CC: Well, what else have I done, besides a lot of movies? I prefer movies because the money is better and certainly because you really know where you stand when you are making movies, and I have made a lot of them: 50 something, I don't know. The hours in this kind of show are not commensurate with the actual product.
The hours are hideous, and it's still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television. That's my feeling about it. I think the reason I have stuck around is because I love these kids, the cast - they are very good. It's not like I am working with the great innovators of all time, but at the same time, they are my friends and I am out, and one of my daughters is out here, and wants to be in the business, so she is living with me. I will have some time off and I will be looking for a film, which I think will be my next thing, my next move.
Q: What about the writing for Community?
CC: For this one? As I said, it's completely different. That kind of show that I wrote for, that style of show, which is a variety, comedy, sketch show, and the fact that it's live and late at night, allows you to do so much more than you can ever do in a sitcom. I don't know much about how I would change the situation comedy world, but it is exactly what it says: it's situation comedy, and the situation can get old, and sometimes the ones that are at the very top, which just have three people in them, The Big Bang Theory or whatever it is - it's three people, that's basically what the premise is, and we can do that day and night. None of that really interests me. What interests me is being alive and being with friends that I care about and being as creative as I can given circumstance.
Read more at Huffington Post.
Uh, wow. I have no words right now except that I'm angry and just wow.
ReplyDeleteWhy is he even still on this show if he hates it so much?
Understand his points and agree completely.
ReplyDeleteI can see what he means. The creative process is completely different to sketch comedy, less creative and less improve. It's always changing and does not get old to him. That is where he got his start and obviously where his heart is.
Movies are short time commitments so they do not get old, but sitcoms do. The same character over and over with little involvement in the actual writing or creative process would get old to most actors..... Most actors after long stints on sitcoms want to do something different afterward even if they loved that series. It just gets old.... They want to challenge themselves or portray something new and different.
I think we read different articles....
ReplyDeleteHe does not hate the show. He understandably dislikes sitcoms in general for their repetitive nature.
Chevy Chase really needs a publicist any time he opens his mouth. He always comes off sounding ungrateful, whiny, arrogant, and unpleasant. For as much as I liked his movies when I was a kid (hey I was a kid), he's not an actor I'm likely to watch after Community is done. I'm not particularly thrilled with his character on the show anyway and think it would have been better to kill Pierce off when all the hubbub began.
ReplyDeleteFor much as foot his breath tastes, I can help to find some truth to his words. Sitcoms, no matter how amazing the premise can be, almost undeniable fall on that self-congratulating comfort zone with no deviation from formula. I mean, remember Friends? I love that show, but god it is stupid.
ReplyDeleteAnd even as amazing community is as a sitcom, it is bound to the genre's limitations no matter how much they bounce against the walls. In four years, how much of the paradigm has changed? Well, it can't. It has to remain within parameters, sadly too much deviation would lead to alienation. The set up always has to be "group of people and put into a situation, hilariousness ensue".
And for much Community has polished itself to be a beacon of what a GOOD sitcom can be, it is still bound to the arbitrary, yet familiar limits of sitcom. In that aspect, I think that Arrested Development has been the only show that came closer to breaking the sitcom shackles, and we all know how long that show lasted.
I understand that but if he think it's getting old, why not just quit? I really don't see the point of doing something that you don't see challenging, especially in his case as an actor.
ReplyDeleteHe also said that doing the show was a mistake,, and he's only there because he loves the cast so much.
ReplyDeleteSounds like he hates the show to me, tbh.
Honestly I agree.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a huge fan of his , but.....
Maybe he wants to hold on to the remaining thread of what used to be his career.... Maybe he needs the money, or maybe he is just bored and wants to work somewhere even if hit is not his preferred medium.....
I agree! I only liked a few of his movies,way back when,and i don't think hes all that great now in Community...
ReplyDeleteHe sounds that way because he is! XD
ReplyDeleteHe was a jerk when I met him in '79 and I doubt he has changed very much.....
Money,money money!
ReplyDeletePersonally I never liked his character on Community, and after reading this it might be better if he just left (went back to making those amazing movies he pretends he made.... =P) and leave the spot open for someone who actually wants to be a part of the medium called television...
ReplyDeleteThen he would not get the attention that his ranting gives him now. Or at least that's the way it seems to me. I can't imagine living or working with him.
ReplyDeleteHey Chevy: put a sock on your mouth.
ReplyDeleteHe's definitely better in the disregard pile which is where he is going for me. Not worth the time it takes to read about. He joins Charlie Sheen, Brittney Spears, Kardashians, and Lindsay Lohan among many, many others. I keep hoping if people stop paying attention to them they will go away. Thus far neither of those things have happened.
ReplyDeleteHe comes off incredibly crass here. It could just be him being blunt and frank or whatever, but he sounds like an ass. Reality tv is the lowest form of television... Sitcoms aren't the pick of the crop but from the way he puts it, it's the THE WORST... I get that he has an opinion and that's fine... But come on, when is the last time late night comedy sketch shows (SNL mainly) have been consistently and creatively in their prime? It's been at least 20 years... Yes, we get wonderful episodes or even a good season here and there, and arguably they're allowed more space to do what they want, but I feel like he exaggerates the contrast in quality on both accounts here...
ReplyDeleteNo offense, Chase, but Community (along with Parks & Rec, Louie, It's Always Sunny..., 30 Rock, Suburgatory, etc.) have all had unique, incredibly well-written and creatively excellent seasons over and over again. Of course others are a dime-a-dozen (most of CBS, TBS, etc.) but still there are a number of shows that are sitcoms that are critically acclaimed, well-acted, and even original without re-treading already broken ground...
When's the last time you can say that about late night comedy?
He is being honest which is bound to make people feel uncomfortable. He's staying on the show, even if it's just because of the cast, and I think that's a better reason to me than their being constant articles about him demanding a raise (Modern Family cast much?). And even though the movies he has done recently have been total crap he still probably makes more for a small role than half a season on Community.
ReplyDeleteHis character has always been the lowest one on the totem pole (I actually like his character more than Chang), so I get why he may not appreciate the show so much. No one ever says: "Watch Community, Chevy Chase is in it," because he's not a draw, but he still thinks he's that popular guy from the 80's.
I don't like that he's being sour about the show, but he makes a point. MOST sitcoms have an "interesting" plot that gets overused, the characters never grow, and the humor stays the same. Community, in my opinion, does do a LOT of variety. No two episodes are alike. The characters are likable, and they have human flaws. They aren't just stereotypes (even if they started out that way they have grown). #sixseasonsandamovie
sounds like an asshat.
ReplyDelete"Arbitrary, yet familiar limits"... it is quite possible that Community is the least limited show on all of television. They can pretty much do whatever they want. If there are limitations, it probably manifests itself in the need to stay on their sets and shoot some bottle episodes, but that's most network television right now.
ReplyDeleteFriends, for all it's "stupidity" (I really do think this is overstated, but I'm not a huge fan either, so whatever), was not the ideal. It's a classical sitcom, something that's be usurped by the likes of Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, Modern Family and etc. These shows fight convention, they don't slide into formula.
Am I the only one who knows about the second voice recording? Where he outright said that Community is "Just a f*cking mediocre sitcom."? I mean come on, this guy does NOT like the show he's on. He's made it clear sooooo many times and still has a job. That annoys the hell out of me. If any one of us continuously insulted our job right where our boss can hear us, we'd likely be fired.
ReplyDeleteChevy is a third rate actor who thinks he's an A-lister. Now with Dan gone no one is calling him out on his crap. I can't condone what Dan did with Chevy's family there, but I can certainly understand how it might have built up until he just couldn't resist.
Chevy, put your foot in your mouth and shutup. Your character could be played better by any other older actor and probably with 80% less drama. You are free to your opinion, but when your opinion constantly mocks and insults those you work with, then you better be ready for some commentary.
Once this show is done, it will be a small miracle if you ever have a meaningful job in the industry again.
But the boundary is still there in terms of where the narrative can go, As I said, Community is and example on how to master this space. No other show owns themselves as Community; they know the playfield and can evoke different genres at whim, and that is not even mentioning the wit of the writing and dialogue itself.
ReplyDeleteBut for all this marvelousness, Community, to my thinking, doesn't step away from the primal make-up of situation comedy, where is just about a group of people put through a, well, situation. Community has created the best situations over the years, and the characterization and interactions of the cast alone are something that serious dramas can only wish to achieve. But still, Community remains within the boundary of what makes a sitcom, because it has to. Everything lies in the humor of the characters dealing with a situation while there's an undeniable status quo. Even when community flirts with the concept of breaking the paradigm (Pierce leaving the group, then returning. Troy joining AC school, Jeff deciding to stay in college), it always returns at the status quo of the group back together.
And again, it has too. It's ceirtanly good, I love to see this characters interact in these ingenious stories; but the fact that everything revolves in a microcosmos is the crux of sitcoms, they can go beyond that. There's a limit to the setting and I don't really know what happens when it's crossed. What does the show turn into?
Arrested Development, if less flashy and genial, always had that promise that anything could happen and would happen. Things that could change the paradigm. It didn't quite wen't all out, with the Bluth's living on a south american rain forest, but Maeby's parentage, George Sr, prison outbreak(s), Lindsay's parentage and Buster losing a hand, where always things that made you think that anything could happen. There was so much room for narrative liberty and so much more seemed possible.
I think that Community relies more in the genre surfing and character interaction, but at the end no; it doesn't break the limits of what makes a sitcom. And maybe it wouldn't work without that limit.
I don't really know here the difference lies, maybe it's the severity of the status quo, maybe is that fact that plot, even a background one, is an entity. I don't see the plot of Community existing separately, I did see Arrested Development's plot lurking around now and them and sneaking upon the Bluths and they were force to deal with it.
Reality TV is much worst,I think...
ReplyDeletePierce what the hell? This is worse than telling Shirley Chang might be her baby daddy.
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, Community is a refreshing show that pokes at sitcoms (i.e. the references, bottle episode), so for him to bite the hand that feeds him because "Oh I did this and that and 50 movies", is insane. Publicist. PUBLICIST. PUBLICIST!!!
No, reality tv is the lowest form of television.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but in this case, there is only a tangential boundry to plot. They deviate from reality all of the time. They do episodes inside a characters imagination; claymation; inside a video game - they can base an episode around a trampoline or stage an episode to be like another show entirely (Law and Order).
ReplyDeletePretty much every single cabler in existence has a more strict formula and adherence to it's own canon. This is a freedom that only exists right now in the sitcom.
I get that, but the examples you bring are the genre-meshing that Community does so well. You have to look beyond the flare, the wrapping of the episode, at the end the shows still is build inextricably on top of situational comedy.
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about the building blocks, about stripping the show to its bare; The wonderful narrative risks are encased within self contained episodes, but they do not seem to stretch through the show as a whole. There was a greater semblance of underlying plot in season 3, I liked that, but I can't say if they were "good". Chang taking over the college? Still not sure how I feel bout that.
But again, as much as Community plays with the setting and tone, heavy on homage and even genre shifting, it's all a looking glass for plots that sometimes are not different from what we have always seen.
It sounds like you just answered your own question.
ReplyDeleteI love, and I mean LOVE Community. I have always found Chevy just a blunt unfiltered opinionated person. We are fans of the show but you have to understand it is a job for the actors, you can't tell me you have wanted to leave a job but also wanted to hang around because you like your co-workers. Community isn't his particular kind of comedy, he is also a very entitled person but the show would be so different without Pierce. I like it the way it is, I love my sitcoms, yeah they are limited in the ways they can tell a story but I like watching Community, The big bang theory (not so much anymore I liked it when it was just the core 5; I still watch out of loyalty), modern family etc. I like the familiarity in the Sitcom formula. I like how shows can take a staple of any sitcom (one character seeing another naked, broken and replaced item and so on) because its always a different take with different characters you love for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love the show I am sure Chevy and Dan are both jerks for different reasons. People are people and people are assholes.
The only rule Chevy is really breaking is telling the truth to the press. Im sure there are people who hate each other in sitcoms we all know and love, I like hearing how well the cast gets along as much as any other fan but these people are not the characters they portray. They are people people.
He's awfully high and mighty for a guy whose name has become a punch line. I don't mind an honest opinion in Hollywood, in fact I find it refreshing. I don't even care if he likes the show; it's how he presents the situation, like he's a big shot movie star slumming in TV land where his great gifts of improv, innovation, and creativity are being squandered by this low form of entertainment. That's ridiculous, there is no intrinsic property that makes a comedy movie automatically better that all comedy TV. You might get tired of TV comedy because they last longer, but that's purely a matter of taste and an issue with all American TV, not just the comedy. I personally like the extra time to really get to know the characters that TV allows for. It sounds to me like misplaced aggression from doing more work and getting paid less.
ReplyDelete