Seeing Stan's post about Community's fifth season, I thought I should also shed some light on another Community-related topic: a documentary following the show's creator (Dan Harmon) as he goes on a nation-wide tour with his podcast, Harmontown, following him shortly after being fired from the fourth season.
First off, I'm a big podcast listener. Whether it be while riding the El, walking around the city, working, jogging, or whatever, I always enjoying tuning out while tuning in to my favorite shows. A few months ago I stumbled onto Dan Harmon's unscripted podcast where he just shoots the shit with a few of his friends on stage in front of a live audience. The majority of his shows involve him doing Q&A with fans, freestyle rapping that normally falls back on the refrain of Dan fucking people's mama, him ranting about everything he hates/loves in life, and each episode closes with a game of D&D -- great stuff! No structure or real purpose, but the show is entertaining as all hell. As I worked my way back through episodes of the podcast (the show has only been running for a little over two years now), I stumbled up upon a series of episodes dedicated to the Harmontown tour. Basically it was the podcast tapings of what was being filmed for the documentary that was released to VOD last month.
Without rambling any longer I'll get to the punch: Was the documentary any good? Yes, it was. Was it anything like the podcast? Nope. Not really. The podcast revolves around hearing the anecdotes of an -- often times drunk -- Hollywood creative as he mingles with fans and really just blabs about whatever is on his mind. The documentary, though, explores Dan Harmon, himself. The several rise and falls of his career. His relationships. And, a very candid look at a dude with many faults who ultimately just wants to make people laugh.
One of the best parts of the documentary was how naked it made Harmon look. The film was directed by Neil Berkeley -- neither a friend or foe of the subject material -- was a able to give a completely fresh and unbiased look at the Hollywood writer. Something that Harmon would praise in his podcast often saying, "This is my podcast, but it's your movie." Giving Berkeley final cut and ultimate say in what goes in the movie, which definitely shows. All this means is that film is not quite so flattering to Harmon. (Then again, neither is the podcast.) It shows him drinking (a lot), slacking off on writing scripts that are long, long overdue with various studios, and just cursing up a storm while flailing around on stage in front of a audience with no real material prepared.
At it's heart, you realize it's just a guy, no matter how difficult he is to work with or how brash he can sound at times, who just wants to make people smile and laugh with his work. For anyone who's a fan of Community, I would give the podcast a listen. And if the podcast seems to float your boat... give this documentary and watch and see what it is to be a "Harmon-ite".
At it's heart, you realize it's just a guy, no matter how difficult he is to work with or how brash he can sound at times, who just wants to make people smile and laugh with his work. For anyone who's a fan of Community, I would give the podcast a listen. And if the podcast seems to float your boat... give this documentary and watch and see what it is to be a "Harmon-ite".
I'll try to check this out. One of the extras on the Season 5 DVD was a ~40-minute documentary-lite that took a peek at five particularly grueling days on set where, due to Harmon falling behind like you just mentioned he so often does, the writers (and cast and crew) had to complete two scripts in five days. So often when I talk about South Park and admire that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are able to churn out entire episodes in a week's time, I take for granted that this kind of stuff happens all over the industry. The Dan Harmon on display during the DVD feature looked horribly tired, depressed, unshowered, unhealthy... just way more frazzled and sad than even that movie poster above depicts him. Furthermore, with Community, Harmon needs to deal with Sony's final approval on his scripts; I know South Park needs to clear Comedy Central's very lax standards before airing, but here in the Community documentary, Harmon finally wrapped up one script, only to be told by Sony the next day that the whole third act needed an overhaul, and didn't "work." (They weren't wrong!)
ReplyDeleteAlways crazy to get a deeper look into how "the sausage" is made in these kinds of behind-the-scenes revelations.