Yes, Dan Harmon Really Is Returning as the Showrunner of ‘Community’
Hell, if “Arrested Development” can come back from beyond the grave after seven years, why can’t Dan Harmon come back to “Community,” the idiosyncratic NBC comedy he created and from which he was booted last year?
Harmon’s been teasing the possibility that he might be working on the show again on Twitter, finally telling a fan on June 1st that “Yes yes yes! I’m back I’m back I’m back. You can thank @joelmchale.” He didn’t specify the role in which he’d be returning.
Now it seems not only is he back, he’s back in charge, with NBC confirming this evening that Harmon is returning as executive producer/showrunner, with Chris McKenna also returning as an EP. The new season, which does not yet have a debut date, will be the Sony Pictures Television-produced series’ fifth.
After clashes with star Chevy Chase (who’s since left the series) and other reported difficulties, Harmon was relieved of showrunner duty for the 2012-2013 season of “Community,” with David Guarascio and Moses Port taking his place for a 13-episode run that was, despite efforts, noticeably different from what Harmon had managed. It still worked well enough for NBC to give “Community” a 13-episode renewal in May. Six seasons and a movie, folks — it could happen.
Harmon was at the ATX Television Festival this past weekend for a screening of “Heat Vision and Jack,” the never-picked-up and now legendary 1999 pilot he created and wrote with Rob Schrab starring Jack Black as a superintelligent solar-powered former astronaut and Owen Wilson as the voice of his talking motorcycle.
