The thing that baffles me, is hearing this news come out after the show had already been moved to a Friday Night time slot. Season 4 was and is clearly the last season for Community, so why not just put up with Dan Harmon being a prick for 13 more episodes and give it a goodbye?
The thing that baffles me, is hearing this news come out after the show had already been moved to a Friday Night time slot. Season 4 was and is clearly the last season for Community, so why not just put up with Dan Harmon being a prick for 13 more episodes and give it a goodbye?
I kind of feel the show jumped the shark on the documentary episode this season.
I agree that it jumped in terms of how ridiculous it has gotten, but in my opinion I think this is one show that jumped the shark and firmly landed on its feet. It's as good as ever.
The thing that baffles me, is hearing this news come out after the show had already been moved to a Friday Night time slot. Season 4 was and is clearly the last season for Community, so why not just put up with Dan Harmon being a prick for 13 more episodes and give it a goodbye?
Harmon will also be on Kevin Pollak's chat show on June 17th. It's one of the best out there and really allows for a long conversation, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, to be had so it should be a must watch for Community fans
Yup, next year's season is going to be either bad or 'meh'. Even though I love the cast, it was just Harmon's show and without him its not even going to be remotely the same.
I saw this posted on Reddit today and it really encapsulates why Dan Harmon is so important to Community, why Dan Harmon is Community. It's about the process of making "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" in season 2.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AV Club
The studio and network response at the table-read was so removed from that. They were so upset about the crime of this episode having been written. The note session as a whole was preceded by a 45-minute period of them walking around the lot whispering to each other. They told me they would come up to my office and meet me privately. When they came up, I had the director and all of the writers in the office with me, because I was terrified. They sat down, and they said, “Look, where do we start?” I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was like, “This is opposite of how you should feel right now. This is a great episode. We’re going to get a 1.7 no matter what. We will build our ratings in other ways. The episode is not about credit cards; it’s not about Hilary Duff. It’s going to get the same numbers. There is a cultural build to a hit show. We have to prove to people that we’re capable of good things so they can trust us, so that we can have a relationship. One day we will either be a highly rated show or we’ll be cancelled. It will not have to do with this moment. This episode is good, the story is good, these characters are good. Anyone who doesn’t tune in because the commercial says they’re playing Dungeons & Dragons, it’s not my fault. It’s not on me.”
It was such a depressing note session, because they didn’t even have any notes on the story. They just didn’t want it to exist. I took a photograph of my eyes driving home that day at 3 p.m. because I was leaving work early. I looked in my rearview mirror, and I was crying. More than crying, I was red-eyes, tears streaming, weeping. And I was weeping out of self-pity and frustration, like a child weeps when he doesn’t understand his parents’ rules. “Why can’t I have ice cream when I ate my liver?” I took a photo of it, so I could show it to them between seasons, because as I told my girlfriend when I got home, “I think I’m going to have to quit my own show, because I can’t operate under these circumstances. I can’t be this proud of something that the people paying me to do it are this ashamed of. It will never work. We’ll never achieve anything. It’ll never connect.” So it was the best of times and the worst of times. I think that episode is fantastic. I haven’t watched it again, but I remember it as being something else. I invite people over to my house to watch the episodes with me on Thursday night that I’m really proud of, and that was definitely one of them.
It's kind of heartbreaking to read this and see what Dan was talking about when he said he couldn't work on Community unless he has full control and can threaten to quit 10 times an episode.
Megan Ganz, one of Community's best writers is coming back for Season 4 and it sounds like there's a very positive vibe, that a lot of the other writers could come back, as the new showrunners are meeting with all of them. All is not lost with Community
Quote:
I just went through many IMDB pages and it seems like many Community directors and writers went to work on Happy Endings (another Sony-produced comedy). It works both ways since the new showrunners, David Guarascio and Moses Port, were consulting producers on Happy Endings.
At least the new showrunners are making an effort to retain most of the writing staff. Harmon's vision for the show was really what made it what it was though.
It'll really depend on what sort of mandate the new show-runners have been given. If they were told 'make this show into something more commercially viable', then we're probably doomed. If they were told 'keep the show as is, but make it a less toxic set, don't feud with everyone from actors to executives, etc.' then I see no reason why it can't still be great.
The Following User Says Thank You to octothorp For This Useful Post:
I'm on the fence... I introduced my girlfriend to Community and have been re-watching season 1 and I really like a lot of those episodes more... the characters are a lot more like-able and there's a lot more relationship dynamics between everyone in the plot lines. It seemed like season 3 just tried to be zanier and zanier and often forgot we were watching a TV show about people we liked, not just caricatures in crazy situations.
The Following User Says Thank You to OutOfTheCube For This Useful Post:
This is not new or anything, I just came across it now.
Not sure if this has been referenced here at all, but I just came across it.
If you remember the episode where Abed helps deliver Shirly's baby, and Abed mentions that he has delivered a baby in the last semester, but nobody noticed or something like that....
Well here it is...watch the background
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to sa226 For This Useful Post:
This is not new or anything, I just came across it now.
Not sure if this has been referenced here at all, but I just came across it.
If you remember the episode where Abed helps deliver Shirly's baby, and Abed mentions that he has delivered a baby in the last semester, but nobody noticed or something like that....
