Somehow Steve Carell continues to wring depth out of the extremely shallow Michael Scott in The Office.

"I just model it after my own shallow self," Carell said.

"I think I attribute it to the writing. The writers are always finding ways to make the character evolve, to enable him to change or to maybe get a little more self-perspective. And that's fun, over the course of doing a few seasons, to figure out what else makes this guy tick and how he might change and grow."

Interestingly, Michael is at his immature best tonight in the hilarious sixth-season debut of The Office on NBC and Global.

Michael finds himself spreading outrageous gossip about his co-workers in an attempt to cover up an earlier juicy piece of gossip he had spread, which turned out to be shockingly true.

"I've always sort of seen (Michael) as a sympathetic character," Carell said. "Even people who are obnoxious and in your face or unlikable to most, I believe there are other sides and other grey areas to everybody.

"I always felt he was a guy whose intentions were good and his heart was in the right place, but he just has a disconnect socially, an emotional blind spot."

He sure does. As the episode tonight, which is titled Gossip, proves yet again, it's a lot more fun watching Michael Scott on TV than it would be working for him.