PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2010: 27TH ANNUAL WILLIAM S. PALEY TELEVISION FESTIVAL: COMMUNITY {LONG VERSION ANAMORPHIC}
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media’s 27th 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 evening honors "Community,” a comedy series about a group of adult students at a small community college in Colorado. Craig Hitchcock (executive director at The Paley Center for Media, L.A.) offers opening remarks before acknowledging William C. Paley, son of the festival's namesake. He then introduces moderator John Young (Entertainment Weekly staff writer). Young brings executive producer/creator/writer Dan Harmon to the stage to set up the episode "Physical Education," which is then screened in its entirety. (For synopsis and credits, see ACCNUM 101716.)
Following the screening, Miller introduces the panelists: Harmon; executive producers Neil Goldman, Russ Krasnoff, and Garrett Donovan; executive producer/directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; and cast members Chevy Chase (Pierce Hawthorne); Ken Jeong (Ben Chang); Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry); Joel McHale (Jeff Winger); and Donald Glover (Troy Barnes).
Panelists touch on such topics as: McHale's reaction to wearing "nude underwear" in the "Physical Education" episode's climax; how long it took to successfully shoot McHale's on-screen smooch with "stubble"-sporting co-star Blake Clark; parallels between the show's premise and Harmon's college matriculation at age thirty-two; Chase's secret to continually carrying out his trademark pratfalls; the actors' reactions to the pilot script; producers' agonizing over cast selections from an eclectic talent pool; why the role of Troy -- originally conceived as a white man -- turned out to be an African-American; improv on the set; Chase's take on his co-stars, and how they stack up to his legendary "Saturday Night Live" cohorts; what McHale has learned by working with Chase; and why Chase refuses to watch McHale perform hosting duties on "The Soup."
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics: the origins of the ambiguous "Human Being" mascot on the show; if the series has a political agenda; balancing absurdity and "grounded humanity" in the scripts; ways in which the actors "feed off each other"; if the cast and crew contributes to the show's website; Chase's penchant for "infamous" stories; and why the show has only flirted with Abed's character having Asperger's syndrome.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: March 3, 2010 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:40:26
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 101044
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Craig Hitchcock … Host
- John Young … Moderator
- Dan Harmon … Panelist
- Neil Goldman … Panelist
- Anthony Russo … Panelist
- Joe Russo … Panelist
- Russ Krasnoff … Panelist
- Garrett Donovan … Panelist
- Chevy Chase … Panelist
- Ken Jeong … Panelist
- Gillian Jacobs … Panelist
- Joel McHale … Panelist
- Donald Glover … Panelist
- William C. Paley … Guest
- Blake Clark