Joel McHale Says He Dislocated Chevy Chase's Shoulder On The Set Of Community
Throughout its six season run, "Community" encountered a genuinely impressive set of challenges. First of all, series creator, Dan Harmon, was kicked off his own show, which considering his behavior wasn't all that shocking. An admitted heavy drinker, Harmon also became notorious for what The Hollywood Reporter referred to as his "eleventh-hour rewrites, or 'Harmon passes,'" which he would foist upon the cast and crew during filming. Harmon also fell out with star Chevy Chase, and the show was known for its long shooting days and erratic schedule. No wonder Alison Brie described the "Community" set as "frantic, frenetic, chaotic"
Then, there was the constant threat of cancellation, which loomed over "Community" until the show was actually canceled by NBC after its fifth season. Yahoo's then-new streaming service, Yahoo! Screen, picked up the show for its sixth and final season that seemed destined to fail. And fail it did. "Community" ended for good in 2015, but since then, fans have been awaiting a "Community" movie, with Harmon eager to follow through on the promise of "six seasons and a movie" — a phrase first spoken by Danny Pudi's Abed Nadir which quickly became a rallying cry for fans of the show itself. Indeed, the hashtag "#andamovie" appears before the credits of the final episode, suggesting the grueling task of making this beloved series wasn't quite over even after it was over.
Put simply, "Community" was never an easy show to make. But while most of these issues are pretty well known to even the most casual "Community" fan, there was one instance where a cast member injured one of his co-stars which you may not have heard about.
Joel McHale dislocated Chevy Chase's shoulder
Yet another setback endured by "Community" was when Donald Glover, who played former high school football star Troy Barnes, departed the show after its fifth season. Glover's departure left a void the writers struggled to fill. The character had become an integral part of the show's ensemble by that point, having come to Greendale Community College after intentionally injuring himself by dislocating both shoulders to get out of playing football. In a not so fortuitous example of life imitating art, the "Community" cast would experience a real-life version of this very injury, this time as a result of yet another contentious element of production: the ongoing feud between stars Joel McHale and Chevy Chase.
In the show, Chase's Pierce Hawthorne was often in opposition to the rest of the characters, due to his rude and aloof demeanor. But behind the scenes, the actor was also at odds with his castmates. Aside from Harmon not getting along with Chase, the "National Lampoon's Vacation" star also had a tough time working with McHale, who recently spoke to Michael Rosenbaum about the contentious relationship on his "Inside of You" podcast (via Variety).
According to McHale, whose 2016 memoir "Thanks for the Money" included a "step by step on how to fight Chevy Chase," not only did the two actors struggle to get along, it seems things would often turn physical. Rosenbaum asked his guest whether he ever actually fought Chase, to which the actor replied, "multiple times" before adding:
"There was pushing and shoving [...] it was advanced horseplay, and then it always turned into sex. It wasn't fun [...] It would get a little contentious [...] I got in trouble one time because I injured him. I dislocated his shoulder."
The latest in an ongoing Chevy Chase controversy
During his "Inside of You" appearance Joel McHale went on to explain that the incident occurred during a boxing scene in which Chevy Chase demanded that his co-star hit him harder. The scene in question is from the season 1 episode "Comparative Religion," in which Troy (Donald Glover) and Pierce (Chase) teach Jeff (McHale) to fight. The specific scene sees Jeff throwing punches at pads being held by Pierce. As McHale explained it:
"[Chase] wanted me to punch him as hard as I could so [...] I punched him in the hand with a left and then he went down. We were in a boxing scene [...] [Chase said] 'You're not hitting me,' I'm like, 'Well, alright if you really want me to,' I mean it was a left so I'm right-handed when it comes to punching and it still got him."
Chase being at odds with his co-stars is somewhat of an ongoing saga. According to McHale, his first meeting with the actor was disappointing, with Chase allegedly replying to McHale's introduction with "'Mhm,' like, 'You know who I am.'" Since then, there have been consistent reports of the "Community" actors struggling to get along with Chase, who recently appeared on Marc Maron's podcast (via Variety) where he slammed the show and his former co-stars. The 80-year-old told Maron that the show was 'not funny' or 'hard-hitting enough' and claimed he 'just didn't want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people." Let's hope if that "Community" movie does happen, then, everyone's bones stay firmly in their sockets.