NBC's Community

I'm thrilled Chase has left and am looking forward to the shows' return. As the second season rolled along, I just didnt see what Chase's character brought to the show. I felt like they were giving him more screen time becasue he's chevy chase. Hated it. And since, I've read allot of stuff about Chase that made me think he's not the most pleasant people. if he's supposed to be so good, why hasn't he been in anything for years? After his rants at the end of last season there was a great article I read about his fueds with a ton of people in hollywood.

Good ridance.
 
I recently worked on the fourth season of Community (before Chevy's exit) in a small walk-on role, and by all accounts the production was running more smoothly than it had in a while, though I doubt this season will take the same sort of narrative risks that it reached for under Harmon's run. I laughed a lot on set and many of the elements that always made the show great were on full display (like the same freakishly talented cast members, the same dedicated crew, several writers, even the same directors of many of my favorite episodes from the run of the series) --it's just that these elements now exist without the original guiding hand that pushed them to the daring highs and lows that shaped way we as viewers see the show.

I do think that the fourth season will be quite enjoyable and quite funny simply because those elements are still in place, even though it can't be like it was when Harmon ran the nuthouse. Dan Harmon is what made Community work in the fiercely original way it worked, and though the show can still work now that the world has already been built and given a life of its own, it certainly won't work the same way. I'm happy that I'll still get to spend more time with these characters as a viewer and I'm glad that the show continuing means that these people I respect and care about are still employed, but I'm still spending these last few months before it comes back mourning the loss of the dynamic that brought it into being and would have protected its essence to whatever end. :unsure

Anyway, I'm concerned about some of the expressed excitement I've seen regarding Chevy's recent departure from the series. Regardless of opinions on the actor's conduct and whether he was necessary for the show to function, THE CHARACTER he played certainly was integral to the piece. Pierce was an important narrative tool, as he was a charged entity that fostered dramatic momentum and conflict of character motivations even without external prompting. Without Pierce, the dynamic of the study group would simply be of people who all like each other pretty well and occasionally hook up. There's nothing wrong with that, but Community isn't How I Met Your Mother. Pierce was one of the elements that allowed Community to be a faster moving and higher stakes and flat out fascinating creature of a show.

I suppose it just seems too easy to say "I don't like the kind of person that character is; I'd rather just watch the show with all the fun adventures and situations and all other the clever characters, good riddance" without realizing that the unlikeable character is what often makes the other great stuff possible. Pierce may not be likeable as a human, but he's likeable and handy as a narrative tool. Not to mention responsible for some of the funniest moments in the show.

I'm worried to see Pierce go. Chevy's made clear how he feels about working the show, so I wish him well and hope he finds what he desires somewhere else. But did Pierce have to vanish with him? I sort of dream of someone like Martin Sheen coming in and continuing the role, perhaps with Abed commenting on his change of appearance. Meh.

Anyway to connect this back to props and something I'm currently excited about, if that's permissable in the subforum, here's a crosspost about a prop from the end of season 2:
I haven't got it yet, but I hope to be able to pick up a WinGun 702 Airsoft revolver for Christmas, as seen in the "A Fist Full of Paintballs" episode of Community.

yhst-49666507782127_2235_264440386


Annie and the other women primarily use the 4 inch model during the episode, while Jeff, the Black Rider, and the other men primarily use the 6 inch model, though the continuity of which gun is used by who and when is not terribly consistent throughout.

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This is one of my favorite episodes of one of my favorite TV shows, so I was ecstatic to learn that the guns were real and commercially available. Throw in some Hellfire Mini Paintballs and it's possible to reenact some of the coolest moments in Greendale History.
 
I recently worked on the fourth season of Community (before Chevy's exit) in a small walk-on role...

I sort of dream of someone like Martin Sheen coming in and continuing the role, perhaps with Abed commenting on his change of appearance. Meh.

That's pretty cool that you are going to be on the show. Were you an extra? More details about the set atmosphere if you can.

And really? I can actually see that happening since this is Community were talking about. The show is amazing and if Pierce is there as a different actor or not there at all, I still think it will be amazing.
 
Thanks for sharing that Lunaman, it's cool to know that you got to work on the set for this fourth season. I am still optimistic about the new season.

As for Pierce, he is indeed a integral part of the group and his lines are often hilarious. Due to Pierce's age and background he was a real outsider amongst the group and I totally agree that his character is vital to the group dynamic. Since Chevy left production much after filming several episodes, we are still going to get lot of early episodes with Pierce in it. Hopefully the character's departure will be very organic. It will be sad to see the character go, but I won't feel the same about the actor making the exit as he chose to do it on his own terms and apparently for the wrong reasons.

Somebody else playing Pierce? I don't know if that will work, but I am open to that idea if they come up with a convincing way to establish why his character looks different with Abed being meta about it :).
 
Thanks for sharing that Lunaman, it's cool to know that you got to work on the set for this fourth season. I am still optimistic about the new season.

As for Pierce, he is indeed a integral part of the group and his lines are often hilarious. Due to Pierce's age and background he was a real outsider amongst the group and I totally agree that his character is vital to the group dynamic. Since Chevy left production much after filming several episodes, we are still going to get lot of early episodes with Pierce in it. Hopefully the character's departure will be very organic. It will be sad to see the character go, but I won't feel the same about the actor making the exit as he chose to do it on his own terms and apparently for the wrong reasons.

Somebody else playing Pierce? I don't know if that will work, but I am open to that idea if they come up with a convincing way to establish why his character looks different with Abed being meta about it :).

I think if they do it right they could pull it off but most of the older actors with good comedy timing are gone.
 
That's pretty cool that you are going to be on the show. Were you an extra? More details about the set atmosphere if you can.
Thanks! Yea, I was a background performer, supposedly a student at Greendale. :rolleyes:lol
We have a non-disclosure clause in our contract so I can't say too much about what was happening the week I worked there, but it was definitely the most fun working environment I've had on a TV set. Community's pretty complicated to make and the days are very long because they shoot every episode like its own little feature film, instead of using the cinéma vérité documentary style camerawork on that's popular on shows like The Office and Parks and Rec or the multicamera sitcom camerawork like The Big Bang Theory or How I Met your Mother, etc. If there's any hiccups during production it can ripple throughout the week so that you end up having 16 or 20 hour days that have to get out at 4 am---it can easily become messy and often has in the past. But the crew seemed to indicate that things went very smoothly for the most part, and the week I was there we didn't get more than an hour behind schedule.
Everybody had a great time.

And really? I can actually see that happening since this is Community were talking about. The show is amazing and if Pierce is there as a different actor or not there at all, I still think it will be amazing.
Perhaps, yea. There could be a James Bond/007 type thing going there. Maybe even a spy-movie episode! :lol


Thanks for sharing that Lunaman, it's cool to know that you got to work on the set for this fourth season. I am still optimistic about the new season.
You're welcome! Me too.

As for Pierce, he is indeed a integral part of the group and his lines are often hilarious. Due to Pierce's age and background he was a real outsider amongst the group and I totally agree that his character is vital to the group dynamic. Since Chevy left production much after filming several episodes, we are still going to get lot of early episodes with Pierce in it. Hopefully the character's departure will be very organic. It will be sad to see the character go, but I won't feel the same about the actor making the exit as he chose to do it on his own terms and apparently for the wrong reasons.

Somebody else playing Pierce? I don't know if that will work, but I am open to that idea if they come up with a convincing way to establish why his character looks different with Abed being meta about it :).
Well said!


Awesome! A little bittersweet, though, knowing there's a Christmas episode that we won't be able to see until its well out of season. We could have been watching it right now!
 
My wife got me season 1 for Christmas and yesterday, I went looking for the other two DVD sets and got them. I loved, "Modern Warfare" as much as when I first saw it. The ironic thing is that I knew nothing of this show until the tail end of the third season. People kept telling me I got to watch it but I didn't until I got the first DVDs through netflix, then went through them all as fast as I could watch them. Now, I'm hooked!
But I have a question for you all here:
I know the pistols used in the "Modern Warfare" episode were Tippman TPXs, but they're over $200 bucks new. I have looked into getting a broken one but struck out. Have any fans thought of making resin castings of these? Just curious as it's my favorite episode of the show and having just watched that one again, I got to thinking it'd be cool to have one for the heck of it.
Can I assume that someone's probably gone to a con wearing Greendale stuff and carrying one of these painted in a loud color? Heck, I have the blue greendale shirt that NBC sells already.
That said, it looks like a decent design, if they didn't cost so much I wouldn't mind having a working one...
 
Have any fans thought of making resin castings of these?
I haven't heard of any, but it's certainly possible someone has.

That said, it looks like a decent design, if they didn't cost so much I wouldn't mind having a working one...
They cost so much BECAUSE they work. :lol :rolleyes Try to fabricate a working magazine-fed paintball marker and suddenly the price they charge seems VERY cheap.
You can get them HERE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CvvS4LWEjY
 
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I recently worked on the fourth season of Community (before Chevy's exit) in a small walk-on role...
I know you can't go into plot content, but can you say where the scenes are filmed, in the outdoor scenes? The trampoline episode was clearly filmed in a studio (you can see the side of a large set building in the background when Jeff kicks the ball into the air). Is the 'campus' just filmed on the backlow or is it on location somewhere? Just curious where these places are in real life...
 
I sent you a longer response in a PM, but I didn't have it saved in my sent messages (whoops) or I'd repeat it here.

The gist is that almost everything on Community is shot on the Paramount Studio lot.
 
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I sent you a longer response in a PM, but I didn't have it saved in my sent messages (whoops) or I'd repeat it here.
Here's what you sent, I think others would like to read it, too:
(y)thumbsup:thumbsup

Lunaman said:
Just about everything on Community is shot on the Paramount Studios lot. During the pilot only, the Greendale campus was shot on-location at a Los Angeles City College, and then was rebuilt as a set on the Paramount soundstages when the show was picked up as a series and has been shot on purpose-built sets ever since the second episode. The library, study room, hallways, Dean's office, classroom, cafeteria, EVERYTHING is all built on soundstages, but linked up contiguously so that when you are walking around it feels like you are in a real school. During breaks in shooting I would often go sit in the study room if they weren't shooting in there and quietly geek out. There's still bits of paint in some of the crevices here and there from Modern Warfare, A Fist Full of Paintballs, and For a Few Paintballs More, and there's appropriate notches and axe marks in the table. The biggest open space is the cafeteria, so they often build smaller sets inside the cafeteria if they are just needed for one scene or one episode (like any time the characters are driving in a car; the car's actually in the middle of the cafeteria). The heating system is wonky, so it always either very hot or kind of cold on set.

Almost everything is shot within the Paramount Studio, even in ridiculously obvious or silly-looking ways, like filming in the crew parking lot or building fake walls to block the view of the other soundstages when they walk by the administrator buildings. They have to shoot things as cheaply as they can because the single-camera format is very expensive to shoot anyway, so doing everything on the Paramount Lot saves them a lot of dough.

The trampoline sanctuary was built near the food commissary at Paramount, right by where they shoot 'Glee.' If you have the DVDs, I recommend listening to the audio commentary tracks if you want to know more about how and where things were shot.
 
Though I already knew you got to be there with the cast and crew during filming, just reading that you got to sit in the study room made me little jealous :lol.

That's some great info Zach :thumbsup, thanks for sharing that and thanks to p51 for re-posting it.
 
Though I already knew you got to be there with the cast and crew during filming, just reading that you got to sit in the study room made me little jealous :lol.
Hahaha, understandable. The branches of jealousy climb ever higher. I myself get frustrated by my friend Cyril, who was regularly featured on the show last season. He's always rubbing it in my face that he got to go to work in his PJs every day during the pillow and blanket fort episodes and had pillow fights with Donald Glover and Danny Pudi for funzies during downtime. :rolleyes

That's some great info Zach :thumbsup, thanks for sharing that and thanks to p51 for re-posting it.
No problem!
 
One thing I just don't get is how these characters get money to live off of. Hardly any of them have any means of support!
  • Jeff Winger - former lawyer, but where's the money coming from? He's loaned money to people in the past but turned down the 'consulting' gig at his former law firm. Yes, he moved into a cheaper place, but I assume he saved up from his lawyer days?
  • Britta Perry - used to work at the diner where she got fired from after stalling for Abed's "Pulp Fiction" birthday
  • Abed Nadir - his Dad pays for everything, if I recall season one correctly?
  • Shirley Bennett - single mom for a while, how'd she afford school at first?
  • Annie Edison - lived in a crummy neighborhood and saved up all her money from babysitting and birthdays, but where's the money coming from now?
  • Troy Barnes - okay, where's his money coming from?
  • Pierce Hawthorne - millionaire, the only member that makes sense.
 
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