36,000 Episodes and a Movie: On the Set of the New 'Community'

When we snuck onto set around 11 in the morning, the production had been running since well before the break of dawn. Extras were being sent back and forth through the halls surrounding the study room that Community fans have come to recognize over the past five seasons. Despite moving from NBC to Yahoo Screen, everything looks the same.

The scene — in which Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) comes in to rave about a car company’s new viral marketing scheme — is shot over and over. While the cameras roll, Rash is a ball of lightning bouncing around the room. “It can take you to a dinosaur so you can literally shake its hand!” he squeals. Between takes, the actor quietly retires to his laptop, the polar opposite of his onscreen persona.

Related: ‘Community’ at SXSW: 6 Weird and Wonderful Moments

Like the dean, Community is all absurd energy on its surface, but a blazing intelligence lurks beneath the surface. Now housed on the CBS Radford lot (in the basement of the building where, for a brief time, they were directly underneath Parks and Recreation as that series shot their final episodes), Greendale Community College looks exactly like it has for years, but there are subtle differences. “Without Alison [Brie], I would have been lost — literally lost trying to find our set every single day,” says Danny Pudi. Stairs are in different places and sets — like the apartment his character, Abed, shares with Brie’s Annie — aren’t where they’ve been for the past five seasons on the Paramount lot. “We’re halfway through the season and I still have no idea where the hell I am.” Adds Brie, “It’s true; we hold hands on set.”

Even though three of the original study group are gone and two new cast members (Paget Brewster and Keith David) have replaced them, Pudi and Brie say the heart of the show’s appeal remains unchanged. “We’re always acknowledging what has taken place and not pretending that it’s been easy in any way,” Pudi says. “For Abed especially — and Danny Pudi — the loss of Donald [Glover] and Troy is significant and it’s something that you can’t replace.” But taking that away from the character has also allowed Abed to grow: Last year, he got a girlfriend and in season 6, he forms a close relationship with David’s character, washed-up computer programmer Elroy Patashnik. “There are places for Abed to grow now, to find other people he can do weird handshakes with. We’re still trying to find the right handshake.”

Pudi says the production reminds him of the first season, but Joel McHale disagrees. “I don’t know who was saying that, but they’re liars,” he says with mock scorn. “I don’t think it’s a throwback.” For him, the season that felt most like a return was last season when show creator Dan Harmon was rehired after being fired the previous year. Season 6, though, “feels very different with Paget Brewster and Keith David — they are tremendous and hilarious and you’re going to love them. I don’t think it’s a throwback, I think it’s brand new.”

Related: ‘Community’ Catch-Up Guide: Watch Our 5 Video Recaps

By Season 6, a series is usually grasping at straws — adding babies, evil twins, killing main characters. But Community has always lived happily on the other side of the proverbial TV shark: They’ve gone to an RPG-inspired fantasy realm; they’ve lived a Waterworld existence; they’ve done a whole episode in Claymation. And even though Yahoo Screen is giving the series more room to be crazy, Brie says Community is rooting itself even more firmly in the reality of its characters. “Our show is not like a network drama where every episode has to top the last,” she explains. “The people are just weird. What makes the show great is just following these people around and living in this bizarre, idiosyncratic world.”

Individually, the actors tend to be reserved and thoughtful, but they have an ensemble mentality and any conversation can quickly dissolve into anarchy as everybody piles on jokes. Exhibit A: We sit down with Rash, who begins talking about the “new set of challenges” he faced as a director (he and writing/directing partner Nat Faxon directed the second and third episodes of the season). “It was a little stressful only because there were some situations where I was in scene quite a bit” — episode two, for example, features the dean gyrating around in a skin-tight, ’90s era virtual reality suit. “Sometimes it’s hard to let your brain turn off that aspect and just be in the scene.”

Then Gillian Jacobs arrives and the conversation switches to the new cast additions. “We had a little obstacle course in the parking lot,” deadpans Jacobs. “Psychological testing. Keep them up for three days straight.” Rash jumps in: “‘Who do you like best?’ type of trick questions. The answer is ‘all of us equally.’ They never say it right.” Jacobs rolls her eyes. “They get too honest,” she deadpans. “Keep them up for three days, they all say Ken.”

"My ears are burning!" calls Ken Jeong, as he passes by with Pudi. "What’s going on?" Rash and Jacobs begin discussing a fictional party that their co-star isn’t invited to. Jeong settles in as Rash leaves for makeup. "I know we all joke around," says Jeong, "but seriously…" He grabs our digital recorder and whispers into it, "What did Jim say about me? Can I listen to playback?"

Now it’s Brewster’s turn to wander by and get sucked into the conversation. Though she’s the class newbie, Brewster she’s so relaxed she ended up blowing some of her lines earlier in the day. “Now you’re really one of us,” replies Jacobs. “I would love to be one of you!” says Brewster, beaming. Jeong begins chanting: “One of us! One of us!”

"I’m totally comfortable with you guys, but I’m too nerdy to bring myself to even e-mail you guys," continues Brewster, adding that she was excited about the announcement that Jeong’s pilot had been picked up by ABC. (He’s not the only one with a pilot deal — more on that later.)

"I’m not!" Jacobs interjects.

"She always de-congratulates me," explains Jeong with a laugh. “‘It ain’t gonna get picked up. Love, Gillian.’ ‘That movie ain’t gonna open. Love, Gillian.’"

"Uncongratulations!" shouts Jacobs.

When Joel McHale walks by, things dissolve once again into laughter and inside jokes as he good-naturedly mocks an executive’s attire (naturally, the guy is the only one on set in a suit) while simultaneously being ribbed for his own boutique shoes, handmade from a hundred-year-old saddle by an artisan on Fairfax Ave. “He’s like a charming bully,” marvels Brewster. “You can’t not like him, but he hurts your feelings!”

Surrounded by people, McHale is a whirlwind, his tart tongue softened by mischievous eyes and wicked grin. But when we meet later, he is more low-key and accessible. The rest of the cast is rehearsing a scene in the North Cafeteria. It looks the same, yet different; now that the set is underground, there are new support beams in the middle of it and the windows are dark until stage lights give it the appearance of day.

McHale doesn’t ponder what-ifs and what could have been. After 97 episodes of Community — 96 of which were spent on the bubble of being canceled —he’s intensely grateful for what they have in the here and now. “I am blessed by God that I get to do what I like to do and I love acting. I love performing and the fact that someone’s paying me well for it is…” A pause as he searches for words. “I just count it so rare in the world ever that you get to do what you like. I already feel like I’ve won some lottery.”

How long could the show go on? The cast is only signed to one season and nearly everyone has a pilot deal. Jeong will star in ABC’s Dr. Ken; Pudi booked the lead in Strange Calls for NBC; Jacobs will star in Judd Apatow’s Love (Netflix has already committed to two seasons of the show); Rash, Brie, and McHale all have production deals. It takes about five months to shoot Community's 13-episode season, so it's conceivable — though unlikely — that the show could go on indefinitely while allowing the cast to do other things during the year. “I don't know if it's sustainable for 15 seasons,” says Pudi. “That being said, it wouldn't shock me if something like that happened.”

McHale, meanwhile, says he’ll be along for the ride “as long as everyone’s having fun and getting paid appropriately.” A fan base like this is rare, he says, so why stop? “Guiding Light had 36,000 episodes. Let’s aim for Guiding Light's record. Including radio.”

Community premieres with two episodes March 17 on Yahoo Screen. Future episodes will be available every Tuesday.