Community, the tv show

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m48gfsxYWv1rwsy5jo1_500.jpg

yeah i was actually kinda crestfallen by 'are you on coke' cause i was hoping they were gonna fully commit to the mad max vibe for the scene

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grace-parra/dan-harmon-community_b_1531004.html

Who is this? Those of us not applauding Harmon's firing are bad people, because he apparently mistreats his employees (tho there are no instances cited, nor have any appeared in the press aside from him playing the Chevrolet tapes.)

i don't know who that is but she is v v attractive

Blog content is terrible, yeah, but she's pretty.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/why-firing-dan-harmon-community-327002

While NBC probably would have preferred Sony not fire Harmon, and avoid more "NBC why u hate funny?" shit, they already slotted it for a half-season on Fridays, so in the long run it's not their battle.

Hm, wasn't as into "The First Chang Dynasty". I hate Chang and his army though. I kind of felt like I was watching an Adult Swim show (which I generally don't like at all). I was actually a little touched when Troy send his goodbyes, however.

I guess I'm just not that enamoured with Suburgatory or Apartment 23, although I'll watch them if I'm too lazy to do anything else. Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock might possibly have been better than Community this season.

I don't care. People make TV shows, I usually don't care who it is if the show itself is good. He had a handful of near-duds this season but went out on a good note. Maybe he'll go on to do even way better things than Community after this. Got to look at the bright side. I don't understand people getting all emotional about TV bureaucracy drama.

because people like the show and are sad to see it gutted after being renewed

sad to see it gutted after being renewed

All the cast remains, and so far only one writer has left in protest of Harmon's firing. I wouldn't call that "gutting" the show, but I guess it depends on how much or how little you think Harmon had to do with Community's day-to-day operations.

this news definitely shouldn't bother fans of Bob Camp Ren & Stimpy episodes and the last season of gilmore girls

John K. never took Ren & Stimpy so far up its own ass that a change seemed needed. Community has been barreling toward that conclusion for most of this season.

ok you just questioned how much dan harmon had to do with the day-to-day and then suggested he made it require rectal surgery

By pretty much every account Harmon was really hands-on and, to his detriment perhaps, unwilling to compromise on a lot of things he wanted to do. Considering his top lieutenants left, and another major writer has quit, and presumably nobody within in the show wanted to step up and take the reigns, and they've had to get two guys who have never worked on it, I imagine there's going to be a lot of changes. Especially as Harmon's idea were very...particular.

And yeah, fans of GG and West Wing and NYPD Blue and whatever know how it can be, but this is worse imo because the studio isn't just trying to maintain continuity without a unique voice at the centre of its creative process, it actively wants to alter it to appeal to more people. There's a real worry that the studio desire is to strip out a lot of the idiosyncratic elements that have tended to set it apart from other sitcoms.

"There'll be...an actual clip show!"

i do wonder if they're actually trying to overhaul it or just get it to a syndication goalpost without a lot of hassle

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?