Happy 100th, "Community"!

It's a time-honored tradition: The 100-episode cake. For "Community," the treat was extra sweet. This was not a show that appeared destined for such a milestone. And as a Yahoo! exec pointed out at the cake cutting, "Community" is one of less than a dozen single-camera comedies to ever make the mark. Not too shabby.

Above, stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, Alison Brie and Jim Rash join creator Dan Harmon to toast the moment.

COMIC-CON: How We Pulled Off This Year's "Greendale Forever: TV Guide Magazine's Tribute to Community" Panel

It was the Comic-Con panel that almost didn't happen.

Here's the back story: Every year TV Guide Magazine is given two slots by the San Diego Comic-Con International to organize panels. One of those panels is always "TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites," featuring a lineup of TV stars that elicit audience screams. Side note: Panelists this year included Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Misha Collins (Supernatural), Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black), Sam Heughan (Outlander), John Noble (Sleepy Hollow), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time), Retta (Parks and Recreation) and Aisha Tyler (Archer), moderated by our own Damian Holbrook.

But the other panel rotates. Last year, we organized The X-Files 20th Anniversary Panel, which was one of the hot tickets of Comic-Con. This year, we first thought about going the anniversary route again, and I looked into organizing Lost reunion. But the show had already committed to a reunion during Paley Fest, and everyone agreed that another one at Comic-Con seemed like too much.

That's when we started pursuing my other plan: Doing something with Community. I had moderated Community at Comic-Con twice before (until Chris Hardwick stole my gig in 2013) and also moderated the Community panel at this year's Paley Fest. There's a comfort level now with between the cast/producers and me, so I came up with two different ideas, depending on whether or not the show was renewed by NBC for a sixth season.

I assumed NBC and Sony would go ahead and organize the traditional Community show panel at Comic-Con. If that were to still happen, and the cast would be in town anyway, my idea involved a second Community panel, inspired by Jason Reitman's "Live Read" series at Film Independent. It would feature the cast having fun with the script from a procedural drama. (I thought an episode of "CSI Miami" might be fun, with Joel McHale in the David Caruso role).

But... I also had a back-up plan in mind: Should NBC not renew Community for the aforementioned #sixseasonsandamovie, then we'd turn our panel into "TV Guide Magazine's Farewell to Community." The good news: Harmon was on board to do something with us either way. That was the initial greenlight we needed to pursue this path.

All signs pointed to a Community renewal. NBC needed a few comedies to return, it's a co-owner of the show and lead producer Sony Pictures TV is known for crafty dealmaking to get things picked up. But then the news came down right before the May upfronts: The show was dead. On May 9, we told Comic-Con we would produce the panel "TV Guide Magazine Presents: A Farewell to Community."

I ran into Joel McHale at an upfront party the following week and ran the idea of the panel by him. He said he was game, depending on his schedule. But he was clearly not happy with the cancellation, and had an alternative idea for the panel's title that I can't even print here.

Still, it wasn't over yet. Even before NBC canceled the show, we knew Sony wouldn't give up on the show that easily. The studio immediately began hunting for a new home (Hulu was the hot contender for a while, although Sony's own Crackle portal seemed like a possibility.) By mid-June, we were starting to get nervous. Without a sure sense of the show's fate, the Community stars were taking a wait-and-see approach to the panel.

We weren't sure what to believe, especially once news reports revealed that a Hulu deal fell through. It wasn't looking good, but to be safe, we changed the name of the panel in the event that Community got an 11th hour renewal: "Greendale Forever: TV Guide Magazine's Tribute to Community."

Still, with no word, it was clear the show's cast was making other summer plans, and it didn't involve Comic-Con. Joel McHale had a commitment and couldn't attend. Ditto most of the other cast members. I began to once again brainstorm other ideas. Maybe we'd get Harmon to partake in our Reitman-esque live read idea, but with various comedians? Should we call other networks, like Adult Swim, to see if there was anything they might do with us? It was getting hairy. Comic-Con needed a panel description, and we didn't know what to say. I came up with this generic write-up, which I figured could work even if it was just Dan and one or two other stars:

Greendale Forever: TV Guide Magazine's Tribute to Community -- Will "six seasons and a movie" come true? Has Greendale Community College been saved? What happens next to Jeff Winger and the study group? Moderated by TV Guide Magazine executive editor Michael Schneider, join Community creator Dan Harmon, members of the cast and producers as they recap last season (including Dan's heralded return to the show) and discuss what the future holds for this fan favorite comedy.

I was strangely optimistic that it was going to work out. Perhaps that's because the Sony folks (chiefly, panel hero Allison McManus) kept assuring us that things looked good for a renewal, and that we should keep our hope alive. Turns out that was a smart move. On June 30 -- the very last day Sony still had options that they could exercise on the cast -- a deal with Yahoo Screen gave the show its long-awaited sixth season. (Read my recap of how the deal went down here.)

From there, things kicked into high gear. Sony was completely on board, and was cool with TV Guide Magazine continuing to handle the panel since we'd been this far down the road already. Sony (particularly, Allison McManus) did a fantastic job springing into action for us and getting the word out to the stars. They did a lot of heavy lifting at this point. Allison immediately sent out a formal invite letter to the show's stars, within 24 hours of the pickup!

Yahoo was also supportive, and put together a clip touting the show's rebirth. Exec producer Chris McKenna and stars Jim Rash and Gillian Jacobs also signed up. (Others couldn't change prior commitments or filming schedules.) That was already a decent panel. But we needed one more big presence on the panel. We needed Joel.

Harmon stepped in and personally asked McHale if he could do the panel. That's where both Dan and Joel also became heroes of the Community panel. McHale moved around some things in order to come to San Diego for a whirlwind few hours and attend our panel. It was the best news ever. It made the panel.

When Allison emailed me with the great Joel news, there was only one way to respond:

COOL COOL COOL!

The drama continued almost all the way up to the panel, as Joel hit a ton of traffic on the way into San Diego, finally arriving at the Convention Center with few minutes to spare. Writer/actor Dino Stamatopoulos, who plays Star-Burns, was a no-show in the green room but somehow made it back stage. At 2 p.m. last Thursday, I kicked off the panel with a TV Guide Magazine sizzle reel, followed by the Yahoo video. And then I began by butchering Dino's last name (even though I had been practicing it just an hour before! Nerves).

Then we got going, and it was another fun Community panel. We talked about how the show will be available on Yahoo (once a week), whether to expect a different kind of show (no) and whether there will be new cast members (TBD). Harmon also revealed that the show will probably become available post-Christmas. Meanwhile, highlights from the crowd included two convention attendees dressed as Greendale Human Beings.

It was a big success. So that's it, another TV Guide Magazine Comic-Con in the history books! Thanks so much to Allison McManus and Marianne Romano at Sony; my colleague Rich Sands, who's the key brain behind our Comic-Con operations; Chris DiIorio and Alyssa Wilkins at PMK-BNC for doing a bunch of the hard work logistically; and of course, Dan Harmon, Chris McKenna, Joel McHale, Jim Rash, Gillian Jacobs and Dino Stamatopoulos.

Some pics from the day:


Chris and Dan at the TV Guide Magazine yacht.


My Ballroom 20 onstage pass.


Waiting for the panel to start backstage

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Moderator Mike.


The panel (Flickr pic by Jarett Wieselman).


Joel takes a pic.


Group shot after the panel.

And then here's a video of the entire panel:



And here are the key write-ups of the panel:

Variety (Laura Prudhom)

The Guardian (Emma Lee Moss)

Entertainment Weekly (Darren Franich)

Mashable (Sandra Gonzalez)

The Celebrity Cafe (Brendan Morrow)

IGN (Matt Fowler)

Give Me My Remote (Marisa Roffman)

IndieWire (Ben Travers)

MIKE ON TV: Talking "The Walking Dead" and More on Sundance TV's "The Writers' Room"

Sundance TV and the producers behind "The Writers' Room" were kind enough to actually put me on camera and participate in a special episode devoted to "The Walking Dead" and "Smallville," as well as a general conversation about how genre and comic book adaptations have taken TV by storm. I also got to spend some time behind the scenes while another episode, devoted to "House of Cards," was shot. Jim Rash is the perfect host -- a man who understands writing, acting and TV in general -- and I admire the work he puts into being prepared for the show. (Lots of binge TV.) And the Sundance folk are good people.



"The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman was most of the episode's focus, but "Smallville's" Al Gough and Miles Millar also appear in the second half. Blair Butler and I round out this panel.

Watch it tonight! But if you want to get a gist of the show, I make an appearance in both of the Sundance TV promos seen below! Check it out as Robert Kirkman talks about the evolution of "The Walking Dead" and I add a few comments:





Read more about the show here. An excerpt from my TV Guide Magazine story:

Zombies have treated the brains behind AMC's The Walking Dead very well. But Robert Kirkman, who originated the comic book series that inspired the show, admits the early days of his career were slower than, well, the undead. "You have to be crazy to get into [writing]," Kirkman tells SundanceTV's The Writers' Room, which digs into the art of creating some of TV's biggest series. "I went massively into debt."

On April 25's special comic book-themed episode, Kirkman recounts some of the obstacles he faced in getting the TV adaptation of The Walking Dead made. That includes the NBC development executive who gave Kirkman a disheartening note: "I love this, but does it have to have zombies in it?"

Also in this episode, Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar discuss how they fought the odds to get their show on the air in 2001 — back when comic book adaptations weren't in vogue. "Pre-9/11, the reaction was negative," Millar says of his series. "But after that, people were ready for a hero."

Smallville aired at a time before social media, streaming and time-shifting changed the way viewers experienced television. Kirkman admits it's tough now to ignore all that chatter, but in the end, "we only try to satisfy ourselves. That's the big truth."

In Season 2, The Writers' Room also features the writers, executive producers and stars of Scandal, House of Cards, The Good Wife, Sons of Anarchy and Pretty Little Liars. Jim Rash, who plays the naive Dean Pelton on NBC's Community, returns as host.

"Hmm, where will my media whoredom take me next?"

Live from PaleyFest: On Stage With Dan Harmon, Joel McHale and the Rest of the "Community" Gang

Thanks to all the times I've moderated "Community" panels (several at Comic-Con and PaleyFest) and visited the set, I've become a familiar face to the show's cast. That makes getting on stage with them a blast -- and Wednesday night's PaleyFest kept up with tradition -- despite the absence of Allison Brie and Ken Jeong, both of whom are always great at these things.

McHale knows what the crowd wants -- a mix of laughs and some real insight into the show. Danny Pudi also knows how to stir up the crowd. Yvette Nicole Brown has an excellent, deep take on the show and her character, Shirley. Gillian Jacobs is willing to play up laughs. And Jim Rash is game -- I even managed to convince him and the rest of the stars to recite this season's Dean Pelton Payday Bar Gangsta Rap ("Barack Obama is SCAARRRED OF MEEE!").

Of course, creator Dan Harmon is just as big of a star to "Community" fans, and he had plenty to say about this season, the departure of Donald Glover and the chances of a sixth season. It was also great to see the interaction between him and exec producer Chris McKenna, who makes sure the ships run on time.

Earlier in the day I had thrown some red meat at fans by posting this story about the potential "Community" movie -- and talk that Justin Lin may direct it, should it become reality. That fueled the press line, and talk of a movie also came up during the panel. But it was mostly a celebration of Season 5, and the return of Harmon and the show's creative voice.

More pics:

VIDEO: My Google Hangout Chat With "Community" Stars

You know all those amazing things you hear about working at Google? Turns out they're pretty true, at least from what I witnessed on Monday at the company's Venice-based "Google LA" office. Amazing food, a large cafeteria (with soft serve!), a dynamic theater room that regularly houses "Google Talks" and a lively environment that even includes plenty of amenities in the restroom. Yeah, I'm easily impressed.

But I was there to host a half-hour Google Plus Hangout chat with "Community" stars Jim Rash, Alison Brie and Danny Pudi -- and it was as much fun as you'd expect. Watch below: