In a repeat from last year, NBC‘s perennial bubble comedy Community just snagged a 13-episode renewal. There have been some significant changes on the show over the past 12 months though. When NBC renewed the show last May, it still had creator Dan Harmon as showrunner and Chevy Chase as co-star. Immediately after the upfronts, Harmon was replaced with David Guarascio and Moses Port. Then in November, Chase too departed. The bitter feud between Chase and Harmon was a major factor in destabilizating of the show for a couple of seasons, leading to public outbursts and profane voice messages. Now that Chase is gone, emotions have cooled down and all sides involved have had time to reflect, there is speculation that Harmon may come back, especially if this turns out to be Community‘s final chapter. (I’d heard that, with the show’s future at NBC in limbo, there were a number of suitors clamoring to pick up Community for a final installment.) There are no deals in place but I hear there certainly is interest in bringing Harmon back in some capacity.





The reasons Harmon was replaced was more about being overbudget, overschedule, and generally difficult to work with. He’s admitted it himself several times. Chevy leaving has no impact on this.
That was also my understanding. But the show was so specific to his vision…if there’s a chance he could return, Community fans would rejoice.
As for Chevy Chase, I think they should simply recast Pierce Bewitched-style and not have anyone acknowledge it…except for Abed. And I think they should cast Dan Ackroyd (apologies to Fred Willard).
if chevy is to be replaced by anyone it should be bill murray so history can repeat itself
aye aye
Genius. You’re hired.
This season mostly looks like anemic copycat show with same actors, but without driving creative force behind. People that worth something can’t be replaced without consequences. And people doesn’t worth anything doesn’t understand that.
WTF?
I think he basically means it’s like one of those fake Apple stores that they found in China; looks the same but something feels off.
… Chevy?
Sure it does, without Chevy the budget goes down a bunch
While the show was overschedule at times, Dan has insisted that they were in the black, even if it meant making a cheaper video game episode to balance out an expensive Dreamatorium episode. NBC and Sony didn’t like that scripts were being written and re-written up until the last minute, which meant that they didn’t have much control, but the end results are up on the screen and after a terrible season in which network and studio did have a say in the show’s direction, it’s clear who was right.
Yeah, he’s difficult, but most creative visionaries are (see Steve Jobs). Sony should pony up whatever it takes to get him back so he can finish the show his way. First order of business: All of Season 4 except the Jim Rash episode is Abed’s nightmare!
Hilarious, Cameron. Yes, Steve Jobs, Dan Harmon, same thing. I would’ve let it slide at Roseanne or Valerie Harper, maybe Chris Thompson. Dan Harmon hasn’t come anywhere near affecting change of any substance. He couldn’t even keep me interested in watching a tv show for more than a season.
Did Dan Harmon kick your dog or something? Having a hard time understanding the venom you’re spewing…
All I know is that he created a show that was almost perfectly in line with everything I’ve ever wanted in a TV show, and that he waited around for hours after the shows of his Harmontown tour to individually talk with fans for a few minutes each (including myself). So, yeah, I have a pretty high opinion of the guy.
What have you contributed?
From what I hear, he’s a nice guy, but I just can’t enjoy a show that is so utterly tickled with itself when it seems to be so unstable (er, I *don’t* mean the behind-the-scenes brouhahas): It can’t decide what it wants to be tonally, many of the episodes seem to not even take advantage of its location/premise (i.e., a community college), and the writing in episodes themselves is often disjointed, as if they forgot where they started and rewrote at the last-minute b/c they didn’t like where they landed. Other comments seem to confirm that last one.
He was never overbudget nor overschedule. Individual episodes might be overbudget or production might run longer than normal, but Harmon was organized enough that it was made up for by lots of cheap bottle episodes as well as shooting two episodes at time. That’s why when Remedial Chaos Theory was running long in production, they could sub in a different episode for airing.
Dan Harmon was organized.
Now that’s a new one for the revisionist history buffs.
He was fired for being niche.
Wouldn’t Chase leaving help with tat whole “over budget” thing? I’m sure he was paid well.
I say bring him back, make a great fifth season, get renewed for a final sixth season, make that great, and then kickstarter a movie. It’s that simple. #sixseasonsandamovie
My thoughts exactly
If Dan would come back for a final season and that’s a pretty big if, I’m pretty sure he’d want Chevy back too. They didn’t hate eachother, they were just too much alike.
There is no “in any capacity.” Harmon has said that he wouldn’t return just to godfather the show. I seriously doubt NBC would have Harmon back to show-run again, so I’m calling BS on his return.
Obvious click bait.
Pretty impressive that a show that Nielsen insists has only a small audience would generate so much internet activity…
Well, I’d imagine both NBC and Sony recognize that Nielsen is flawed, and that this is a show with an audience that will watch on devices other than a nielsen-connected TV set (hence being able to squeeze out another season). Also, I’d imagine that the audience for this show is affluent… so they can sell ads at a higher premium for this show than for other shows with similar ratings.
This is nothing but complete conjecture. Reporting whispers amongst assistants again?
PLEASE DAN COME BACK!!!! If this will be its final season, let it end brilliantly, the same way it was before this season happened.
Doesn’t he have a ton of TV shows now?
Sounds a little too good to be true
I’m seriously doubtful that it would happen but I’d be thrilled if Dan Harmon did come back for Season 5. I know a lot of people who were disappointed with the show in Season 4.
It does seem extremely unlikely. The only way I could see them wanting to give him the job back is if the fifth season is definitely confirmed well in advance to be the last, so they’ve got nothing to lose. And even then, it seems doubtful he’d even want to come back to a show that’s carried on without him.
That’s the problem — it has hardly ‘carried on’ without him. This past season amounted to glorified fanfic. It lacked dimension, which is what Harmon provided with his unique point of view. The show needs him back badly.
Either that or this was placed by Harmon himself. Chase had nothing to do with Dan being forced out. Harmon’s personal demons make working for him a living hell. The entire writing staff would quit if he returned.
And this would be a bad thing?
This is bullshit.
If Chevy’s gone, I’ll start watching again.
Then you can watch most of season 4 that just ended… He left a few episodes into it.
No, he left with a few episodes LEFT. There are only 2 without him, technically – the Christmas one and “Heroic Origins” (he doesn’t appear in the puppet one, but he came in to record his dialogue). And Origins being the worst episode in the series’ history, you should follow his lead on that one and sit it out.
It seems highly unlikely the network and production company would bring him back considering how they ousted him. That said, it’s not hard to imagine the publicity helping ratings (and raising Kickstarter money), even the reruns, so there’s certainly an incentive there.
It’s worth adding it wasn’t just Harmon. The loss of the Russos and Goldman/Donovan also hurt theo show. Chris McKenna was also key to the writing, although he could be persuaded to return as Harmon’s deputy.
The end of season 3 was also somewhat shaky, so Harmon isn’t a magic bullet either
See I loved the end of season 3 so I definitely wouldn’t mind having Harmon back. This season was ok but something was definitely lacking for a majority of the episodes.
Dan has said in some interviews that they were in the green every season in terms of budget. He never returned the calls of executives though.
I fear that Season 4 (or at least the first half of it) has made the fanbase smaller – I know some people couldn’t stand the show being at its worse and stopped watching the show entirely, missing out the awesome episodes in the 2nd half of the show. If Dan Harmon was back, I think the fanbase would expand again, I’m sure of it. He understands the show really well. I do hope this ‘rumor’ will be a reality.
I don’t think I’ll watch next season, in my opinion this season ended pretty well, with both Jeff and Pierce graduating. It was a tough season to get through, it was was so dumb, but ended quite well
I’m pretty sure that some of you are the same folks who were trashing Harmon and cheering when he got booted from the show last year. Interesting.
As much as I love Chevy Chase, I think the show will be better without him in this instance. Just make it about the younger cast members.
Jim Rash should run the show. He won an academy award fro writing. He directed the best movie at sundance, Way Way Back. the episode he wrote was the best one of the year. This is a no-brainer.
The only network sitcom worth watching became a pile of trash this season. Without Harmon, this thing is an empty shell.
Please bring Dan Harmon back! This season has been awful without him. There’s been only 1 good episode so far – the show lacks the creative vision of the earlier seasons. Bring him back so the fans can get an amazing final season!
Honestly, this season was fairly decent overall. If I had one complaint, it would be a stunning lack of fellow classmates like Garrick, Lenard, and even Starburns (I thought he had to at least come back for the finale). Also, too many episodes took place outside Greendale, though I partly attribute that to the shortened season balanced with the desire of the new showrunners to grow the characters and take some of them out of their comfort zone, like when they were forced to go to Shirley’s Thanksgiving dinner or to the Inspector Spacetime convention with Troy and Abed. The puppet ep was hands down the highlight, and they continue to find ways for Jim Rash to shine and steal most scenes he’s in (the “when Jeff was inside me” bit had me rolling). I thought the new producers did an admirable job, though Harmon coming back would be the icing on the cake of this great renewal news!
If Dan Harmon goes back, so will I.
And then they can pretend last season didn’t happen.
They should have just let it end. The season ender felt like the end of the series.
What about his work on that adult swim show? He’s still doing that, right?