Author: Danielle Turchiano

Dan Harmon is no stranger to change.

In six seasons of his college-set comedy Community, he’s been fired and rehired and has seen his fair share of cast departures for NBC’s former Joel McHale starrer. That change continues March 17, when the cult hit makes its debut on Yahoo Screen, though he says the transition from broadcast network to streaming platform won’t affect Community‘s content.

Read more ‘Community’s’ Dan Harmon Reveals the Wild Story Behind His Firing and Rehiring

“The philosophy for season six was really to make it have a season-one feel,” Harmon tells The Hollywood Reporter. “In season one, we really tried to get outside one of the five days of the week for the episode so the show would feel like you were in reality and not some Saved by the Bell lockdown. As episodes went on and my unprofessionalism kept us late with scripts, that was the first thing to go though. So this year we are getting outside more, but it’s the same Community fans have come to know and love. We didn’t want to all of a sudden start changing things just because we could — like ‘Oh, we’re on the Internet now. We can curse; we can make 15-minute longer episodes; we can go crazy!’ “

THR sat down with Harmon to discuss the structure of creating Community for a smaller screen and repiloting yet again, introducing new faces to the series, expanding beloved characters and relationships and how he views the future of the show beyond this year.

See more ‘Community’ Season 6 Trailer

Season five said goodbye to a few study-group members and gained some new people around the table. Season six is doing the same with the exit of Yvette Nicole Brown and additions, including Paget Brewster, among others. What went into the decision to bring in two new characters rather than just let the study group live on as it had been, albeit smaller?

I didn’t want to create the feeling that one by one they’re all falling away by just keeping it down to the people that were left. On the other hand, everyone knows that there’s no replacing the people that leave our show. Chevy [Chase] is a legend; Donald [Glover] is a blessing from God; and Yvette was an emotional anchor to the show. Once she leaves, you have to resign yourself to the show’s tonality changing because I’m not going to create another wholesome mother character. So you don’t want to replace these people, but at the same time, you don’t want these chairs to be empty. My philosophy was, “Let’s pretend this is professional sports and let’s do the above board, admirable thing, and let’s just bring in some pros.” We have brought in people who — when they’re onscreen, everybody knows they know what they’re doing, and there’s no question about why we hired them or what we’re trying to do. We brought them in to catch and throw these balls so we can score touchdowns.

That being said, Brewster previously guest-starred as another character, so with the show’s history of embracing meta moments, will there be a reference to her new character of Frankie looking so familiar?

As much as the fans always say, “Oh you should do this; you have to do that,” I find that there’s a dot-connecting mentality that ends with the dots being connected; it doesn’t actually end with any pleasure for anybody. We do a small acknowledgement for those that remember that Paget was the IT lady; there is a small wink. But I don’t want to alienate any new viewers, so I can’t have a frame of the show spending energy on something that’s technically an inside joke. It has to also be layered in as a real joke. So there’s a reference that if you’re in the know, you’ll get: “OK, a layer of that joke is because she also played the IT lady.” People tweet me all of the time and say, “So Keith David is going to be on the show. Does that mean that Abed [Danny Pudi] is going to recognize him from The Cape?” I’m both proud and ashamed to tell you that it never crossed my mind. I don’t know what kind of satisfaction ends at the end of that strange, dot-connecting rainbow.

How did you structure the sixth season in terms of storylines revolving on still trying to “Save Greendale” vs. moving character relationships forward and incorporating some of the more thematic episodes?

Frankie coming in, she’s an actual authoritative figure who’s being paid by Greendale to help follow through on the saving of it in a real way, so that’s what makes her character unique. She’s not used to the amount of nonsense that the school represents. So the saving of Greendale does continue, and it makes progress. We get to see a semi-successful Greendale emerge in season six and the consequences of that success. There are all of the strange Freud complexes and self-loathing and self-sabotage that abused children will engage in when they’re finally given a warm bowl of soup and unconditional love. But it’s a blend, I think, approaching Greg Daniels‘ The Office or Parks and Recreation in that the workplace is Greendale, so the workplace is being used as a plot motivator. For instance, convicted felons are being allowed to attend Greendale on these iPad robots. But the more important thing is what does that bring out in Jeff [McHale]? And more than ever this season, it’s a show about people and their relationships.

Read more Yahoo Bows ‘Community’s’ Sixth Season Trailer

If you actively, definitively save Greendale, is that the end of the show? How did you approach ending the season’s arc when you still aren’t quite sure if a season finale is a series finale?

I’m going to continue to view it as an open-ended thing. My philosophy is at the expense of one clever finale that turns out to be the actual ending of the whole series, if you give that dream up and resign yourself to being yanked off the stage mid-dance, then you can really focus on how well you’re dancing. I think a good dancer dances like they’re never going to stop, and I will just leave it to the hook to yank us off. I’m not ending this season with the school exploding or everyone dropping out or aliens attacking. We’ve seen great shows and great finales, but ultimately does it change the fact that the cancelation of a show is a loss? It doesn’t. I mean, your best friend dying after telling you he’s going to die— does that make his death less tragic than if he just walked across the street with two coffees and gets hit by a bus? (Laughs.) So I’m going for the two coffees and a bus. When this show is over, I will be in the middle of a great idea.

Are you approaching cast changes in a similarly open-ended way when you look at the future of the show right now?

I would be really interested in an experiment of taking advantage of these beautiful sets and this amazing crew and letting Greendale have a life of its own in almost a kind of Law & Order thing — just have a show that’s about the faculty of a community college. Grab John Michael Higgins and John Oliver, when he becomes available, grab just six or seven undiscovered people and yeah, continue to do a show set in Greendale. I would be really down for that experiment. I can’t account for how sad that would make the audience! (Laughs.) It’s always easy to create new characters; you know, there’s nothing easier than having somebody empty their pockets on the counter and then write a list of random things in their pocket. That’s how we dimensionalize these characters, and now that they’ve been dimensionalized, it gets increasingly difficult.

Let’s talk about Jeff and Annie (Alison Brie) for a minute. At the end of the fifth season, he acknowledged how much he cared about her, so is the exploration of their relationship — even if not romantic — a big part of how you constructed season six?

I’m very precious and anxious about the romantic stuff. Annie herself is the whole ballgame that has to kind of be played in that you’re watching a young woman go from being a little backpacking school girl to being an actual woman, and just watching that happen changes everything. I honestly wonder sometimes if the grown-up version of Annie is remotely attracted to Jeff. But I’m more focused at the moment on passing the Bechdel test with our female characters. There’s a lot of dimensionalization and celebration of what makes Britta, [Gillian Jacobs] Britta and what makes Annie, Annie. When two characters run across the room and start making out with each other, it will be as much a surprise to me as it is to you! It will be an impulsive, passionate decision.

Read more Yahoo’s Kathy Savitt on Keeping ‘Community’ Alive, Katie Couric’s Reported $5M Salary and Marissa Mayer’s Favorite TV Show

Looking at the season as a whole, how did your process and schedule change in the writers room for season six without worrying about the notes and deadlines of a broadcast network?

I think two things happen over time with a showrunner. One is that they gain loyalty from younger writers, so you have, “Oh Dan knows what he’s doing; he’s doing it for the sixth year in a row; let’s just wait until he tells us what he wants,” which is another way of murdering me because I don’t know what I’m doing! I am surrounded by really brilliant, very funny geniuses right now who arguably have their hands tied by their respect for me. That would have changed even if we had stayed on NBC. But then you add to that that the boss isn’t yelling at me anymore, and I have nothing to complain about when I go into the writers room except for my own life and whether or not I’m funny, so it’s a whole different ballgame. It is more like a Manson ranch now than it ever was!

Season five, we hired a lot of young, brilliant writers because we were starting the game late and had to take a lateral approach to our staffing, and so we ended up hiring a lot of really great undiscovered talent, and we brought them back for season six. So we’re like this little platoon, but the rules of the platoon are “Well, Uncle Dan knows what he’s doing!” Even though he doesn’t know what he’s doing! So, the big question behind that question is “Is me doing whatever I want going to make for the best TV ever or a completely unremarkable disaster?” I’m proud and ashamed to say as a guy from Wisconsin, I have no idea yet!

Community premieres on Yahoo Screen on March 17.

Twitter: @danielletbd

Cliff Lipson/SHOWTIME

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the ninth episode of Shameless‘ fifth season, “Carl’s First Sentencing.”]

For four and a half seasons of Showtime’s dysfunctional family dramedy Shameless, a good contingent of the audience was just waiting maybe not-so-patiently for Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) and Mandy Milkovich (Emma Greenwell) to figure things out and actually make a go of a relationship — even if not a traditional one by usual television standards. That seemed harder when Lip started dating rich girl Amanda (Nichole Bloom), and it got even more complicated when Mandy moved out of Chicago with her abusive boyfriend. But the entrance of Helene (Sasha Alexander), Lip’s professor-turned-lover may just be the biggest complication of them all.

Amanda may have been Lip’s gateway drug into a new world — one of finer things — but Helene is challenging him and inspiring him to be a better man.

“[Helene] is somebody that he can trust and as somebody that I think is overall looking at him and saying, ‘You can be more than you were raised in.’ And for Lip, he’s stuck between the people and the society that he was raised in and now being at a university with new options, and she’s saying, ‘Behave like the kid at that university,’ ” Alexander told The Hollywood Reporter of her guest starring role on Shameless.

With only her introductory episode already aired, Alexander talked with THR about what to expect from Helene and just why now was the perfect time for her to take an edgier role.

Read more William H. Macy: Directing ‘Shameless’ Was “The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done”

Let’s start at the beginning with Helene: were you actively looking for a role so different from Dr. Maura Isles on Rizzoli & Isles, and what was it about Helene that made you say, “That’s the one!” if so?

The wonderful thing about television is that you do get to play the same part for a long time, but then the other part to that is people do see you as only this one thing, and I really want to play all kinds of characters. And it felt like the only way to do that was to get yourself around a role that is a completely different side of you. The producers came to me with the role, and their concerns were that there was nudity involved, and they wanted to know whether or not I would even consider it, and I said, “Well yeah, but it depends, obviously, on what it is.” So I had a lengthy conversation with Nancy Pimental and Chris Chulack and Andrew Stearn about the details of this woman — who she is and what role she plays in the story and then in Lip’s life, really, along his journey. I think all we want to do [as actors] is take roles that are something different from what we’ve played, and Helene couldn’t be further from Dr. Maura Isles. (Laughs.) So after six years on that show, it was very exciting to me. I was looking for something different, and Shameless came up, and it was perfect timing.

What do you think Helene saw in Lip that inspired the progression of their relationship to move as fast as it did?

One of the things that did concern me, and which I kept going back to, was “Would she really do this and risk her tenure by getting involved with [a student]?” That said, Lip is special. He’s really smart and not just in class. I think that when he shows up to her office and how he is with her, I think she’s attracted to him; I think it’s sexy and hot and all of that, but then she starts to really see that he is a really special kid in terms of where he came from and who he is. So I came from a point of “This isn’t just about sex.” She’s a progressive woman, so “What is it that moves her? What is is that she sees? What’s happening inside?” She takes an interest in him that goes beyond what she expected. Not every episode is them in bed! (Laughs.)

Read more ‘Shameless’ Postmortem: Justin Chatwin Breaks Down His Future With the Showtime Dramedy

If she’s advising him or just listening as he confides in her, that almost sounds maternal.

Yes, I think she definitely is, and you’re going to see that in the next episode. I don’t think she takes a maternal “I’m going to take care of you” [approach but] a little bit more of “I’m older; I’m wiser; I know what I’m talking about; and you need to get your shit together,” basically. You see how young he is in some of the choices he’s going to make with her, and he tells her some of the stuff that’s going on in his life that puts her in the middle of situations she doesn’t necessarily want to be a part of, but what I like about it is that I’ve always believed that relationships are not about the age between people but who are they? What are they looking for, and what’s the connection — whether it’s sex or some kind of emotional connection, that’s what makes it appealing to me. But it’s complicated! You’ll see she’s kind of like the girlfriend and the mother. Jeremy said that; we were shooting a scene that was basically like the morning after, and he said, “This is so weird. It’s like being with my girlfriend and then having to talk to her mom the next day.” (Laughs.) There is this kind of odd thing about it, but that’s what I love about the show. It’s pushing the envelope. It’s so great to read a script and go, “They’re never going to do that.” And then they do!

How do you view Helene and all of her complications?

She’s a very progressive woman and she definitely has certain tastes. Some of them will be rather unusual and funny. But for me, I think what was most interesting was that she’s this woman who’s in full control of her body and her mind, and she knows what she wants. It was interesting to play somebody really that mature because even on Rizzoli & Isles, not to compare it, our characters stay kind of youthful; they’re not married, and they don’t have kids. Helene is a very realized, mature woman — regardless of what you think of her choices, she’s very much in control of them. And I think it will be interesting to see Lip with that kind of a woman because he’s always the one in control. He’s going to become something in her life, too; he may be more than she bargained for.

Will Helene meet the rest of the Gallaghers and get involved in those aspects of Lip’s life?

She gets to know more about him, but the situations are not about his family but other friends and things to do with Kev [Steve Howey] and some of the dealings they’re doing on campus. She’s kind of getting involved in that part. But she’s also bringing him into her fold, which is interesting because we’ll start to see Lip in some more posh situations. Can he be influenced in different ways? Can he pull himself out?

Read more ‘Shameless’ Postmortem: Noel Fisher on Mickey’s Feelings of “Helplessness” About Ian

You mentioned that the producers came to you with concerns you might not want to do the role because of the nudity involved. Were there things you said no to, or things that were changed based on conversations about just how much you were comfortable with?

I never thought as an actor that I would not do nudity, I just never thought I would do it after having two kids and with this very young man! So that was it’s own thing. (Laughs.) But that being said, I think part of it is so liberating because you kind of have to just go with it, and that’s the tone. There were conversations about sexual positions or whatever that I might not be comfortable doing, but as far as when we were shooting, not really; everything they wrote was pretty much what they had said, and I think then the question becomes how they’re actually filming your body. I worked with the Wells team before, and they’re classy people. The concern is that we live in an age of the internet, and anything you do is forever out there, and I have to always feel comfortable that when my child comes to me at some point and says, “Why did you do this?” I know why I did it. Those reasons are very clear to me, and I’m very comfortable with this job. I think those are the things you have to consider these days. It used to not be like that. But the other thing, too, is it’s not gratuitous. Sexuality doesn’t bother me as much as violence does; sexuality and the human body, I feel is like, “Go for it.” And I do feel that for the character, when you see her episodes this season, you’ll say, “I think the nudity that was there was meant to be there.” It wasn’t all that she was about.

Helene is sticking around through the end of season five, but is this a role you have had conversations about continuing in the already announced season six?

I would love to do more if the situation presents itself! I think it’s fun for people to see actors play different parts. Whether you agree with it or not is not the point, it’s more about “Can they pull it off?” It’s really fun to be able to — as an actor — be able to go into a series that’s been on for five years and jump into their world and play with them for awhile. Especially such a specific world! Shameless is a very different show; it’s an envelope-pushing show, and I had a lot of fun with it. There’s nudity; there’s cussing; it’s wild; [you need to] watch it with a sense of humor and an openness to go on for the ride.

Shameless airs on Showtime on Sundays at 9 p.m. What do you think of Helene so far? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @danielletbd

The CW

The CW’s breakout hit Jane the Virgin is amping up the drama as the freshman drama heads into its homestretch. Jane (Gina Rodriguez) preparing to give birth. There was a management change at the Marbella; Xiomara (Andrea Navedo) has new living arrangements; and Rogelio (Jaime Camil) has a new job. 

With only seven episodes remaining, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the Jane the Virgin cast and creator Jennie Snyder Urman ahead of their PaleyFest debut to get the scoop on what’s head for the remainder of the season. Below are 11 things to look forward to.

Read more ‘Jane the Virgin’ Star Goes Inside That Risky Proposal

1. Rafael (Justin Baldoni) and Jane’s “rough patch” is just getting started.
“Chapter Sixteen” will feature a dance between Rafael and Jane that is beautiful but will also feature some “heartbreaking romance,” Rodriguez said. Urman explained the situation a bit further: “For Rafael, the Michael piece is there and it’s underneath, but the deeper issue is just that [he and Jane] are two very different people who didn’t get to know each other before they fell in love. His stresses are huge: his dad died; the hotel becomes more and more stressful. And you know how people handle stress in relationships is often make it or break it.”

2. Meanwhile, Michael (Brett Dier) is playing a “long game.”
Urman noted that while Michael and Jane still have a very clear connection because of their history, Michael isn’t making moves to get her back right now, though he is still very much in love with her and plans to end up with her. “This crazy thing [the pregnancy] happened — this crazy accident — and everything went awry, but in the back of his mind, he thinks in 50 years, this is just going to be a blip. We are going to be … for him, he loves Jane and thinks she’s the person for him.”

3. Rita Moreno means trouble for Xiomara and Rogelio.
Since Xiomara has such a “go for it!” personality, per Urman, this is a way for the show to contrast Jane’s personality and decision-making. “Rogelio buys a house for the two of them together, and it’s an epic house,” Urman said. One would expect no less, but things get complicated when his mom (Moreno) comes to visit. “If you want to sum it up in one word, it would be ‘disaster!'” Camil laughed. “She doesn’t like Xiomara, as any mother will never like the girl who is dating her son. So, that is not going to end up well, I can tell you that. Xiomara and Rogelio might break up after that encounter with his mom!”

Read more ‘Jane the Virgin’ Star Gina Rodriguez Wants to Be the Latino Meryl Streep

4. Petra (Yael Grobglas) will come into more power.
“She’s back and the head of the hotel, but there’s more to come!” Grobglas teased. But she also noted that things may have to get worse before they get better because “Petra is always struggling,” and that is what keeps things interesting. “She’s always got something to fight, something to aim for; she’s never just sitting down and going along with her life,” Grobglas added.

5. It’s an “awkward” baby shower for Jane.
Taking place at the Marbella with all of its crazy colors and characters, Jane’s “gender neutral” baby shower isn’t just about decorating onesies and eating cake. There will also be singing, and as Navedo teased, a game with “a lot of crazy questions that point to the fact of whether or not Rafael knows enough about Jane and their relationship.” With that concern already looming, Baldoni called the Jane the Virgin baby shower one that “will go down as one of the most awkward in the history of baby showers.” Rodriguez noted that since Jane rejected the proposal, she and Rafael are still in different places, which is what really makes things awkward when he shows up to a party she didn’t really want him invited to. “For Jane, it’s not that she doesn’t want to get there, she’s just not there right now, so when we get to the baby shower, the awkwardness is going to be from their perspective on that subject and how they are in different places,” Rodriguez said.

6. Rogelio and Michael begin a bromance.
Rogelio is trapped on a telenovela with his rival — a man petty enough to give Rogelio less and less to do, to the point where he soon becomes “only a head!” Camil laughed. So in order to try to beef up the role on his own, Rogelio does research — by going with Michael on a ride-along. “Obviously Michael is very concerned about his safety! That’s a huge thing; he doesn’t want Jane’s dad to get killed on a ride-along, so he’s under a lot of stress, but it is just a funny dynamic,” Dier said.

Read more ‘Jane the Virgin’ Boss Breaks Down Sin Rostro Reveal, Previews What’s Ahead

7. Alba (Ivonne Coll) remembers what really happened when she took her spill down the stairs.
“What happens is, I am picking up my granddaughter from the hotel. All of a sudden I see that woman coming out of a cab because Pedro has called her. And I remember everything. And I spill it out. And Jane is like, ‘What?!’ It’s going to be very interesting what happens because it’s twists and turns to get that woman; she is mean; she is the devil!” Coll previewed.

8. Xiomara makes some progress on her professional singing aspirations.
Right before the end of the season, Navedo promised Jane the Virgin would return to Xiomara’s attempts and desires to pursue music. “There is a song and dance number for me and Rogelio and that was so much fun to do [because] it’s a little outrageous situation,” she said of episode 21. “It [shows] a little bit of progress toward her dream, and it’s Rogelio who is supporting her in that and sort of bringing her with him.”

9. An unexpected love connection for Alba.
While Alba is in physical therapy, she meets a man, played by Cheech Marin, with whom she connects. But of course, being that it’s Jane the Virgin, they can’t just write a simple love connection, so conflict comes from the fact that he is — wait for it — a priest! “She meets him in physical therapy and [at first] doesn’t know that [he’s a priest. It’s controversial because she’s so Catholic,” Coll said.

10. Rafael still has a way to go before he’s ready to be a dad.
Baldoni shared that since Rafael is currently still dealing with the rejection he felt from his own father while trying to be there for Jane, who also recently rejected him, he will really need to “go deep” in order to find out what he wants and what kind of parenting style he should adopt. “He needs to make sure that he’s got his stuff in line from his past, so he can fully move forward as a father and a support system and everything else,” Baldoni said. “He’s all kinds of messed up right now. So, we’re seeing a very different Rafael coming up.”

11. Sin Rostro (Bridget Regan) may be gone — for now — but Aaron (Alano Miller) is around to stay.
“Chapter Fifteen” showcased that Aaron wasn’t all he appeared when he smashed a supposed family heirloom to retrieve a USB drive. And soon, characters within the world of Jane the Virgin will start to catch on to — and maybe even worry about — the fact that he’s shadier than first meets the eye. “He’s the twin brother of Roman Zazo. Are they cut from the same cloth? Potentially. There’s so many twists and turns. He is sticking around, and he has an agenda. But Aaron is a very different person than Roman was, and so [might be] his approach,” Urman said.

Jane the Virgin airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on The CW. What are you most excited about seeing explored on the show? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @danielletbd