'Community' is back but may be wrapped
After leaving the air on Dec. 8, NBC's quirky comedy "Community" -- beloved by a rabid few but, unfortunately for ratings-starved NBC, not adored by double-digit millions of Nielsen families -- returns on Thursday at 8 p.m. to finish out its third season (with a fourth a big question mark).
"It's our final week of shooting 'Community,' maybe forever. We don't know," said star Danny Pudi on the set in mid-February, dressed, as are all the main cast members, in a hospital gown.
"It's an exciting time on set, stress-filled, maybe. And I'm wearing a hospital gown. Is that part of the wardrobe? Maybe. We don't know. Are we mental patients? We don't know. I don't know what's going on."
What is known is that Pudi's co-stars Donald Glover and Joel McHale get to jump on a trampoline, but not Pudi.
"They wouldn't let me," he says. "I think they were worried that I would injure myself."
And at some point, co-star Chevy Chase booms his way through several takes of a peculiar song that includes multiple recitations of "You're welcome."
In other words, it's just another day at fictional Greendale Community College, where Pudi and his co-stars play adult students who have little in common besides being thrown together in a study group.
Along with the aforementioned actors, rounding out the study group are Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs and Alison Brie (with Ken Jeong as a kind of adjunct member).
Created by Dan Harmon ("The Sarah Silverman Show"), "Community" has become known for its offbeat characters, dense and frequent pop-culture references, unconventional story lines and concepts (from a full-on paintball-war action movie and a stop-motion animated Christmas special to multiple alternate timelines), and tonal shifts (from laugh-out-loud funny to bemused to occasionally poignant).
"It's not an easy show," Pudi says. "I think there is a place for a show on television and in the world that's experimental. There is an experimental comedic nature to this show. That's what it feels like to me, like every week, we're exploring the human psyche in some way, from a different perspective."
