{"id":804,"date":"2011-06-10T06:27:23","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T14:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/?p=804"},"modified":"2012-06-11T22:05:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T06:05:32","slug":"community-advanced-television-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/screencuisine\/television\/community-advanced-television-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Community: Advanced Television Production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kris and I tried watching Community<\/em> when it first came on the air, and while we thought it was sort of cute, it initially felt like it was trying too hard, it was too gimmicky, and that it was overstuffed with less-than-interesting characters. I think we stopped watching after a few episodes.<\/p>\n

We picked it back up somewhere in the middle of season two, and it’s now one of our favorite shows. It’s still pretty gimmicky, but it’s incredibly funny and clever and has a lot of heart.<\/p>\n

I’m bringing this up because The Onion’s AV Club<\/a> has published a series of interviews with the show’s creator, Dan Harmon, and wow. They’re incredible. I’ve honestly never seen such a candid, honest revealing interview with a show creator, especially not while the show is still on the air. Sure, you might find some interviews with the writers of The Wire<\/em> or Cheers<\/em> or something, years after the show has ended, taking about the overall theme of their show, or recalling some memorable moments, discussing specific episodes, or sharing random anecdotes, but Harmon really opened up to the AV Club, discussing every single episode of season two at great length.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Here’s an except from his thoughts on the episode Advanced Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>:<\/p>\n

We spent two days writing it, and we finished it, and we read it through, these two gentlemen and I at Andrew Guest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house. His girlfriend made us Pop-Tarts and we had a little shot of cognac or something. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been up all night. We almost cried because we were like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God, that was fucking hard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And it was so satisfying. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What a nice little story this is. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get to that table-read.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And we did it. We threaded the needle. We made Dungeons & Dragons accessible. We went and table-read it, and it was a great table-read, people loved it. The director, Joe Russo, was like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to shoot it. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any thoughts about how to improve it. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em><\/p>\n

The studio and network response at the table-read was so removed from that. They were so upset about the crime of this episode having been written. The note session as a whole was preceded by a 45-minute period of them walking around the lot whispering to each other. They told me they would come up to my office and meet me privately. When they came up, I had the director and all of the writers in the office with me, because I was terrified. They sat down, and they said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look, where do we start?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe this was happening. I was like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is opposite of how you should feel right now. This is a great episode. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to get a 1.7 no matter what. We will build our ratings in other ways. The episode is not about credit cards; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about Hilary Duff. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to get the same numbers. There is a cultural build to a hit show. We have to prove to people that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re capable of good things so they can trust us, so that we can have a relationship. One day we will either be a highly rated show or we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be cancelled. It will not have to do with this moment. This episode is good, the story is good, these characters are good. Anyone who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tune in because the commercial says they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing Dungeons & Dragons, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my fault. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not on me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

It was such a depressing note session, because they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have any notes on the story. They just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it to exist. I took a photograph of my eyes driving home that day at 3 p.m. because I was leaving work early. I looked in my rearview mirror, and I was crying. More than crying, I was red-eyes, tears streaming, weeping. And I was weeping out of self-pity and frustration, like a child weeps when he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand his parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rules. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I have ice cream when I ate my liver?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I took a photo of it, so I could show it to them between seasons, because as I told my girlfriend when I got home, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to quit my own show, because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t operate under these circumstances. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be this proud of something that the people paying me to do it are this ashamed of. It will never work. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never achieve anything. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never connect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So it was the best of times and the worst of times.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you’re a fan of the show, or have any interest in how good television is made, <\/em>you should read the entire series of episodes:\u00c2\u00a0 Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a>, Part 3<\/a>, and Part 4<\/a>. Passionate, funny, remarkable and revealing stuff.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"