On Friday morning, I popped open my in-box to discover an invitation to the writers who participated in the Drop Dead Diva virtual tour to join a similar one for Community. Because I love Community and had fun on the triple-D tour, of course I said yes. Unfortunately, we had a pretty short notification span. The virtual tour took place on Tuesday and they shot out the link on Monday night. If I didn’t have time to attend, I wouldn’t’ve minded having a bit more wiggle room to float it on the CliqueClack listserv. At the same time, considering the amount of traffic on the CliqueClack listserv these past couple days, I doubt that would’ve been a problem.
The ‘tour’ consisted primarily of Ken Jeong, initially channeling his Senor Chang personae, interviewing Dan Harmon, the series writer, creator, and executive producer while making certain we knew about the Community DVD.
Although we didn’t have a chance to type our own questions, everything Ken asked answered anything I would’ve thought, particularly considering my initial eagerness for the show turned to disappointment by episode three re-transformed into love by Christmas. I initially watched Community because of my geek girl crush on Joel McHale. However, after episode three, I walked away. However, a show with a 1980s premise without the heart, focusing on a cool, savvy lawyer unifying a lovable band of stereotypical misfits while chasing the hot girl felt too yawn-inducing. With a lead such as Joel McHale and an atypical setting (where I almost taught), I expected more than a stock television template. Yet, mid-way through the Fall season, the show stopped pushing the rote romance and started exploring the chemistry of its cast while upping the intelligence of its scripts. It went from a solo venture to an ensemble piece while realizing its audience’s intelligence sat higher. The cherry on top proved the bonanza of pop culture references. I always wondered what served as the catalyst to shift this show from the path of hack and knee to a self-aware text full of orgasm-inducing idiot savant references. Non-Erotic Naked Pool? Anti-Ghost-ing pottery? Genius. Luckily, Ken answered all.
What’s on tap for Season two
How did the show become so awesome?
Click on to watch part 1 of the interview and read final thoughts.
Shame on you An! You hid that video pretty good :-)
Thank you so much. That was awesome :-)
I’m going to see if I can pitch to Keith just doing interview articles dedicated to Sebastian :)