It Takes A Community
In Tom Shales oral history of Saturday Night Live, there's one constant through the years--everyone thinks Chevy Chase, the show's first major star, is a jerk. Fair or not, he seems to rub everyone the wrong way.
Anyway, all is not well in Community-land. As the third season wrapped, he got into a nasty feud with show creator Dan Harmon--himself an allegedly difficult character. Chase walked off the set before filming all his scenes, so Harmon attacked him publicly at the wrap party (which seems to be overdoing it no matter the cause). Chase followed up with a nasty phone call and has also bad-mouthed the show.
This didn't come out of nowhere. From what I've heard, Chase has been unhappy with the show this third season, claiming scripts weren't ready and his character was underserved.
I hope, and expect, they'll resolve their problems before (if) the fourth season commences. But if they don't, I wonder what a Pierce-less study group would look like. Pierce was arguably the least important character, but still, he added a certain spice that can't easily be replaced. Would another character like Pierce fill in? Would Harmon finally give Change a seat at the group (I hope not)? Or would they just leave the seat empty? The last choice doesn't seem right--we're used to seeing someone sitting next to Troy. The study group, and the show, wouldn't be the same.
PS Dam Harmon has offered at least a partial apology for playing Chevy's phone message to an audience.
PPS Speaking of my favorite shows, here's an odd line from the Hollywood Reporter review of the new season of Game Of Thrones:
At their best, genre series tend to be creative and fun and compelling, but held up to the standards of great dramas, they tend to lack gravitas. This is especially true in the science fiction and fantasy categories [....] And despite Lost's [Emmy] victory, the series is unlikely to ever be considered among the truly great dramas of the past 20 years...
Huh? Lost may have flaws, and a weak final season, but if it's not considered one of the great TV dramas, what's the point?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:02 AM
2 Comments:
Since the show came back in March, Pierce's character has been odder than usual- off in a sea of non-sequiturs which are not necessarily funny I thought it ws somesort of metas plot point but reading this makes me think (And Chevy thought)- "OK lets just have Pierce say something odd here"
That being said he had the "Great whoresmanship" line last week which made up for everything else.
Chang has also become way too weird
The first season Pierce started out as a clueless, bumbling, rich old guy with a thing for Shirley. But he got nastier as the show went on, and odder. He has a significant role in the second season, essentially playing the antagonist, especially the Jeff. By the end, there was a big blowup and he walked off after explaining (unnecessarily, it seemed to me) that the only reason he went to Glendale was to bond with others and he'd lasted longer with the group than he expected.
Since he's come back in the third season (with little explanation, considering it was a cliffhanger), he hasn't had that much to do except be in the background and come up with a weird line every now and then. His character doesn't seem to be growing anymore. I can imagine that Chase is a bit miffed, and could blow up when the scripts aren't even finished. Still, for fans it's good to have him around since he can do certain gags no one else can.
As for Chang, they've never known quite what to do with him except to let him be a lunatic one way or another. I think a little Chang goes a long way.
Post a Comment
<< Home