Larry & I bought tickets for the Community Paleyfest 2014 panel this past week, after Nicki had brought it up a few days ago.  It was pretty easy to realize, “hey, I DO want to go see the showrunners and cast in person and hear cool stories and possibly get cool surprises”, so we bought tickets!
It was a fantastic experience.  First, it was held in the Dolby Theater, the current home of the Academy Awards.  So that was pretty damn sweet.  Second, it was awesome to get a chance to see and listen to Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna, Community‘s showrunners, and Joel McHale (Jeff Winger), Jim Rash (Dean Pelton), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley), Danny Pudi (Abed), and Gillian Jacobs (Britta) talk about the show and tell funny stories.  Third, surprises!  Before the panel came out, they showed us the entirety of an upcoming episode, Part 1 of the 2-part season finale (let’s hope it’s a season finale and not a series finale).  It was a really good episode and the best part was being able to watch it with hundreds of like-minded Community fans.  After the panel was complete, we then got to see the first peek at the G.I. Joe-themed upcoming episode for next week, which was a hilarious PSA from Buzzkill/Britta and Fourth Wall/Abed.
One of the things that was crystal clear as we were enjoying the panel discussions was that Dan Harmon is amazingly hilarious and quite obviously the heart and soul of the show. Â Season 4 (the gas-leak year) certainly was a massive decline but it had still enjoyable elements, but with his return in Season 5 along with the corresponding improved quality, it’s such a joyous return to form. Â And it’s all because of his creative spark along with such a talented cast who bring it when it needs to be brought-ed.
So here are my pics from the Community panel at Paleyfest 2014:
