Milton is the animated short that led to cult classic Office Space. Writer/director Mike Judge graduated with a physics degree and worked odd jobs in engineering, including programming test systems for F-18 fighter jets, before a brief stay in Silicon Valley convinced him to switch careers. He later focused on animation with his short film Frog Baseball, which featured the characters of Beavis And Butt-Head. The popularity of this short led to a solo Beavis And Butt-Head series, with the two becoming cultural icons for the MTV generation.
Mike Judge has continued to create iconic TV shows and movies, including King Of The Hill and Idiocracy. Just like with Beavis and Butt-Head or Hank Hill, he has a knack for creating unique, memorable characters. His latest series Silicon Valley - which is inspired by his own experiences - has been a big hit for HBO, and is set to end with the upcoming sixth season.
Judge has a lot of great comedies to his name, but arguably his most popular is 1999’s Office Space. The story mostly revolves around Ron Livingston’s lowly office worker Peter who despises his job, but the movie is something of an ensemble, which focuses on other characters like Peter’s love interest Joanna (Jennifer Aniston, Friends) and smarmy boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). While Office Space didn’t do much business upon release, it’s since grown to be a beloved comedy. Like Frog Baseball, it actually grew from another of Judge’s animated shorts Milton.
Like most of Judge’s early work, Milton - AKA Office Space - could be seen on MTV’s Liquid Television in the early 1990s, which showcased animation like Æon Flux. The Office Space short pretty much sums up Milton’s entire arc in the movie, being a meek worker who is ignored or belittled by colleagues. In the short, he complains about having to move his desk and threatens more than once to burn down the building. His boss is also a very Bill Lumbergh-like character, who asks him to move again and steals his stapler.
The initial concept for Office Space would have been based mainly on Milton - played by Stephen Root (Barry) - but Judge decided that wouldn’t work and created an ensemble instead. Milton is another unique comic creation from Judge, who is constantly undermined and humiliated, to the point where he’s fired but his bosses decide not to tell him in the hope he’ll just stop coming in. He ultimately steals some of the companies money and makes good on his threat to burn the building down.
Looking back on the original Milton short, it’s almost impressive how much it laid out the character’s arc in the resulting Office Space movie. Like with Frog Baseball, the foundation was already there and all Judge needed to do was expand on it.
Next: What To Expect From Silicon Valley Season 6
