone about the affair, Angela was under pressure to tell Andy but when she failed to do so, Michael stepped in and told him. A duel between Dwight and Andy took place where both realized Angela had been lying to them. Angela was left with no one by the end of the episode.
Character reception
The Dwight Schrute character has had a very positive reception, and is often cited as one of the most popular characters on the show. According to Entertainment Weekly he is one of the "greatest sidekicks." In an ABC News interview with Rainn Wilson, the interviewer commented that "Words barely describe Dwight Schrute, the suck-up salesman and assistant regional manager of the Scranton branch for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company..." and "Dwight, as played by the 41-year-old Wilson, has become one of the breakout characters in television comedy. Dwight is a survivalist geek, a student of karate who likes to shoot a crossbow and watch "Battlestar Galactica" on television. And he takes himself very, very seriously..." E! News commented that Rainn Wilson should be nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance of Dwight, commenting: "...Who's laughing now? Who's laughing now, Dwight Schrute? Oh, only the ten million-plus people who watched as you pepper sprayed the living daylights out of Roy for trying to pop Jim in the face last night. My God, have I missed you, man. Mr. Schrute, you are the reason I love my job, my friend. It is the selflessly heroic actions of a man such as you that make television a nice place to be on a Thursday night. You may just be an everyday citizen who does not accept prizes for being a citizen, but you'd best be accepting a supporting actor Emmy nod this year, because, hot damn if you don't deserve it."
Another positive review of the character was given by PopMatters, an online entertainment news site. The review stated:
"One of the show’s ironies is that Michael and Dwight, hapless though they might be within the office or in most social settings, are actually top salesmen...Undeterred, or unaware of any of this, Dwight carries on with his dreams of grandeur, even instituting a reward system called “Schrute Bucks” for employees who please him during a brief but tyrannical reign as branch manager...Dwight approaches sales with the same militaristic fervor as everything else in his life, and it pays off for him (maybe that’s one of the reasons why, when Jim gives Dwight one of Benito Mussolini’s speeches to deliver when he accepts a sales award in Season Two, Dwight delivers it so enthusiastically that he gets a standing ovation)..."
Outside of The Office
Bobblehead doll
In the episode Valentine's Day, Dwight is given a bobblehead doll as a Valentine's gift from Angela. When the bobblehead doll introduced in the episode was made available, it was a very big hit with fans. Following the episode, fans of the show petitioned to NBC to make the bobblehead doll available for purchase on their online store. NBC responded by creating an initial run of 4,000 bobblehead dolls, which sold out almost immediately. The creator of the show, Greg Daniels, joked that the bobbleheads, saying "Yes, they are fun, but they also serve a business purpose. People who want to manage by consensus can buy six and keep them nodding all the time to whatever they say." The item has since become the best-selling merchandise on the NBC website, and has sold over 150,000 units.
NBC also auctioned off or gave away two autographed bobbleheads autographed by Rainn Wilson on the NBC website. The first was won in an auction in which the highest bidder's full bid was donated to Rainn Wilson's charity of choice, the Mona Foundation. This is a charity in which NBC donates money made from auctioned off memorabilia and props from shows and donates the proceeds to children's education projects in foreign countries. The second was given away in a random sweepstakes drawing in which the winner received the autographed bobblehead and a copy of the third season of The Office on DVD.
Another bobblehead that can be seen on Dwight's desk is that of Scranton's favorite son, the "Pride of Scranton, Pennsylvania", Gerry McNamara, a Syracuse Basketball star.
In the episode "The Duel" Dwight threw away the bobblehead.
Resume
In "Halloween", Jim and Pam uploaded Dwight's resume to "Monster.com, Craigslist, and Google." A producer actually did create a Monster account for Dwight and uploaded his résumé a month before the episode aired. It can be found by employers with resume database access who search for salesmen in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The résumé stated that he was willing to relocate to another state, wanted a salary close to $30,000 (USD), desired the job title of regional manager, was currently "Assistant to the regional manager", and had a Bachelor's Degree. The posted résumé also stated: "My time spent at Dunder Mifflin was very enjoying. I had the opportunity to learn from an experienced and talented boss. My branch consistently was one of the top sellers of the company..."
Schrute Farms
In "Money", Jim refers to a TripAdvisor page for Dwight's bed and breakfast. This can be found by searching for Schrute Farms. Jim and Pam discover that Dwight is running the Schrute Farm as an "agritourism" Bed and Breakfast. They spend the night there, taking part in table-making demonstrations, beet wine-making, and distributing manure. That night, however, Jim finds Dwight moaning in depression over Angela. The Trip Advisor page said:
"Schrute Farms is the number one beet-related agrotourism destination in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We offer the finest accommodations for the casual traveler and/or beet enthusiast. Come join us and experience majestic Schrute Farms."
Jim and Pam ("JandP2") also posted a review, which can be seen on the reviews page. It read: "The architecture reminds one of a quaint Tuscan beet farm, and the natural aroma of the beets drifts into the bedrooms and makes you dream of simpler times. You will never want to leave your room. The informative lecture will satisfy all your beet curiosity, and the dawn goose walk will tug at your heart strings. Table making never seemed so possible. Great story to tell your friends. Plenty of parking! The staff’s attention to detail and devotion to cleanliness was limitless. From their enthusiastic welcome to the last wave good-bye, Schrute Farms delivers."
An angry Angela also put a review up, and mentioned the death of her cat as a main cause for the review. It said: "I have to warn people about the proprietor of Schrute Farms - he may portray himself as a gentleman farmer, but he is not what he seems! He killed my cat, Sprinkles! Who knows what he might do to you or your loved ones..."
Vice presidential bid joke
On the May 7, 2008 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, US Senator and Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain joked that Dwight Schrute would be his vice presidential candidate choice. Rainn Wilson appeared on The Tonight Show on May 14, 2008, and read to Jay Leno a list of demands from Dwight in exchange for being vice president. Included in this list was being able to pilot Air Force One at any time, and only to be addressed as "Iceman" while piloting. He also demanded that Jack Bauer be immediately promoted to United States Secretary of Defense, his bunker to include a foosball table and be zombie proof, and that the Secret Service members be armed with nunchucks, throwing stars, and flamethrowers. Finally, he demanded a flamethrower, an Iron Man suit, and that fellow character Michael Scott be an "ambassador to Hawaii."
External links
- - Dwight Schrute's "blog" (NBC official website)
- - Listing on TripAdvisor
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