PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2013: COMMUNITY {LONG VERSION}

Summary

One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media's 30th William S. Paley Television Festival in Los Angeles. Held this year at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, the festival celebrates the excellence and diversity of American television and is dedicated to television’s creative community. This PaleyFest 2013 seminar honors "Community," the comedy series about a group of adult students at Greendale Community College, a small and eccentric institution in Colorado.

Host Betsy Scolnik (vice-president, The Paley Center for Media) offers opening remarks before bringing moderator Michael Schneider (Los Angeles bureau chief, TV Guide magazine) to the stage. Schneider introduces the panelists, who take the stage for a table read of the fourth season premiere, "History 101": co-executive producer Andy Bobrow (who reads as Troy Barnes, usually played by Donald Glover); executive producer and director Tristram Shapeero; and cast members Joel McHale (Jeff Winger), Alison Brie (Annie Edison), Jim Rash (Dean Craig Pelton), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley Bennett), Danny Pudi (Abed Nadir), Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry), Richard Erdman (Leonard Rodriguez),and special guest Fred Willard (who reads as Pierce Hawthorne, the role which Chevy Chase originated).

In the episode, the students return for their senior year at Greendale and Abed, anxious about graduating and being separated from his friends, repeatedly enters his "happy place," a lighthearted multi-camera sitcom version of his daily life. The study group attempts to take a history of ice cream course, but Dean Pelton explains that they must all survive his obstacle course, inspired by "The Hunger Games," to secure a spot in the much-desired class. Jeff reveals that he plans to graduate early and the others are taken aback, but he vows to make sure that they all take one final class together and enters the dean's games. At the same time, Troy attempts to include new sort-of girlfriend Britta in his start-of-year traditions, but finds her an inferior partner to Abed. In Abed's fantasy, the dean explains that they will all need to repeat the last three years due to lost records, annoying everyone except Abed. Shirley and Annie attempt to embrace "senioritis" by playing pranks on the dean, though Annie's idea of mischief is fairly tame. Jeff ends up tangoing with the dean and guesses that he does not want the group to graduate; everyone is worried when Abed retreats further into his fantasy, now a parody of "Muppet Babies." In the end, the dean arranges for the study group to take a different history course entirely, also revealing that he has moved in next door to Jeff. Elsewhere, tyrannical former Spanish teacher Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) reappears, calling himself Kevin and claiming to be suffering from "Changnesia."

A promo for the upcoming Thanksgiving-themed episode, "Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations," is shown as the stage is reset. Schneider then reintroduces the panelists, now also including executive producer Russ Krasnoff; and executive producer/showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio.

The panelists discuss topics which include: the odd timing of the Thanksgiving episode, due to the season's original Oct. 19 start date; hints about the episode, featuring James Brolin as Jeff's long-absent father and Adam Devine as his strange half-brother; Britta's excitement at getting to "therapize" Jeff through his father issues; the tentative Troy/Britta relationship and the Britta/Annie/Jeff love triangle; Oscar-winner Rash's writing of a "Freaky Friday"-inspired episode focusing on best friends Troy and Abed; Chang's suspicious claims of "Changnesia"; an upcoming comic book-inspired "origins episode"; guest star Malcolm McDowell and Rash and McHale's amusing interactions with him; Brie's "embargo on rapping" and singalong with Pudi; the departure of Chevy Chase and the possibilities for filling Pierce's role in the as-yet uncertain fifth season; the cast's love for the show's devoted fans; Shirley's role as the "well-adjusted" matriarch; the departure of showrunner and creator Dan Harmon, and Port and Guarascio's belief in the cast as the "heart and soul" of the show; and Brown's contentment with the show's four-year run, despite its uncertain future.

Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics among others: the cast's recreation of Britta's embarrassing "pizza dance" from season three's "Remedial Chaos Theory"; Donald Glover's hopes for a "Back to the Future"-inspired episode; the writers' sly suggestions for other movie-parody plots; "silly games" played by the cast between takes; Jeff's possible relation to Nathan Fillion's "Castle" character, whose father was also played by Brolin; the cast's picks for future additions to the study group, including Luke Youngblood's catchphrase-happy Magnitude and John Oliver's Professor Ian Duncan; Shirley's ubiquitous handbag and a future episode showing her crazy in-laws; the show's frequent examination of biases and stereotypes; the potential return of paintball, used in the memorable episodes "Modern Warfare," "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More"; the three-season-long "Beetlejuice gag"; and whether the study group will actually graduate from Greendale this year.

A revised version of the show's opening titles is then screened, featuring puppets instead of the actors, and the cast is joined onstage by their felt counterparts to preview an upcoming puppet-centric episode.

Details

• NETWORK: N/A
• DATE: March 5, 2013 7:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:47:59
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 109813
• GENRE: Seminars
• SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
• SERIES RUN: N/A
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Betsy Scolnik … Host
• Michael Schneider … Moderator
• Richard Erdman … Panelist
• Andy Bobrow … Panelist
• Alison Brie … Panelist
• Jim Rash … Panelist
• Yvette Nicole Brown … Panelist
• Danny Pudi … Panelist
• Gillian Jacobs … Panelist
• Joel McHale … Panelist
• Fred Willard … Panelist
• Tristram Shapeero … Panelist
• Russ Krasnoff … Panelist
• Moses Port … Panelist
• David Guarascio … Panelist
• James Brolin
• Chevy Chase
• Adam Devine
• Nathan Fillion
• Donald Glover
• Dan Harmon
• Ken Jeong
• Malcolm McDowell
• John Oliver
• Luke Youngblood