What To Look Forward To: NBC's "Community"

Mad Men premieres this Sunday on AMC at 10:00pm ET. Cool. Jim and Pam are pregnant on The Office. Ok, we know that. 30 Rock's premiere has been pushed to October. So, what else to look forward to?

Community. The show stars the snarkily funny Joel McHale, host of E!'s The Soup. He's Jeff Winger, a down on his luck attorney who loses his license and starts up a study group with goofy continuing ed students at a local community college. Brought to you by the creators of The Sarah Silverman Show and Arrested Development, it premieres on September 17th at 9:30pm (moving to 8pm in October). This is going to be soo good.

What is also enticing about this show is the cast of comedians and actors who have been seen in cameo roles on television and film, clubs and commercials. In addition to McHale, comedian Donald Glover, NYU Alumni, comedy writer and performer who has appeared on various episodes of 30 Rock will portray Troy, a high school football star looking for direction. It's also great to see comedian Ken Jeong, whose small cameo in an episode of The Office in season two, evolved into his memorable role in The Hangover as the crazy angry Asian gang lord who jumped out of the trunk of a car naked. He will be appearing in upcoming movie The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

Alison Brie of Mad Men is Anne, the persnickety perfectionist, and The Daily Show's John Oliver is lending his intelligent wit and dry comedy sensibilities as well. I am unfamilar with Danny Pudi and Gillian Jacobs, but the sneak peaks of their scenes look really fun.

I am thrilled about Yvette Nicole Brown being part of this cast. I've been a fan for years. On Community, she will play a divorcee named Shirley. Brown will undoubtedly reveal the great timing and facial expressions that accentuate her comedic ability. I always felt she would find that one show to give her the bump. With all the buzz on Community, this might just be her chance to shine.

Here's a featurette from the NBC site:


Finally, Chevy Chase will play Chuck Pierce, a man with a life time of wisdom, and who appears to have the hots for Shirley. It's good to see Chase return to television. His films such as Fletch and Foul Play were staples in my VHS shelf as a kid, and his work on SNL is indelibly implanted in my memory cells. He looks good in this.

I came upon this interesting interview Chevy did at UCB Theater a while back. It was great to listen to him talk about his work and motivation. He seems pretty cool despite having slapped Rob Huebel's face once for no reason. (Not cool.)