Dan Harmon Worried He 'Broke Television' With Community's Conspiracy Episode
Creatives are frequently their own toughest critics, but "Community" creator Dan Harmon is even tougher on himself than most. While speaking at PaleyFest in 2011, Harmon shared that while reviewing an edit of one episode of the cult series, he thought he might have actually "broken television." That's a bit melodramatic, especially given that "The Tom Green Show" had already aired and ended by that point and if anything was going to "break TV," that was it, but it gives us a good look into Harmon's creative process and just how dedicated he was to making the series sing.
The episode in question is season 2's "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design," which follows an A plot with Jeff (Joel McHale) and Annie (Alison Brie) trying to solve a conspiracy for Jeff's conspiracy class with Professor Professorson (Kevin Corrigan) and a B plot where Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) create an elaborate pillow fort that spreads throughout Greendale Community College. The episode is pretty great, but when Harmon watched an early cut of it with writer and actor Dino Stamatopoulos, who plays Starburns, they were worried that it could never work. Thankfully they released the episode anyway and we got introduced to Corrigan's character, who would become a repeat guest star, and it set the stage for the season 3 episode "Pillow and Blankets," which takes the pillow fort concept to hilarious new heights.
A roller-coaster of emotions throughout production
While discussing the second season at PaleyFest, Harmon revealed the moment where he thought he had broken television:
"One episode in particular that went through many, many, many emotional relationships with me was the conspiracy theories episode, the pillow fort episode. It's something very, very strange about that genre, if you watch a cut of that episode without any of the music that our composer Ludwig Göransson did, then it -– like, you look at it, which I did with my friend Dino Stamatopoulos who plays Starburns and was a writer on the show. Sometimes I'll watch a cut on his laptop in his little hovel where he lives, and we watched a cut of that and there was no music in it yet, and I was like, 'Oh my god, I broke television.' And Dino, who usually is sort of like my Yoda, he goes like, 'Yeah, that's not just the worst episode of "Community" ever, that's the worst episode of television ever.'"
Watching the episode without music could be part of why it didn't work, as the musical cues in the episode really help the humor, especially in sequences when Jeff and Annie are trying to be sleuths, or in the final ridiculous "shootout" where Annie, Jeff, and the Dean (Jim Rash) all learn about the importance of gun safety, even with prop guns.
It's all a part of the process
Harmon and Stamatopoulos were both terrified that the episode was going to be the end of "Community" and that they had really blown it, but later in post-production, Harmon started to come around and appreciate the episode for its weird brilliance. He revealed that they had written the script "one day at a time" as they were shooting, which is pretty unusual, but it created an episode that is truly unpredictable and capitalizes on its conspiracy theory premise to the fullest extent. In the end, people appreciated the episode and Harmon and Stamatopoulos got to keep writing "Community" for another season before Harmon's kerfluffle with Chevy Chase and subsequent firing before season 4.
Professor Professorson turns out to actually be the school's drama teacher, Professor Garrity, who ends up teaching Abed and inspiring a full-blown Nicolas Cage-induced meltdown that's one of the series' single funniest moments. Sometimes things turn out much better than anyone could have anticipated, and this is more evidence that creatives can trust the process — even when they're showrunners on a network series. Here's hoping Harmon feels confident in the "Community" movie, which will be happening eventually. (#sixseasonsandamovie!)