Community Creator Dan Harmon on Ouster: Nobody Even Called Me
Dan Harmon
Sounds like a bad simulation in the dreamatorium.
Community creator Dan Harmon was ousted as showrunner of the NBC series Friday night, replaced by Happy Endings' alums Moses Port and David Guarascio — except, no one bothered to tell Harmon.
New showrunners to replace Dan Harmon on Community
NBC renewed the critically adored comedy for a 13-episode fourth season last week, though Harmon had yet to sign a new deal keeping him with the series. "I expect Dan's voice to be a part of this show somehow," NBC Entertainment Chief Bob Greenblatt told reporters Sunday. "I'm just not sure if that means him running it day-to-day or him consulting on it."
Harmon took to his blog late Friday night after news of his ouster had broken online — Harmon was even trending worldwide on Twitter because of it — to clear up any misconceptions fans had about his leaving the series. "Why'd Sony want me gone? I can't answer that because I've been in as much contact with them as you have," he wrote. "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."
NBC boss says Community may get new showrunner, denies this is 30 Rock's last season
Harmon went on to say that Greenblatt misspoke when saying that he would still be a part of the show. "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 wrote. "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."
"If I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn't have any power there," he continued, later noting that he had already packed up his office days ago. "Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever... 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."
Read Harmon's statement in full here.
Do you think Community will be the same without Harmon?