MODERATOR: All right.
And thank you all for joining us today.
We have a Talks at Google event for you that's really special,
and is cool, cool, cool.
We're here to celebrate the fifth season
of the NBC show "Community."
We're about in halfway through the run right now.
We picked it up after the Olympics
and we're ready to sprint to the end.
So it is our true honor today to have on co-showrunner Chris
McKenna.
Who do we have?
We have Danny Pudi, Abed Nadir, Alison Brie, Annie Edison,
and it's dean-irific Jim Rash.
All right, so I have a few questions of my own.
We'll have some questions from the audience as well.
And we actually recruited some questions from human beings
across the United States.
So we'll go from them as well.
So to bring everybody up to speed
we got season five this season.
Harmon's back.
McKenna's back.
You filled all Hall-H at Comic-Con.
It was pretty amazing.
So congrats on that.
What were the early days of shooting like?
Was it business as usual, or something
completely different, new sense of purpose?
CHRIS: How'd you guys feel?
ALISON: I felt like everything felt back to normal.
Whereas there may or may not have
been a season where things didn't feel as normal.
DANNY: Gas leak?
ALISON: And then suddenly it was like ah,
putting on that pair of your favorite jeans.
JIM: It was.
ALISON: I don't know.
I always have trouble finding good jeans.
JIM: Yeah, no.
ALISON: That was not a good.
JIM: Clearly.
No, your analogy works.
Feels like an old pair of jeans.
ALISON: That old pair of jeans that still fits.
DANNY: Good old Wranglers.
All those Cavariccis.
CHRIS: That haven't been washed in at least 10 weeks
of preproduction.
ALISON: Definitely.
Definitely not.
DANNY: They're funny though.
Very funny jeans.
CHRIS: Do you sleep in them on the couch?
JIM: Yeah.
ALISON: They small but it's a familiar smell.
It's a good smell.
CHRIS: Well good.
JIM: So the answer is yes.
DANNY: Yes.
Jean comfortable.
I think it's comfortable.
I think it felt good.
I think as soon as we had the first table
read we just felt like oh, it was-- This is good.
And it's also for us too like we never
thought we'd have a fifth season.
So I mean to actually have a fifth season be
like re-excited about it was really cool.
ALISON: I feel like more than any other year
this year everyone felt relaxed.
That's never been the case.
The first year it's like everyone's super excited,
because you're doing a show, and then the second year it's
like, oh my god, we made it back,
and then the third year was very tumultuous.
You know, we've had such an up and down ride the whole time,
and finally this year I think, one,
with us just having peace of mind of like,
well anything could happen and it's fine.
CHRIS: Yeah.
ALISON: You know?
CHRIS: You have to because, you know
we were taken off the schedules.
There has always been an ax hanging over
"Community"'s head.
And in season three it seemed to have come down
where we were taken off the schedule.
So we were just making episodes.
We didn't think they were ever going to air.
ALISON: Just black hole of episodes.
CHRIS: And yeah, some of us may have fell into the abyss.
And it was probably reflected in a lot
of the-- Stuff got really dark that year.
I love that season, but we definitely
plumbed some dark depths by the end.
And then what do you know, we came back on in March.
And because guess what?
8 o'clock.
That's a tough time period.
Other shows, you know, get beaten up there too.
And so we were put back to be pummeled on
by "Big Bang Theory," and we're still here.
MODERATOR: That's cool.
Was it difficult to transition back
after being gone for a season from my writing and showrunning
perspective Chris?
CHRIS: It was exciting.
I would say, Harmon and I were really excited to go back.
We were really invigorated.
We just wanted to get back to basics with the characters,
and we were so happy there were no curve-balls thrown
our way like, you know, main actors
deciding that they were going to leave the show.
We were very excited, and that disappeared very quickly.
But unlike season three where we were about to commit suicide,
as Alison said, you just kinda go, look--
ALISON: We've been through so much.
CHRIS: We've been through so much.
Maybe we were just numb to it, like an abused child.
We were just like, OK, we'll deal with it.
It was sad, but we dealt with it.
And I think I don't know.
How do you guys feel that we dealt
with what we had to contend with?
ALISON: I like "Community" addresses a lot of things.
I feel like we just go after them and then get rid of them.
That sounded very bad.
DANNY: Yeah it did.
ALISON: But it's sort of like rather than things that
are going to hang on for long periods of time
where people thought cast members are leaving,
are they going to stretch it out over the whole season,
is it going to feel like a weird thing,
it's like no, let's just address-- We
all know he's leaving.
The audience knows he's leaving.
Let's just address that, talk about it.
He's going to leave and then life is going to go on after.
CHRIS: We'll find someone else
ALISON: Yeah.
We've moved on.
CHRIS: Better and smarter, and funnier.
John Oliver.
Jonathon Banks.
No, so because there was the idea of like, oh, do you
want to spread that out?
You know, if we only get five do you
want to spread that over the full season?
I'm like, ugh, that's just like having
your boyfriend is broken up with you.
ALISON: But he's still living in your apartment.
CHRIS: Hanging out, and you know, occasionally
like stopping by in the middle of the night, and no.
JIM: Which it'd also be that weird thing where
you're justifying why he's not there.
ALISON: Yeah.
JIM: He's on that trip.
CHRIS: Yeah.
JIM: He'll be back in about three to four weeks.
CHRIS: That camping trip he talked about, weirdly,
weirdly wedged into his conversation last week.
MODERATOR: Yeah, and I guess to that end,
you know a lot has been already said
in the press about the last day of filming with Donald Glover
before he went off on the childish tycoon,
but what I really want to know what
were the days leading up to the last day?
ALISON: Well, I mean I've said this before because I actually
think it's funny that we shot the episodes out of order.
So like the days leading up to his actual departure
were totally uneventful for him.
We were shooting--
CHRIS: We were shooting "Ass Crack Bandits," which
was technically 505, our fifth episode.
ALISON: So it was like we did all--
I felt like everyone was very emotional when we were shooting
the scene with the childish tycoon,
and he's going to leave, and everyone's
like we're hugging him goodbye, and it felt very real.
And then the next week we're like hey.
CHRIS: It's the one with the quarters in your butt.
DANNY: That's very normal.
CHRIS: I was there for his very last shot,
and it was like 5:00 in the morning on Saturday.
And it was literally a shot of Donald's butt bending over
[INAUDIBLE].
Like perfect.
DANNY: Symbolism.
ALISON: He went out the way he came in.
JIM: Wait he came in?
ALISON: Oh, you don't know the story
about how Donald got the job?
DANNY: Tell us.
Guys.
JIM: So bookends, literally.
MODERATOR: All right, that's good stuff.
ALISON: Yep.
MODERATOR: Also looking at season five, do any of you
have any particular favorite story
lines that have been done so far?
DANNY: I'm excited about the episode that we have coming up.
ALISON: Yes.
DANNY: We have an episode where-- What can
I say about that one?
ALISON: Can he say what we do in the episode?
CHRIS: Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's already out there, so yeah.
JIM: Just keep whispering and--
DANNY: Because they don't know what
we're talking about that episode.
JIM: Is it OK if we talk about that one.
CHRIS: And don't spoil who's in the thing.
DANNY: Oh, OK.
OK.
Well, we have an episode coming up.
CHRIS: It's great.
It's a great roommate episode.
DANNY: It's a roommate episode.
ALISON: Yeah, it's this roommate episode.
DANNY: Based on Troy leaving.
So we have to find a new roommate.
Can I say that?
CHRIS: Yes.
Yeah sure.
ALISON: We have to find a new roommate,
and we're sort of vying for our options of the roommate.
But to settle the score-- To settle the score?
No.
DANNY: To settle, well to find a roommate--
ALISON: We play this like VCR, this like--
DANNY: '80's interactive VCR game.
ALISON: VCR, yeah.
DANNY: So, it's really--
CHRIS: They get a little into it.
And it's really confusing and doesn't make any sense.
ALISON: And it was so confusing to shoot.
DANNY: Because we were trying to establish rules.
ALISON: And they shot separately.
So we're all just looking at like green X's on the screen,
and we're like coordinating, jumping up, spinning around,
like shooting things.
DANNY: Pulling tokens, rolling dice.
ALISON: So, go token four!
CHRIS: And the two people--
DANNY: Tornado.
Tornado!
ALISON: Tornado!
I'm not going to do it.
DANNY: Tornado!
ALISON: Tornado!
DANNY: We got it.
We still got it.
We still got it Chris.
CHRIS: Alison won and Jim has to be your roommate now.
ALISON: Yay!
CHRIS: It's a great episode.
JIM: No, literally in real life.
ALISON: Oh.
JIM: It was a pun.
ALISON: That was a twist.
JIM: Like a meta real life and art thing.
Yeah, we're living together.
It's great.
CHRIS: We have another episode coming up where these three--
DANNY: Oh yeah.
CHRIS: These three make a discovery
and go on a little adventure, or head up this adventure
together.
And I thought that the way that the three
of you, because each of you, each of your characters
has a little bit of insanity and take things
a little too seriously.
DANNY: Thank you Chris.
CHRIS: But that's going to be the finale.
We have a two part finale, and they sort of head
the sort of Scooby Doo mystery that they
pull the rest of the group into.
DANNY: That episode was really fun for us
because it was one of the few times where all three of us
were paired together for the whole like storyline.
And it was fun watching how crazy our energy was
in the scenes with everyone else.
ALISON: Oh my god, and then the other people would come in.
We'd be like in a little bottle like shooting stuff
just the three of us, and then we'd
bring in the rest of the cast, and they'd all
be like you guys gotta calm down.
DANNY: What has been going on this week?
And they're like no it's OK.
Rob, [INAUDIBLE] and Chris said it's cool.
They said it's cool to be this energetic.
ALISON: We would jump and down and yell our macho words
to each other really loud and then restart the scene,
and everyone was like what are you doing?
We've never done this here.
CHRIS: It's great.
We were just editing that episode together,
and you guys come bursting in, and are very excited
and feeding off each other, and it's insane.
It's great.
ALISON: While also while we were shooting it
we didn't really know what we were shooting.
So that added to the manic energy.
The episodes were sort of being written as we went and halfway
through we decided that one was coming before the-- I
shouldn't.
Chris'll say don't say that.
CHRIS: No, no, no.
Oh, god.
It's insane.
We usually don't know what's happening.
ALISON: That was a particularly interesting one
where you and Dan were sort of on set
being like here's what's happening.
We're like OK.
CHRIS: We shot the second part of the two part finale
before we shot the first part.
ALISON: But we didn't know it was the second part.
CHRIS: And we didn't even know what
was happening in the first part.
DANNY: So we knew where we were going.
We just didn't know why we were going there.
CHRIS: I think the theory was, look,
we know we're going to send them on this adventure,
and we're not sure how we set that up,
and we'll just figure that out because we
have to write the second part of it.
You guys do code like that all the time right?
DANNY: Yeah.
This is Google.
It's the same thing.
CHRIS: Yeah, we may have written ourselves into a corner,
but I think it's going to turn out pretty great.
DANNY: That's part of I think the fun of our show too.
CHRIS: What can we tell them that maybe had some details?
Tell them a little about this week's episode?
MODERATOR: Sure, they saw a preview.
DANNY: Meow-Meow Beans.
CHRIS: Oh did you guys just watch the Meow Meow Beans?
Things get a little weird.
ALISON: Someone will be wearing a blousey shirt later.
CHRIS: Things descend into "Logan's Run" because
of this social media app where people
are rated either a five, a four, a three, a two, or a one.
ALISON: Everyone gets to rate each other.
DANNY: There's a whole hierarchy that's developed.
I love episodes like this where we start a cold open
and then you cut to, immediately after the commercials,
the whole campus, everyone, is immediately-- There's
a new language, a new culture, a new fashion.
I mean within three minutes everything changes.
JIM: This school changes on a dime.
New costume for me.
Worlds are created.
CHRIS: Classes, what classes?
JIM: Classes.
No.
CHRIS: So this one it was weird.
This was an experimental one where we didn't come out
like in "Modern Warfare Paintball" where we came out
of the cold open.
We thought oh, no, no, no, we'll eventually get there,
and that was a much harsher, and it was like, oh wait, no.
It's so much better to have like the cold open
then you go into lunacy.
I think it works now.
We figured it out, but for a little while
they were like, oh man, did we break TV?
It's definitely one of my favorite episodes.
DANNY: We were shooting in the study room,
and they just kept bringing in random props.
I don't know if you remember.
CHRIS: The white room?
DANNY: Yeah, in the white room.
And just kept adding things and being
like-- we were discovering the environment
while we were shooting it.
ALISON: It's a common theme of how we shoot.
DANNY: People too.
And this episode has some of my favorite guest star appearances
ever in our show.
CHRIS: Oh, we have--
DANNY: I won't tell them, but--
ALISON: "Tim and Eric Awesome Show."
CHRIS: Tim and Eric are in it.
Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of "Arrested Development"
is in it, and hilarious.
ALISON: Mitch Hurwitz is so funny in this episode
and was such a funny guy all the time.
I feel like it was our favorite week of shooting just
having Mitch around, and everyone's like do things.
Talk in front of us.
And everyone was on good behavior cause we're like
and whenever you're making something else--
DANNY: Yeah, we're available.
We're probably available.
ALISON: We act.
CHRIS: Look at this episode.
There's no way we're getting a sixth season.
I mean people are wearing bed sheets and it's nonsense.
And the funny thing with Mitch though
it was someone who had run a show before--
ALISON: Was the most disruptive.
CHRIS: It was like having a live animal on.
He was like running around, not saying his lines,
and being ridiculous.
Luckily he had some of the funniest ad libs.
ALISON: Mitch, just say it how it's written.
And he'd be like yeah, yeah, and then he'd
just go do a monologue of his own device.
CHRIS: Yeah, and then Ken Jeong would just
be laughing hysterically and break it every take.
DANNY: Ken cannot stop laughing.
That's right.
CHRIS: That's why we're a million dollars over.
ALISON: But Ken is having a great time.
DANNY: We do have a good time.
MODERATOR: And of course Nathan Fillion
made a pretty amazing guest.
ALISON: Yes.
I was actually-- I was going to say-- Oh, that
was-- Never mind.
That was a fun episode to shoot.
Carry on.
MODERATOR: All right.
So I'd like to shift a little bit to the characterization
and how things have changed in this season.
So I'll start with you Danny.
So in last week's episode, the "Bondage and Beta Male
Sexuality" Abed really had some very pivotal scenes,
and so he got a lot stronger.
I wanted to say how did you approach these scenes?
Is Abed more comfortable being his true self
with this group of people, or is this just how he really is?
CHRIS: And what happened to your nose?
DANNY: A lot of things.
I broke my nose this season, and that
was the episode, this last week, where I broke my nose.
So I don't know if you could tell.
ALISON: Only the episode where you had the most to do.
CHRIS: And the most dramatic close-ups.
DANNY: I break my nose.
They're like hey, we need you back on
set as I'm coming from the doctor.
And they're like we want to try this mask on your nose.
And I'm like I just broke my nose.
They're like yeah, we want to just see how this--
ALISON: How this metal mask.
DANNY: So we had to figure out that kick-puncher mask,
but I love this episode because it
was sort of like how are we going to address not having
that Troy Abed dynamic.
And I think it was kind of fun to just
be paired up with someone.
And Jonathon Banks is very different, has
a different sort of style.
And it was fun.
It felt kind of different.
It was just a new thing that we, we talked about this this year,
in terms of acting it was like it was cool
this year because we had a chance
to do very different stuff that we haven't really done.
We had two person scenes.
We had some more slower paced scenes,
which is really interesting.
JIM: I think from the very beginning there was a decision,
and it felt like you guys.
One it was the re-pilot of it, but this evolution
of all these guys, because you're
dealing with the loss of a friend,
and coming through Jonathan Banks'
character, and this new evolution of Abed.
And I think it was across the board the mandate it felt like.
It was not just about pairing other people up.
It just felt like it was about realizing that life moves on
and these same people keep evolving.
And it's a great thing that we've had with "Community"
because we don't know what's coming down the pipeline.
We're able to like push that story and just say,
well, this is what happened last year,
and these are the ramifications.
I thought that was a nice thing.
But that particular episode, when you watch it,
is such a nice evolution of Abed.
DANNY: And I think this year, in terms
of like-- I've said I think Abed's changed and grown
the most this year than of all the seasons, and some of it
is because we had to deal with certain changes.
But I think that was kind of cool, because we
took some of those things that were happening like, you know,
Pierce being gone and Troy leaving,
and we just applied it, and just see what else happens.
So I actually really liked it.
I thought it was really fun to kind of have these two person
scenes where these two characters come
from very different places.
Yeah.
It was exciting.
CHRIS: You're going to be excited
when you get stubbed for an Emmy again.
DANNY: Oh, yay!
ALISON: I'll be excited for you.
DANNY: That's OK.
If we come back for a sixth season that's [INAUDIBLE].
CHRIS: That's one of my favorite episodes ever.
I mean Danny, all of you guys kill it.
That was just such a great-- you front and center just bringing
that character to life.
And it was one of those things that
were like you said we're always trying--
the most interesting stuff on the show
always comes from dealing with stuff that's actually happening
in the reality of the show, and writing up to it,
and dealing with Troy's loss, and not having
to be this thing that's haunting you,
but something we just had to address.
And plus we had this new character
that we loved that we will really just go, oh,
this guy is not going to be buying any of Abed's bullshit.
So it was really fun.
And "Community" is a place for broken people,
and Hickey fits right into that mold,
and that sort of like that "Taxi" sensibility of people
who are still trying to figure out life and their own lives,
and no matter how old they are or how young they are.
I thought the two of you coming together on that story
was really great.
MODERATOR: And we're also seeing a much more
grown up Annie this season.
ALISON: Yeah.
MODERATOR: So anything that we should be on the lookout for?
ALISON: A lot of your pants.
More pants.
MODERATOR: More jeans?
ALISON: A lot of people on Twitter
have been commenting on these pants.
They're not going anywhere people.
DANNY: Are they mad about the pants?
ALISON: Some people are mad about the pants.
CHRIS: I can't believe a "Community"
fan would have a really intense--
ALISON: A strong reaction
CHRIS: Reaction to something.
JIM: A visceral reaction to your pants.
ALISON: No.
It's great.
And that's something that I had talked to Dan
a little bit about before we started.
And we talk about re-pilot and the characters moving forward,
but also I think in moving forward there
was a lot of grounding them in sort of the stuff that
made them who they were in our first season.
So I felt like over the years there
was this departure from the original like go-getter
Annie that was like very determined,
and a hard worker, and ambitious, and all that stuff.
And that had gotten muddled.
And this year we've really returned to it,
and her being a sort of moral center for the group,
but is crazy in that way.
That's her craziness.
Craziness.
It's coming out of me.
DANNY: [SHRIEKING]
ALISON: But it's really fun.
I way prefer.
I just as much prefer that side of her
because I think it gets the other characters going.
It's like a much more interesting way
to interact with characters rather than
just like having a crush on them or something like that.
It's back to like season one when she and Jeff were working
for the newspaper, and she's like I've got a major scoop.
I kind of like Annie in a like detective position,
or that we're having forensics, criminology.
I loved the "Ass Crack Bandit" episode.
That was so fun to shoot.
I just like that side of her.
MODERATOR: And Jim, I guess we have much more of the faculty
dynamic this season as well.
So what's that been like?
How have things been different for the life of the dean?
JIM: Yeah, cause we've had John Oliver,
and then Professor Hickey added, and then
obviously Jeff's evolution.
It's been fun.
I mean instantly it was fun just because once again the dean is
not allowed to be in a certain area.
So that established very quickly that I
wasn't allowed in the teacher's lounge.
I probably helped them get half of that stuff.
So I just liked that it was nice because the dean just really
still loves a school that seems to fight against him every step
of the way, you know because his ideas are so horrible,
which makes sense.
And again I think that speaks more
to what's the evolution of Jeff, which was so nice, to put him
in this position where he's between his friends
and this new sort of career that he's probably
fighting tooth and nail to be a part of.
And obviously Hickey is such a great sort
of roommate, if you will, for that.
So again, it just sort of fit the whole big picture.
MODERATOR: Awesome.
Awesome.
And when Dan originally pitched this show
he said it was about an asshole who learned to love strangers.
So is that still true?
How do you approach like the overall character arcs?
CHRIS: I think Dan loves some people now.
It's funny.
I think obviously Jeff is a stand
in for Dan in a lot of ways.
I think every one of the characters he created
is a different facet of Dan.
But, yeah, Jeff I think it came out of Dan, Dan
going to actually Glendale Community College
and getting pulled into a study group.
And in he's admittedly I think sort of an anti-social person.
And I think watching that evolution
it's the same thing with Dan.
Dan, his first instinct is not to sit
in a room full of other writers and write.
He wants to hole up and do his thing.
And I think an interesting meta element to all
of this is that, as Dan has said,
is that he was forced because of how the system is set up
is he has to hire writers, and he
has to sit in a room with people,
and he has to hear different ideas.
And I came on first season, and I
was one of those people I'm sure he hated because I
opened my mouth, and I you know.
But I think he grew to sort of love the strangers that he
was writing with, and I think that is definitely
reflected in Jeff's journey on the show.
MODERATOR: And when writing these characters
do you have an idea of where you want everyone
to end up, like this happily ever after world, or?
CHRIS: We really try not to.
I think that's when we write ourselves into trouble.
When you already know what the end point is I
think we write ourselves into troublesome areas.
And I would say third season Dan had to go to NBC,
and he had to pitch the whole season out
to-- This is what we're doing.
This is everyone's arc.
This is their four quadrant arc for the season down to
from Jeff to Chang.
And I think great stuff came out of that,
but I think those kind of things then they bind you.
And then you're feeling, oh, well you know,
this is where Chang is head of security,
but this is before he takes over the school.
And you just find that you don't have fun just
to be in the sandbox and create with the characters.
And I loved third season, and I think we were able to do that.
We were able to do something like multiple timelines
and have the episode where the two of you guys
went in the Dreamatorium.
But I think it's so much fun to discover a journey
rather than set an endpoint and say this is where it is.
MODERATOR: And so how are things in the writers room?
Are you still writing to the wee hours of the morning
the night before a shoot?
CHRIS: We wrapped in December and we're still writing.
I am not kidding.
We have an animated episode that Dan and I have definitely,
definitely had a recent all-nighter on.
Like are you kidding me?
It's now January and we're pulling an all-nighter.
It's going to be great.
ALISON: It'll be great.
We record it next week.
CHRIS: What's that?
ALISON: I said we record it next week.
CHRIS: Oh yeah, you guys are going to record it.
And it airs the following week.
We're doing an animated episode that
is in the style of the 1980's animated series "GI Joe."
AUDIENCE: Oh yes!
CHRIS: And it's going to be great.
It's really fantastic.
MODERATOR: Cool.
Cool.
And I guess along that line too one
of things I think "Community" does really strongly
is lampoon, pay homage to a variety of TV genres, TV shows.
You know you did the Nicolas Cage episode.
So you sort of have that check box done from years and years.
So anything else on the docket that you'd like to do?
Or any unexplored territory?
CHRIS: Dan I always, it's funny, we were meeting with writers
last year and we're like, look, we're
not going to be concept first.
You know we're not going to do-- That's
when we get into trouble.
We're not going to go, oh, we're doing
you know a "Logan's Run" episode.
Or we're not going to say we're doing another D
and D because then the tail's wagging the dog.
Cut to bashing our head against the wall going
why did we say we're doing another Dungeons
and Dragons episode?
How are we going to crack this story?
If a story then takes on an element that
has a concept to it, that has, you
know, a feeling of a genre then we'll run towards that.
But we really do try not to just say, oh,
now we're doing our buddy cop space movie cause then we're
bashing our heads going, wait, how is Abed on the moon now?
Why?
Why is that the moon.
It makes no sense.
So that said we have some concepts coming, and the "GI
Joe" one.
This week's definitely takes a very sci-fi-ish kind of feel
to it.
ALISON: '70s sci-fi.
CHRIS: Sort of '70s sci-fi, "Logan's Run" inspired.
Rob Schrab directed it.
Rob is brilliant.
He's Dan's old partner.
They created "Heat Vision and Jack" together.
And he's a brilliant director.
Really has a great visual style.
And we let him run.
There's stuff that you will see in this episode
that we kept on going if anyone from the studio or the network
came by right now-- You dressed in white robes in a white room
with orbs on your hand doing a crazy Buck Rogers dance.
They would shut us down.
But luckily they don't ever come--
ALISON: They don't come by.
DANNY: No one knows we're still doing this show.
We're winning.
CHRIS: Yeah.
DANNY: My favorite visual of I think
the year is in this episode, the first time you
see Hickey in the--
CHRIS: Yes.
Yep.
DANNY: I just need to say that, because it
is-- I remember when I showed up on set,
and I didn't really know what was going on in the episode,
and I already saw him in the wardrobe, and I was shocked.
And this is after five seasons of doing this show.
I was shocked by what I was seeing.
That was a good feeling.
CHRIS: Definitely Rob took the visuals of this episode
and ran to crazy town with them.
It's really one of my favorite episodes.
And Ludwig, our composer, did a really cool synth treatment
of the music for it.
And I'm probably giving way too much away,
but watch it this Thursday.
ALISON: You'll still watch it.
MODERATOR: We have it on the DVR, on the Google Play.
JIM: Heard enough.
Sick [INAUDIBLE].
I'm out.
MODERATOR: And I think another fun trope that's
been going around is the idea that all the NBC shows are
set in this sort of similar universe.
So you have "Community" and "Chuck" doing a slight overlap,
and then it sort of expands to things
like "Cougar Town" for example, and "Parks and Rec."
Like what crossovers is the world ready for now?
Like Annie is the next Leslie Knope.
You know Ron Swanson after some chicken fingers.
CHRIS: They're running out of shows unfortunately.
to do crossovers with.
Or there's what?
There's "Parks and Rec" and us.
So we're the last man standing.
What? "Game Night?"
Yeah, do a "Community" "Game Night."
JIM: "Community" "Game Night," yeah.
MODERATOR: Well Greendale and Colorado and Indiana--
CHRIS: Chicago PD?
ALISON: Yeah.
DANNY: Chicago Fire?
ALISON: I like the "Parks and Rec" crossover idea.
So many good people.
So many possibles, possibilities for connections,
to meet different people.
MODERATOR: I'm sure there's criminology in Pawnee that
needs answered as well.
ALISON: And where there is criminology--
JIM: Oh lord those pants--
ALISON: I'll be there.
JIM: Those pants.
ALISON: You will not find those jeans.
DANNY: [INAUDIBLE]!
MODERATOR: Interesting.
So we'll have time for a few audience questions.
So if you want to queue up we can go to those.
I have some as well about "Community," the future.
So you know coming up on 100 episodes, that's really
a good milestone, great milestone for a lot of TV
shows.
What does that mean to you?
ALISON: Well, we're not quite there yet.
CHRIS: Yeah, we got--
DANNY: We got 97?
CHRIS: 97.
Or 96 if we don't finish this animated one.
JIM: We're very close.
CHRIS: Yeah, 97.
I feel like, 100, it's arbitrary I guess.
I'm excited about our own arbitrary one
that the fans created, the six seasons and a movie.
If we could actually pull that off I
think that would be the way to end this mother,
land it, pat each other on the back, see each other,
I don't know, on Donald's effects show doing cameos.
ALISON: Crossover!
DANNY: Or catering.
MODERATOR: And speaking of the homages of other shows
you have.
You have you know the "Scrubs" theme,
"Who's the Boss," et cetera.
Picture some unknown show in the future,
like show to be determined.
What do they need to do to capture
the essence of a "Community" allusion.
CHRIS: Kinda 1.0.
I don't know.
What do you guys think?
DANNY: I don't know.
I mean I think smashing people who seemingly don't seem
like they should be friends are put together in one place.
That's one thing we did.
ALISON: That is a thing we did.
It would be tough to do a "Community" homage.
I don't how people would-- because our show to me
is so many different things.
JIM: I don't think we have specific voice, which
is so wonderful about this show.
CHRIS: It's like staring into the sun.
Like putting a mirror into a mirror.
MODERATOR: Infinity.
Cool.
I can see I have some audience questions.
Go ahead sir.
AUDIENCE: Hi, I'm wondering when you guys have the movie, which
you're obviously going to have, what
do you wish you could do in the movie?
Like if it were up to you guys what's
something you would love to do in the movie
like you can't do in a TV show format?
ALISON: Time travel.
DANNY: Yeah.
ALISON: Cause that happens in movies, not TV.
DANNY: Yeah, TV doesn't do any of that.
I can't think of one time travel TV show.
ALISON: But we could make it work in a movie.
DANNY: Not a long one, not a short one.
ALISON: Movies.
DANNY: Time travel, you can do that in movies.
CHRIS: I would just be so interested to see
who we're going to cast as your characters.
I mean there are really some great, great, oh my god,
Chris Evans as Abed?
DANNY: Yes.
He would be such a good-- He would be a better Abed.
CHRIS: Oh my god, yeah.
JIM: A-list playing our parts would be fantastic.
It would be nice to do a movie where there's
a movie in the movie with A-list actors playing us.
And we're just watching ourselves.
CHRIS: Well, at the very least the trailer, just
to trick people into the theater.
DANNY: I need to see this movie.
JIM: The exciting thing about a movie
would be getting to shoot outside.
CHRIS: Yes.
ALISON: Yes.
JIM: The idea of what it would look
like if sun naturally hit our face.
DANNY: People always ask us like what do you guys shoot at?
And we're like we shoot inside of one stage, everything,
always.
JIM: Well that wasn't inside.
We used to go outside, and then, you know, things happen.
CHRIS: The accountants sit there with a calculator going, nope,
sun is too much.
Nope.
Stay inside.
We've got makeup for that.
We got makeup to look like you've been outside.
No, honestly it's one of the things
I've been saying to Dan, if there's a sixth season,
we got to figure out a way to get back outside.
I mean because it's just expensive.
There was a little episode called "Hot Lava"
that broke the bank very early on, and had people yelling,
doing this a lot for the rest of like the next three months,
no, no, no.
And let's not do concept episodes anywhere.
Let's just at least be able to go outside to the Lucy Park.
And it's funny, I catch occasionally,
like I'm flipping channels, and I
see like episodes where I'm like, oh yeah,
we used to go outside.
ALISON: We used to walk through the quad.
CHRIS: Yeah.
DANNY: Remember our first scene.
We were walking outside.
ALISON: Walking outside.
DANNY: Aw, it felt so good.
ALISON: Yeah.
CHRIS: So yeah, aren't you excited to see outdoors.
Aren't you excited to go sit in a dark theater and watch
the sun?
DANNY: We don't need much.
AUDIENCE: Ass Crack Bandit you guys
were outside [INAUDIBLE] Hall but it was raining.
JIM: Yeah.
You can step just outside.
ALISON: Just step outside, yeah.
MODERATOR: And bring a new light of day to "Community."
Thank you guys so much.
Go ahead.
AUDIENCE: Jim, what's your favorite costume
that the dean has worn.
JIM: In all the years?
AUDIENCE: Yeah, across the--
JIM: Across the universe?
I don't know.
I mean I always feel like I can never not reference the five
entrances from our first clip episode
because it was just such a joy to shoot because they just sort
of set the camera up, and I would run off, get made up
into the new one, come in while Gillian and Joel would just
change little outfit we'd put on.
A remote control car.
We don't know what that storyline was.
CHRIS: Well that was the one with a callback
to the quadrocopter, when you guys got into the quadrocopter.
JIM: So I mean that whole sort of run
of costumes was great, from Tina Turner to--
ALISON: You made a hot Tina Turner.
JIM: Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
I learned how to walk in high heels that year.
That's for sure.
And now I can't stop.
MODERATOR: New York Fashion Week on the docket.
CHRIS: I will say in no this week,
but the following week the dean is in a costume
and also does one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
It's episode 509.
JIM: Yeah, that was fun.
CHRIS: I don't want to spoil it.
I'll just peanut.
I'll just say the word peanut.
JIM: Yes.
It was a blast, but a stressful blast.
Yeah, anyway you'll see.
CHRIS: It's in the cold open.
You don't even have to watch it after that.
You just watch the first two minutes
and then go over to "BAZINGA"
ALISON: I don't even remember what
happens in the rest of that episode.
CHRIS: That's the roommate episode.
ALISON: Ohh
DANNY: You already forgot us?
JIM: You get two great things.
You get the long story you told about the roommate thing,
and you get this one in the cold open.
MODERATOR: So it ties it all together.
JIM: Yeah.
MODERATOR: Cool.
AUDIENCE: Thanks.
Well, since no one's behind me I can quick follow up.
Danny, in your words Nicolas Cage good or bad?
ALISON: Ooo, in your words.
DANNY: Good.
ALISON: Good job.
DANNY: Thank you so much.
CHRIS: Nailed it.
DANNY: We fight about it, but yeah, I think it's good.
I think we do need that person and help
us question whether it is good or bad.
I think good.
CHRIS: Now we're just going to run
a 20 minute take of you doing Nicolas.
We have so many outtakes from that.
We were just watching him on the monitor and howling,
and then they make him do it again.
DANNY: Yeah, talk about having to get rid
of any self consciousness.
When me and Dan Harmon are behind like the set
practicing Nicolas Cage impressions
and just doing sexy cat voices.
Dan's is really good, yeah.
Yeah, sexy cat.
MODERATOR: So is that a DVD special
feature we should be on the lookout for?
CHRIS: Should be.
Absolutely.
I hope so.
Oh, speaking of DVD, I was thinking remember the first DVD
at the end of the year Dan did employee performance reviews.
DANNY: Yes!
I
JIM: Yes.
CHRIS: Should you guys do peer performance reviews?
How did you guys do this season?
JIM: Oh.
Oh, nice.
CHRIS: Alison and Danny, do Jim.
JIM: Oh, thank you.
ALISON: Jim.
JIM: That speaks volumes.
DANNY: Good or bad Jim?
JIM: Wait, aren't you supposed to evaluate me?
DANNY: Are we?
JIM: This feels just like it, yes.
You're evaluating me.
You want me to say how I felt?
DANNY: Why don't we start there and just see
where that leads us.
JIM: I felt like I did my best,
DANNY: You can cry.
You can cry.
JIM: And I did what I thought I should do.
ALISON: That was great.
DANNY: Next!
ALISON: Next!
DANNY: Next!
ALISON: Do you have a question sir?
AUDIENCE: Maybe.
I think "Community"s done a great job of being absolutely
not normal at all in every way.
ALISON: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: I'm curious if you guys have ever
considered any cliche ideas like actual couples developing
or long term romances like you seem
to see in all the other sitcoms these days?
DANNY: Three cameras.
CHRIS: The thing that's keeping us
from being a popular sitcom you want to see?
I don't know.
How do you guys feel?
ALISON: Well it happened last season.
You know, Britta and Troy dated for the entire season.
Well, and then they broke up.
We sort of saw their entire relationship over the season,
and I thought it was super weird.
I don't know.
I thought it was strange.
I think the problem is that we've set up this group as such
a thing, and it's the group is the thing.
It's a family.
And even though we've made all those jokes in the first season
about how everyone could be sexually attracted to everyone,
and I still think that's true, it just functions as a family,
and everyone loves each other.
And it's this unit.
And it just seems a little forced,
or something feels unnatural I feel
like when you try to go too far in that direction.
I mean I love the Jeff and Annie stuff.
I love working with Joel and I love exploring that chemistry,
but even that by now feels like it would be so strange to just
be like Jeff and Annie are dating now,
and they're like walking down the halls holding hands.
It just doesn't quite fit our show.
CHRIS: It's tough, because I know
there's lots of people out there, the shippers, who
want Annie and Jeff or Annie and-- I mean Annie and Britta.
ALISON: Annie and Britta.
There are.
There are those people.
CHRIS: I stumbled on to that web page accidentally.
ALISON: Stumbled on to it.
CHRIS: You know, Jeff and Britta.
They just want somebody, something to be shipping.
It is tough, because when you created a family like this
you don't really-- it's a bottle that's
tough to once you uncork it to cork.
And it's one of those things we've talked about,
and I know a lot of other sitcoms do it.
And I will say the romance stuff, on other sitcoms,
and it's just my taste, usually I'm not that interested in it.
I'm not interested.
I'm interested in how these people are relating as friends,
how they've betrayed each other as friends,
whether the paternal elements that Jeff has,
or whether he's acting like a child in relation
to some of the other characters.
It was always more interesting to me,
but, you know, I'm super asexual.
I don't know.
ALISON: Well, I was gonna say our characters
are almost kind of asexual.
None of our characters are really like sexy.
I mean I guess Jeff is.
JIM: Well.
ALISON: OK.
I'm sorry.
I apologize.
DANNY: Sorry Jim.
JIM: I'm super sexy.
I just feel like I'm very sexy.
ALISON: Dean is very sexy.
And Jeff is sexy.
CHRIS: He's a director now.
You can't say those things to him.
ALISON: Well in person.
I'm talking about our characters Jim.
JIM: No, no, no.
I get it.
We'll talk later.
ALISON: But I do feel like everyone's sort of interested
in other things, and that just doesn't
seem to be like a high priority for these people.
I mean that said I do find it interesting
when we see other people brought in
to be love interests outside the group.
That I think is interesting.
CHRIS: And I think we'll see how,
if this show even continues how romance will rear it's head.
And it seems to me that that's the way
to do it if you're going to do it.
And you know the circling the wagons these people who are now
like brothers and sisters like when a stranger enters
the midst and being threatened by it.
Obviously there's still feelings there,
and I think these characters are still confused about themselves
and their lives that they don't-- I think sometimes there
is some Jeff stuff coming up in terms of his feelings about
people in the group, and I think still he has a hard time
differentiating between whether something is erotic love
or love of these people that he cares so deeply about.
MODERATOR: And along those lines coat check girl?
Will we see any more on that end?
CHRIS: Oh yeah, they start dating.
I forgot.
ALISON: But see.
It's someone outside the group.
Outside the group.
CHRIS: Yeah, Brie Larson, who's great,
we have coming up on 509.
MODERATOR: Cool.
So I had a few small questions as well.
One thing that I really enjoy about "Community"
is just the amount of callbacks.
You know Britta got the iPad Nano this season.
So check mark on that.
How do you keep track of all that?
Is there a master list of things that you need to go back from?
CHRIS: Yes.
It's called fans on Twitter constantly
bothering Harmon about when's Britta
going to get her iPad Nano?
We go oh yeah.
And so it worked out perfectly.
No, but believe me.
That's the system.
People don't stop bothering Dan, and thank god.
Because that was a great callback.
MODERATOR: Another question right here.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
I'll ask a question for Jim.
For "Freaky Friday" you got to suddenly write
for these characters who you were
like alongside for most of the show.
Has like suddenly having more power over the universe
giving you this like feeling of-- Has the power corrupted
basically is the question?
JIM: Are you asking if personally--?
ALISON: I mean he thinks he's very sexy.
JIM: Yeah well.
ALISON: I mean he is.
JIM: Personally do I have more power now that that happened?
I feel like these two put me on a pedestal.
Is that fair?
DANNY: Oh I worship you immediately.
JIM: Thank you.
Thank you.
No, I was so lucky to have had that experience
because at least I love this show sort of unconditionally.
And I feel like the beauty of getting
to write "Community" is that the voices are so clear,
and what was created was so clear.
So no, because I always-- to answer your question, no.
I don't think it changed anything to me
other than that I got an opportunity
to do something that was wonderful.
MODERATOR: Well it's not every day
we have an Academy Award winning person on the show.
JIM: Who speaks so eloquently.
MODERATOR: So another few small questions.
What do you think happened to the cool study
group over the past five seasons?
The one with Jack--
CHRIS: One was in a movie about Google I thought.
MODERATOR: Oh, that's "Internship", college.
I should've known that answer when I wrote the question.
All right.
And you also had a big reveal about Starburns this year.
What do you think he's been up to since the days of the Ass
Crack Bandit?
DANNY: Probably doing a lot of math.
CHRIS: He does do math.
He does like it.
Building well.
Definitely researching cat cars.
And hoarding, lurking.
He's like that movie "Bad Ronald."
I think he's just sort of living in the walls of Greendale
and stealing people's food, and watching them.
But anything he can do probably to smoke and try to get high
I'm guessing?
JIM: Yeah.
I mean, you know the repercussions
of doing something horrible at our school has very little.
There are very little.
As far as I'm concerned he's just wondering, you know.
He took a bullet and that's it.
I think the best thing about Greendale
is it just sort of erases what happened.
Let's just move on.
CHRIS: Well, yeah, no.
We've got something else.
We got like there's a fire in the cafeteria.
No there's always some new nonsense to distract everyone.
So the dean's always got some new harebrained scheme.
JIM: Right.
MODERATOR: And the dean is the rug
under which everything gets swept.
JIM: Oh, there's a paper trail leading
to every single character and what they did wrong.
So I feel like it's OK.
Everyone's in the same boat.
Look, we fucked up.
We get it.
MODERATOR: So you all display some really,
really cool hidden talents, and I actually
saw Alison in concert a few weeks ago at SF Sketchfest,
which was pretty amazing.
ALISON: Thank you!
MODERATOR: Yeah.
So my pleasure.
I'm glad that the tickets worked out.
And anything else that we'll be seeing hidden talent wise,
or that you'd like to display?
ALISON: Danny.
DANNY: March 12, I have a ESPN 30 for 30 short coming out
called "Untucked " on Grantland.
Please watch it.
It's about basketball jerseys and why I should never
be playing basketball.
ALISON: Yes.
He directed it and everything.
DANNY: I directed it.
But it was fun.
ALISON: Where is it coming out?
Say it again.
DANNY: It's an ESPN 30 for 30 short
called "Untucked" on Grantland.
ALISON: What's Grantland?
DANNY: It's a website.
It's an ESPN ish kind of website about sports topics of the day
and that kind of thing.
So every month they have a short now.
And it's a little peak into Marquette basketball history,
their jerseys.
It's fun.
It's about 1977's championship team and a journey that
was designed by [INAUDIBLE] Ellis, a player on the team.
So check it out.
MODERATOR: Anything on your deck Jim?
JIM: No, no, no.
No I'm just kidding.
MODERATOR: [INAUDIBLE].
Watching people go down the water slides.
JIM: Yeah that's pretty much it.
No, yeah, just back to writing.
You know, trying to.
I know that was way boring.
MODERATOR: Writing's important.
CHRIS: You just directed a Fox pilot.
Come on.
JIM: Yes, we did do that.
CHRIS: You just got to go hang out in Burbank and watch people
testing it.
JIM: We tested it, yes.
No, Nat and I did direct a pilot for Fox.
So we'll see.
MODERATOR: Cool.
And I also from Vickie, to Fat Neal, to Garrett,
I really like the back stories that
are so prevalent in the supporting characters.
And were there any cool anecdotes
with working with them that you'd like to share?
CHRIS: You guys work with them probably more closely.
ALISON: I know.
Well, I would like to say before anecdotes
that I love-- Our supporting characters are great,
like the fabric that makes up Greendale the college.
And over the years we've just held on to so many of them.
And they're all wonderful people,
except for Paradox was my favorite
and he's never come back.
DANNY: There was like 2 years where we'd always say I
[INAUDIBLE].
ALISON: [INAUDIBLE]
DANNY: And that was his one line.
ALISON: It was his one line.
And then there was an episode later
where somebody was like it's a paradox.
And I was like they're not going to have
Paradox walk by in the background.
I was that fan on Twitter like um,
excuse me, dear "Community" is Paradox going to be by,
and it never happens.
CHRIS: Opportunity missed.
DANNY: But Magnitude, all of them.
I think what's so cool about our show is
that all the characters are so specific that they
do really fit into this world.
CHRIS: Leonard.
DANNY: Oh, Leonard.
ALISON: Leonard.
And we love them, and you guys end up
sort of writing stuff for them or letting
them do stuff that speaks true to them as well.
In the "Hot Lava" episode we're all on Shirley island,
and the island's going to go down,
and people are like yelling confessions,
and Magnitude is like I'm actually British,
because the actor that plays Magnitude is British.
CHRIS: And those were really Erik Charles Nielsen's
only pair of pants.
He couldn't get them dirty.
ALISON: Maybe.
Maybe.
MODERATOR: So my last question.
Not every show has its own fan sponsored
Con, video games, spin-off series.
What message do you have for the fans
as we enter the home stretch for season five?
CHRIS: Thank you?
DANNY: Thank you.
CHRIS: Thank you.
I mean honestly it's no matter whether it's
a rerun of "The Big Bang Theory" which gets like a 2.9
or a new episode that gets a 5.1 there
is a little tiny army of people who love the show as much as we
do who show up and watch it live, don't you?
And no matter what happens we still get,
or unless we'll see what happens this week,
but we still get like the same 3 million people showing up
week in and week out.
And in this changing TV landscape
to have people still showing up and loving the show says a lot.
And it's the reason why this little show that probably
should have died after the end of season one
is halfway through its fifth season.
So, yeah.
MODERATOR: Well, we'll end with that.
Hashtag six seasons and a movie.
Thank you all for stopping bye today.
So give them a round of applause.
ALISON: Thank you.