Community, the tv show

Gutted = stripping away all the moving parts, not just replacing the roof.

Harmon was by all accounts the idea man and mostly hands-on in the editing stage, but the writers did the heavy lifting episode to episode. I trust them to carry what's left of the show's arc in a satisfying way.

yeah but the writers that were closest to the larger process are gone.

Well, if it comes back in the fall looking more like Friends (in college) than Community, I'll be the first to admit I was wrong. But I don't see that happening.

lol fever do you understand how writers rooms work???

in american tv at least?

I must admit I am curious to see whether it goes Friends (in college) or "Abed dreams the cast are in the Wizard Of Oz"

why don't they just make a spin-off where pierce runs a bar

lol fever do you understand how writers rooms work???

Sure, I watched Studio 60 lol.

so that's a no then

Yeah, that's a no. Why would I have any realistic idea of how a writers room works? All I know is that showrunners are, for the most part, a revolving door on tv and it's only a select few whose vision really permeates he or she runs. Harmon is Community, but I don't think Community has to be Harmon.

*the show* he or she runs.

why would you glibly offer up yr ideas about how things will turn out if you have no realistic idea how it works? you channeling donald rumsfeld or something?

No, but I've been watching a lot of tv for 30 years.

lol fever do you understand how writers rooms work???

Yes. They very closely resemble the machinations behind major-label recording contracts, specifically, R.E.M.'s $80 million deal with Warners.

why would you glibly offer up yr ideas about how things _____________

Also, WELCOME TO THE INTERNET.

yay TWO idiots!

Take a nap, balls.

yeah i think i'm done w/ this place again

see you in september.

I'm high as hell and you're about to get shot

By his own account, Harmon rewrote everything.

yard margs at skeepers

Regardless of whether you think the rehauled show will be better or worse or maintain the same level of quality, it almost literally blows my mind that someone could fail to process that the near-complete turnover of a television show's writing and production staff and replacement of the guy who keeps all the plates spinning (not to mention the fact that Sony's decision makes it clear that they weren't happy with the direction of the show) would most likely result in a vastly different show, if not necessarily on a surface level. I mean, yes, at least much of the cast is likely still gonna be around and the show will probably still center around community college...but different creative teams have unique ideas of what they want to do with a particular set of elements. This isn't really a complicated concept.

You know, the US Office was totally different - cast, writers, massively more episodes, etc. - but they did OK for a few years.

Like, it ain't rocket science. It's television.

but those are wildly different shows. I'm not sure who runs a lot of the day to day of Don't Trust the Bitch... etc, but Community is not Two and a Half Men where you have 4 or 5 characters and you just need to hire guys to plug in jokes. The Office is far more of a collaborative effort, as well as its format being pretty simple (know the characters and riff on their situations).

How is that really that different from Community? They're not spelunking into the deep dark recesses of the mind or anything. It's still largely a situational comedy.

the quality of yr average television show indicates that television is a hell of a lot harder than rocket science

The Office US is an adaptation that was developed from the get-go by Greg Daniels, who still runs it.

though if someone wants to say "so what if the hands-on creator of this show's been fired, some americans adapted a british show once, turned out ok" we're obv off the fucking rails here

Yeah, no kidding. I can't tell if some people here are being wilfully contrary or if they have serious issues with reading comprehension.

this might be bullshit, but i've always thought there was a correlation between the office's drop-off in quality and greg daniels turning his attention to creating parks and rec.

which in turn has made me scared for the day that parks and rec finally goes south, but so far so good

the quality of yr average television show indicates that television is a hell of a lot harder than rocket science

Who ever said quality was the driving force behind TV? Every time we get something great I'm extremely thankful, because "According to Jim," "Two and a Half Men," et al, are the standard, not the exception.

And I wasn't saying that "The Office" - an adaptation - was some sort of be-all proof. But it is proof that if you take a property that was in someone else's creative hands - Merchant and Gervais - and give it to someone else, it can do OK. And that is not always the case! (See: Life on Mars, for example). But it is possible. It's worth keeping in mind that "Community," even under the exclusive watch of Harmon, hasn't been this consistent, out of the park success. It's had ups and downs, just more ups than downs. Yet as much as I love this show and wish it stayed on the air as good as it is for as long as possible, I really don't see it that hard a property to hand off. Now, whether the new people go hands off is another matter. My guess is they won't, so the question is, what will they do to it?

xxpost

Yeah, it's like...I'm sure everyone here has worked someplace where everything went smoothly while you were working under one particular boss. And then, once that boss left and was replaced by a new boss, everything went kinda pear-shaped. The work environment and the end goals of the job are the same, but when you have someone who's new or who's less competent or less passionate, or more concerned with efficiency or with pleasing the bosses, the tenor of the workplace and the end product itself can sometimes ultimately suffer.

Sounds like a plot of "The Office."

Mike Schur leaving with Daniels to create P&R is absolutely and clearly the signal of a sea change at the Office, how is this even a vague pondering

(and Daniels hasn't run The Office since then, Paul Lieberstein has been runner since S5, and has just now left to develop the Dwight spin-off)

By his own account, Harmon rewrote everything.

everything in S1, he eased off and learned to trust the new hires after driving all the S1 writers bar McKenna away with long nights.

hey JF, here's an example of some of the plotting done in the room, under Harmon's leadership, before McKenna got credited for Remedial Chaos Theory

They're not spelunking into the deep dark recesses of the mind or anything.

Ha, I think this was their intention with something like "Virtual Systems Analysis" (maybe even "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas").

Bah, these dudes are not on some journey of discovery.

I didn't say they succeeded.

Seriously, though, I do see a significant creative difference compared to Two and a Half Men. i.e. I do think they sometimes do more than write jokes for characters in a readymade situation.

they had an episode that purported to play up a Pulp Fiction angle but was really a parody of My Dinner with Andre and it featured great character development for both Abed and Jeff. that's not "Charlie gets drunk with a crazy girl and Jon Cryer is pathetic".

The Office US is an adaptation that was developed from the get-go by Greg Daniels, who still runs it.

well daniels has been co-showrunning with paul lieberstein (toby) for several years now, i.e. mostly just picking up a check. Also The Office has radically declined during that period.

I think a lot of what we think of as "meta" in Community is what used to be called "high concept."

Interestingly, I think we've gotten more character development of Pierce than any other character.

I think I actually distinguish between the two. I like Community's high-concept stuff but dislike a lot of its meta stuff

Yeah, everyone who's complained about Community beyond just random quibbles about individual episodes needs to get some serious perspective. Like a long-term Ludovico treatment with the bulk of sitcoms that the networks churn out. It's not the best show on TV, but it's easily one of the best sitcoms of the last ten years. It's maintained a pretty high level of quality overall, but it also had a period of genius that has made a lot of people underrate everything that came after. But it's cool. I think once we've all had a little time to sit with NBC's fall 2013 sitcom crop, most people will come around and appreciate this little golden age we've just had.

I think I actually distinguish between the two. I like Community's high-concept stuff but dislike a lot of its meta stuff

e.g. I liked the Law and Order parody and loved the video game ep but was less into "The First Chang Dynasty" and hated "Contemporary Impressionists".

whatever greg daniels' current input on the office is, my point is that it's not really a good example of something to soothe minds on the status of community. though it was based on a british concept, it had a strong hand running it from the beginning, one that wasn't forced off without warning three seasons in. wish devil's advocate optimists would at least rep for post-sorkin west wing or something actually similar in situation.

da croupier, I think you're forgetting that All In The Family was also based on a British sitcom. Case closed, dealwithit.gif.