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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"Community" Service: The Preamble

(You like that?--Snazzy, right?)

Fall 2009 was a very exciting time to be Jeff Heatherly. It was the beginning of my senior year of college, I had just met some of the best friends I would ever have, and there were a gaggle of promising new shows on the network television slate.

FOX had Glee. Now, you must keep in mind that this when all we had to go on was its TREMENDOUS pilot, and had no idea that it would--by the end of its second episode--become the ridiculous and unwatchable mess that it is now.

ABC had Cougar Town, a show with a title that still sticks in a lot of people's craws, but has fast become one of the best comedies on television. (Modern what-now?)

...and then there was NBC. At the time, the network had just handed the keys to one of its most notable franchises (The Tonight Show) to your hero and mine, Conan O'Brien. By exchange, they'd also kicked off what would end up one of the biggest losing gambles in network television history in the weeknightly 10pm Jay Leno Show.

In a way, all of their focus had been drawn away from the 8-10pm portion of their primetime schedule; something made evident when comparing their new (and bountiful) batch of programs this year with the paltry selection they had just two short autumns ago.

Of the eight new shows presented at the 2009-2010 upfronts in May of that year, only two have truly survived: the critically-acclaimed (but pretty low-rated) Parenthood and the would-be jewel of the new Thursday night line-up, Community.

I, having been an avid viewer of E!'s The Soup since my freshman year of college, was pleased as punch to see its host Joel McHale given not only a primetime comedy to headline, but to kickoff the most legendary night of network television in history. Add in Chevy Chase, and this quirky upstart sitcom quickly became my SHOW TO WATCH.

As you can understand, I was even more excited when a few days before its September 17 premiere date, the pilot appeared as a free download on the iTunes Store. (To date, it's still in my library.) As I recall though, I actually held out on watching it until it debuted, following the sixth season premiere of The Office.

I'll be honest. Our first trip to Greendale Community college in (near as we've been told) a suburb of Denver, Colorado was...well, a pilot. It didn't exactly--to steal a phrase from the great Doug Benson--knock my dick in the dirt. However, it also didn't completely turn me away. It had its wonderful cast, its notorious eye for pop culture references, and a fair amount of laugh-out-loud moments. I had recently become a pretty hardcore optimist, believe it or not; so I was willing to go on a journey with this show.

Over the next nine-ish months and 24 further episodes, Community became the highlight of my Thursday nights and a frequent topic of conversation among my fellow Media Studies majors; and it did it all through its mastery of logical human stories with intelligent wit and a deep and abiding love for classic television and film, particularly of the 1980s. (The pilot episode, as it aired, was dedicated to beloved writer/director John Hughes who had passed away a little over a month prior. His influence is unmistakable throughout the first season, with Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles references in particular, peppered throughout the episodes.)

From the beginning, the show's pop culture love stemmed from one character: the ever-lovable Abed Nadir, played by up-and-comer Danny Pudi in an absolutely star-making performance. His outburst in the pilot--lines from Judd Nelson's "Banner Year at the Bender Family" monologue in The Breakfast Club--quickly sets the tone for both the character and the series as a whole.


Abed LOVES entertainment. No. Abed IS entertainment, and in him, I quickly realized I had found a kindred--albeit fictional--spirit. For as much as I was initially attracted to this series for the chance to see the man who had entertained me for so many years just standing in front of a green screen being sarcastic lead an NBC sitcom, it became rapidly apparent: Joel McHale's Jeff Winger is not the star of Community. He's the straight man, and that works.

Surrounding McHale, along with the incomparable Pudi and the aforementioned Chevy Chase as moist towelette magnate Pierce Hawthorne, is a cast of very talented individuals, who each carved out their own unique characters almost immediately.

There's Jeff Winger's would-be love interest Britta Perry, played by the--as the pilot repeatedly reiterates--Elizabeth Shue-esque Gillian Jacobs. In the first few episodes, Britta acts as nothing more than the proverbial macguffin; the thing that pulls Jeff Winger into this group of people that will change his life forever. However, as the inaugural season goes along, she fleshes out into a deeply flawed but well-meaning figure of loving ridicule from the rest of our cast; like a significantly less tragic Meg Griffin. For example:


There's the recently-divorced Christian housewife Shirley Bennett, played by longtime character actress Yvette Nicole Brown. From the off, Shirley takes the role of our study group's surrogate mother. She's supportive and--more often than not--unshakably optimistic, but one false move, and she WILL cold-cock you. While preparing to deliver this opening statement (READ: about a sentence into this very paragraph), I discovered the following fan-made video montage that sums her up pretty well...


One of the greatest strengths of the first season of Community is its combination of naturally evolving comedic storytelling and dynamic characterization. In terms of the latter, our next two characters are exemplary.

For starters, we have Troy Barnes, the disgraced former high school quarterback played by the multi-talented (emphasis on MULTI-FUCKING-TALENTED) Donald Glover. (Watch this. 'Nuff said.) In the pilot--save for a few moments of pure Glover--Troy is every dumb jock you've ever seen portrayed. What's more, as noted in the first-season DVD commentary, he was originally written for a typical, Aryan-looking (blonde hair/blue eyes) white guy; but over the rest of Season 1, through the show's skillful writing, a seemingly-fated (and infinitely WONDERFUL) pairing with Danny Pudi's Abed, and Donald Glover's breakout performance, he quickly went from this...


...to this.


In the pairing of Troy and Abed, Community has unmistakably caught lightning in the proverbial bottle, and no matter what becomes/has become of this show, they will always be a highlight.

Also undergoing a welcome and well-plotted character evolution is the study group's youngest member, Annie Edison played by Mad Men's Trudy Campbell, Alison Brie. In the DVD commentary of the pilot episode, creator Dan Harmon tells us that Annie was originally envisioned as an unholy combination of Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick in Election and conservative nutlog/The View panelist Elizabeth Hasselbeck. However, in yet another case of writing-meets-performance, it's not long before that innocent, buttoned-down shell is quickly cracked open to reveal--and I mean this in the most loving way possible--TV's youngest sexy librarian. I won't deny it. I am one of countless scores of heterosexual nerds who've been struck pretty hard by the allure of Alison Brie; despite Community's constant (to a point) attempts to keep our thoughts of Annie as un-lascivious as possible.

Additionally (prepare for SPOILERS!), Annie's distinctive transformation is at the center of the first season's biggest shocker and, indeed, its season-ending cliffhanger, as she gradually becomes the new object of Jeff Winger's affections; sating the wishes of countless YouTube 'shippers and setting the show on what we were left to presume to be its course in Season 2.

As for the dynamism of the show's remaining repertory faces (the admittedly overexposed Ken Jeong's SeƱor Ben Chang and the incomparable Jim Rash's Dean Craig Pelton; the latter of whom NEEDS to be added to the opening credit sequence in Season 3), that'll certainly come up in later editions of "Community Service", but for the most part, our most recurring Greendale faculty members stick to a general state of slightly unhinged (the operative word being SLIGHTLY; something that will--unfortunately--drastically change in Season 2) in the case of Chang...


...and in the case of Dean Pelton, a comical undercurrent (operative word being UNDERcurrent; something affected by yet another unwelcome--albeit more tolerable than that of Chang--alteration in Season 2) of inappropriateness. Por ejemplo...


ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, the point I'm trying to make here...Season 1 of Community is, in a word, PERFECT. Every episode (yes, even the pilot), is an enjoyable experience from start to finish. In my opinion, there isn't a single moment that rings false or disheartening. Our characters evolve naturally and the writing never betrays the personalities they establish. The comedy organically makes a gradual shift from somewhat standard--albeit well-written and acted--single-camera sitcom fare to humor generated AND aided by what we know of the Greendale universe.

Let me reiterate: IT'S PERFECT...

...which regrettably brings me to the reason I've decided to do this series.

Season 2 of Community premiered on September 23, 2010. After a summer wondering about the repercussions of the first season finale's jaw-dropping final shot and rewatching the episodes REPEATEDLY as they rolled by on Hulu, I couldn't wait to rejoin Jeff Winger and his Spanish-turned-Anthropology study group...and at first, things went swimmingly.

Over the next five episodes...something began to go HORRIBLY wrong...and that's where what's about to unfold here at "Entertainment on Jeff's Terms" comes in.

Over the next 24 parts, I'll be rewatching each episode of Community's sophomore (resist the urge to make a mournful pun about it being sophomoric, Jeff) season, going beat-by-beat and trying to figure out how a show that once brought me so much joy could so drastically shift into something that caused me so much pain.

Feel free to disagree if you must, but let me have this. I need closure.

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Stay tuned for further editions of "Community Service", my dear readers; and keep a look out for more new content, coming a few times a week, right here at "Entertainment on Jeff's Terms".

Until next time. Comment. Compliment. Love.

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