Movie Geek Musings

Community Season 1 Finale, Peirce singing his “original” school song mentions “air conditioner repair”

I love the continuity of this show

rewatching Community Season 1, Jim Belushi was a target of medocirity even then.

Community is NOT the Jim Belushi of comedy and sitcoms…it’s the John Belushi

The first Beastie Boys song I remember is “You Gotta Fight For Your Right (To Party)”.  It’s a song that still resonates with me today.  I can still sing it and I still play it.

Why do I bring this up? Because I love the phrase “you gotta fight for your right” or in the case of Dan Harmon and Community, you gotta fight for your right to your rights.

Some of my followers may be wondering why I care so much about this situation.  Is it because Community is probably my second favorite sitcom EVER (right after NewsRadio)? Is it because I think Dan Harmon is a mad genius? Both of those are true, but they are not the reason I’m writing so much, and posting so much about this.  I’m doing this because CREATORS HAVE RIGHTS!

Yes Dan Harmon could have lived with Greendale Community College and its inhabitants living in his head for the rest of his life.  He could have but then he wouldn’t have gotten the joy of sharing Jeff Winger, Britta Perry, Pierce Hawthorne, Shirley Brown, Troy Barnes, Abed Nadir, Ben Chang, Dean Pelton, Leonard, Magnitude, Neil, Vicki, Garrett, Starburns, Annie’s Boobs, and many others with us.  But Jack Kirby could have done the same thing and we would have been denied The Avengers.

The comic industry has been and is notorious for this kind of servitude. Jack Kirby worked his lifetime creating fantastic creations for Marvel and DC.  What did he have to show for it at the end of his life.  Nothing. He gets a credit “created by jack Kirby), his family gets nothing. Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich can no longer promote himself as the Ghost Rider creator at cons and was sued by Marvel for $17,000

Writers, artists, creators have to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. They have to.  We have no choice in the matter.  And if we are compensated for it, fantastic.  But these characters are not created in a lab, they are not created by monkeys in a room hammering on typewriters.  Even the worst comedies on TV right now (how you doing Whitney, Big Bang Theory, Two and A Half Men, Last Man Standing, Chelsa) have creators who are passionate about what they do.  For example chuck Lorre and Two and a Half Men.  I’m not a fan of that show.  I’ve watched it and I’ve laughed, but I would never consider it part of my “fandom”.  But when Charlie Sheen and Lorre had their very public spat last year about this time, Lorre took it personally.  Charlie Sheen, the actor, was not and will never take precedence over Chuck Lorre, writer/producer/creator.  I personally think Sheen is a better performer then Lorre is a writer, but Two and a Half Men was Chuck’s.  Another recent example is Whitney Cummings’ two sitcoms Two Broke Girls and Whitney.  Two Broke Girls premiered to lots of laughs and critical acclaim and ratings.  However, after the episodes Cummings was directly involved in creating finished airing, quality diminished.  Why? Because the creator was not in charge.  Whitney, while not great, has improved because Cummings has taken a more active role in it.

For Sony Television to remove Dan Harmon from his creator is like separating a parent from its child.  In the creative world, last ditch efforts to resuscitate a project to make it more “mainstream” rarely work.  And even when they do work, it’s not the same as it was.  Was The West Wing better without Aaron Sorkin? NYPD BLUE without David Milch? Even Seinfeld, when it lost Larry David who was a co-creator along with Jerry Seinfeld, wasn’t the same, and the same could be said about Buffy, when Whedon scaled back his involvement. Off the top of my head I can think of one show that was better by a drastic change up in showrunners and that is Star Trek: Enterprise.  Manny Cotto made that show better and yet it still consistently lost viewers and ratings.

Creators have visions for what they want to do and accomplish.  Sony and NBC (by default) by wresting creativity away from Dan Harmon have demonstrated that it’s all about the money, money, money. And they are going to watch this blow up in their face.

an outpouring of love from actors, writers (including a certain Oscar winner), producers

michaelmidnight:

remedialchaos-theory:

Sniff. I’m really going to miss #Community

coolcoolcool23:

no guys its okay the greendale 7 will just plan an elaborate heist to save Dan Harmon, and ultimately save Greendale

Jeff will make an inspiring speech to the NBC executives and everything will be okay　

oh wait