Community: Season 3 thread (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

The new showrunners can be found on Twitter at @guarascioport.
...All right, so that's a fake account (like, RIDICULOUSLY fake), but still hysterically witty. If it was actually them, it would give me some serious hope about Season 4 being worthwhile. I particularly love the memo parody, and the leaked script-page, where Britta's inexplicably been replaced by her sister, and they introduce a cool new skateboarding student.
Ironically, something like that's exactly what the new showrunners should have done. If I ever thought it was them, I'd feel a lot better about whose hands the Final 13 were in. One of my absolute favorites:

Guarascio and Port ‏@guarascioport
Just found out there's a Community clip show episode in season 2. We'll watch that instead of the 60 episodes we haven't seen to save time.

I suppose we can still have a debate on next year's thread-title. Nominees include:

• Community: Season Faux-r
• Community The ApocryFour Season
• Community: It Just Feels Season Four-ced
• Community Season 4: The Opposite of Batman
• Community Season 4: The Ratner Years

I think the cast will make just about anything funny, but as I've mentioned earlier, I don't like being put in a position where, if the show I like succeeds, it will encourage studios to drop difficult creators at the first sign of trouble in the future.
Also, it's simply not going to be as good. I'd like to be perfectly open-minded, and give it a completely fresh chance to win me over on its own merits, but some things you just know deep down in your bones.

 

[spshultz]

I am flabbergasted! Someone made the Community 8-bit game for real.

http://www.tv.com/news/someone-made-the-community-8-bit-video-game-for-real-28834/

 

[Paul D G]

Originally Posted by spshultz /t/314515/community-season-3-thread/240#post_3936580
I am flabbergasted! Someone made the Community 8-bit game for real.

http://www.tv.com/news/someone-made-the-community-8-bit-video-game-for-real-28834/

I hope they continue working on this. There's very little programmed as yet (unless i was missing something), but it's really cool.

 

[TravisR]

The fourth season starts on October 19 at 8:30 PM.
http://www.nbc.com/news/2012/06/14/nbc-announces-aggressive-and-staggered-season-premiere-strategy-for-fall-2012/index.php

 

[joshEH]

I've heard that the first episode will be all about George W. Bush's head.
This season, instead of "Creator: Dan Harmon," we'll get: "Special Guest Star: Whitney Cummings."
It'll be the funniest thing she's ever done on NBC, at least.

 

[joshEH]

According to the Community Panel at Comic-Con, the new showrunners promise to keep the show "a weird, wonderful gem":
http://www.avclub.com/articles/new-community-bosses-promise-comiccon-that-they-wo,82468/
Also, some info on upcoming Season 4 episodes. I'm mostly over the major anger now, and am willing to give the new guys a fair chance (if only an episode or two) to show me that they've got a handle on this show and its whole vibe. Some of those episode-premises sound interesting, and like something Harmon himself might've done. I'm actually just relieved they're planning on picking up on the whole "Jeff's dad"-thing, which was one of many next-season hooks I was afraid would get thrown by the wayside.
Although I was rather surprised there was actually no pushback at all against the Harmon-exit, or even a politely-framed question about that, or Chevy Chase. If nothing else, the crowd apparently gave Port and Guarascio a ton of respect when they took the stage. Sounds like they're trying their damndest to do right by the show and its legacy -- Megan Ganz and Andy Bobrow were also on the panel, which gives me some hope that Community will stay the same weird little show with a lot of brains and heart.
NBC and Sony may have fired Dan Harmon because he was stubborn, and didn't want his work tampered with -- but I hope the new guys are at least somewhat like that, too. I've heard some speculation that they may end up going even weirder than we think.
I mean, think about it. This is almost certainly going to be the last season. If Harmon was mostly fired for being unreliable/combative/etc., then Sony may just accept whatever the hell the new guys do, as long as they don't make too much noise.
Might as well please the fans with a run of sheer weirdness to send us home happy, and to make sure the Season 4 DVDs sell strong. If nothing else, it looks like they're coming into this with the right attitude; they recognize what the show is, and that it would be very difficult to change at this point. They could be lying, but I'm going to give them a shot.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

According to the Community Panel at Comic-Con, the new showrunners promise to keep the show "a weird, wonderful gem"

What were they supposed to tell the show's passionate fans? "We're gonna turn it into the next 'Two Broke Girls', everybody!"

 

[joshEH]

If that had happened...the bodies. Dear Lord, the bodies.
Harmon interviewed by Marc Maron on G4:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/communitys-dan-harmon-laments-his-inability-to-pac,82340/

And while he gives NBC credit for recognizing the show's status as both a "cross-platform triumph" capable of inspiring far-flung Internet worship, as well as it's being a "critical darling," he admits that, "In the third season, you can see me start to go, 'Never mind [ratings]—just give me a good review in the Times." And, of course, he laments that "the Nielsen system isn't designed to measure that yet."

They don't mention his, "When twenty people call you a horse's ass, you buy a saddle"-line, which was great, but shows what kind of forced introspection he's been stuck with lately.

 

[joshEH]

Bob Greenblatt once again refuses to answer straight on the Dan Harmon-situation (at the TCA press-event):
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tca-nbc-bob-greenblatt-ann-curry-dan-harmon-olympics-howard-stern-353579

Greenblatt seemed to chalk up the ouster of Community showrunner Dan Harmon to a wider effort to broaden its comedy signature in order to pull in the largest possible audience.
"Those Thursday comedies (of which Community is one) tend to be a bit more narrow than we'd like," he admitted. "Community is a show that's always on the bubble, we decided to bring it back again, and see what a fourth season would do for us. Sometime you want to freshen up the show, and we just decided to do that, with no disrespect to anyone."
NBC has ordered only 13 episodes of Community for next season, but Greenblatt said he’s open to a larger episode-order, if the show performs well.
"Fans are going to get the same show they have loved from the beginning," he said. "Every so often it’s time to make a change with a showrunner; you evaluate the creative and how the show is run, how the writing staff works. Sometimes you want to freshen a show and we just decided it was time to do that with Community."

"Sometimes you want to freshen up the show." Right. Because Community's problem was that it wasn't fresh enough.
This response (obviously) sounds incredibly rehearsed and canned -- of course Greenblatt knew he'd be asked about it, and undoubtedly had a publicist-massaged talking-point already memorized and ready to go.

 

[joshEH]

Dan Harmon developing new, multi-camera sitcom pilot for FOX:
http://tvline.com/2012/07/25/dan-harmon-comedy-pilot-fox/
This sounds like a challenge.
Let's start a list of candidates to replace Ron Silver on Heat Vision and Jack: The Series.
A new sitcom? Aimed at a broader audience? I really don't want this to be another Hurwitz/Running Wilde-situation, but that's what it sounds like. Then again, a multi-camera sitcom is the most punk-rock thing Harmon could probably do at this point. Unless this is just a placeholder until Tim Olyphant's schedule finally allows Harmon to produce the fourth season of Deadwood.

 

[joshEH]

New History professor for Season 4:

Malcolm McDowell is poised to make history, or at least teach it. The Franklin & Bash actor has booked a guest-starring role on NBC's cult favorite Community, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. The actor, whose numerous TV credits include gigs on Entourage, Heroes, and CSI: Miami, will check into Greendale and play a history professor on the upcoming fourth season of the Sony Pictures Television comedy. He's poised to appear in two episodes as Professor Cornwallis. McDowell joins Little Britain's Matt Lucas as having booked multiple-episode gigs on the series, which returns in its new 8:30 p.m. Friday time slot starting Oct. 19.

Great news, although reading Malcolm McDowell described as "the Franklin & Bash actor" makes my soul cry. Matt Lucas is another very interesting, unexpected casting-choice -- maybe the new producers really do know what they're doing, here.
And wow, they really snuck the third season out on DVD. I didn't hear much about it at all, and there it was, at Best Buy. Oh well, only twenty bucks.
This season so far plays very well when you watch a whole fucking bunch of them in a row.

 

[Josh Dial]

I don't buy anything on DVD anymore. It's a shame Community isn't out on Blu-ray.

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm surprised Abed hasn't made a veiled complaint about this on the show.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Cameron's review of season 3 on DVD here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/323201/community-the-complete-third-season-dvd-review