It’s almost Halloween! Do you know which character you’re going as this year? Or are you waiting to see next week’s Halloween episode to decide on your costume? Get your first look at Thursday’s spooky special with this preview of the study group’s Halloween Pre-Party, then be sure to catch the episode at 8/7c on NBC.

A Halloween Pre-Party
Watch Pierce learn about the joys of celebrating before the party starts.

Embed code:

Related articles

• NBC Thursday Night Comedies Get in the Halloween Spirit (aoltv.com)

Cover of Back to the Future

Glover spoke to Cinemablend at Comic-Con and stated that he really wants to do a Back to the Future episode, has an idea for it, but it isn’t well-formed. That resulted in the following exchange between co-star Gillian Jacobs and Glover.

Glover: It’s really hard to do. Time travel is already hard.
Jacobs: We can’t actually break the laws of physics.
Glover: We’ve never had actual magic on the show. Time travel is tricky. It would have to be some sort of, like, mistake. But a mistake big enough that it can sustain a whole episode, but also small enough that it doesn’t fuck up the rest of the world. So it’s hard. I had an idea, but it’s not well-formed.

Source: Slashfilm

Related articles

• Alison Brie And Gillian Jacobs Pretend To Be Lesbians Because GQ Asked Them To [Photoshoots] (jezebel.com)

Annie’s missing pen led to a lot of accusations, some strip searches and a lot more.

Ep 208: Strip Search
Jeff, Abed and Troy search Pierce’s leg casts for Annie’s pen in their underwear.

Ep 208: Charting Menstrual Cycles
Abed’s chart yielded positive results benefiting everyone.

Ep 208: Puppy Parade
Being a responsible pet owner is always in season.

Related articles

• ‘Community’ Season 2, Episode 8 Recap (tvsquad.com)

The highlight clip shows the gang beating the simulation at the last minute and the end tag features the latest Troy and Abed thing, “Space Ships.”

Ep 204: Nobody Craps In It But Us

Captain Troy and his crew complete the simulation.

Ep 204: Space Ships

It’s a Troy and Abed thing.

Related articles

• “COMMUNITY “Basic Rocket Science†Review” and related posts (daemonstv.com)
• Community Watch: Basic Rocket Science (cinemablend.com)

The highlight clip has Slater and Britta toe-to-toe in a battle for Jeff’s affection. With these two battling it out, it’s time for you to weigh in! Who do you think Jeff works better with? Cast your vote here.

Cat Fight
Britta and Slater pull out all claws to win Jeff’s heart.

Abed’s Video Yearbook
Don’t worry, it’s not one of those “take your top of” kind of videos.

Hollywood.com has an interview with Alison Brie from Community; here are the highlights:

We’ve seen you do a lot of comedy (Community, Hot Sluts) and in that work the humor seems to come from of your composure and dead pan. How did you develop that? Was it from a particular influence?

Hmmm, good observation! I don’t know where this started exactly. I’m sure a lot of my comedic sensibilities on-screen just come from my day-to-day sense of humor and the way I joke around with my friends. I’ve always surrounded myself with funny and bizarre people and in turn developed a repartee with most of my friends and colleagues that involves one or both of us slipping back and forth between deadpan and total zaniness. Danny Pudi is a major culprit of this, as we spend most of our time together on set doing very specific odd-ball bits behind the camera that nobody else can really quite grasp.

Also, I think it’s important in comedy to be able to define your role in any particular bit; are you creating the comedy or reacting to it? On ‘Community’ we have so many comedic geniuses on the show and everyone gets a chance to go real broad at times and have big physical comedy moments and at other times it is merely your job to play it straight while someone else flies off the handle. I think some of my favorite moments on the show have been reacting to Ken Jeong, who is friggin’ hilarious and can improv and take a scene to it’s very limits and all I really have to do is keep a straight face, which isn’t always that easy. I suppose I also have to credit my college, CalArts, for giving me lots of practice at maintaining conviction behind your own character’s intention in a scene – so when Ken’s ranting and raving and everyone on the crew is losing it and just cracking up, I’m able to stay in character and focus…most of the time!

As of now, you’re regularly balancing cerebral drama in Mad Men with absurdist humor in Community. Which do you prefer? Which comes more naturally?

I cannot pick a favorite! (terrible answer, I know) The truth is that as different as the shows are from one another, and they couldn’t be more different, they are equally fulfilling. The real gift is the opportunity to do both at the same time, which is also a wonderful challenge and great practice! I suppose the comedy comes a bit more naturally to me, but that is one of the things that makes doing both projects so great. We have so much fun on the set of ‘Community’, joking around and trying to find new ways of making things funny. On ‘Mad Men’ the challenge is often to find and articulate the depth and nuance of a character’s emotions in a given situation. The struggle is what makes that fun and the fearlessness and freedom that I find on the set of ‘Community’ help inform the work I do on ‘Mad Men’, and vice-versa. After 3 years of working with such delicate specifics on ‘Mad Men’, it is easy to find comedic twists and turns on ‘Community’ while still giving the character some depth and perspective.

With April Fool’s Day right around the corner, Greendale knows there will be plenty of pranks. However, the most important part is staying safe, that’s why you need to know the rules of pranking. Head over to the official show site and read through the college’s “What To Know” pamphlet for the guide to a fun April Fool’s Day.

All pranks should comply with the Fire Code. For example, the following are prohibited:

• Locking others in rooms
• Blocking off a courtyard area
• Any other prank which does not leave at least two (2) unobstructed exits from any area.

HitFix was at PaleyFest to see the cast of Community; here are some of the highlight:
If you get a chance to see the creative folks who work on “Community” in person for some reason, run to see it. One of the reasons “Community” is one of the best new comedies in years is because it has that amazing cast, which doesn’t have a single weak link.

Since “Physical Education” features lots and lots of Joel McHale in either skimpy clothing or the nude, there were plenty of questions about that, but there were also questions about how the cast members enjoy working with a legend like Chase, who was the center of much good-natured (and occasionally self-inflicted) ribbing about his age.

“Chevy is like Nolan Ryan in that he’s still alive,” McHale deadpanned. Then, he added, “And when Chevy goes, he’s the funniest person on set. He throws the ball harder than anyone. And then he calls you a prick.” (Chase calling the cast members overly nasty names for no reason on set proved the source of many funny anecdotes. “It’s funny because it’s unnecessary,” Glover added.)

Harmon, adding to the lovefest, explained that he’s grown more and more comfortable with letting the cast improvise around the scripts, based on just how good the actors are at finding new twists on lines and new jokes that build on the old ones. (Harmon pointed out one joke in the Troy and Abed closing credits gag from Thursday’s episode that I won’t spoil here but that was a total Glover improvisation.)

“Halfway through the season, I became acquainted with the fact that the best thing I could do for my show was write lukewarm crap and send it down to the set,” Harmon said.

What’s coming up on “Community”? Apparently, the episode the cast is filming right now involves Chase’s character Pierce becoming convinced he’s a wizard. We’ll learn the sad, despairing backstory of Jeong’s Senor Chang. And there’s an episode that apparently broke the budget of the series but was also apparently worth it. When asked to describe it, Harmon would only say it was an attempt to do an action movie in 20 minutes. The cast was similarly excited for it to air.

“Any time I get to say, ‘Get some, bitches!’ in something, it’s gonna be good,” Glover said. “I don’t care if it’s a show or a family reunion.”

If you want the min by min details of the event check out The Futon Critic.

Nola has an interview with ‘Community’ star, Ken Jeong. Here are some of the highlights:
“My dad was a professor for 35 years, ” said Jeong of D.K. Jeong, an economics professor now retired from the faculty of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro. “I took a class with him in college — just audited it. Watching him teach was like watching him work a room, like Don Rickles.
“He’s clearly where I got my comedy. It amazed me how deeply similar teaching is to performing. When you teach a class, you’ve known the curriculum for years, and you develop a style, the way you present information. You want to develop it in an entertaining way so it sticks with the students. It’s really just like a stand-up comic working an act over and over again, years and years of work until it’s the tightest joke possible.
“My dad definitely had his act honed, after 30 years. It was amazing to see how smooth he was. It was really professional. There was no dead air, really tight. I think about it all the time when I’m doing my character.”
Jeong’s own fish-out-of-water background as a joke-telling physician also plays into Chang’s personality.
“A guy who is Asian who is teaching Spanish, a guy who has a chip on his shoulder — it’s not unlike me being a doctor, ” Jeong said. “Why comedy? Why acting? Why Spanish? Why me?”

…

“I was able to see the pilot months before it was televised, ” Jeong said. “Once I read my part of Senor Chang, I just laughed out loud and said, ‘I’ve got to do this. I will not get an opportunity to do this again.’
“I get to go to work every day and just kind of muck around with people like Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Our chemistry and our friendships have gotten deeper both off camera and on camera.”
Though a critical success, “Community” isn’t a sure thing for a second season. It’s drawing larger average audiences than comedy-night companion “Parks & Recreation, ” which has been renewed for 2010-11, and NBC’s lineup isn’t exactly spilling excess quality at the moment, but you never know. An average of 5.4 million viewers each week puts it on the bubble.
Jeong isn’t hurting for fall-back opportunities. But losing Senor Chang would be a blow. “It’s the best day job ever, ” Jeong said. “It really is.”

TV Squad has an interview with Alison Brie, on of the stars of ‘Community’. Here are the highlights:

What are we going see from Annie coming up?
Well, I think we’re gonna see Annie maturing a little bit more, and she develops a love interest in the next couple episodes. You see her mature in certain ways, I think, and just in terms of how naïve she is, I think you do kind of see her growing.

Was it tough to play someone who’s 18 and just out of high school?
No! I don’t know why it’s easy for me to connect with that part of myself. And you know, it wasn’t that long ago, so it’s easy, and it’s fun for me to connect with that part, that sheltered girl that is having her first crush and her first kiss, and try to relive those moments through Annie.

Whereas ‘Community’ (compared to “Mad-Man”) is more free-flowing jokes?
Absolutely. It’s just a crazy free-for-all. Again, we do have great respect for the writing and for the work, but because it’s a comedy, I think they want us to have that much fun all the time, and it trickles into the episodes, you know?