Community Season 1 Episode 1 (Premiere): Pilot

“Community” marks the latest addition to NBC’s “Comedy Night Done Right” on Thursdays, finding a spot between The Office and Jay Leno in its series premiere Sept. 17. And while the premiere of Community shows some of the growing pains associated with any pilot – the necessity to introduce the key players, the overburdening of setting up the scenario with a script likely written long before the rest of the series – it also shows promise as an original, albeit traditional style, addition to the lineup.

With “The Office” having cemented its mockumentary style, Jay Leno bringing the talk show to primetime, the coming-soon season of “30 Rock” surely renewing its self-referential, intelligent and eccentric vibe, Community’s sitcom feel isn’t a bad thing. Add to it an interesting mix of dated pop-culture references (Elisabeth Shue and “The Breakfast Club” were two hit hard in the pilot), dry-wit that takes to the community college atmosphere with precision, and (unfortunately a bit too self-conscious) riskiness and it is off to a solid start. “Community” features good writing, that while a bit slow-paced and burdened by story offers some big laughs.

Joel McHale (famed for his work with The Soup) plays Jeff Winger, a shyster lawyer who was found out for earning his degree from the country of Colombia, rather than the closely-named college, and must now attend community college. Maybe that premise doesn’t entirely make sense, but it is a fair set-up for a comedy designed to parody the community college campus life. The always-sarcastic McHale is a great fit for the role of a smartass who is about to learn he’s not quite as slick as he thinks, even at the type of college where people don’t go to learn.

Winger immediately heads to the office of the dean, played by The Daily Show’s John Oliver, who he describes at one point in the episode as a “spineless British twit.” While falsely practicing law, Winger apparently helped him beat a drunken U-turn rap by somehow tying it to 9/11, and wants the favor repaid with test answers so he can slide through the semester. Winger is sidetracked, however, by the beautiful but horribly-named Britta (Gillian Jacobs), who aside from being the butt-end of the Elisabeth Shue references plays hard-to-get with Winger’s attention.

The casting for the show is great, or at least shows potential with the small roles exhibited by each character in the premiere. Chevy Chase plays Pierce, one of the common, elderly “non-trads” that are such a well-known part of the community college atmosphere. He sets the vibe of the ‘creepy-old dude’ who says inappropriate things to just about everyone, apparently hasn’t gained much wisdom with his experience, and doesn’t understand terms like “sexual harassment.”

“Sexually harassing? That makes no sense to me. Why would I harass someone who turns me on?” he asks in one scene after laying the moves on another supporting player – a big, mature, kind-of ‘angry black woman’ named Shirley. The term “politically correct” would also likely be lost on Pierce. But that’s what is set to make him an interesting and, as anyone who has ever been on a community college campus likely knows, somewhat-exaggerated but nonetheless very real character.

Danny Pudi is introduced as Abed, an Indian referred to as “Slumdog Millionaire” during an argument at a Spanish study session that Winger sets up solely to hook up with Britta (he really only has a marginal understanding of the Spanish language) but winds up conveniently packed with the show’s key players. Also introduced are Allison Brie as Annie, the ultra-sensitive girl who got booted from high school after a pill addiction, Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley, who we haven’t learned a ton about yet other than that she wants nothing to do with Pierce’s affection, and Donald Glover (who has racked up story credits on “30 Rock”) as Troy, the high school quarterback/prom king who still wears his letter jacket in college.

Winger helps introduce the group in a Breakfast Club-style scenario that sees everyone fighting, cracking jokes and learning more about one another in the library, with just a little bit of the touchiness at the end. It all winds down to a scene where McHale works his way around the table in super-cool fashion, pegging every character’s gimmick, except for Britta, who he isn’t impressing as much as he thinks. Abed probably has Aspergers Syndrome, he says, to which Pierce and Troy chuckle about the word (ass burgers) together, declaring, “If it were serious, they would have called it meningitis.” The line of the show, however, goes to Abed, in a moment of anger after having earlier compared Winger to Bill Murray in “Stripes“…or “Meatballs.”

“I thought you were like Bill Murray in any of his films, but you’re more like Michael Douglas in any of his films,” Abed says. Later, he rescinds the comment, and Winger notes it was the worst thing anyone has ever said to him.

Unfortunately, the episode doesn’t have enough time to make any of the supporting characters more than archetypes of a traditional sitcom, but hopefully in the long run the acting talent will shine through and make the characters something more than just stereotypical support to McHale. It would also be nice to see more interaction between McHale and Chase in future episodes, but it appears “Community” has only two more weeks in its initial run to get things rolling and catch viewers before “30 Rock” returns.

Hopefully now that some of the introductory kinks have been worked out, “Community” will find its pace, as it has the promise of finally filling out the lineup with the talented writing of Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Program) and director Anthony Russo (Arrested Development).

About the Writer:
Bill Jones is the editor-in-chief of PadsAndPanels.com, a site dedicated to coverage of comics and games.