As the annual Television Critics Association summer press tour begins, I got an exclusive interview with Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland for their Adult Swim animated series “Rick and Morty.” We’ll bring you the full interview with Roiland and Harmon when the show premieres, but at the end of the interview we had to ask about Harmon’s return to the fifth season of NBC’s “Community.”
Vulture reported earlier this year that Donald Glover had signed for only five out of “Community”’s 13 upcoming episodes. Now Harmon confirmed that he would not spread these around the season, but rather use Glover’s last five to explain Troy’s departure from the Greendale study group.
“We’re not going to use him sparingly,” related Harmon. “We’re going to use him up and say goodbye.”
I clarified, five in a row and then out? “Yeah,” confirmed Harmon.
Harmon was ousted from the show’s fourth season and expressed his turmoil in his Harmontown performances. One unexpected aspect of the fourth season under David Guarascio and Moses Port was that the show remained as ambitious as it was under Harmon, at least in terms of big theme episodes. Even Harmon was surprised the new guys didn’t scale the show back to remain a sitcom on a college campus.
“I thought the point of getting rid of me creatively was to be able to do the show that they had always hinted they wanted to do, the studio. So I was very surprised to see the show completely leaving the campus for several episodes from the get go, all kinds of stuff that I had planned to do while I was doing the third season and expected to have to fight with them about. Yeah, I was very surprised.”
Even Harmon has been self-critical about his ambitions. On the DVD commentary for “Digital Estate Planning,” my favorite episodes of the series in which the study group becomes video game characters, Harmon would ask himself why he can’t just do a show about community college students on campus. In his upcoming fifth season, he may do just that.
“I mean, after watching season four I feel like it’s important to reground the show and get it back to the campus,” said Harmon. “I’m self-critical about the shape of my head. I’m self-critical about the floorboards of my house. I’m a lunatic.”
