Cinema 16

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker (2x7)

Air date: May 17, 2002

Following his graduation from the University of Southern California, where he earned an MFA in producing, Rawson Marshall Thurber came up with an idea for a short. It was Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, a film about an American football player office manager whose job was to tackle anyone who breaks an office rule, no matter how benign. He shot it over a weekend for $2,000, hoping to sell it to one of the many Internet companies looking for content. Terry Tate ended up being bought by Reebok and re-commissioned as a series of shorts, which were played during the 2003 Super Bowl. The shorts were a sensation on the internet, where they were downloaded over 15 million times. Here we see the first in the series of shorts, which introduced Terry Tate to the American audience. Rawson Marshall Thurber went on to direct DODGEBALL, starring Ben Stiller in 2004.