Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie and Jim Rash participated to a Screen Actors Guild roundtable a few days ago.
49 minutes in which they discuss how they got their SAG card, how they're affected by NBC's scheduling of the show, how the writers take things from the cast members' lives to incorporate in their characters, how the Dean evolved into this larger-than-life character, what was their audition for Community like and how was their worst / most humiliating audition. It's really fun to watch :
Gillian for the win at 22:17 ("You were just a Craigular Joe").
Furthermore, Dan Harmon made a speech in September, and it got on the Internet a few days ago. You should watch the whole keynote, seeing Dan Harmon rambling on the internet, the TV industry and the role of money is quite interesting and also very funny :
If you don't want to watch the whole thing, first : shame on you, and also you can find the bit about his exit from Community right below :
"I really want to put forth the fact that I was fired for money. My contract was up. My right hand man, writer Chris McKenna's contract was up at the same time as the executive producers beneath me, Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan's contracts were up. One of my best writers, Megan Ganz's contract was up. Sony was looking at a helluva negotiation for 13 final episodes that NBC was burying on Friday. Instead of either promoting or just killing, why not promote it? Why not just kill it? Money. And why for those final 13 episodes, why not renegotiate a deal with someone who doesn't have a contract, who created the show, who's indispensable? Money. It had nothing to do with anything else".
Among other things, Harmon talks about the opportunity of seeing people enjoying his 'failed' 1999 FOX comedy pilot Heat Vision and Jack, starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson (as a talking motorcycle). And you know what? You should enjoy it too : watch it know on Youtube. Trust me, it's excellent.
Community returns in two months.
Community - SAG roundtable with the cast + Dan Harmon keynote
9 Dec 2012
Community
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Just watched both of them. Such a great cast and Dan Harmon is such a funny guy! I can't wait for more from him + the return of Community
ReplyDeleteI think Dan Harmon had to be a little more explicit when saying that "Money" is the problem when creating a tv show. Does he mean:
ReplyDelete1) Money is evil because Showrunners have to be told by people who give them money (networks and studios) what to do sometimes?
2) Money is evil because Networks are told by advertisers that some demographic numbers are not good enough and that they want free advertising or a refund? So the Network has no choice but to micro manage low rated shows...
3) Money is evil because advertisers have board of Directors who evaluate profits and whose staff have to justify all expenditures and that includes marketing and advertising...what is the point of advertising if a company does not get enough people to watch those ads?
4) Money is evil because Board of Directors have to justify a companies decisions to Shareholders (that could be you or me) and the Media about how the money they have earnt is spent and invested for the future growth of their company?
5) Or Money is just plain evil because it stops Dan Harmon doing what Dan Harmon wants to do.
I have a feeling that Dan Harmon did not think of the other people who were accountable to the shows low ratings, that they just annoyed him and were only their to hand money over to him and not expect some return on their investment. That expecting a return on investment on something he considered art was wrong.
Look...everybody has to answer somebody and there are always pitfalls to failure. A network executive will get fired for having shows that tank in the ratings (Read Alan Sepinwall's latest book, especially the Lost Chapter), A Marketing Director will get the can for not spending wisely, etc....Dan Harmon should have tried to think that people other than his own Cast and Crew could have been fired if he did not make an effort to make the show more accessible.
Or maybe money is evil....
I love the cast of this show, and the show, and Dan Harmon, and well pretty much anything that touches Community (except NBC and Sony). Hopefully we'll get more adventures of the study group past this unlawfully short season. Six seasons and a movie!
ReplyDelete