Ongoing Community Discussion Thread

[JirinPanthosa]

Are you saying Paintball 2 could have been real? Or the Chang coup de tat? Community gave up on plausible after the first season.

What ever happened to the school of air conditioning repair, did S4 just drop that entire thread?

 

[the G-man]

I suppose the easy answer would be to have Jeff teach a criminal justice seminar and the rest of the cast be the students. It's not a realistic answer but then Community obviously isn't exactly a realistic take on higher ed to begin with.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Dan Harmon has revealed that NBC have asked him to return to Community. He would apparently be brought back as showrunner, and he's said he's open to doing it if he's given the freedom to choose his own writers and directors.

Wow, great news if it turns out to be true.

 

[shivkala]

I'd be perfectly happy if they just Dallas'd the 4th season.

That was my first thought, have a character wake up complaining about a bad dream, have Abed explain he still has a working Dreamatorium in which Season 4 happened in (maybe something like Moriarty's holocube in "Ship in a Bottle."), or have it be a view into "The Lamest Timeline."

And I want to see John Oliver given a larger role.

Well, John will be busy for most of the summer.

Not sure when they'll shoot season 5. If Wikipedia is to be believed, season 4 began shooting in August, but that was for an October 19th premiere. If they shoot season 5 around the same time, John Oliver might be free to shoot some episodes.

 

[tighr]

Are you saying Paintball 2 could have been real? Or the Chang coup de tat? Community gave up on plausible after the first season.

What ever happened to the school of air conditioning repair, did S4 just drop that entire thread?

I am indeed saying just that. What about either of those two plots was implausible?

And in the S4 finale, Troy said he had already finished all of his A/C repair courses.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Are you saying Paintball 2 could have been real? Or the Chang coup de tat? Community gave up on plausible after the first season.

What ever happened to the school of air conditioning repair, did S4 just drop that entire thread?

I am indeed saying just that. What about either of those two plots was implausible?

And in the S4 finale, Troy said he had already finished all of his A/C repair courses.

True, I suppose those are both more plausible than Michael Scott promising an entire class of kids to pay for their college education.

But then again so is Changnesia.

 

[Tosk]

I'd be perfectly happy if they just Dallas'd the 4th season.

That was my first thought, have a character wake up complaining about a bad dream, have Abed explain he still has a working Dreamatorium in which Season 4 happened in[...]

How about this; Abed imagined it all in an attempt to deal with the fact that Pierce died at the start of the year. Hence all the references to replacing him/lame excuses for him not to be around.

 

[gblews]

If this is true it just exceeds my wildest expectations. Letting Harmon go in the first place made no sense. Plausibly writing Jeff back into the show certainly is the least of the show's problems whether Harmon comes back or not.

Fingers, toes, everything crossed hoping this happens.

 

[bigdaddy]

I suppose the easy answer would be to have Jeff teach a criminal justice seminar and the rest of the cast be the students. It's not a realistic answer but then Community obviously isn't exactly a realistic take on higher ed to begin with.

I actually like that idea.

And what do you mean the show isn't realistic? I took History of Ice Cream in college!

And the show isn't coming abck until mid-season, so there is no rush.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Someone sues Greendale.

Winger leaps to it's defence... Unless it is he who is doing the suing?

The schism between Greendale and the air conditioning school is good place to stick a wedge.

 

[TheGodBen]

Some more news about Community: David Guarascio and Moses Port are officially out as showrunners, having been offered the chance to return for season 5 but turning it down. The decision to try and bring back Harmon makes much more sense in light of his replacements leaving the show. They're also trying to bring back writer Chris McKenna who left the show at the same time as Harmon.

 

[bigdaddy]

I will be so happy if they get the old crew back.

The new crew did a job, it wasn't good, but they tried. They were trying to continue the crazy and the fun, but it just was missing heart, and they didn't understand the characters.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

One wonders if the replacements are moving on to facilitate the return of the originals. Would be nice if they were that gracious, but a job's still a job...

Mark

 

[gblews]

One wonders if the replacements are moving on to facilitate the return of the originals.

I tend to look at it this way; NBC renewed the show in hopes that it will grow it's demographic the way Seinfeld and some other shows have. My guess is that they were well aware of what the long time fans were saying about this past season, which was the same thing that was being written right here.

NBC must realize that to maintain the show's uniqueness, they had to bring Harmon back. That is one of the show's main hooks. The (former) current crew were just not up it. Harmon presents the best path to growing that loyal fanbase.

I'll bet TPTB simply told the staff you can either bow out gracefully or be fired. If they fired Harmon, you know they wouldn't hesitate to fire the new guys. You know that if the ratings and digital word of mouth had improved enough (neither did), NBC wouldn't let those guys go and with only one season and a renewal, why would those guys leave voluntarily?

They got the boot.

 

[bigdaddy]

You are giving too much undeserved credit to NBC.

 

[tighr]

I'd still like season 5 to have an increased order to 16 episodes, so that if season 5 is indeed the final season, the show finishes with exactly 100 episodes.

 

[TheGodBen]

One wonders if the replacements are moving on to facilitate the return of the originals. Would be nice if they were that gracious, but a job's still a job...

Everything I've heard about the behind the scenes of Community suggests that it's a horrible place to work as a writer. During the first three seasons this was put down to Harmon's managerial style (which is something he himself admits he wasn't good at) but the atmosphere didn't seem to improve under Guarascio and Port. Given the stress and long hours they would have endured only to end up with a lacklustre season that disappointed fans, I can see why Guarascio and Port would choose not to return for season 5. I believe some other writers also left after season 4 for similar reasons.

With the new showrunners gone, Sony had a dilemma in replacing them as most of the senior producers on Community left after season 3. They'd need to hire someone in from outside again, which hadn't worked so well last time they tried it, and it would probably piss off fans even more if they hadn't at least tried to bring Harmon back.

 

[tighr]

Everything I've heard about the behind the scenes of Community suggests that it's a horrible place to work as a writer. During the first three seasons this was put down to Harmon's managerial style (which is something he himself admits he wasn't good at) but the atmosphere didn't seem to improve under Guarascio and Port.

Can't be any worse than the writer's room on South Park.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Harmon confirms his return.

Gives me a reason to start watching again.

 

[LeadHead]

Very glad about this. I hope he's been thinking about new episodes/story lines over the past year. I look forward to see what happens in season 5. It doesn't say yet why his job will be. Hope he can be show runner again. Also hope they bring back Chris McKenna too, he wrote some of my favorite episodes.