Sony, the studio behind Community, which is on the brink of cancellation once again this season, put out this new promo as a "save our show" campaign for fans. Just like ABC's "Save Happy Endings" campaign earlier this year, this is another example of the folks who make a TV show blatantly telling fans that they need to watch said show in greater numbers to keep it on. TV's all in your hands now, the public!
Over at Vulture, Josef Adalian dives deep into the whole Harmon/Community brouhaha, talking to folks from the show and the industry in general to really break down what happened, why, and what tomorrow will bring for the Greendale Seven. The entire piece is excellent and well worth reading! Included are some more specific details about Harmon's rough relationship with network suits:
While the use of the term "stable" might conjure the image of Kevin James gently eating sugar cubes off your palm, the New York Times' Michael Cieply paints a more interesting, albeit less adorable, picture of how Sony has actively cultivated relationships with particular filmmakers and stars, a plan that has birthed 3 Justin Timberlake films, 4 Kevin James movies, 8 Will Smith pictures and 16 Adam Sandlers, including the upcoming Jack & Jill. In fact, all films released by Sony in 2011 will involve movie makers or leads that the studio has worked with multiple times before: reassuring news for established stars, less so for [...]
Jerry Seinfeld's new web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which he drives around in cars with comedians and gets coffee, was just renewed for a second season – or whatever the web series equivalent of being renewed for a second season is. Produced by Seinfeld and Sony Pictures Television and released via Sony's video site Crackle, the show ran for 10 episodes last year and saw Seinfeld welcoming guests like Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Colin Quinn, Alec Baldwin, Brian Regan, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Michaels Richards. The NY Times reports that the new season will consist of 24 episodes, and Seinfeld is hoping to gain [...]
OK, here’s what we know: Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, won’t be returning to his baby next season because…well, that’s the question, isn’t it? On his Tumblr (I love 2012), Harmon wrote, "A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community…Why’d Sony want me gone? I can’t answer that because I’ve been in as much contact with them as you have. They literally haven’t called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business." So, really, like [...]
On the one hand, it'll be nice to have yet another way to stream TV shows and movies directly to our TVs. On the other, Sony's horribly-named Qriocity platform will probably never catch on enough to be relevant.
Dan Harmon by all accounts is pretty happy nowadays. And who can blame him, with two script orders from majors networks. So, in an interview with KCRW's The Business he talked openly about the Community situation. He knew Sony didn't like him very much: "Sony was always bummed out about the way I thought and wrote. They always fantasized about getting rid of me." But it wasn't completely unprovoked he explains:
"There is an episode in the third season [episode 13: "Digital Exploration of Interior Design"] where one of the b-stories is about a mysterious girl named Kim that left a note in Joel McHale's character's locker. And [...]
Late Friday night, Vulture reported that Sony Television (the company that produces Community) had hired David Guarascio and Moses Port (previously of Happy Endings) as the new showrunners of Community, leaving Dan Harmon with a diminished role. Their justification was partially about creative differences (Sony and NBC wanted Community to at least try to appeal to more people) and partially about what it was like working with Harmon. A person close to the show explained, "Dan is brilliant at ideas, but he's terrible at [management]." Specifically, Harmon is given a lot of the blame for much of Community's writing and production staff turnover. The flipside of course is that Harmon [...]
