Thanks to Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), the ousted creator of Community, Dan Harmon, answered any and all questions. Here we list some of our favorites.
Ever since NBC announced that Dan Harmon would no longer be the head honcho of our favorite cult comedy Community, fans revolted in his honor. Though he announced he will have no part in the show now that he can’t run it (and rightly so, in our humble opinion) he has now answered many questions about the conflicts with Chevy Chase, the future of the show set to premiere on October 19 and the vision that he can no longer carry out (oh, and he answered who he thought would win in a fist fight between the cast … so there’s that).
Thanks to Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), read our favorites below:
Who would win in a fist fight between the cast:
I feel like Joel would come out swinging and start winning right away, but he’d tire himself out chasing Gillian and Donald around the ring. Once Joel got to his exhaustion point, things would get bloody and ugly for a while, with Danny doing a lot of horrible things that nobody knew he could do – I just have that sense that Danny would suddenly bust out a crazy eyeball eating maneuver he learned in some class – but in the end, Yvette would reveal that she had lined the whole room with explosives and she would emerge victorious. From the room. But Chevy would be behind the door with a bat and take her out. Then he’d collapse because that’s a lot of bat swinging for a legend his age. So I guess Alison would win because nobody would have felt good about punching her.
On how Chevy Chase walked off set:
He refused to do the “tag” for the Digital Estate Planning episode (the 8-bit video game episode). In the scripted tag, Abed comes to Pierce with the thumb drive he took, and says “Pierce, I’ve been able to adjust some of the code for your Dad’s video game and I’ve made a version I think you might like better.” He puts the thumb drive into a laptop in front of Pierce. We cut to the laptop screen, where we see Pierce’s avatar on a front lawn with the giant floating head of Cornelius. Every time Pierce presses the space bar, his avatar throws a baseball to his father’s head, which gives him a thousand points and a “great job, son!” Pierce presses the space bar a few times, pauses, then leans over and embraces Abed and we fade to black. When Adam Countee pitched that tag, tears instantly rolled down my cheeks, and in point of fact, my eyes are getting watery describing it to you. It was the most important part of the episode and possibly one of the most important moments of the season. I was very upset to hear that it wasn’t shot because someone didn’t feel like shooting it, especially since it was literally the last day of shooting, which meant we’d never be able to pick it up. I regret nothing about how upset I got. My job was to care about my show.
On whether or not he will watch season 4:
I’m going to wait a few episodes, maybe the whole season, and see how other people react. If people love it, then I’ll be able to safely watch it with an open, friendly heart, because the whole point is whatever makes the audience happy. If they say it’s good, it’s good, and I can watch it and even say it’s good. But I’m not going to be part of any campaign to convince anyone – me or others – of anything, good or bad. I’ve received a lot of advice from a lot of creatives that in a situation like this, it’s best for everyone on all sides that I make a clean break and not look back. I’ll be one of the very last people you hear weighing in on new Community. It’s the most practical, healthy decision I can make for its audience. Here’s an important related question: DO I HOPE IT’S GOOD? The honest answer is yes.
On whether or not he will be there involved at all this season:
It wouldn’t do the show or me any good to be invited back to the show in “any capacity.” If they thought I was bad at being in charge, they’d be even more disappointed in my ability to be not-in-charge. I’m a zero-sum personality with very little staff writing experience. I like to create stuff and if people don’t like it I like to try to figure out how to make it better but I’m not great at helping other people make their stuff. Nobody wants Dan Harmon prowling the hallways while they’re trying to make Community. It would slow everything down and frustrate everyone because people would feel obligated to mince words and be political in their handling of my opinions and blah blah blah. So no.
On his favorite 30 seconds of any one episode:
My mind goes to the moment Jeff drags Pierce out of the study room in the Dungeons and Dragons episode. And Abed is standing there watching. And Jeff is absolutely livid because Fat Neil’s actual LIFE is at stake, and he shouts at a man twice his age as if he’s the father and Pierce is the child, which is true in that moment. “What is your PROBLEM?!” “I don’t like being excluded, Jeff, do you?!”
On his favorite cast member:
They all have different senses of humor. I would never answer a question like this while I was over there but now that I’m gone I can probably just say DONALD WAS MY FAVORITE! DONALD WAS MY FAVORITE!!!
On why they cast Chevy Chase as Pierce:
Sony made us. I’m not saying it was the wrong decision ultimately, but the honest answer to the question is that Pierce was literally the only role for which nobody else was considered after the actor we cast put his hat in the ring. Even McHale had to “test” against two other great guys. The short list of people I wanted to see about playing Pierce: Fred Willard, John Cleese, Patrick Stewart. That’s a juicy role, man, there’s a LOT of brilliant old dudes out there, but in the end, Sony felt (accurately) that Chase was a household name. And I remember Krasnoff saying to me, “listen, you make the decision on your pilot that gets you a series order. You take these things one step at a time.” And there was wisdom there. Vile wisdom, but it’s a vile industry. And I think the writers and Chevy ended up creating an unforgettable character.
On whether or not Chevy Chase gets the jokes on the show:
No.
On NBC letting him go:
I feel like NBC is in a state of chaos that may or may not be ended by this latest regime, but in any case, at the moment of my firing, lacked the concern, coordination, foresight and muscle to make Sony understand what a needlessly risky move they were making.
I think Sony took the risk because they didn’t see it as a risk. What’s at risk when your show’s been moved to purgatory, etc. I feel like taking me off Community was as obviously foolish as you see most people saying.
I think the rumors you hear about me being bad at my job, especially the empty, overblown stuff about Chevy, are the best possible attempt anyone can make at making a very confusing, very dumb thing seem less confusing and less dumb.
I also feel relieved and excited and proud and smug. I feel like I win and they lose. My writers and I bled for that show and we would have kept doing it, in spite of Sony’s attitude, for one reason: the fans. If it weren’t for the fans, we all would have quit after season two. That show stopped being about our fulfillment the day Sony told us the Dungeons and Dragons episode was their least favorite. It stopped being about the writers’ fulfillment the day Greenblatt told me he had seen “about half” the episodes but wanted to know how we could stop making it “too weird to follow The Office.” There was a point where the only thing getting the writers out of bed was the joy of the viewer, which was plenty, even though Sony was doing everything in their power to make us miserable. So you can see how a company taking it upon themselves to martyr me the way they did was a pretty clean way out of a pretty tough spot for me. At the end of this thing, I’m rich, people want to work with me, audiences respect me, I don’t have to work for Sony anymore and I can even feel sorry for myself if I feel like it. It’s a pretty sweet ending to a crazy story.
That’s how I honestly feel. Answering honestly does me no favors, but I want to take the “anything” part of “ask me anything” seriously, because Reddit made Community. And that’s the part of this whole thing that bums me out, is that the only people that stand to suffer are the only people that never made a dime. The people that put free labor into Community. The people that got tattoos of it, the people that made halloween costumes and birthday cakes and tee shirts and music videos about it. They’re the only people not walking away with millions of dollars and they’re the only people that EVER MATTERED and ever understood the show.
So I feel good bad. I feel terrible awesome. I feel proud ashamed. I feel engorged on my own starvation, I feel like the biggest con artist and sucker in the history of monsters and heroes.
What are your thoughts on his frank answers? What was your favorite response? Any other moments from the AMA that you found notable?
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.