Community, the tv show

Dan Harmon's been trying to get Bill Murray to play Jeff's dad for years now, for the exact same meta-casting reasons.

I bet they could get Bill Murray if they set up a camera at some remote location, like a phone booth in the desert, hit record, and told him to just show up and record whatever he wanted. And then they could try to incorporate that resultant mess into the show.

that Chevy interview. He's like the least self-aware person.

chevy thinks community would be better if they did more improv humor, also he's apparently failed to read the script on multiple occasions = chevy is committed to higher standards of comedy than everyone? or he is a lazy bum

that chevy thinks of himself as some kind of above-it-all Serious Artist Who Does Real Comedy is a hysterical revelation to me.

Chevy was a comedy hero of mine growing up, but dude has always, always been an asshole. There's a reason Comedy Central had to find strangers before they got to anybody who'd agree to do his roast.

lol just watched a clip of the chevy chase show, still maybe the biggest disaster i've ever seen on network tv. youtube can't quite capture what it was like to see this thing happen in real time. anyhow two lols from the wikipedia page: when the show flopped chase claimed "What I wanted had a whole different feel to it, much darker and more improv." o, and the last week of the show, after fox had already announced they were canceling it, it still got more viewers than community.

Television in general had a lot more viewers back then.

yeah the ratings threshold for "success" has plummeted, even compared to just ten years ago. there was an article recently that said modern family's amazing successful ratings are about half what a grace under fire rerun was doing in the nineties.

"I'd die for my hood... <i>Trayvon</i>"

http://www.iamdonald.com/post/20343305161

so obsessed... MARIAH

o yeah i'm aware of that, it still just blew my mind that this legendarily huge flop late night talk show on a network that had little history before (and no history since) in late night nevertheless drew more viewers at its lowest point than a primetime thursday night sitcom that's likely to get renewed. i keep wondering when we'll reach the point that the average episode cheers drew more viewers than nbc could draw over an entire week now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1sNImbI2Zw

loved miami vice regardless

i mean i'm not gonna suddenly decide that the first two seasons of 30 rock were awful cuz the guy who wrote the tracy jordan stuff has a chunky a side project, or that the dirty dozen sucks cuz omg have you heard the pervert's take on dylan?

yup, it was a crazy different world before the internet, cell phones, cable with thousands of channels, etc. etc. that's why so many people remember Saved by the Bell.

cuz the guy who wrote the tracy jordan stuff has a chunky a side project,

You mean the guy who wrote the Kenneth stuff, Donald Glover, right?

fey credits him w/ alot of the tracy jordan stuff, although obv alot of the kenneth stuff had to originate from glover (if only the stone mountain jokes).

the one joke fey specifically credits him for (waterbug on my remote) is a Kenneth one.

but yes i'm referring to donald glover. joel mchale has a side project where he's greg kinnear, alison brie has one where she's trudy campbell, jim rash won an oscar for some alexander payne movie (as embarrassing as childish gambino surely), yvette nicole brown seems very nice, gillian jacobs listens to npr, chevy chase switched bodies w/ benji once, and danny pudi is pretty clearly the best actor on the show.

keyes are you referring to dvd commentaries cuz i don't listen to those. i'm referring to her book. cuz i'm sophisticated. i read books by tina fey.

yeah the book where she credits him for that joke, Professor Fancypants

and by read i mean 'half listen to an audio book' while performing elisas.

does she talk about him getting the job from a simpsons spec cuz maybe i'm remembering something else. not listening to audiobook again.

“Our youngest writer was Donald Glover. He had just graduated from NYU’s writing program and was still living in a dorm and working as an RA. Donald was our only African American writer at the time, but his real diversity was that he was our only “cool young person” who could tell us what the “kids were listening to these days.” Also, because he came from a large family in Georgia, he was very helpful in writing for the character Kenneth the Page. His MVP joke: a scene where Jenna (Jane Krakowski) is trying to teach Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) how to brag about himself in a passive-aggresive way:

JENNA: Not even a “back door” brag?

KENNETH: What’s a “back door” brag?

JENNA: It’s sneaking something wonderful about yourself into everday conversation. Like when I tell people, “It’s hard for me to watch ‘American Idol,’ because I have perfect pitch.”

KENNETH: Oh… ew.

JENNA: Now you try.

KENNETH: It’s hard for me to watch “American Idol” ‘cause there’s a water bug on the channel changer.

( Tina Fey, Bossypants )

lol that's one of the show's best ever jokes!

"I was just googling record lengths of stuff"

^^^ so good

but yes i'm referring to donald glover. joel mchale has a side project where he's greg kinnear, alison brie has one where she's trudy campbell, jim rash won an oscar for some alexander payne movie (as embarrassing as childish gambino surely), yvette nicole brown seems very nice, gillian jacobs listens to npr, chevy chase switched bodies w/ benji once, and danny pudi is pretty clearly the best actor on the show.

― balls, Monday, April 2, 2012 7:44 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yvette nicole brown is on the new "pound puppies" cartoon that my son sometimes watches in the morning after "fraggle rock"! one day i listened for a sec and was like "is that shirley?"

jim rash won an oscar for some alexander payne movie (as embarrassing as childish gambino surely)

itt lamp puts balls in an unflattering light

well how can i compete with the solid imdb.com game yr bringing or the dude transcribing 'bossy pants'??

did you really just all snippy and serious in response to "itt lamp puts balls in an unflattering light"?

getting all snippy and serious... BRIS

what is so hard about boner jokes

― JIM THOMETHEUS (zachlyon), Saturday, March 31, 2012 6:28 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"I was just googling record lengths of stuff"

I just got this!

Harmon suddenly realizes he's been kinda dumb

I'm glad, because the whole message of the show, repeated week after week, is that you can grow out of your own insecurities, and a sincere apology is always a good first step

though in Harmon's case it comes wrapped in juicy layers of celebratory self-deprecation

Note: Dan is Britta. I think he finally admitted that either this year or during the S2 commentaries.

p sure his big epiphany was that he was abed

Harmon has claimed from the beginning that Britta is the character most closely based on / that he identifies w/, no "finally admitting"

maybe he meant he puts on a blonde wig and a push up bra and literally IS Britta.

Possibly, but I just most clearly remembering him talking about it in the S2 commentary tracks. So it goes.

I wish we could go back to the good old days of not knowing anything about an author musician or artist beyond what they make

I wish we could go back to the good old days of not reading this thread

maybe he meant he puts on a blonde wig and a push up bra and literally IS Britta.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dan harmon IS j. edgar hoover

am hoping this chevy/harmon thing is just a fake to stir up press interest

lol, you have plainly never read anything about either Chevy nor the Community cast's relationship w/ Chevy before

no, i have, but i am just hoping.

Harmon has claimed from the beginning that Britta is the character most closely based on / that he identifies w/, no "finally admitting"

― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Wednesday, April 4, 2012 12:19 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

i thought he always said more that she's based on girls he knew or a type of girl he's an expert on?

funny britta is the closest to an easily-identifiable stereotype among the main characters