Community (season 1)
Encyclopedia
The first season of the television comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 series Community
Community (TV series)
Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...

originally aired from September 17, 2009 on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 to May 20, 2010 in the United States. The first three episodes aired at 9:30 pm ET before being moved to 8:00 pm ET. The show was picked up for 22 episodes in October 2009, and an additional 3 episodes were ordered when The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show is an American comedy show created by and starring Jay Leno, that aired from September 14, 2009 to February 9, 2010 on NBC following the May 29, 2009 conclusion of Leno's first tenure as host of The Tonight Show...

was cancelled.

The show focuses on disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger, and his attempt to get a bachelor's degree at community college.

Starring

  • Joel McHale
    Joel McHale
    Joel Edward McHale is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, television producer, television personality, and voice artist. He is best known for hosting The Soup and for his role as Jeff Winger on Community....

     as Jeff Winger
  • Gillian Jacobs
    Gillian Jacobs
    Gillian Jacobs is an American film, theatre and television actress, best known for her role as Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community.-Personal life:...

     as Britta Perry
  • Danny Pudi
    Danny Pudi
    Danny Pudi is an American actor, best known for his role as Abed Nadir on the NBC comedy series Community.-Early years:Pudi, who is of Indian and Polish descent, was born and raised in Chicago and grew up speaking Polish...

     as Abed Nadir
  • Yvette Nicole Brown
    Yvette Nicole Brown
    Yvette Nicole Brown is an American actress and comedian. Brown has appeared in various commercials, television shows, and films throughout her career...

     as Shirley Bennett
  • Alison Brie
    Alison Brie
    -External links:...

     as Annie Edison
  • Donald Glover
    Donald Glover
    Donald McKinley Glover is an American actor, writer, comedian, and musician. Glover first came to attention for his work in the sketch group Derrick Comedy, and is best known for his role as community college student Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy series Community...

     as Troy Barnes
  • Ken Jeong
    Ken Jeong
    Kendrick Kang-Joh "Ken" Jeong , also known as "Dr. Ken," is an American comedian, actor, and physician. Currently, he appears as Ben Chang on the NBC comedy series Community.-Early life and medical career:...

     as Señor Ben Chang (not Pilot)
  • Chevy Chase
    Chevy Chase
    Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

     as Pierce Hawthorne

Recurring

  • Jim Rash
    Jim Rash
    Jim Rash was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter.His most noticeable appearance was when he portrayed Mr Grayson/Stitches, a sidekick to the supervillain 'Royal Pain' in the 2005 film Sky High and as the recurring characters Fenton on That '70s Show...

     as Dean Craig Pelton (20 episodes)
  • Dino Stamatopoulos
    Dino Stamatopoulos
    Dino Stamatopoulos is an American television comedy writer, actor and producer who has worked on Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien...

     as Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne (14 episodes)
  • Richard Erdman
    Richard Erdman
    Richard Erdman is an American film and television actor and director.-Notable roles:...

     as Leonard Briggs (10 episodes)
  • Erik Charles Nielsen as Garrett Lambert (6 episodes)
  • John Oliver
    John Oliver (comedian)
    John Oliver is a British stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, for which he won an Emmy in 2009. He also plays a recurring character, Professor Ian Duncan, on the television series Community...

     as Professor Ian Duncan (5 episodes)
  • Lauren Stamile as Professor Michelle Slater (5 episodes)
  • Eric Christian Olsen
    Eric Christian Olsen
    Eric Christian Olsen is an American actor. He currently portrays Detective Marty Deeks on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles.-Early life:...

     as Vaughn Miller (4 episodes)
  • John Michael Higgins
    John Michael Higgins
    John Michael Higgins is an American actor whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's The Late Shift, and a starring role in the American version of Kath & Kim....

     as Professor Eustice Whitman (3 episodes)
  • Iqbal Theba
    Iqbal Theba
    Iqbal Theba is a Pakistani-American actor. Theba currently has a recurring role as Principal Figgins in the show Glee.-Life and career:Theba became a familiar face in the 1990s when he appeared in various TV shows and commercials in the United States....

     as Gobi Nadir (2 episodes)


Guest stars

  • Jack Black
    Jack Black
    Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...

     as Buddy Austin ("Investigative Journalism")
  • Blake Clark
    Blake Clark
    Blake Clark is an American actor, voice artist, comedian, and veteran of the Vietnam War, having served as a Captain with the 101st Airborne Division....

     as Coach Herbert Bogner ("Physical Education")
  • Tony Hale
    Tony Hale
    Tony Hale is an American actor, best known for his role in the Fox comedy series Arrested Development as the neurotic Byron "Buster" Bluth.-Early life:...

     as Professor Marion Holly ("Beginner Pottery")
  • Anthony Michael Hall
    Anthony Michael Hall
    Michael Anthony Hall , known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, film producer and director who starred in several teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980...

     as Mike Chilada ("Comparative Religion")
  • Sharon Lawrence
    Sharon Lawrence
    Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence is an American television actress. She is best known for the role of Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in the Television series NYPD Blue...

     as Doreen ("The Politics of Human Sexuality")
  • Lee Majors
    Lee Majors
    Lee Majors is an American television, film and voice actor, best known for his starring role as Colonel Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy ....

     as Admiral Lee Slaughter ("Beginner Pottery")
  • Katharine McPhee
    Katharine McPhee
    Katharine Hope McPhee is an American pop singer, songwriter, actress, model, and television personality. She gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of the Fox reality show American Idol in 2006, eventually finishing as the runner-up.Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records...

     as Amber ("Basic Genealogy")
  • Patton Oswalt
    Patton Oswalt
    Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He is best known for portraying Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.-Early life:Oswalt was born...

     as Nurse Jackie ("Home Economics")
  • Owen Wilson
    Owen Wilson
    Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...

     as Other Study Group's Leader ("Investigative Journalism", uncredited cameo)


Episodes

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Casting

Dan Harmon
Dan Harmon
Dan Harmon is a writer and performer. He is the creator and an executive producer for the NBC television comedy series Community, and, along with Rob Schrab, a founder of the alternative television network/website Channel 101....

 emphasized the importance of the cast to making the premise of the comedy work. "Casting was 95 percent of putting the show together," he said in an interview. He had worked with several of the cast members earlier; Joel McHale, John Oliver, and Chevy Chase all had cameo roles in episode 9 of Water and Power, the short film series produced by Harmon for Channel 101
Channel 101
Channel 101 is a non-profit short film festival in Los Angeles, which also has a sister festival in NYC, Channel 101: NY. Channel 101 is a creation of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab in which participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot under five minutes in length...

. Actor Chevy Chase had long been a favorite of Harmon. Though principally not very partial to sitcoms, Chase was persuaded to take the job by the quality of the show's writing. Harmon saw similarities between Chase and the character he plays on the show. Though Chase has often been ridiculed for his career choices, Harmon believed this role could be redeeming: "What makes Chevy and Pierce heroic is this refusal to stop." Harmon had to warn Chase against playing a "wise-ass" the way he often does in his roles, since the character of Pierce is a rather pathetic figure who is normally the butt of the joke himself.

McHale, known from the E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...

 comedy talk show The Soup
The Soup
The Soup is an E! Entertainment Television weekly series; it is a revamped version of Talk Soup that focuses on recaps of various pop culture and television show moments of the week...

, was also (like Chase) impressed by Harmon's writing. He commented that "Dan's script...was so head and shoulders above everything else that I was reading." McHale appealed to Harmon because of his likeable quality, which allowed the character to possess certain unsympathetic traits without turning the viewer against him. For the role of Annie, Harmon wanted someone who would resemble Tracy Flick
Tracy Flick
Tracy Enid Flick is a fictional character, originating in the 1998 novel Election by Tom Perrotta and portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in the 1999 film adaptation of the same title. Tracy is a smart, ambitious high school student, whose quest to win a school election is nearly derailed by her own...

, Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...

's character from the 1999 movie Election
Election (1999 film)
Election is a 1999 American comedy film adapted from a 1998 novel of the same title by Tom Perrotta. The plot revolves around a three-way election race in high school, and satirizes both suburban high school life and politics...

. Originally the producers were looking for a Latina or Asian Tracy Flick, but could not find any. Instead they ended up casting Alison Brie
Alison Brie
-External links:...

, known from her role as Trudy Campbell on Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...

.

Development

The premise of Community was based on Harmon's real-life experiences. In an attempt to save his relationship with his then-girlfriend, he enrolled in Glendale Community College
Glendale Community College (California)
Glendale Community College is a community college in Glendale, California, USA. It was founded to serve the needs of the people in the Glendale Union High School District which at the time included La Crescenta, Glendale, and Tujunga...

 northeast of Los Angeles, where they would take Spanish together. Harmon got involved in a study group and, somewhat against his own instincts, became closely connected to the group of people with whom he had very little in common. "...I was in this group with these knuckleheads and I started really liking them," he explains, "even though they had nothing to do with the film industry and I had nothing to gain from them and nothing to offer them." With this as the background, Harmon wrote the show with a main character largely based on himself. He had, like Jeff, been self-centered and independent to the extreme before he realized the value of connecting with other people.

About the creative process behind the writing, Harmon says that he had to write the show as if it were a movie, not a sitcom. Essentially, he says, the process was no different from the earlier work he had done, except for the length and the target demographic.

Critical reception

The show's general reviews have been mostly positive, scoring a 69 out of 100 with critics on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. Notably, David Bushman (Curator, Television) of the Paley Center for Media called Community the best new show of the fall season. Jonah Krakow of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 gave the first season a 8.5 saying "Given the way Community eventually ramped up and delivered some amazing stories in the second half of the season, I'm extremely excited about what's to come for Season 2."

Awards and nominations

  • The show received a nomination for "Favorite New TV Comedy" at the 36th People's Choice Awards
    36th People's Choice Awards
    The 36th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2009, was held on January 6, 2010 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and was broadcasted on CBS. Not all of the awards were presented on air during the show, as many including Favorite Movie were left out...

    .
  • Justin Lin
    Justin Lin
    Justin Lin is a Taiwanese American film director, best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise and the television show, Community.-Life and career:...

     received a nomination for "Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series" at the Images Awards for "Introduction to Statistics".

Nielsen ratings

The first season averaged 5 million viewers with a 2.4 rating in the 18–49 demographic and ranked #97 for the season.

DVD release

The first season of Community was released on DVD on September 21, 2010. The DVD contains all 25 episodes on four discs plus special features. Special features on the DVD include:
  • Commentary on every episode. Participants include creator Dan Harmon
    Dan Harmon
    Dan Harmon is a writer and performer. He is the creator and an executive producer for the NBC television comedy series Community, and, along with Rob Schrab, a founder of the alternative television network/website Channel 101....

    ; cast members Joel McHale
    Joel McHale
    Joel Edward McHale is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, television producer, television personality, and voice artist. He is best known for hosting The Soup and for his role as Jeff Winger on Community....

    , Gillian Jacobs
    Gillian Jacobs
    Gillian Jacobs is an American film, theatre and television actress, best known for her role as Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community.-Personal life:...

    , Danny Pudi
    Danny Pudi
    Danny Pudi is an American actor, best known for his role as Abed Nadir on the NBC comedy series Community.-Early years:Pudi, who is of Indian and Polish descent, was born and raised in Chicago and grew up speaking Polish...

    , Yvette Nicole Brown
    Yvette Nicole Brown
    Yvette Nicole Brown is an American actress and comedian. Brown has appeared in various commercials, television shows, and films throughout her career...

    , Alison Brie
    Alison Brie
    -External links:...

    , Donald Glover
    Donald Glover
    Donald McKinley Glover is an American actor, writer, comedian, and musician. Glover first came to attention for his work in the sketch group Derrick Comedy, and is best known for his role as community college student Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy series Community...

    , Ken Jeong
    Ken Jeong
    Kendrick Kang-Joh "Ken" Jeong , also known as "Dr. Ken," is an American comedian, actor, and physician. Currently, he appears as Ben Chang on the NBC comedy series Community.-Early life and medical career:...

     and Chevy Chase
    Chevy Chase
    Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

    ; directors Anthony Russo
    Russo brothers
    Anthony and Joe Russo, known together professionally as the Russo brothers, are Emmy Award-winning American film and television directors. The brothers direct most of their work jointly, and they also occasionally work as producers, actors, and editors. The Russos are from Cleveland, Ohio, and were...

    , Joe Russo
    Russo brothers
    Anthony and Joe Russo, known together professionally as the Russo brothers, are Emmy Award-winning American film and television directors. The brothers direct most of their work jointly, and they also occasionally work as producers, actors, and editors. The Russos are from Cleveland, Ohio, and were...

     and Adam Davidson; and writers Andrew Guest
    Andrew Guest
    Andrew Guest is an American television writer. Guest's most notable works are episodes of Hope & Faith and 30 Rock . Guest was also a member of the production staff on Hope & Faith and writes episodes for Community...

    , Lauren Pomerantz, Hilary Winston, Karey Dornetto, Chris McKenna and Emily Cutler.
  • Outtakes
  • Season one cast evaluations
  • Season one highlight reel
  • "Creative Compromises" featurette
  • "Advanced Criminal Law" alternative scenes
  • Three mini episodes
  • "Kickpuncher" comic book

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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