Dan Harmon Called In A Ringer To Finish The Community Movie Script
There's a lot to be excited about with the upcoming "Community" movie, but a lot to be nervous about too. After such a long absence, will the study group have the same chemistry they once had? Will the format of "Community" adapt well to the medium of film? What if Dan Harmon has lost his writing edge? Well, at least when it comes to the last question, there's one good sign that all will be well. Instead of writing the script by himself, Harmon has a previous writer for the show helping him out. As he explained at a panel in October 2022:
"I'm working with Andrew Guest [...] he wrote the Dungeons & Dragons episode, and so he's going to help me make sure that I don't pull a Harmon when that script is getting executed so that we can actually deliver it and start shooting it."
What does Harmon mean by "pulling a Harmon?" He seems to be referring to his tendency to fall behind schedule and end up over budget, something that caused a lot of chaos behind the scenes in the early seasons of "Community." As for what he's referring to with the Dungeons & Dragons episode? For those who've only watched the show on Netflix after June 2020, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" is the missing season 2 episode, placed between "Celebrity Pharmacology" and "Early 21st Century Romanticism."
Although Netflix removed "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" due to its questionable decision to briefly show Chang (Ken Jeong) with his face painted black, it's often considered among fans to be one of the funniest in the series. If nothing else, it cemented Pierce (Chevy Chase) as the central villain of season 2, as this episode features him at his evilest and most conniving.
Andrew Guest's other episodes
If you want a better sense of what sort of sensibilities Andrew Guest might bring to the movie, here's a list of some of the other episodes of the show he's written: In season 1 he wrote "Advanced Criminal Law," where Britta gets caught cheating on a Spanish test, as well as "Romantic Expressionism," where Jeff and Britta try to sabotage Annie's new relationship with Vaughn. In season 2 he also wrote the scripts for "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples," where Abed makes a Jesus documentary; "Early 21st Century Romanticism," where Abed and Troy compete for a librarian's affection, and; "A Fistful of Paintballs," the first installment of the two-part season finale.
TV is a collaborative medium, and Guest alone is likely not solely responsible for everything that takes place in these episodes. That said, the fact that he wrote both the Valentine's Day episodes of the first two seasons is pretty interesting, as is the fact that most of his scripts spend even more time than usual in the study room. One running theme across Guest's work is the idea of Jeff and Britta as the study group's parents; it's an idea that Britta states outright in "Romantic Expressionism" that gets extended into a whole scene in "Messianic Myths."
Perhaps the most important thing, however, is how all of these episodes range from good to great. Not only did Guest write for the show during its freshest, most popular years, but he seems to have an enviable consistency to him. There are still plenty of unknowns as we await the "Community" movie, but Dan Harmon's choice for a co-writer is at least a promising sign.