How Dan Harmon Drives Himself Crazy Making Community »
This is just a fantastic article. There are a lot of great bits (especially about Abed, near the end) but this was my fav:
Harmon, for all the abject misery he feels when he’s making the episodes, savors the show just as much. Community is a series by, for, and about people for whom pop culture is both a near-divine presence and a lens through which to view the world. When a character compares an onscreen relationship to Sam and Diane, or Abed notes— at the start of a Goodfellas homage— that he’s always wanted to be in a mob movie, it’s not a gimmick. It’s Harmon’s way of reaching out to those who love this stuff as much as he does.
(I know someone posted this earlier today but I’ve lost it, ack!)
ENTER: The INTIMACY OF POPULAR CULTURE, disguised as DAN HARMON.
And I had also seen the finale for Spaced between the first and second seasons. It reminded me of The Wire and these shows that take a deep bow and say, “Thank you for watching a great season of television,” and it accomplishes the same thing as a cliffhanger, which is to increase your excitement to see the next season. So I was intent in the first couple episodes of the first season: “Okay, second season we’re ending… we’re just gonna take a bow.” It ended up not happening. There’s a little cliffhanger aspect to the end of the second season. But I’m all the more determined to do it in the third season.”
— Do you have an interest in narrative/storytelling/television? Part 1 of 4 (!?!) of Dan Harmon’s breakdown of the ENTIRE SECOND SEASON of Community, one episode of time, is up.
