Community aired from September 2009 until ? on NBC.
A Review from Variety
Community
(Series -- NBC, Thurs. Sept. 17, 9:30 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY
Filmed in Los Angeles by Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap and Russo Brothers in association with Universal Media Studios and Sony Pictures Television. Executive producers, Russ Krasnoff, Dan Harmon, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Gary Foster, Garrett Donovan, Neil Goldman; co-executive producer, Tim Hobert; producers, Patrick Kienlen, Jake Aust; directors, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo; writer, Harmon.
Jeff Winger - Joel McHale
Britta - … Gillian Jacobs
Shirley - Yvette Nicole Brown
Abed - Danny Pudi
Annie - Alison Brie
Troy - Donald Glover
Senor Chang - Ken Jeong
Pierce - Chevy Chase
Right after Joel McHale’s character delivers a rally-the-misfits speech reminiscent of “Stripes,” one of said misfits immediately compares his rousing address to “Stripes.” That’s indicative of the too-cute-by-half quality of “Community,” a series handicapped by the fact that its leading man -- however skilled he might be at dropping wry one-liners in other venues -- is also its weakest link. Barring some serious cramming, the show -- which joins the still-unproven “Parks and Recreation” and the rightly admired “The Office” -- could be NBC’s Thursday under-achiever.
McHale plays Jeff, a sleazy, fast-talking lawyer whose college degree turned out to be less than legitimate. So he enrolls in community college, mostly because he got one of the professors there off on a drunk-driving charge (“The Daily Show’s” John Oliver, too good for this Yankee enterprise) and figures he can skate by based on that relationship.
Almost immediately, though, Jeff sets his eye on an attractive blonde named Britta (Gillian Jacobs, who doesn’t look nearly as much like Elisabeth Shue as everyone keeps telling her) and begins scheming to woo her -- or “get in my pants,” as she colorfully puts it -- by initiating a Spanish study group as an excuse to spend time with her.
Said group of extended archetypes becomes the basis for the show’s title, although in the premiere, anyway, they spend far too much time sitting around yelling at each other. They include Chevy Chase as the older guy who keeps hitting on the single mom (Yvette Nicole Brown), and Danny Pudi as a young Arab with a lightning-fast mind for pop-culture trivia but limited social skills. (Rounding out the diverse cast, Ken Jeong of “The Hangover” show in the second episode as their Spanish tutor, Senor Chang, but like much else in that installment -- which focuses mainly on McHale and Chase -- the gag doesn’t go much beyond the name.)
Created by Dan Harmon (“The Sarah Silverman Program”), “Community” embraces the traditional sitcom notion of “family” being what you make of it, but it’s a little too self-conscious about the genre’s cliches -- or at least, feels that way because its satirical elements aren’t as crisp as they need to be. And if Jeff’s flirty banter with Britta is supposed to be the Sam and Diane for a new generation, well, Gen-X has already been cheated in so many other ways, why not one more?
“If I wanted to learn something, I wouldn’t have come to community college,” Jeff snaps at Oliver’s character.
Similarly, those merely seeking a more reliable stream of laughs might be inclined to enroll somewhere else as well.
Camera, Jim Hawkinson; production designer, Aaron Osborne; editor, Peter B. Ellis; music, Ludwig Goransson; casting, Dava Waite Peaslee. RUNNING TIME: 30 MIN.
A Review from The New York Times
Television Review | 'Community'
A Wink at Colleges and a Nod to Clichés
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 16, 2009
“Community” is a bracingly funny NBC comedy that purports to send up community college, but mostly skewers the more egregious clichés of movies and television.
Or, as Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) puts it after catching himself confiding to a complete stranger in the Greendale Community College cafeteria, “Oh, sorry, I was raised on TV, and I was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 is a cosmic mentor.”
“Community” is mercilessly snarky and also surprisingly charming, which is not easy to pull off. Allusional comedy has been around for a long time — long before “Scary Movie” in 2000 came “Airplane.” Sly invocations of popular movies and classic television shows abound on series like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Glee.” And it’s particularly prevalent on Thursdays on NBC, a lineup that the network calls “Comedy Thursday” and in addition to “Community” includes a weekday edition of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office.” (The new season of “30 Rock” begins in October.)
All these shows share the knack of citing vintage pop culture while at the same time mocking the YouTube generation’s abuse of those touchstones — homage under the protective cover of parody.
It’s a delicate two-step that makes the makers’ pedigree and provenance all the more important. Dan Harmon, an executive producer and writer on “The Sarah Silverman Program,” is the creator of “Community,” and Joe and Anthony Russo, “Arrested Development” alumni, are its directors.
“Community” is a classic culture-clash comedy. Familiar archetypes — a snooty girl; a spindly nerd; a brash, heavyset black woman; a cocky former high school jock; a neurotic drop-out; an eccentric retiree — are forced to interact in a Spanish study group in the tradition of “The Breakfast Club.” That debt to that John Hughes movie is presented as a running joke at the expense of Abed (Danny Pudi), who is a voluble half-Palestinian nerd who lives and breathes pop culture and, in an awkward moment in study group, begins quoting lines delivered by Judd Nelson’s character. (“No, Dad, what about you?”) Mr. McHale, who has honed his sarcasm as the host of “The Soup,” E!’s irreverent commentary on entertainment, is well cast as a glib, unscrupulous lawyer who is obliged to enroll in community college after the state bar discovers his college degree is bogus. (He explains he got it from Colombia, not Columbia.)
Jeff has the kind of sardonic repartee and slapdash nonchalance that the comedian Chevy Chase had when he was the young star of the “Fletch” movies. Even that is an inside casting joke: Mr. Chase, who is farcically loopy and delightful in the pilot, plays Pierce, a bewildered but good-natured former entrepreneur (he developed an award-winning brand of moist towelette) who takes courses at the college to combat loneliness. A college administrator puts it less charitably, saying that he is one of those “old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity.”
Gillian Jacobs is Britta, the sexy but studious blonde for whom Jeff invents the study group. In yet another elbow nudge, Britta is repeatedly told that she looks like Elisabeth Shue, an actress who was the It Girl of the late 1980s and 1990s after starring in “Cocktail” and the two sequels to “Back To The Future.” Britta is aloof and disdainful, but the absurd juxtapositions in her résumé echo the kind of jokes that enlivened “Arrested Development.” Britta, rattling off her past occupations, says she worked in the Peace Corps and did a bit of foot modeling.
John Oliver, a mock correspondent on “The Daily Show” has a small role as a mild-mannered professor at the college, whom Jeff calls, not inaccurately, a “spineless British twit.”
Sitcoms, which not so long ago seemed to be an endangered species, seem to be making a comeback; even ABC has several good ones this season. “Community” is a sitcom that spoofs the conventions of television even as it follows them closely.
COMMUNITY
NBC, Thursday nights at 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30, Central time.
Created by Dan Harmon; directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo; Russ Krasnoff, Mr. Harmon, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Gary Foster, Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, executive producers. Produced by Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap and Russo Brothers in association with Universal Media Studios and Sony Pictures Television.
WITH: Joel McHale (Jeff Winger), Chevy Chase (Pierce), Gillian Jacobs (Britta), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley), Danny Pudi (Abed), Alison Brie (Annie), Donald Glover (Troy) and Ken Jeong (Señor Chang).
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
TV Review
Community (2009)
Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Sep 18, 2009
Who says cable-TV snark doesn't translate well to prime-time mass entertainment? Talk Soup grad Greg Kinnear has proven a fine film actor, and now The Soup's Joel McHale slips comfortably into a likable-wise-guy role as the star of Community. One of the new season's best sitcoms, Community features McHale as a lawyer with a foreign-country law degree who must return to school to remain legit.
The premise puts McHale in a drab community college and surrounds him with oddballs, losers, and a pretty blonde (Gillian Jacobs). The result? McHale gets to flirt and insult to his heart's content, and he's impishly believable in both modes. The supporting cast members manage to make each of their sad little lives amusing, so what could have been a downer of a show is often absurdly funny. That's never more true than when Chevy Chase, upping his WASP quotient and dimming his IQ to its lowest wattage, turns up as a would-be-hip baby boomer. Between McHale and Chase, Community has every TV comedy style covered. B+ (Moves to 8 p.m. Oct. 8)
An Article from The News and Observer
NBC's 'Community' gets animated for the holiday
BY CHUCK BARNEY - Contra Costa Times
Published on December 9, 2010
They're television's version of misfit toys: Perfectly sound, high-quality shows that, for some reason or another, get shunned by way too many viewers. If only some bloated, bearded guy could whoosh in on his sleigh and rescue them from obscurity.
Few shows are more deserving of fervent aid than "Community," NBC's sophomore sitcom about the oddball students who form a study group at fictional Greendale Community College. Led by Joel McHale, as cocky Jeff Winger, the cast is brilliant. Toss is a barrage of sharp one-liners, zany pop-culture references and satire galore, and you've got a 30-minute course that should be enjoying high enrollment figures.
Unfortunately, "Community" is a Nielsen also-ran. This, despite the fact that it has recruited several high-profile guest stars (including Betty White), and churns out some of the most hilariously inventive episodes you'll ever see.
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Tonight, "Community" outdoes itself with a half-hour in which the gang morphs into stop-motion animated characters like the ones we've watched for years in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and other yuletide chestnuts. It's a cleverly conceived classic that rates up there with other "Community" gems like last season's paint ball war and this fall's zombie-studded Halloween offering.
All in Abed's head
It's also a fun showcase for scene-stealer supreme, Danny Pudi, who plays Abed, Greendale's speed-talking, trivia-spewing geek. Abed, it turns out, is a Muslim who loves Christmas. But as the holiday nears, he's dealing with an emotional scar that inexplicably causes him to see things in claymation.
Of course, he draws his classmates into the winter wonderland in his head. So Jeff becomes Jeff-in-the-Box, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) turns into a BrittaBot, Troy (Donald Glover) a Troy Soldier, Pierce (Chevy Chase) a teddy bear, Annie (Allison Brie) a ballerina and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) a Christmas baby.
Abed takes his visions as a sign that he and the group must rediscover the meaning of Christmas, so he leads them on a magical journey down Gumdrop Road, with stops at "Pine Tree Station" and the "Cave of Frozen Memories." As his pals become increasingly concerned about Abed's mental health, they enlist the help of Professor Duncan (John Oliver) who strives to get to the bottom of these "delusions."
A major strength of "Community" is its ability to deftly blend snarkiness with sweetness. And this episode is a fine example of that.
Yes, it comes packaged with cynicism, but there is also a heartfelt respect for the holiday TV specials we adore - along with a reminder that the best of them ("Rudolph," "Charlie Brown," etc.) contain touches of melancholy.
It even manages to sneak in a couple of original Christmas tunes. You probably won't be humming them at work Friday, but you'll certainly have a newfound respect for the creative minds behind this under-loved show.
An Article from The Cape Breton Post
‘Community’ may be one of best comedies on TV, but it has one foot on a banana peel
Published on November 24, 2011
By Ken MacLeod
Last week’s column may have given the impression that I believe cable television to be much superior to network television in all respects, producing the vast majority of the really good stuff that we TV addicts depend on to fill our entertainment needs.
Well, yes and no. Sure, cable TV isn’t faced with the self-censorship and ratings issues that constrain even the best network television productions, relying instead on subscriptions from people who vote with their wallets for the shows they want to see. But, that being said, there’s no shortage of talented directors, writers and actors who are still able to do plenty of very fine work on “regular” TV.
It’s just that you never know when your favourite network show will (a) be arbitrarily switched to a new time slot, (b) be put on hiatus, or (c) cancelled outright. The real problem with network television is a question of quantity over quality — i.e., no matter what the critics think of it, a prime time drama or comedy has no long-term future if it’s not being watched by a mass audience.
A case in point is “Community,” airing Thursday nights on NBC. A critical hit that never connected with a mass audience (I would argue that by the show’s very nature a mass audience was unlikely from the start) “Community” will be pulled from NBC’s mid-season schedule and replaced on Jan. 12 by “30 Rock,” getting a late start to its season because of Tina Fey’s pregnancy.
I’ve got no beef with “30 Rock,” one of my favourite TV comedies. But “Community” is arguably the best comedy on the airwaves right now and it hardly seems fair to see it sidelined before its third season has even ended. And we have no idea at this stage of the game if the hiatus means eventual cancellation, though that appears to be one likely scenario.
Series creator Dan Harmon’s meta comedy (this, from the online Urban Dictionary — “Meta: A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.”) has for the past three seasons been easily the most challenging and thought-provoking comedy on television, often stretching the sitcom format beyond all recognition.
Set at fictional Greendale Community College somewhere in Colorado, “Community” is the story of seven students — Jeff (Joel McHale), Britta (Gillian Jacobs), Abed (Danny Pudi), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), Annie (Alison Brie), Troy (Donald Glover) and Pierce (Chevy Chase), who come together to form a Spanish 101 study group during the show’s opening episode.
Though the study group was originally put together by self-absorbed and manipulative Jeff as a ploy to get to know Britta better, it has evolved into a showcase for one of the more interesting ensemble casts operating on TV today, exploring such bizarre and diverse topics as a “zombie” outbreak on campus, an all-out paint ball war (twice, even) and even a wildly entertaining spoof of the 1981 movie, “My Dinner With Andre.”
The show is very funny and the characters sharply drawn, but it’s not unfair to pigeonhole “Community” as a cult show that won’t appeal to everyone. With its constant stream of in-jokes and riffs on every aspect of pop culture you could possibly think of, much of the subject matter is simply too esoteric for many viewers to get a handle on. I mean, how many shows would have a character mention “Beetlejuice” in the opening season, another say the name at some point in the second season and still another character saying the same name in the third season, with the capper coming when a character dressed as “Beetlejuce” walks past in the background (it was a Halloween episode) just after the third mention? If you know what I’m talking about, this show is probably for you. If not — well, I guess that’s why it’s going to be shelved.
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