Community Creator Dan Harmon on His Firing: "Maybe I Am Just a Jerk"
Dan Harmon
Community creator Dan Harmon gave a self-deprecating interview to G4's Attack of the Show that was almost as funny as the much-beloved NBC comedy he was fired from.
"If 20 people call you a horse's ass, you buy a saddle," Harmon joked with G4 interviewer Marc Maron about his exit from the series. "I feel like I'm a good person and a professional, a very able leader of men. I also feel like I'm 25... Maybe I am just a jerk. To people who work above me, I am a liability that isn't worth the benefit. It's a low-rated show that's not generating much revenue."
Harmon, who Maron described as "one of the most notable unemployed men in the country," explained how though NBC respected Community being more of a "critical darling as opposed to a ratings juggernaut," the sad truth is that the series was getting destroyed in the ratings — mainly by CBS' Big Bang Theory.
"My [next] idea is to have less ideas, because I want to be successful in television," Harmon joked of learning from his past. "I turned off 90 percent of my brain... for the first season of Community. I was able to disguise myself as a person who just wanted to make television and do a good job. And slowly, I got itchy."
The former showrunner explained that once he started believing Community was going to get canceled, he started creatively "farting around" on the series. "Never mind, just give me a good review in the Times," he joked.
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This "farting around" lead to some of Community's most beloved moments, including the infamous paintball episode.
But Harmon admits he still wants mainstream success. "You're supposed to make a hamburger that everyone wants in their mouth, that's how you know you're doing it well."
Next up for Harmon: possibly a multi-camera comedy, like Community ratings rival Big Bang Theory, "just to prove that it's not cancer, it doesn't have to be. TV in all its ugliness can be a beautiful thing."
Watch the full interview below: