My imaginary lover, Joel McHale, is doing the talk show circuit to promote the fourth season premiere of Community. It’s on tonight at 8pm on NBC and as I mentioned yesterday, I have not been paid or even mildly encouraged to promote the show. (A PR person from Hulu did send us something on Community so I’ll shoot them a link of thanks, but it’s not like NBC is trying much.) Joel, on the other hand, is busting his cute butt and I’m enjoying seeing so much of it/him. He was on The Late Show last night, where he told some funny self-deprecating stories about how dangerous his childhood was. (You can watch that video here. Joel comes on at 20 minutes in.) As for Community’s fate, Joel explained that it’s going to air finally but will not seem topical considering that there are several holiday episodes that will be shown much too late:
On how Community got shafted by NBC
There was talk us going 26 episodes but we did 13. We were supposed to start on October 19th but they pushed it to February 7th, so our Halloween episode is going to be awesome, and wait till we roll out Thanksgiving and Christmas.
[From The Late Show]
Joel went on to explain some of the more bizarre plot points they’ve covered, like the two paintgun war episodes, the secret trampoline guarded by a former Nazi, the monkey in the air ducts and the puppy parade. That show is so incredible and clever, and my favorite episode remains the video game one, Digital Estate Planning. (“Troy and Abed shooting lava!“)
On the Late Show, Joel didn’t cover much that was controversial – he didn’t even mention that the air duct monkey is named “Annie’s Boobs”! I guess he figured that would be too obscure for a wider audience. On Howard Stern he let loose a little, though, and gave some insider information on how Chevy Chase left the show, after having dropped the N Word in protest of his character’s racism. We already heard all about that when it happened, but it was interesting to get Joel’s take:
On Chevy Chase leaving the show
He didn’t want to be there.
When I would try to [talk to Chevy] he would just try to fight me. He physically wanted to fight me.
On Chevy using the N word
You shouldn’t just be throwing that around… It was one of those things on set where he used it. When he said it I was like “we are now at defcon 1.”
He was protesting his character’s racism. He didn’t like the way that his character Pierce was going.
He had also said in the past, he said that Richard Pryor said it was ok for him to call him that. He literally, he used that!
[From Video on Howard Stern’s site]
So Chevy Chase used the N word because Richard Prior, who died about seven years ago, told him that it was ok for him to call him that. He is so out of touch. Anyway I’m not sure if Chevy is even going to be on this season, I assume he is for a few episodes at least as they’ve long since wrapped filming. This is likely the end for Community, considering that they’ve also canned their show runner (who was incidentally in a public spat with Chevy as well). I’ll enjoy every episode and I’ll also watch the hell out of Joel McHale during his press circuit. He looks so sexy in this clip from Howard Stern (below), just chilling on the couch in all black with those kick ass boots. Oh and Joel is going to be on The View this morning too! I’ll be sure to watch it.
Joel and his lucky wife at a SAG party:
Photo credit: WENN.com
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