Community, the tv show

And the "Do you like Dane Cook?" dig at the beginning of the inspirational class episode may have something to do with the fact that NBC was recently debating whether or not Joel or Dane should be given a major push by the network.

I don't understand what this means. Was Dane Cook going to have a show on the fall schedule at some point? I'm sure he was never considered for Community.

The biggest problem I see with it, though, is that the Joel McHale character is, for a protagonist, really unlikable. This last episode the character was improving a bit and moving beyond aloof smartass so hopefully, like Ed said, they're going to start using the characters better and they're done setting them up.

I understand this, but I disagree with it. I think it's kind of great how they've set up this dynamic where the main character is someone who's always been slick and successful, but screwed up and now has to hang out with the uncool kids, and they keep dancing around the line between sympathetic and unsympathetic. It reminds me a little of the relationship between Sam Malone and the rest of the Cheers gang.

yeah and this was the first episode where they acknowledged that jeff is a loser too

I don't understand what this means. Was Dane Cook going to have a show on the fall schedule at some point? I'm sure he was never considered for Community.

I had a friend who was a summer intern and he told me one meeting of tv executives was essentially about whether Dane Cook or Joel McHale would get certain promotional resources. I know no more details other than that Joel McHale had more support (and one female executive, the one my friend was interning for, thought nothing of Joel McHale other than that he was mean and rather unfunny).

I understand this, but I disagree with it. I think it's kind of great how they've set up this dynamic where the main character is someone who's always been slick and successful, but screwed up and now has to hang out with the uncool kids, and they keep dancing around the line between sympathetic and unsympathetic. It reminds me a little of the relationship between Sam Malone and the rest of the Cheers gang.

I love that dynamic, too, but the very qualities some like about the show (its unapologetic meanness towards Community College, Joel McHale's aloof and sarcastic persona, the comic-pathetic characters) might be a turn-off to NBC's usual audience. But it's changing and McHale might prove more likable. I like it precisely because it doesn't have those usual sitcommish qualities but I just wonder if, like AD, its own unpopularity might come from the show being so different.

this show makes community college look 10x more fun than community college is, so I'm not sure it has 'unapologetic meanness'...

wait you're worried that audiences won't embrace an "aloof and sarcastic" sitcom character? jesus it's like the 90s never happened.

I probably am just being nit-picky, but dont' twist my words and be mistaken - I think the double-edged sword is that McHale's sarcasm and the show's tone is more biting than yr average sitcoms, and I'm just wondering out loud on here if that could pose a problem, or not.

iatee: mean in that it makes CC look like a circus of losers. Most other network television gets intentionally ambivalent but this show is content to not please everybody (and I like that about it).

Have they revealed the reason why Pierce is there? I remember him being a former CEO but have they gone into that backstory?

how is this show's tone more biting? seems pretty harmless to me

It's all pretty harmless (this is American network television), and occasionally it does cop-out like with the way they try to deal with everybody's problems, "I'm okay, you're okay"-talks, as mentioned upthread, but they go further than most (non-cartoon) network sitcoms would in making fun of people and CC.

what people?! seriously who is getting made fun of here? people who go to community college?

the characters quirks are why the show is funny, not some biting commentary on american education

Never mind. Let's go back to agreeing that this show is super funny.

DAMN MY TALENT!

Annie = hotter every week.

Also, I really love this show now.

falling into a drumset really hurts

Revisiting the Spanish rap at the end was priceless.

hahaha kept laughing during this ep. As long as they keep juggling the weekly combos each week, the character building should continue quite well. Annie is starting to show the fact that the actress is like 9 years older than the character.

yeah the whole annie/jeff thing is a little creepy given that her character is supposed to be 19ish and his is supposed to be 35ish

Annie or Troy being 18 is the one thing that's hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

her character is supposed to be 19ish and his is supposed to be 35ish

nothing creepy about this ;)

whoah is she really supposed to be 19? that was totally lost on me

her and Troy are right out of HS

that was part og the reason jeff was so skeeved out by his attraction to her

wait, shit, i was thinking of the blonde one

Brunette = Annie. Blonde = Britta.

riiiight

how old is britta supposed to be?

mid 20s?

great ;)

Love that all the movie characters all kind look like the group and then there is the coolio troy.

I think Britta was revealed to be 27.

28, hulu desktop just through up the first scene with Abed and Jeff.

27 sounds right for Brita, old enough to drop out of high school & join greenpeace to impress Radiohead!

Annie's transformation from cute to megahot this last episode was good stuff.

Trudy Campbell vs. Annie

Don't watch Mad Men but I've assumed Trudy Campbell is 1950s adult Annie.

not in the slightest. wonderful actress.

What are everybody's favorite lines so far? I could think of:

"You're an eight, and that's a British ten."

"Kick that for me."

"Wassup, Urkel?"

"I'm don't talk to people who emerge from bushes."
"cause I'm right, that's why"
"No, because I'm in not a commercial for kids cereal."

the one about John Lennon killed me

no pun intended btw

Forgot about that one. Just as funny as the others.

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

slightly nsfw. and slightly creepy

Speaking of slightly creepy, I thought Jeff and Annie had a lot more chemistry together than Jeff and Britta.

oh yeah that's totally true. fortunately irl she's not nearly that young

wth with that Alison Brie youtube thing. Is that her video headshot or something?

UH

re: that youtube

How laws are passed, sausage gets made and, new to the crew, what Hollywood actresses did before their big break. The big three, now.

def made some sausage w/ that video yaknowhwatimsayin

wish i didn't

http://i38.tinypic.com/16jjwg8.jpg

Handiest gif out there imo.

the video was only posted less than two months ago though! looks like that guy does a lot of these short "video portraits"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SjPekY7M_w