This is the darkest timeline (Dan Harmon fired from Community)
steve_bryant
Posts: 96
I've loved Community from the start, but as the show has gotten more absurd and attempted increasingly ambitious homages, riffs, and parodies, my love for the show has increased exponentially. Even the news of a move to Friday nights and a shortened season couldn't diminish my excitement over the series' 4th season renewal.
However, following a brilliant 3-episode season finale, the latest news has taken all of the wind from my sails.
NBC and Sony have chosen to replace series creator/showrunner Dan Harmon.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/19/community-hires-new-showrunners-dan-harmon-to-consult/
Harmon doesn't help his case here, either, but they didn't even contact him about it:
http://danharmon.tumblr.com/
I suppose that this was inevitable. It's a business, after all, and the bizarre and ambitious detours that the show attempted probably were probably off-putting to people expecting standard network fare (to be honest, though, NBC's overall numbers are pretty close to basic cable). Love or hate the show, I hope one can at least appreciate the ambition behind episodes told in spot-on Ken Burns documentary format, Rankin/Bass claymation, 8-bit animation, and even an anime passage.
And so much more.
Sorry if I sound like I'm eulogizing the show, but I doubt we'll see this kind of madness next season, and probably not for a long time on network TV.
However, following a brilliant 3-episode season finale, the latest news has taken all of the wind from my sails.
NBC and Sony have chosen to replace series creator/showrunner Dan Harmon.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/19/community-hires-new-showrunners-dan-harmon-to-consult/
Harmon doesn't help his case here, either, but they didn't even contact him about it:
http://danharmon.tumblr.com/
I suppose that this was inevitable. It's a business, after all, and the bizarre and ambitious detours that the show attempted probably were probably off-putting to people expecting standard network fare (to be honest, though, NBC's overall numbers are pretty close to basic cable). Love or hate the show, I hope one can at least appreciate the ambition behind episodes told in spot-on Ken Burns documentary format, Rankin/Bass claymation, 8-bit animation, and even an anime passage.
And so much more.
Sorry if I sound like I'm eulogizing the show, but I doubt we'll see this kind of madness next season, and probably not for a long time on network TV.
Comments
McKenna wrote some of my favorite episodes of the series, including Adventures in Digital Estate Planning (Thursday night's video game episode), the Hugo Award-nominated Remedial Chaos Theory (parallel timelines), Paradigms of Human Memory (the clip show that wasn't a clip show), and Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design (Professor Professorson!).
Looks like NBC and Sony really Britta'd this up.
Shit.
http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/23130274570/insert-one-of-those-wistful-how-i-would-love-to
http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/23349287653/dan-harmon-poops-hey-did-i-miss-anything
Feh.
Can't sat I did not see this coming. Whatever the issues are/ were between Harmon and Chase, it was extremely unprofessional for him to take them and air them publicly. It was a private matter and should have stayed within the Community cast and crew. In this day and age you have to know that anything you take public, as Harmon did, runs the possibility of going viral all over the internet.
I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, but some of the stuff I'm reading in this thread is making me realize it was money very very well spent.
It is at the top of my "to watch" pile. Love it!
Honestly, Harmon's firing doesn't come as a shock to me.
The first two seasons of Community were amazing, but this last season often felt contrived. That's not to imply season three didn't push the envelope. Episodes like the Ken Burns-esque documentary and the recent video-game episode practically redefined the word "situation" in sitcom, but the whole season felt disjointed. I'm sure part of the reason for the apparent lack of cohesion was the studio's decision to put the show on hiatus mid-season, but that's not the only reason. In season three, the "comedy" element of "sitcom", frequently came across as being deliberate. I could cite numerous instances where one-liners were flung at the audience like a monkey flinging its own shit at zoo-goers. During season three, Community's paper fortune teller intro. would interject seemingly at random, whereas in the first two seasons the music would invariably queue after a payoff punchline. The timing issues weren't just limited to the queue intro. music. Punchlines in the first two seasons were uttered with such nonchalance that their "punch" was more akin to a series of subtle blows which, by the end of each episode, had culminated into a knockout. Season three was brimming with one punchline after another, and all too often each blow would be accompanied by a deliberate pause as if to say, "Did you feel that?" "Did you see what we just did?". Community is still leaps and bounds better than most of the drivel on television, but there was definitely something amiss with season three. From what I've read, Harmon got cocky and his recent expletive ridden tirade in front of Chevy Chase's family may have been the straw that broke that camel's back. Whatever the reason for his dismissal, I can't help but feel as if the show has lost part of what made it great.
Harmon doesn't help his case here, either, but they didn't even contact him about it:
http://danharmon.tumblr.com/
I disagree. I thought that made his case very well. He did a good job of not burying the show's future while presenting his side. Several laughs. Thanks for sharing the link.