Okay. I have a question about Community’s development. It started off as a typical show about a slacker and his misfit toy friends. Then it shifted into this awesome meta-referential 1980s pop cultural homage that we’ve all described. And this year it’s shifted into this bittersweet slightly morose yet internally contemplative show. And I’m wondering how you feel about that and how your characters have grown with the shift?
Danny Pudi: Wow.
That was a very long question I know.
Danny Pudi: I feel dumb actually…
Leslie Schwartz (NBC Representative): And we only have one more minute.
Alison Brie: You’ve taken so much from the show…
Danny Pudi: Yes.
Alison Brie: …that was a great sort of layout of the show and how it’s grown.
Danny Pudi: Yes.
Alison Brie: I mean I think first of all it’s natural for any show to grow from, you know, a pilot is just a jumping off point.
It’s like you’re – it’s just the thing that you’re trying to sell so that people want to watch and are interested in these characters or this story.
And I think Dan Harmon really utilized it in that way as a jumping off point. And at that point, you know, you get a cast of people.
You’re hoping they are all going to gel well together. It’s such an interesting process just putting together a pilot that’s so bizarre.
Once the show gets in motion it does sort of find a life of its own. And I think that so quickly we all clicked and gelled…
Danny Pudi: Right.
Alison Brie: …as a cast. And then Dan Harmon sort of started to realize that we were also willing to do anything that he would put before us and that the show and the group as it grew stronger was kind of capable of doing anything.
So a lot of this stuff is just Dan Harmon and our writers and our producers really just continuing to take great risks and push us and pull us in these different directions and us sort of going forward gung ho about them.
Danny Pudi: We also know that, you know, this is the second year that these characters all know each other.
We came in to Greendale not knowing each other at all and so it was only kind of natural that the more you discover about each other’s characters and how you bounce off each other the more you learn about their back stories, where they come from, their lives, the more complicated everything becomes.
You know, so I think that just because of that everything, there’s a lot more at stake in terms of our comedy and just things like that which I think is really great too and that the show has done a great job of I guess being consistent with keeping all this, the characters kind of rotating.
So I feel like you really know where each character’s coming from at this point which I think makes a lot of the jokes pop more and you kind of also really know how every character’s going to react to a situation at this point.
It’s by the way that description was very similar to the description of my sophomore year at college.
Alison Brie: Oh.
Danny Pudi: No it was good. It was just — a little bit more morose, a little bit weird.
Alison Brie: Oh my delivery was wrong. I meant oh.
Danny Pudi: Yes that was better.
All right I’ll look forward to the junior year and see what happens. But…
Danny Pudi: Yes.
[I had a mini conversation with Danny about the awesome partying that typically happens in Junior year and Alison chimed in, but the transcriber wrote it down as ‘crosstalk’]
And my final question then is since you guys had such — have such an awesome banter going will we see Abed and Annie in the Morning?
Danny Pudi: That’s — people love it.
Alison Brie: No.
Danny Pudi: It sounds like people want it.
Alison Brie: I really hope that Annie can make — I don’t think Annie would ever be replacing Troy as the Abed and Annie in the Morning. But we may soon be taking over other TV sort of talk shows as guests host. So look out for that.
Danny Pudi: Spoiler alert. Yes who knows I mean we had some good antics earlier this year with Troy, Abed, and Annie in the chloroform…
Alison Brie: Yes chloroform…
Danny Pudi: …janitors theme.
Alison Brie: …with the janitor. I think that Annie could sort of — I think Troy and Abed and Annie are kind of like the kids of the group…
Danny Pudi: Yes.
Alison Brie: …and they like to go get into trouble together. So when — that’s why I think those characters click so well and the three of us click well together. So hopefully yes, hopefully we’ll see more stuff like that.
Danny Pudi: In the morning.
Alison Brie: Yes.
Leslie Schwartz: All right and that is…
Well thanks a lot guys.
Leslie Schwartz: That’s our last question I’m sorry to say.
Alison Brie: Perfect.
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Feb 25, 2011 @ 11:45 EST5EDT
I only have one question: Why aren’t more people watching this great show?
I don’t see how “2 1/2 Men” can get several times the audience with “Community” obviously being a far, far better show. I’m not even going to throw in the word “arguably” in that sentence because if you’ve seen both shows you know it’s just a simple fact that “Community” is better! :o)
You make a crude sex joke, everyone gets it right away.
You make witty references to bad movies from the 80’s or thinly veiled attempts to show how ridiculous politics can be, people have to think about it for a second, and people don’t like to think when they’re watching tv.
Sadly, this is true and yet another indicator that we’re barreling towards a real-life “Idiocracy” faster than ever. If you haven’t seen the movie, the top TV show of the future was called “Ow, My Balls!” and consisted of nothing more than the main character constantly getting painful blows to the groin. People loved it and laughed out loud at each episode.
We’re so very close to that reality already. Maybe that’s why I’m such a fan of science fiction, I have a true desire to leave this planet.
Great Interview. Love it!
I think there’s a wrong “Abed” in the second bullet point.
Oh and I would like to know how the “wrong” Oh sounded and how the right one was then. Was the first a disappointed Oh and the second a more silent curious one? Doesn’t quite come across I just wanted to know if I got it correctly.
You know it really sucks now that WE can’t hear their real banter because Alison has been on Craig Ferguson and THEIR banter is already insanely fun (and her dress is why I just don’t understand people complaining about the Jeff/Annie thing because Alison clearly isn’t anything between 16 and 19 and if you listened intently to what they said on thursday’s episode Annie had a line where she said she wasn’t 19 (anymore) so gosh darn it let a 20+ year old have a relationship with an older guy for Pete’s sake – those two are cute together).
Here’s a link to to the “The Late Late Show” interview
That was a great interview, but I like Craig Ferguson and he makes everything fun. Alison Brie was more outgoing than I guess I expected, but she was a pretty good guest. She seemed to be enjoying herself and was very comfortable.
As for her age, if it can be trusted Wikipedia says she was born on December 29, 1983. If my math is correct that would make her 27; far from a teenager. That’s good because I think she’s really beautiful and I guess that makes me a dirty old man. Oh well, I’ll accept the label and still continue to enjoy her on “Community.”
I remember seeing this with the two of them from a couple of months ago.
As someone who just participated in a conference call with Alison alone, I can vouch for everything An has said. Alison was crazy intelligent in her answers and was also so gracious to us fans in the call.