Seriously? OMG! WTF?

HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING?
Kids:
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice – actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because they once created a show and cast my good friend Jeff Davis on it, so how bad can they be.
Why’d Sony want me gone? I can’t answer that because I’ve been in as much contact with them as you have. They literally haven’t called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business. Community is their property, I only own ten percent of it, and I kind of don’t want to hear what their complaints are because I’m sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I’d be listening for free….
I do want to correct a couple points of spin, now that I’m free to do so:
The important one is this quote from Bob Greenblatt in which he says he’s sure I’m going to be involved somehow, something like that. That’s a misquote. I think he meant to say he’s sure cookies are yummy, because he’s never called me once in the entire duration of his employment at NBC. He didn’t call me to say he was starting to work there, he didn’t call me to say I was no longer working there and he definitely didn’t call to ask if I was going to be involved. I’m not saying it’s wrong for him to have bigger fish to fry, I’m just saying, NBC is not a credible source of All News Dan Harmon.
You may have read that I am technically “signed on,” by default, to be an executive consulting something or other – which is a relatively standard protective clause for a creator in my position. Guys like me can’t actually just be shot and left in a ditch by Skynet, we’re still allowed to have a title on the things we create and “help out,” like, I guess sharpening pencils and stuff.
However, if I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn’t have any power there. Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever. I would be “offering” thoughts on other people’s scripts, not allowed to rewrite them, not allowed to ask anyone else to rewrite them, not allowed to say whether a single joke was funny or go near the edit bay, etc. It’s….not really the way the previous episodes got done. I was what you might call a….hands on producer. Are my….periods giving this enough….pointedness? I’m not saying you can’t make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can’t make my version of it unless I have the option of saying “it has to be like this or I quit” roughly 8 times a day.
Where was I? Oh yeah. I’m not running Community for season 4. They replaced me. Them’s the facts.
When I was a kid, sometimes I’d run home to Mommy with a bloody nose and say, “Mom, my friends beat me up,” and my Mom would say “well then they’re not worth having as friends, are they?” At the time, I figured she was just trying to put a postive spin on having birthed an unpopular pussy. But this is, after all, the same lady that bought me my first typewriter. Then later, a Commodore 64. And later, a 300 baud modem for it. Through which I met new friends that did like me much, much more.
I’m 39, now. The friends my Mom warned me about are bigger now, and older, bloodying my nose with old world numbers, and old world tactics, like, oh, I don’t know, sending out press releases to TV Guide at 7pm on a Friday.
But my Commodore 64 is mobile now, like yours, and the modems are invisible, and the internet is the air all around us. And the good friends, the real friends, are finding each other, and connecting with each other, and my Mom is turning out to be more right than ever.
Ah, shit, I still haven’t called my fucking Mom.
Mom, Happy Mother’s Day. I got fired.
Yes, Mom. AGAIN.

That is some major FUS. He created the most buzzed about show on NBC and at Sony and they didn’t even call him once? If they let him go to keep Chevy Chase then they are bigger idiots then we already think. The show can survive without the unfunny Chase, it cannot survive without Harmon. But then again when was the last time NBC made a smart move, I mean they renewed Whitney and that was a stupid decision.
And it isn’t the only decision that has a show runner mad at the network. Sons of Anarchy show creator Kurt Sutter took his issue with NBC to Twiiter:

yes, i’m pissed at NBC. they’re fucking me over on an actor. i need merle dandridge (rita roosevelt) for a couple episodes this season. she’s on a new nbc show (chicago fire) and they will only release her for 1 episode. all the other (successful) networks give actors at least 2-3 episodes on other shows, especially if it’s an established character. you’d think nbc would be trying to put some coin in the karma bank considering most of their fucking shows tank. somehow i don’t think this extended tweet will help…

Did I mention this guy was an executive producer on The Shield and the creator of Sons of Anarchy? He is someone I don’t want to mess with.
Robert Greenblatt should be making friends and not enemies because I highly doubt he is going to have a job longer. I mean have you seen NBC’s fall lineup.

MONDAY
8-10 p.m. – “The Voice”
10-11 p.m. – “REVOLUTION”

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. -“The Voice”
9-9:30 p.m. – “GO ON”
9:30-10 p.m. – “THE NEW NORMAL”
10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood”

WEDNESDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – “ANIMAL PRACTICE”
8:30-9 p.m. – “GUYS WITH KIDS”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
10-11 p.m. – “CHICAGO FIRE”

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – “30 Rock”
8:30-9 p.m. – “Up All Night”
9-9:30 p.m. – “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation”
10-11 p.m. – “Rock Center with Brian Williams”

FRIDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – “Whitney”
8:30-9 p.m. – “Community”
9-10 p.m. – “Grimm”
10-11 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”

SUNDAY (Post-football/Winter 2013)
7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
8-9 p.m. – “Fashion Star”
9-10 p.m. – “The Celebrity Apprentice”
10-11 p.m. – “DO NO HARM”

To see more sneaks peeks and descriptions of the new shows then click here!

UPDATE: Roseanne‘s return to scripted TV with John Goodman is a no-go. She Tweeted, “NBC obviously felt that our pilot was not right for their network. I’m Ok with hearing ‘no’-it makes me work harder!” I am bummed about this because I was looking forward to having her back on TV. She is actually funny when she is scripted.

UPDATE 2: NBC gets an A for picking up Community for another season. The would’ve gotten an A+ if they picked it up for more than 13 episodes though.

UPDATE 3: TV Line says NBC also picked up Parks and Recreation, Up all Night and Whitney for a season. Why Whitney? What did she do for that renewal? Don’t answer, I don’t want to know. NBC cancelled Are You There Chelsea? Bent? BFF, Awake and Harry’s Law. I think the last one was a mistake on NBC’s part, but then again I don’t think the network head is really doing because afterall he did renew Whitney for another season.

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