Pedro Pascal breaking and Donald Glover's early exit: Highlights from the Community table read
Aux Features TV
Today (or actually a while ago because it was pre-taped) the Community cast got back together to raise money for charity with a live table read of “Cooperative Polygraphy,” the episode where the study group has to endure shocking reveals and harsh truths while reading from the will of Chevy Chase’s character Pierce (who died off-camera). You can watch it for yourself right here, but if you’d like to know what you’re getting into, we watched it for you and picked out some highlights.
For starters, Keith Slettedahl from The 88 stopped by to perform the theme song live, followed by Community creator Dan Harmon offering up new coronavirus lyrics about washing hands and not smelling farts. Then, unfortunately, Donald Glover had to duck out, with Harmon explaining that he was so busy that he could only commit to actually doing a few pages of the table read. It makes sense, since he’s super famous these days, but it’s still a shame. (It’s also just a gag, he comes back right after.)
There’s also some fun running commentary from noted perfectionist Dan Harmon, who manages to take some time during this fun charity video to jokingly mention some notes he has for things in the script that don’t work as well as he thinks they should. It’s an extremely Dan Harmon shtick for anyone who has followed some of the behind-the-scenes stories from anything he has been involved with ever, and the reading ends with a nice tag (well, nice for us who didn’t have to work with him) where he asks everyone to stick around so he can do some rewrites.
We also have to bring up Pedro Pascal’s turn during the live read as Mr. Stone, the character Walton Goggins played in the actual episode. He fits right in with the rest of the cast, but one of the highlights is the way he starts to laugh harder and harder during the sequence where everyone is bequeathed canisters of Pierce’s frozen sperm. The joke doesn’t really get to breathe in the episode, since it comes alongside some heartwarming revelations about how Pierce really felt about his Greendale friends, but Pascal breaking makes it even funnier than it was before.
The cast also held a Q&A session that touched on some stories from the making of the show (Gillian Jacobs notes that Community killed Yahoo Screen even though everyone got mad at us when we said that) and what the characters would be doing now—Alison Brie, knowing who signs her checks, says Annie would be watching Netflix. Glover also briefly shatters any hope for Troy to return in the movie (which will totally happen someday) by saying that he probably died on his big ocean journey, but he also suggests that Danny Pudi’s Abed might be on an adventure of his own trying to rescue Troy (cue Harmon furiously writing on a notepad in the video).
Oh, but speaking of the movie: Glover says he’d be willing to do it! So now it’s just a matter of him actually finding time to do it… and then Harmon tricking someone into giving him enough money to do it. So yeah, it’ll totally happen someday.
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It was wonderful to see these actors inhabit these characters again. Alison Brie is so talented. Her read was almost identical to the one in the episode; maybe even better? It was a blast. I sure hope we get that movie. I don’t know if there’s ever been a moment as ripe for it as now. C’mon, Dan, you’ve got this. We believe in you. And Netflix. We believe in you, Netflix. (You don’t want an incomplete series in your library, do you?)
Agreed, she definitely gave the best performance on the night (no-one was bad, don’t get me wrong). Hearing her little ‘oh’ of shock/indignation again was a real treat.I’ve been rewatching the series, and I’ve actually managed to get into season 6, beating my previous record by two whole seasons. Sadly I now only have 11 episodes or so to go forever. I mean, I assume forever as no-one is going to finance a film.
Harmon has recently said the Netflix upload has sparked interest in a film and he’s got meetings about it. My bet is on a Netflix funded film.
Yeah, don’t go saying it out loud.
Yeah, here’s hoping. I sort of doubt he’s got a script at the moment. In the past, he’s seemed cagey about it, and I 100% can see why. It’s hard. The expectations alone would be enough to make anyone reticent to try.But, hey, if he does want to get started, he has no shortage of “this is at least a solid investment, Netflix” talking points: Community seems to be one of the most-watched shows on Netflix right now. He’s got some of the most powerful players in Hollywood & Netflix in his corner. Wasn’t Justin Lin interested in directing one at one point? He’s also got the Russos as long-time exec producers, who have since shown no shortage of love for the show. Not to mention the cast has gone on to enough success that they’ve got a not insignificant amount of pull, Donald Glover’s back to acknowledging Community, and, finally, he’s the co-creator of Rick & Morty. (Alison Brie is basically a Netflix poster woman at this point, which she has charmingly pointed out several times on this and on The Darkest Timeline podcast, which y’all should watch because she is absolutely high as fuck on edibles on it. Joel McHale’s a reliable Netflix staple, too.)I don’t want to get my heart broken again, but…well. This show and I have been through so much—back during even the Subway play—that I can’t resist getting my hopes up.
I still hate myself for never watching it during the first run. I did watch the pilot, and for some reason never watched it again.Not that it matters; I didnt have DVR at the time and am not a Nielsen family, so I myself didn’t contribute to its cancellation.
I became a Nielsen household…during season six. But I was watching TV on Hulu (and Yahoo!) by then. What a terrible way to gauge ratings.
So its YOUR FAULT! BOOOOOOO!(can I bribe you to watch shows I like?)
Haha. I did everything I could to save the shows I liked at the time. But then I moved and they no longer cared about my opinion.
“Donald Glover’s back to acknowledging Community”Can you expand on that? Was he ever denying Community’s small role in his career?
Nobody has high expectations for a Netflix film, so he’s okay on that front.
I would imagine the Russo’s could just take the budget for a Community movie out of their petty cash drawer at this point.
Yeah, I saw it at the top of the trending list for a while.
I hope so. While the cast is all working, I only imagine that Glover would have a schedule that would really need to be accommodated. It won’t be Arrested Development where it was all filmed separately on green screens
wait, they did what now? Never been an AD fan but I’ve heard the Netflix season wasn’t… what people were hoping for.
Regarding “forever” — the good news is that Community is infinitely re-watchable. At least it has been for me. I rewatched the series — most of it — practically once a year. And it’s certainly been part of my comfort-food diet these past weeks.
Same. I own it on DVD, have gone through seasons 1-3 so many times. Seasons 5 and 6 a few now. Granted, it took Season 6 almost two years from the time it aired on Yahoo to come out on DVD!
Alison Brie’s “awwws” as Annie never cease to be adorable.
Yeah she was just instantly Annie again, it was really sharp.
OH COME ON, WHERE WOULD THEY FIND SOME PEOPLE TO RUN IT WHO COULD GIVE A SATISFYING ENDING TO A BELOVED FRANCHISE WITH A LARGE ENSEMBLE CAST????
Wait. Have we ever played a game where we assign Community characters to Avengers? It’s a little difficult because the guy who looks the most like Captain America is definitely the Tony Stark.
I just don’t see the point. The show was a limping dog by the last season, and the final episode wrapped things up pretty firmly. I just have a hard time believing there’s anything new to say with these characters.
Because “six seasons and a movie” wasn’t just a punchline, it was a prophecy
Seasons 1-3 (which aired during my last 2 years of high school and first year of college) were such an important thing for me. They were a huge influence on how my taste in tv and movies and my sense of humor turned out. I had the dvds and watched all the commentary and went to a Community trivia night in college with a couple similarly-obsessed friends and we didn’t win because there were a couple teams that were just full of Abeds, but it was very fun and our team name was “Hector the Well-Endowed”.I watched 4 and 5 as they aired, and really enjoyed 5. Tried to watch the Yahoo season but between my apartment wifi being ass and the Yahoo screen site acting sketchy I gave up halfway through. And I didn’t watch the last 6 or so episodes, at first because I couldn’t get them to work, then because I didn’t want it to be over, and then because I forgot. But I just got around to the 6th season a couple weeks ago, and although I really missed Troy and Shirley, it was still great. And honestly, Frankie and Elroy fit into the group so well it was legitimately surprising. Also, I did openly weep at the finale. Also rewatched 4 and 5 for the first time since they aired and 4 wasn’t nearly as bad as I remembered it being. Not in the same league as any of the other seasons, but still better than most other sitcoms. I thought the Halloween and Sophie B. Hawkins episodes were solid. Anyway, now that I’ve seen the entire show at least twice, I’m ready for the movie.
Harmon: “I’m the creator of Rick and Morty, friends with the best director of Fast and the Furious franchise, and can get Childish Gambino to all participate in the same film.”
Netflix: *throws an axe at a picture of Mickey Mouse hung on the wall*
“Throw in those Russo Brothers and you got yourself a goddamn deal.”
I got a Community notification for—oh wait, that makes sense.
BONG
How long I have missed this sweet, sweet bong
Seeing this made me think it was 2012 all over again. Crazy the stupid shit that still makes you laugh.
OH THANK GOD YOU’RE STILL HERE!
*golf clap*
Looking at the screenshot I was wondering why they invited Slavoj Zizek along
I think that’s probably something a lot of people ask when they encounter the real Zizek, too.
That’s a really astute observation.
Donald Glover really was the comedic MVP of this show. He’s just astonishingly funny. He brings such a transcendent sweetness/dumbness to Troy.
The way his delivery of the Legoland line killed everyone was pretty great.As was his “Purina Dog Food” ad-lib.
Glover’s always seemed a little embarrassed by Community and Troy Barnes, which is a tragedy, since his performance is such a perfect combination of hilarious and heartfelt. I mean, I understand that Atlanta’s a really good show and it seems like a great expression of Glover’s creative energy, but his performance on it is really just varying degrees of sullen.
And I think he’s even more embarrassed by what he did with Derrick Comedy, despite some of it being pretty amazing.
He actually mentioned “Bro rape” in one of his tracks on Culdesac. Granted the lyric was that he was “a long way from” it. I used to watch Derrick comedy stuff all the time when I was in college. A lot of gems in there.
“Bro Rape” also came up in his decision to leave Community. Said he didn’t want to be known just for that.
I don’t think he’s embarrassed by it so much as he’s moved on to other things. He strikes me as someone who is very much focused on what he’s currently doing as opposed to what he did. His career has kind of exploded and he just doesn’t want to forever be tied to one specific project. Plus he generally seems kind of low-key outside of his work. I think when you combine all that with Community’s somewhat intense fan base he probably just keeps at a slightly greater distance.
he’s insanely talented. I saw him on his brief flirtation with stand up and he could have easily found success in that direction too. I think for people with his abilities, you just have to follow that muse (with your occasional star wars paychecks)
Abed. All Abed!
he and Gillian are the funniest, but I think Alison and Danny were the best at mixing in the moments of really heartfelt sincerity in the middle of a damn comedic scene without ever losing a step in the comedy. it’s an insane talent and I’ve rarely seen a show do it better than Community – and the balance between those performers and the outright funny performers was essential to the show
Honestly to me the only flaws in the later seasons stem from the new castmembers not gelling with the cast the same was as the people they had replaced.
You notice it because he had the best chemistry with all characters.
The only time I thought his work was kind of weak was because he got separated from everyone and had to make the scenes entertaining by himself during that whole maintenance arc.
He really was Community.
Him freaking out about LeVar Burton is probably the funniest scene in the whole show. “You can’t disappoint a picture!!!”
I love how that scream came from a place of passion, I would never doubt his love of LeVar in real life.
That was really good. I kinda wanna re-watch all of Community now. Are the Yahoo episodes even on Hulu?
They are! And Netflix.
Yep, all of them are. Thats how I binged for the first time a couple of months ago (right before Netflix got em).
Yep, the recent add to Netflix is the entirety of the series. All five seasons, including the Yahoo season. I did not make a typo.
I never watched the Yahoo season. I seem to recall not likely season 4 but this episode reading was great. So maybe I was wrong
Sorry, I was being cheeky about how horrible Season 4 is. That’s the season without Harmon involvement. It is… that bad. Skip it. There is literally nothing worth watching in it other than Jeff graduates. Season 5 is where the reading comes from, and is the second-last episode with Troy. He’s just in it for the first five episodes. Harmon returned as showrunner. Chase is not in it either outside of a short cameo in episode 1. While not up to the heights of two, it was a welcome return from the so-called “gas leak” season. John Oliver recurs frequently and Jonathan Banks plays professor Buzz Hickey. I enjoy both taking bigger roles quite a bit. That was the final season on NBC.Season 6 is the Yahoo season. They lost Yvette Nicole Brown very close to shooting due to her father getting ill. Paget Brewster is a delight in her role and Keith David is a lot of fun. It’s definitely a strange season, quite a bit of focus on the Dean. Longer episodes because of the streaming home, which sometimes just seems very odd. Oliver and Banks do not return. It’s weird. No getting around it. I would say, though, that it has a few standout episodes and the series finale is exceptional.
Yeah I realized this was season 5 after I wrote it.
I mean – Brie Larson’s scenes in that one episode are worth watching. You could just look them up on youtube though.
I don’t remember much of Season 6 but that series finale is one of my favorite series finales. It’s so good in terms of wrapping up the show while also just talking about endings in general, which is what you want from a series finale!
I binged season3 quickly, enjoyed season 5 again. I get stuck a few episodes into season 6. I dunno. The first few episodes don’t quite work for me. But I KNOW it gets tremendous in the back half. Obviously the cast losses hurt but the pacing bugs me more. I’d love to see these episodes re-edited to fit “network tv” format.
Season six’s paintball episode is the best of the paintball episodes and is worth the trip alone.
I lost my mind at the homage. You know the one.
I personally rank the Yahoo! season as…maybe my favorite.
Community is my favorite show ever, season six is just the easiest re-watch for me. Keith David & Paget Brewster were instant hits for me & season six has my favorite version of Chang.
Having just rewatched the back 3 seasons, I can tell you it goes 2>3>1>5>6>4.* Four wasn’t as bad as I remembered, though still firmly at the bottom. Six is equal parts duds and standouts, and like 90% of streaming shows episode pacing is all wrong, but Paget Brewster and Keith David are really strong additions.*Incidentally, this is the exact opposite ranking of the six Mission: Impossible movies.
Seasons 5 and 6 were largely a pretty good return to the 1-2-3 form and are absolutely worth watching.
no goggins, not real.
“Rick and Morty season SIX?”
HELL NO troy is not dead at the bottom of a trench somewhere, just a skeleton in spidey pajamshe is FINE. which means of course that he is NOT OK.The Childish Tycoon lies wrecked on the shore. Aside the debris from the ship, other items have washed up: gold coins, condoms, a shredded football with a face drawn on it in blood, a Michael Higgins CD, some kind of metal thermos…and Geordi’s visor.the distress beacon sings out, seeking its mate“…SOME…WHERE….SOME….WHERE…”
He was captured by pirates. They’d have to establish his harrowing escape
little do the pirates know…their captain’s monkey…is a special monkey.
i have now turned this into two pages of screenplay
I was thinking that he gets into Pierce’s boat and just sails around in a circle…because Colorado is landlocked and the boat is in a small lake.
LOL
I didn’t think anyone could look more wrong in a mustache than Andy Dick, but Donald Glover has proven me wrong. Kudos to you, Donald, and kudos again.
No, Matthew… I tell you what, let me show you something. Are you ready? No, I don’t think you’re ready. Okay. Who’s that? Yep, that is me with a mustache. I carry this around with me whenever I can, so if I ever get the urge to make myself over, I just look at this, and damn near throw up.
I am but a mortal man with mortal wants and desires, and as such I have this to say: Alison Brie grabs her own boobs at 19:24 in that video. Perhaps it was a cameo.
“Annie’s pretty young, we try not to sexualize her”
Heterosexuals
Glovers knee didn’t do it for you?
Ick
For someone who seemed shocked to hear that foot fetishists were getting off on her tootsies, she sure did wave ’em around a lot.
dude just watch Glow, actually for you just the first episode.
thank you
If that’s what you’re into, let me tell you about a little show called GLOW…
This was great to see in every respect. That said, I cannot get a read on Glover. Clearly he’s a genius, but I can never tell what his real personality is, or what he’d be like in person – it seems to vary wildly depending on what project he’s promoting. Here and in his old standup special, he’s got this goofy demeanor, but when I’ve seen him promoting some of his Childish Gambino records or Atlanta, it’s almost like he’s a different person. Maybe it’s just code-switching, but if so, it’s pretty extreme.
(Not that I think anything bad of him – it just stands out to me as curious.)
I get what you’re saying. My armchair guess is it’s a combination of different kinds of projects channeling different kinds of energy and developing personas as a form of self-protection. We all do to some degree, and I can imagine that when everyone knows your face and knows you’ve got money and access, that just amps it up a full order of magnitude. (Pop pop! Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.)
Part of it might also just be change over time. His music has gotten weirder and darker as it’s gone on. Compare his early albums to anything on his most recent album.
I think a lot of it is acting a part. I hope that the goofy Glover is truer to who he is but he also wanted to be a serious musical artist so he really overcompensated on the intensity to show people that Childish Gambino wasn’t a comic persona. I think my theory holds up when you look at how he used his Atlanta and music success to play Lando in Solo and how excited he was about doing it.
We really missed out on there being no more Young Lando; that’s the biggest tragedy of Solo’s lack of success for me.
Disney+ should just roll out the dumptruck of money to Glover’s house to get the Young Lando series going.
Well, I’m hardly the best at reading people. Usually, I can’t do it at all unless I have a lot of data points to work with. But in this case, I do have some help with the cast-and-crew episode commentaries for Community that I have on DVD. And their evaluation of Glover was pretty consistent: he’s a generational comedic talent, but he’s also extremely generous with the joke, and extremely averse to making people feel bad about not getting the laugh. There was story after story in the commentaries about Glover asking for permission to ad-lib in one of the last takes, and then coming up with something that was even better than what the writers had come up with on the spot. He’s maybe the best television improv comic since Tim Conway. But they also described story after story of him then acting almost apologetic for one-upping the writing crew, and they seemed unable to get him to understand “No, we’re just trying to get the laugh. It’s okay if you take what we wrote, and make it better. It doesn’t hurt our ego at all”.The result, I imagine, is consistent with a pretty guarded personality.
It is really bizarre. He almost looks like he’s taken a double dose of sedatives when he’s doing Gambino related media.
I love the shit out of that man, but I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised to find out that he suffers from bi-polar or borderline personality disorder.
I would recommend you watch the conversations after the because he has very fond memories of community and seemed to remember the most. There was also a sweet moment where he talked about having a conversation with his partner and getting emotional remembering them. He had a fond memory and stories of almost every cast member and even said he watched the show again and still loved it. Its worth watching for all of them talking about behind the scenes things and its very interesting
I still think that the most Community thing to do would be to do a film adaptation of Waiting For Godot with Magnitude and Starburns waiting for the study group. Then as soon as the study group shows up, smash cut to credits, end of film.Like yeah it’d be a copout but like you’re not gonna really reach everyone’s expectations y’know?
POP… WHAT? POP WHAT? … …
WHAT IS HE TRYING TO SAY?!
Couldn’t Harmon self find a movie at this point, what kinda share of Rick and Morty does he have? If he has a percent of the merchandise rights he’s gotta be rolling in cash
Oh, Britta’s in this?
I love that Jacobs had her prop can of Pierce sperm at the ready. And at the same time there’s something very Britta about the fact that nobody else had the same idea.
excellent
I wonder if they wrote that dig at The Grey without having seen the movie, and it was just the most recent Liam Neeson movie at the time.
Dan Harmon has definitely watched the movie beforehand. He did this absolutely hilarious bit on it on his podcast too during the time he was fired from Community.
Sigh. Now I’m nostalgic for back when network TV was worth watching… for maybe a half hour a week.
Brooklyn Nine Nine and Bless This Mess are excellent.
That was amazing. Thank you Community for this. I haven’t done a rewatch in a while (I’m currently watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine for the first time), but may have to start another one soon. It made me so happy.Also, before this I had never heard of Pedro Pascal. Now I think I love him.
BTW – The 88 is an amazing band.
potato
Now let’s do this for a drama. I want to see Cranston and Gunn redoing the “I’m the One Who Knocks” speech or Dominic West and Wendell Pierce saying “fuck” over and over. Fine, let’s redo Game of Thrones. Give Emilia and Iain tests to make sure they are clean and let them bone.
This show was to good for this world. I remember it starting right after Big Bang Theory got BIG and it was such a refreshing change. BBT always was punching down. Community just embraced everyone’s weird loves and didn’t judge.
If I remember correctly (I truly can’t believe how long ago it was), it was then rescheduled opposite The Big Bang Theory, wasn’t it? I had been watching them both (I think Big Bang was much better, or at least more enjoyable, the first couple seasons), and when the move was announced I was torn between which I would watch.Then the move actually happened, and the choice was eeeeeeasy; I watched the first five minutes of that night’s Big Bang, and all I could think was “Oh yeah, Community is way better. COMMUNITY IS ON RIGHT NOW!!” And that was that.Also, not incidentally, posting on AV Club about Community was so important. Not kidding or exaggerating. It was wonderful. And so long ago.
When they asked where Troy Barnes would be today, I’m surprised no one mentioned the easter egg from a from a few episodes later where the TV had a news scrawl stating that “Levar Burton and non-celebrity captured by pirates” or something like that.
What I enjoyed most about this was how real the cast’s relationships appear and how down to earth each one is. Truly a joy to watch. Thanks for this!
Have to admit, good as it was this was the episode where it kicked in for me that I really didn’t like any of the main characters of this show anymore, and they had either somehow become or always been rather horrible people. I drifted away from it after that.
Yahoo Screen tanked Yahoo Screen. I watched every episode of season six multiple times (as well as Other Space) on Yahoo Screen app on the Apple TV and I never saw one commercial.I loved this reading and it makes me want a movie more than ever, but I haven’t developed a retroactive hate for the show like some people have.
I want a movie as much as anyone; I just hope we get committed Harmon, not “obligated season six” Harmon.
Re: season 6. Does anybody else find the sound editing or mixing… Off? It feels very empty. I’m not great at trying to explain this but it has this weird unfinished vibe to the audio.
I really enjoyed the interview and then the conversation that just the cast had too in separate videos. They all still seem very fond of the show and each other and revealed some interesting things about the show