So by season 4, I think we knew it was going to be happening at some point. I remember vividly when Donald played me some music in his car — this was probably season 3 at some point — that he was working on, and it wasn't like one of your friends playing you a mixtape and you being like, 'Oh, that's pretty good,'" says Pudi.
And I was like, 'Oh, this is like real good, Donald. Glover's departure ended up yielding two of the show's best episodes: "Cooperative Polygraphy," a bottle episode in which the recently deceased Pierce Chevy Chase leaves Troy his entire fortune on the condition that he abandons the Greendale nest, and "Geothermal Escapism," which homaged post-apocalypse movies and sent Troy off with a campus-wide game of Lava. So, to be able to do that — really have a two-part send-off for Donald — was great because we got a chance to go on an adventure, get out of Greendale's normal classroom settings, but also have moments where we were actually truly saying goodbye to our friend.
If there was a bright side to losing Troy, it was that it allowed the show to explore Abed's relationships with other characters — from new Save Greendale Committee member Buzz Hickey Jonathan Banks to Abed's girlfriend Rachel Brie Larson.
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So, he's forced to grow, he's forced to learn, and that was exciting for me to be paired with all of these different people. And check back tomorrow for season 6's episode with Gillian Jacobs. Community star Danny Pudi talks 'grieving' in season 5 after Donald Glover's exit. Save FB Tweet More.
EW is binging Community with the cast and creator: Watch the first episode now Community star Alison Brie on how season 3 'pushed the envelope more than ever' Joel McHale and Jim Rash on Community season 4: 'It was a very different feeling'. As far as the dolls, I don't think we have any dolls out yet, but I do know that you can get Ken Jeong's Hangover doll at Urban Outfitters - his bobble head. So I don't know.
I think that right now, it's definitely something that they're probably going - if there's a way to make money, I think they'll find a way to sell it and I'm hoping it ends up in people's living rooms, but I'm still kind of freaked out about all this. I'm just happy to have a mug. Is there a lot of Abed in you and a lot of you in Abed, or when you go to work is it like you're putting on a costume? There's definitely a little bit of putting on a costume, except in my case, it's putting - getting into skinny jeans.
And definitely after Thanksgiving break, when I came back this week, it was a little harder to get into them. But I think there is also there is sort of a convergence of both Abed and Danny as over the course of time working with the writers, there are aspects of me that they've worked into the script. I don't think Abed was half Polish until I got the role and so there are things like that, and I think Abed definitely has a larger encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. I think he's probably more observant and aware of what's going on constantly, he's sort of a detective.
You know, there's definitely aspects of Abed that I wish I had. I wish sometimes I was as sharp and I could notice as much as he does. I think in my life I'm probably a little bit more aloof, but like I said, there's sort of me is coming into the character, but at the end of the day, I think Abed is definitely his own unique person. Okay, and the TV references that are often spilling out of the character's mouth, do you find yourself getting most of them or do you have to research a lot of them and find out what you're talking about?
Definitely a lot of research. I think that's Abed's unique talent, he is an encyclopedia and every script I get, I'm constantly looking and talking to people, being like, "Don't know this one, don't know this one. Abed definitely has the encyclopedia knowledge, although I am a big fan of '80s movies and stuff, so there is certainly a good crossover, like Indiana Jones is my favorite movie of all time, so when it came to talking about that and wearing Indie's whip in an episode, that was very natural for me.
You guys look like you're sweating blood to kind of carve out a niche on Thursdays, then CBS moves Big Bang up against you, Fox is about to move Idol up against you. Is there like a Is there a sense of like, what's next, like, "What else could they possibly do to us? There is and it's almost comedic in terms of like - it's become sort of comedic for us because we're just like, "Oh, what the heck what is next?
Pretty soon, it's going to be that we're going to be running just in local outlets it's not going to be national anymore. Or it's going to be only airing on Hulu or, who knows? And for us, we're just really thankful and I think that they found such a - I think with Dan and the writers, they're just so ambitious and full of like, really, "Let's like really cherish this opportunity to do something really interesting.
They both do great. I don't think we have a chance of ever beating them. And so for us, I think many of the writers and stuff are really just focusing on making a really fun, smart, interesting show and just seeing what we can do next, exploring where we can go further.
So I think there's - that's kind of the fun of it and who knows? All that other stuff we can't really control and I don't know about any of that kind of stuff because I - this is all, like I said, this is pretty new to me in terms of like ratings and that kind of stuff.
I never even thought that I would be actually worrying about that, the fact that I'm on a show itself is kind of a wonderful thing. So yes, who knows what's next? So that's why I think we're just happy we're getting the stop motion episode done. Yes, I think so, too. And that's - I think that in a lot of creative things, a lot of great, creative things come out of times where there's a little bit of a struggle, you know?
And I think for us being sort of that underdog is, I really don't mind it and I think some of the people here, I think if you asked them, they probably would actually say that we kind of enjoy it.
Because like I said, there is a little bit of room for like, "Hey, we can try stuff here. It all starts very grounded and very real, but the fact that we've already gone to outer space this year, we had a zombie episode, we had a bottle episode where - and then - and now we're actually going into stop motion and we're only halfway through Season 2 really excite me and terrifies me at the same time that I don't know what's next, but I think that's kind of the fun thing about this show.
Is this claymation thing just another example of sort of the non-traditional sitcom-y type things you're getting to do, like with that episode where Abed was in the background the whole time, delivering the baby and everything. There's another example. Are you constantly surprised or what's been your reaction to these things and are you happy that you get to do all this weird, bizzarro stuff? I love it. For me, it's my - and my mentality and how I work I love kind of the spontaneity of not really knowing what's going to happen next.
I guess that quality - the same quality that didn't make me the best office employee probably suits me for this job. I like not knowing what's going to happen next, and I think all of us here are so excited to see what's in the next script. I mean, when we get to a table read we're all like flipping through eagerly and it's the quietest you'll ever see our cast at one table because everyone is reading the script so just getting into it.
I think that's a testament to the writers because they're really always surprising us, but always trying to find new things for the characters and growing. And also I just love the fact that our show, as bizarre and as absurd as it can go really there's a lot of good lessons being learned constantly, characters are growing and learning from mistakes and we get to do a lot of different things, which is for regular comedy that's only 22 minutes I always think about that.
To be able to go to the places we've gone in a 22 minute comedy with an ensemble that includes Chevy Chase, Joel McHale, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Alison Brie, I mean everybody, it's like with all those people and giving us a little piece of that pie it's really exciting.
So to me I love it, and like I said, this year has been really interesting, too, like the whole episode where we end up - I was in the background delivering the baby and now we're doing this. The attention to detail with this show is also awesome. Like just Ludwig who's doing the composition and the scoring for our show. He's doing stuff with a full orchestra just for this Christmas episode.
The music is incredible, you know? And there's that and then there's the props and the sets, I think if you look around everyone like really cares, and I think that probably goes back to a little bit of like, the other question about us, worried about having competition like Big Bang and Idol against us. I think there is a little bit of that we never know when this is going to end, and I think because of that it's sort of like, "Let's work really hard and see what we can create.
Oh, there's a little bit of Farscape stuff going on in there. There - I do have conversations with someone regarding Farscape and the differences between Season 1 and Season 3. And I think Abed is just very excited to be able to discuss Farscape with someone because there's not many people in Abed's life that can actually speak about it.
And so again, it's Abed's yearning to communicate with someone. And I think tomorrow night's episode is very - it's a really sweet episode. It's actually Troy's 21st birthday party. So the gang goes to celebrate his 21st birthday party. Which I always think is interesting because I don't think we've done that very often where you see our group interacting with people outside of Greendale.
While we're still together, and that's always kind of interesting to see like, "Oh, okay, how would Abed and Troy interact with a regular customer at a bar?
I did. I actually watched a few episodes. It freaks me out a little bit right away with some of the aliens and how - I mean, they're not slightly alien, they're very alien looking with very human qualities. But there is sort of a fantasy element that I really like because as a kid I always was like, "Okay, if it were possible for me to make out with or," I was a teenage boy, "to get with an alien woman, that would be an exciting thing.
I am human though, I just want everybody to be clear of that and married, so don't tell my wife. When you first got the script what were your thoughts, like, knowing that it was mainly about you?
I guess I was a little nervous because I just kind of wanted to know what's this about and how to take it. And this was sort of an interesting and a different approach to a script because, we're not really acting as a group in this one.
We were going into a recording studio with the Director and the writers and doing all this stuff in a voice-over booth, you know? So it's a little different because, I'm not a voice-over actor.
I've never really done any voice-over work. So trying to convey some of that some of the feelings and stuff, it was definitely a little bit more challenging for me. I was definitely nervous about that and seeing - just making sure that would happen. Because then what they did was take our voice-over looping and then they animate the characters based on that. So that was a whole new experience and really fun for me, too though, because again, it was a new thing for us to do.
But then regarding the script itself, I just think it's perfect. There's so much beautiful stuff in there and I think it makes complete sense that this is sort of coming out of Abed's point-of-view because the claymation characters, I think the great thing about the writers and what they've been able to do is make it all come from a real honest place. And I think coming from Abed it sort of makes it natural, like, "Of course, he watches Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer every year, this makes sense that why not - why can't his perspective be in this episode all stop motion?
So I just thought that was really smart of them, but yes, I was also terrified because I was like, "Oh, boy. So when you're reading it did you picture it the way that it turned out? Like, does it look the way that you thought it would look?
You know, it's funny, we haven't seen the full episode yet. So I've seen bits of it, like a little - couple of short clips of it and we've seen our dolls. We got to go to the studio and check those out, and it's way more incredible than I thought it would ever be. Like I said, there was, I think eight different animators working right now. They've been working on it for over six weeks, and while we were there we actually got to see one of the animators, Sarah , working the tag which is also going to be in claymation and she spent three days working on a 30 second tag.
In my head I was just like, "Wow. I was admiring them for being patient and stuff. But the work that goes into it is really tremendous and it paid off. When we were watching it we were looking at the colors.
It's really beautiful looking and it really captures the spirit of Christmas and some of those things you see when you're a kid like, Nightmare Before Christmas , and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer , there is that.
I think they did a great job, just an amazing job and like I said before, with the music, too, adding that layer on top of this it just feels like a really fun special episode and I'm really proud to be involved in it. But I'm also excited because I haven't seen the full thing yet.
So it's going to be a surprise for all of us. I saw some photos of it. Now, is your character supposed to be a Wise Man or a wizard or something? My character in this is not, but John Oliver's character will be a wizard in it. First of all he's one of the funniest people I'd ever met, but with him and a wizard in the Christmas episode I think is worth hopefully everyone watching because it's great. Ken Jeong also plays a really fun character, which I don't want to give away, in the Christmas episode which to me makes complete sense.
So I think people will enjoy that. What it is with Community and holidays that kind of are going to go hand-in-hand now that you mention, of course, you've done a Halloween episodes and now it's Christmas.
I mean, is there going to be like a Purim episode coming up or, you know? Give us enough time, give us enough seasons I'm sure we'll hit them all.
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