Picking up a fan-favorite

This week I've started to watch a fan-cultivated show Community.  The NBC sitcom centers around an eccentric Spanish study group at a community college.  The show was created by writer Dan Harmon and premiered in 2009. The show focuses on comedian Joel McHale and his fellow group of actors getting into crazy situations, and often referencing and parodying pop culture.  I'm now on the 6th episode and enjoying it quite thoroughly.  Despite it's critical acclaims and cult following, the show is not very popular among viewership.  Ratings have been above 4 million viewers but did not reach much more than that.  This has caused much controversy over the show, since NBC would not proclaim the show a success, however it has a very big core fan-base that really enjoy the show. Season 4 which was scheduled to premiere in October was delayed to premiere in February and Dan Harmon stepped down as show-runner.  

I am enjoying the supporting characters more than I enjoy the main 2 characters.  Joel McHale (Jeff) who host's The Soup on E! is a hilarious comedian and I really enjoy him, but his character is not very likable, and he's sneaky and kind of mean.  His leading lady Gillian Jacobs (Britta) I do not find very likable either.  I find her snarky and annoying, and find it hard to connect with her.  Hopefully as the show goes on, these characters will grow on me.  The supporting characters are all wonderfully developed.  Of course Chevy Chase is a comic classic and can't do wrong, Danny Pudi and Donal Glover are remarkable, and Yvette Nicole Brown is hysterical.  My personal favorite is Alison Brie of Mad Men.  I find her character refreshing and love seeing her span of talents from a show such as Mad Men to a comedy like this one.

Their show is filmed in a single-camera format, and was even picked up into syndication in 2013 by Comedy Central.  It's been noted that some of the actors like to improvise lines while on set.  Chevy Chase has been particularly noted to improvise and Joel McHale and Donald Glover are known to like to come up with their lines as well.

What I really enjoy about this show is that it is based off of creator Dan Harmons actual life.  This is just like my ICTV show I created that is based off of my own life.  I was always told to "write what you know" so I was very pleased to see that other people follow that rule as well.  I'm sure it was a lot of fun to produce a national television show based off of your life.  I will continue to watch the show and maybe they will convert me to becoming a cult follower.

Dan Harmon's Story Circles

As a scriptwriting minor and hopefully, a future television writer, I have spent a lot of time trying to find the best (and easiest) way to structure a story. The typical three-act structure was not cutting it for me, as it left too much to interpret; dividing an episode of television up into three identifiable parts was difficult and messy, especially with the commercial breaks.

As a scriptwriting minor with a serious affection for NBC's Community, though, I have found the structure that I was seeking through the work of the show's creator, Dan Harmon. Since the 90's, he has perpetuated the idea of the "Story Circle", as seen below.


These story structure circles dictate not only the ebb and flow of the episode, but the state and development of the characters within it. It is a quick, surefire formula for creating compelling and fun stories. This isn't just the ramblings of some comedian; it is based directly off of Joseph Campbells monomyth, or the Hero's Journey. The protagonist ventures out into the unknown, and then returns, having changed. Here are the steps elaborated further:

1. A character is in a zone of comfort,
2. But they want something.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
4. Adapt to it,
5. Get what they wanted,
6. Pay a heavy price for it,
7. Then return to their familiar situation,
8. Having changed.

As you can see, the Story Circle does not vary from the three act structure, but instead expands and develops it. Watch an episode of Community. I would wager that in 75% of the episodes (or maybe more), all seven of the main characters go through this circle, whether in an elaborate way or not.

I just recently used this very same circle to write the script for my film for this class, called $perm Bank. I loved how the formula emphasized character change and tied the plot directly into character growth (shouldn't that always be the case?)

Dan Harmon released a series of six well-written tutorials to teach his formula, the first of which can be found here. He also graciously includes a sixth tutorial which explains the use of this character-changing formula within the realm of television, a venue which is notoriously stagnant in that regard.

Going on the set of "The Soup"

Over the summer I was interning at a video production company called VideoLink Inc. in Boston. What that company did was all types of things involving satellite cameras. One of the weeks I was there I learned that we were going to go on a shoot for the Soup, a comedy show starring Joel McHale, who also stars on Community. Here's a Condensed Soup clip. I couldn't find the one from the week I was on, so here's a different one.

When we got there (at 8 in the morning I might add, made all the more intense by the fact that I drove from New Hampshire to get there), I was put to work right away with the other intern, learning how to set up the super cool cameras, get things for the producers, and a lot of standing around. The first day we were there was purely to set up the set, and the second day was for the actual shooting of the show. Both days were absolutely exhausting, but I had so much fun.

One of the coolest parts (other than seeing Joel) was being able to help set up the satellite truck. This guy Brad from my company showed me all the buttons to press, which I won't talk much about here because it was really complicated and I can't remember much! Basically you had to put in the coordinates for the satellite, and that pointed the dish on the top of the truck to the particular point in space. There were tons and tons of settings to put into the machines, which by the way cost $10,000 apiece! (I got to hold one of the machines, and it totally freaked me out.) Anyway, there was indeed a lot of standing around, waiting for someone to tell me to do something. One time the producer of the show asked me to find her a piece of cardboard for a bingo sheet, that was fun too!

So on the second day we arrived around 9. There was even more sitting around, until 10:30 when Joel arrived. When he entered at first I was super nervous, but then he almost tripped over a chair and I realized, hey, he's a normal person! (Only freakishly tall...dear god, he's a giant.) During the actual shooting of the show I was able to wear a headset that was connected to the Control Room in Los Angeles. And after the show was done, I got a take a picture with him, which was definitely the highlight of my entire summer!

Community

One of my favorite shows on television right now is definitely Community, which airs on NBC on Thursday nights, at 8pm. Having gone to community college for two years before transferring to IC, I can definitely say you meet some characters, but nothing compares to the professors and students who attend Greendale Community College. When lawyer Jeff Winger, played by the amazing Joel McHale, finds out his law degree is invalid he has no choice but to go back to school. During his first day at Greendale Jeff poses as a tutor and starts a study group with members from his Spanish class. From this point forward hilarity ensues as Jeff, Abed, Britta, Annie, Shirley and Pierce work toward their degrees while growing closer along the way. Although this show follows a storyline and most of the episodes build on from the last, many of the filler episodes borrow themes from iconic films. For example, the Halloween episode this season was filled with zombies, while the most recent episode revolved around an intense game of Dungeons and Dragons featuring music very similar to Lord of the Rings. I find this show intriguing because it demonstrates how film and television are not completely different. The storylines that made great films such as Goodfellas so unique, can be re-interpreted and used on TV. It just takes creativity and clever scriptwriting.