The Shows Mostly Formerly Affiliated with NBC's Thursday Night Comedy Block Thread **SPOILERS**

[livid]

I loves me some JK Simmons!

[Josh]

Awesome.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I can't remember a show having better success with guest-star casting since the early days of The Simpsons. Heck, J.K. Simmons would have been a great Ron Swanson if we lived in a world without Nick Offerman. That is a guy that just about steals every seen he's in.

Plus, Adam Scott has the greatest TV family ever.

[Benjamin]

That is amazing.

[Benjamin]

Guys. GUYS. It's October 19th!

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

Decided to a random binge on The Office with Season 3. I forgot just how Steve Carrell was as Michael Scott. It's just a tragedy that he never won Emmy.

[Lint]

Joel McHale was on Letterman tonight talking about Community. He made a few joke about the season being delayed..such as saying "Trust me...our Halloween episode will feel totally fitting of the time"

[GoGo Yubari]

Good news, TKz!

[LittleDaniel]

COMMUNITY

[GoGo Yubari]

The Community premiere wasn't bad. It's going to be a tough transitional period and the subplots weren't great, but the main Abed plot worked and the Pierce running gag hit my Incredibly Dumb Humor Place.

Fred Willard as Sitcom Pierce was delightful.

[NM!]

On Community, I'm going to give the new showrunners a chance, even though I didn't really enjoy this episode. It felt like too much in too little time.

I can clearly see the future storylines setting place with Troy and Abed becoming more seperated, Jeff dealing with the "Dean Next Door", Annie finally getting a career goal, but I feel like it could have been achieved better without all of the "Abed TV" and cartoon portions. I liked the first two times Abed TV came on, but then it started to become incredibly forced.

It felt like it was attempting to be to be like "Community" than just being itself, if that makes an inkling of sense.

[LittleDaniel]

Ehhhhhh Abed's bit fell really flat for me, much like the whole episode. I get what they were going for, and I appreciate it, but when half your show is "lol this is what Community would be like if Chuck Lorre made it" without actually having things to say about Chuck Lorre sitcoms (compare this to the Glee episode which stuck it to Glee)...then half the show is just shitty Chuck Lorre humor.

I also thought all the reality of the show seemed fairly forced this episode. What grounds the show through all the wacky stunts they pull is the core show about the relationships in a study group. I get there's a rushed season, but there wasn't really character development, just "hey look, this character grew over the summer."

I do say all this having missed the last five or so minutes of the show. However, I doubt things improved much after the resolution of the Abed TV plot.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, the stuff after the resolution of that (which I liked and thought was well-handled, for as diminishing returns-y as the frequent cuts to the Chuck Lorre sitcom got) probably isn't worth going out of the way for. Two storyline developments, of which at least one of them is going to be recapped in a future episode just from my recollection of a clip used in commercials. The one re: the Dean is not so good.

[Benjamin]

Yeah, that Community episode was really awkward for me. Abed's happy place was cool, as was Jeff, Leonard and Asian Annie. The whole fountain thing was really weird, I didn't know whether I was supposed to be amused by it. Both Sitcom Pierce (Fred Willard!) and ordinary, Greendale Pierce were total hits, though.

It sucks because I keep on seeing Chevy Chase as one of the brightest spots of Community, and yet knowing how much of a dick he is and that he won't be in two episodes really makes me angry.

Parks & Rec was awesome, the whole Tom describing food thing had me in stitches. Sewer Joe was great too. I feel dirty for liking an episode of Parks & Rec more than one of Community.

[Jimmy]

I enjoyed Community, it was fun to have it back, though it wasn't quite on top form or anything.

But Parks has been on another level this season, the food poisoning scene nearly had me in tears. I don't feel dirty for saying it, I think I'd rather watch Parks at the moment because it's found such great form.

I've no doubt Community will only get better and thursday night TV will be fantastic.

[Your Mom]

Community looked different. Why did it look different? Also it wasn't very funny

[Josh]

Yeah, I feel like the true test of quality for Community will be in observing where the overall plot goes across multiple episodes. That, and whether they stick to something gimmicky every episode or not. There were good bits (Fred Willard as Dream Pierce and the ending "speech" in particular), but a lot of the wilder moments - which I would usually find funny - were actually more disturbing, in terms of Abed's character.

Parks had a good night, especially with Nick Kroll. It was a really nice tough to have The Douche be an admitted persona.

The Office was actually pretty damn good again too. I feel like the show is somewhat getting its groove back as it heads for the big ending.

Community looked different. Why did it look different? Also it wasn't very funny

New show runners, one would assume. I don't think it's time to give up on the show at all (it's just one episode), but I'd say a lot of fans are still uncertain about where things are going.

[MalaCloudy Black]

That son of a bitch is astute.

I dug Parks & Rec way more than Community. I did like the gag of Sitcom Abed having his own happy place, though. And Fred Willard as Pierce (hasn't he played a teacher on the show before too?). Oh, and Pierce's struggling to come up with a joke re: the red balls. "Gay balls!"

[GoGo Yubari]

No, this is Willard's first appearance on the show. He was actually Dan Harmon's first choice for Pierce before the network insisted on Chevy Chase.

[Benjamin]

Is that true? Because if so, thank God. As much as a douche that Chevy Chase is, he made Pierce (well, he and the script) my favorite character of the show since the beginning of season 2.