Community - Part 3

[Maximus One]

Cleese would HAVE NAILED IT!

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I'm a big fan of Chevy Chase and I do enjoy him on the show. But yeah...he does have a history of being difficult so can't say I am too surprised every time I hear a story about him from Harmon. Gotta admire Harmon though for having the balls to speak out about though...most people in that position would keep their mouth shut.

Patrick Stewart or John Cleese as Pierce? Blehhhh. Fred Willard would have been pure awesome though.

 

[Maximus One]

I'm hesitant if Willard could pull off some of the stuff Chevy has done. Don't really see him being Pierce Hawthorn of Hawthorn Wipes, Cleese though?? Nah man, he would have nailed the subtle racist stuff 10x better than Chevy. Patrick Stewart would have been ****ing weird but it's Patrick ****ing Stewart, he would have made Pierce the greatest character in television history just because he's Patrick Stewart.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I think Patrick Stewart and John Cleese are very talented and can be hilarious. But the character of Pierce and how he is portrayed is more of a Fred Willard type role.

 

[Lencho01]

Here are some other highlights...

http://badassdigest.com/2012/08/23/dan-harmons-reddit-highlights/

Published August 23, 2012 by Brian Collins
Dan Harmon’s Reddit Highlights

Dan Harmon answered fan questions for hours... here are some highlights.

I've been on Reddit three times in my life, and they were all Community related. One time was to ask Gillian Jacobs a question during an "AMA" ("Ask Me Anything"), and she answered it and made my day (for the record, it was like halfway thru S3 and I asked if we would ever see Britta in her psych class. The answer was no). Another was to try to get the guy who put up the Chevy voicemail to take it down - clearly I was not successful (to be fair, I was - the guy quickly took it down and apologized, but it was already in Deadline's clutches, so our efforts were all for naught).
And the third was today, when Community creator Dan Harmon announced he would be doing an AMA himself at noon. He opened the page at around 11:30 am, and by the time he had sat down at his promised start time there were already hundreds of questions and comments to weed through. Miraculously he found/answered my question (I couldn't even find it 10 minutes later), and it got a lot of "up votes" whatever the hell that means, so that's nice. My query was just geek **** about how they chose the seating arrangement for our heroes, because that's the sort of stuff I personally care about: the history or mythology of the show, how things came to be, what had to happen for this thing I love to exist the way it does.
But most folks just want to hear about fighting with Chevy* or what he's doing now or what he thinks about the new season. If that's the case, I've compiled some of the more relevant responses for your benefit (the benefit being not having to wade through a messy Reddit thread and suffer through a bunch of people posting gifs and show quotes just to find out who came up with the idea of the Torg doll). Enjoy!
What did Chevy refuse to film, and why did he storm off the set instead?

"He refused to do the "tag" for the Digital Estate Planning episode (the 8 bit video game episode). In the scripted tag, Abed comes to Pierce with the thumb drive he took, and says "Pierce, I've been able to adjust some of the code for your Dad's video game and I've made a version I think you might like better." He puts the thumb drive into a laptop in front of Pierce. We cut to the laptop screen, where we see Pierce's avatar on a front lawn with the giant floating head of Cornelius. Every time Pierce presses the space bar, his avatar throws a baseball to his father's head, which gives him a thousand points and a "great job, son!" Pierce presses the space bar a few times, pauses, then leans over and embraces Abed and we fade to black. When Adam Countee pitched that tag, tears instantly rolled down my cheeks, and in point of fact, my eyes are getting watery describing it to you. It was the most important part of the episode and possibly one of the most important moments of the season. I was very upset to hear that it wasn't shot because someone didn't feel like shooting it, especially since it was literally the last day of shooting, which meant we'd never be able to pick it up. I regret nothing about how upset I got. My job was to care about my show."​

"The answer I heard from the people on set was that he didn't think it was funny. After he realized how upset I was about it, he said things in voicemails like "there was no script" (untrue) and "I have a weird relationship with the name Cornelius" (dumb, he had no dialogue in the tag). The real answer, I believe, is that he wanted to go home because he was tired. He probably didn't realize he was permanently damaging the episode by doing so because he often walked off set and then we would just pick up his shots later in the week. But this was the final shot of the season. The sets came down after he walked away. So this was the one time in three years that his personality caused unfixable damage to something I really held valuable."​

Did NBC force Chevy upon them?

"Sony made us. I'm not saying it was the wrong decision ultimately, but the honest answer to the question is that Pierce was literally the only role for which nobody else was considered after the actor we cast put his hat in the ring. Even McHale had to "test" against two other great guys. The short list of people I wanted to see about playing Pierce: Fred Willard, John Cleese, Patrick Stewart. That's a juicy role, man, there's a LOT of brilliant old dudes out there, but in the end, Sony felt (accurately) that Chase was a household name. And I remember Krasnoff saying to me, "listen, you make the decision on your pilot that gets you a series order. You take these things one step at a time." And there was wisdom there. Vile wisdom, but it's a vile industry. And I think the writers and Chevy ended up creating an unforgettable character."​

Do you keep in touch with the cast?

"Not as much as I'd like. I'm not a real go-getter socially. I love them all - yes, even Chevy - and owe them anything they'd ask, in exchange for giving me the most important three years of my life, and I've heard third hand that they feel the same, and I believe it. They're busy people at the moment and will be for a while but I will always love them and hope to see them again. We walked over hot coals together...we just didn't do it in the same room very often."​

Is he going to watch the new season?

"I'm going to wait a few episodes, maybe the whole season, and see how other people react. If people love it, then I'll be able to safely watch it with an open, friendly heart, because the whole point is whatever makes the audience happy. If they say it's good, it's good, and I can watch it and even say it's good. But I'm not going to be part of any campaign to convince anyone - me or others - of anything, good or bad. I've received a lot of advice from a lot of creatives that in a situation like this, it's best for everyone on all sides that I make a clean break and not look back. I'll be one of the very last people you hear weighing in on New Community. It's the most practical, healthy decision I can make for its audience. Here's an important related question: DO I HOPE IT'S GOOD? The honest answer is yes."​

What's the status of Anomalisa, your project with Charlie Kaufman?

"Work on Anomalisa can't really start until we see what kind of real money we're looking at. The first decisions about making stop motion are the most financially dependent - what kind of dolls are we going to design, are they going to have fancy ball-and-socket armatures like the Community Christmas dolls, or faster, cheaper wireframe armatures like the Frankenhole dolls, etc. Eyes, lips, hair, set design, storyboards, everything is affected on a fundamental level by whether we have 300K or 350K at the outset of pre-production. Also, until we get started with that stuff, Charlie's not weighing in on how he WANTS it done, and however Charlie wants it done is how it's going to get done...so, while all of that should amount to a great piece of stop motion storytelling, it doesn't amount to me being able to say much right now, other than: KEEP PLEDGING TO ANOMALISA, there's a MILLION DOLLAR VERSION OF IT, pledge pledge pledge and every penny will end up on screen."​

On Harmon's Adult Swim pilot Rick And Morty:

"The wheels of animation turn slowly, especially at the beginning. We're still waiting to get an official nod from Adult Swim but it's looking good. I can't express adequately how excited I am about "Rick and Morty." It's not going to be a substitute for "Community" for 100 percent of Community fans, some will love it but some people that hated Community will love Rick and Morty and some people that love Community will hate Rick and Morty, but the bottom line is, it's a really, REALLY exciting pilot and the series has a unique potential to go just about anywhere. I want to get started on it really bad."​

There were also a few little nuggets that I found interesting, such as his realization that Tom Cruise would have been a perfect choice to play Subway, that the air condition repair school storyline was "distorted" by scheduling problems, and that if he could do one full episode from the clip show it would be when they went camping.
He also gives some fine advice for writers, and stresses the importance of the fans, who never see a dime from caring more about the show than the execs who get rich despite never even watching it. If you want more, the original thread is HERE. If you're like me and find Reddit threads like this to be too messy for the effort, my advice would be to just click on Harmon's name and read his replies - most of them have enough context to more or less figure out the question. And thanks to BAD reader Vivek Bhat for some of the legwork!
*Seriously, like half of the questions were about Chevy. If you're so fascinated by the guy why am I consistently the only one in the theater for his movies?

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Wait a second. Harmon is going to have a show on Adult Swim??? Now that is an amazing combo...can't wait to see that.

 

[Lencho01]

Some more...

http://collider.com/dan-harmon-community-season-4-chevy-chase/190857/

Hat tip to reader Vivek for bringing this AMA to our attention. Harmon was asked about his future vision for the show that we’ll never see, and while the scribe noted that he tried not to think too far ahead specifically, he revealed that we saw at least one season four idea towards the end of the third season:

“You can actually see one [of] my ‘fourth season’ ideas getting bumped up into the end of season three, because Jeff Winger has to decide, at the end of season three, that even though he’s endured Greendale for the express purpose of getting his old life back, in the end, he has to choose Greendale over his old life, because Greendale has made him a better person. The fact that it happened at the end of season three is because at the time of writing the script, I had a sneaking suspicion that either the show or its creator would not be back for season four.”
​

Harmon did say that he knows of one plot point he cooked up that will definitely appear in the upcoming Harmon-less season:

“I’m sure there’s lots of things we talked about over three years that will be useable by the new guys. And yes, it’s their property to use if that’s the case. One thing I’m sure will happen in season 4 is Jeff will meet his Dad, because we were going to do it in season 3 but then one of the NBC execs started saying ‘just make sure Jeff meeting his Dad isn’t a dark story,’ and I didn’t want to write one of the series’ most important stories under that hex, so I said, ‘let’s just punt that story to season 4.’ And we ended season 3 with Jeff googling his Dad, so…!”
​

One user asked Harmon if the season three finale was also written as a series finale, and Harmon offered a bit of heartbreaking insight into what the season ender symbolized:

fiveforty:
1. Did you write the finale of S3 as if it could have been a series finale? The last 5minutes, the wrap-up, is perfect.

2. At the end of the S3 finale, Abed goes into his mini-Dreamatorium. To me this symbolises that everything we see from now on isn’t the real timeline, but that S4 and onward is all happening within that Dreamatorium. Was this intentional?

danharmon:
1. yes

2. it symbolizes me leaving the show. I didn’t know for sure I was going to but I had a feeling I might have to.
​

Of course the tension between Har

 

[ravn0s]

patrick stewart as pierce would have been awesome.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Not sure about Stewart and Cleese for Pierce. Those two actors, Stewart especially, always have an air of dignity around them. Pierce is a character that at the end of the day is a pathetic, broken-down old man, not sure if those two actors could pull that off in a humourous way.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

yeah unfortunately Chevy is perfect for the role, because he basically IS Pierce, an irrelevant hack who's desperately trying to cling to the "better times" and stead of making like William Shatner and Adam West and just rolling with it.

 

[Exophagy]

But didn't Harmon say that he adjusted the characters to suit who had been cast? So Chevy's Pierce is only how he is because of Chevy, if anyone else had been cast, the role would have been written to their strengths.

Having Stewart would make Trek jokes... interesting.

 

[Master Chief]

Now Starburns has answered some questions on Reddit. Not all Community related but this one stuck out to me,

Usually when I'm shooting I never read the script and just do what they tell me to do. I'm not really an actor and seeing the script beforehand would just scare the **** out of me then I would get drunk and hide and never show up to shooting. But with not reading the script I just get drunk and show up. I guess what I'm saying, I don't really know for sure what happened to Starburns.

He would have probably showed up in Season Four, I assume, with his new affectation being the short-blond-wig disguise.

I mean, he still might show up, but it won't be me playing him. If they do bring him back, I hope they choose one of the every other humans in LA who want an acting job.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun doing that role for my friend Dan, and I would have done another season if he was doing another season and wanted me there. But now, I have absolutely no loyalty to that show.

lol, seeing him back at Greendale with the wig would have been awesome.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I am trying my best to hope for at least a DECENT season. But the more and more I hear I can't help but feel it is going to be a big missed opportunity or a giant mess. :/

 

[chamber-music]

Patick Stewart is funny in American Dad, Family and he was good in extras.

 

[chamber-music]

The dirty penny joke on Family Guy Patrick Stewart did made me laugh

[YT]3I4Sk2tJ12c[/YT]

 

[LostSon88]

I am trying my best to hope for at least a DECENT season. But the more and more I hear I can't help but feel it is going to be a big missed opportunity or a giant mess. :/

What exactly have you heard?

 

[Matt]

I personally don't think that a creative change is a terrible thing. Harmon was running away with the meta-absurdity. It was becoming almost Seth MacFarlane-esque. He was becoming too convinced of his own brilliance and his own ego (and his feud with Chase reflects that....not that Chase was in the right either). A new creative mind who can reign things in a bit may not be the worst thing to ever happen to the show. That said, the new writers might just Flanderize things even more. But season 3 was nowhere near season 2 level quality and Harmon isn't the be-all, end-all. It could be good without him.

 

[Maximus One]

That British dude from Bridesmaids is soooooo ****ing annoying though! Malcolm McDowell will make up for it though

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

What exactly have you heard?

Just reading all of these new comments. Harmon and Stamatopoulos who were both creative forces which made the show so good to me. It seems like they had things in mind and a direction to take it. Now with them basically being divorced from the show it really does look like this will be the last season and just a gut feeling it looks like it will be ending on a low note. I hope it doesn't take a turn like The Office did...the last season was REALLY mediocre. I hope I am proven wrong.

 

[Lencho01]

 

[Specter313]

Community Exclusive: Tricia Helfer Tapped to Geek Out With Abed


Methinks Constable Reggie would approve of this: Tricia Helfer is coming to Community.

TVLine has learned exclusively that the Battlestar Galactica alumna will guest-star in a Season 4 installment of the quirky NBC comedy.

Putting to good use her inner geek goddess, Helfer will drop by as Lauren, a drop-dead gorgeous superfan of the (fictional) cult-hit Inspector Spacetime.

As previously reported, the coming season’s fourth episode centers on Abed attending a convention for the Doctor Who-esque series. There, he’ll befriend a fellow fanboy, played by Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas.

Helfer most recently co-starred in NBC’s ill-fated The Firm and guested on Criminal Minds‘ Season 7 finale.

Community‘s senior year — and new time slot — kicks off Friday, Oct. 19 at 8:30/7:30c.

Read More at: http://tvline.com/2012/08/31/commun...40#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I really hope this season doesn't suck, I really don't want a repeat of Scrubs, where they ruin a great would be finale with ::shudders:: scrubs interns. this is sounding alright thus far, malcolm macdowell brings some hope.

 

[HighFivingMF]

A good number of the writers have stuck around. The cast is still there. I want Harmon to stay, but I don't think the drop in quality will be too big.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

honestly if somebody had to walk I'd have been perfectly ok with chase leaving, as I'm guessing his feud with Harmon was contributory to Harmon getting the sack.

 

[Harry_Lime02]

Community Exclusive: Tricia Helfer Tapped to Geek Out With Abed


Methinks Constable Reggie would approve of this: Tricia Helfer is coming to Community.

TVLine has learned exclusively that the Battlestar Galactica alumna will guest-star in a Season 4 installment of the quirky NBC comedy.

Putting to good use her inner geek goddess, Helfer will drop by as Lauren, a drop-dead gorgeous superfan of the (fictional) cult-hit Inspector Spacetime.

As previously reported, the coming season’s fourth episode centers on Abed attending a convention for the Doctor Who-esque series. There, he’ll befriend a fellow fanboy, played by Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas.

Helfer most recently co-starred in NBC’s ill-fated The Firm and guested on Criminal Minds‘ Season 7 finale.

Community‘s senior year — and new time slot — kicks off Friday, Oct. 19 at 8:30/7:30c.

Read More at: http://tvline.com/2012/08/31/commun...40#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

I would've preferred Summer Glau, but Tricia's OK too.