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kevintor · 5 years

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Tor’s Best Of The Decade: TV Comedies

We live in a time now where the Best Comedy lists consist of shows that have a humorous concept but it is played dramatically. Or they treat a comedy as anything that is 30 minutes. This is not a rant. It is just not a comedy to me unless I actually laugh and, also, this is my list so I decide and that’s final. I’m also going to add my favorite character from each show.

(To qualify for this list, a show could have started in the previous decade but it must have had more episodes in this decade than the previous one.)

Honorable Mention: Catastrophe, The Goldbergs, Younger, Barry, Children’s Hospital

10. Veep - I love so much about this show. I love when Selina curses. I love all the problems with Ben’s heart and anxiety. I love how innocent Richard is. I love when Amy and Dan yell at each other. I love that Gary is the perfect assistant and Selina couldn’t care less. I love how despicable a person Jonah is and how his uncle screams at him. I love it all.

Favorite Character: Richard Splett

9. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - I love Gilmore Girls so I love anything that has the feel of Gilmore Girls. Amy Sherman-Palladino writes impeccable dialogue and the actors she chooses deliver it so well.

Favorite Character: Abe Weissman

8. Corporate - A ridiculous show about people working for a terrible company. Comedy Central puts out great shows that don’t last long and it’s a shame. Or maybe it’s for the best.

Favorite Character: Grace (the one in the middle)

7. Detroiters - The main characters’ names are Tim Cramblin and Sam Duvet. Those are gorgeous made-up names. This show is about two guys who make TV commercials for local businesses. This is a show that makes me giggle. It’s just silly and Tim Robinson is such a good yeller. Yelling for comedy is not an easy thing to pull off. Many try, though.

Favorite Character: Sam Duvet (For those keeping track at home, that’s two for this actor on the list.)

6. Phineas And Ferb - I truly believe that this is one of the best written shows in TV history. The way every episode comes together perfectly at the end is something every show should strive for. How many original, catchy songs did they make for this show?

Favorite Character: Dr. Doofenshmirtz

5. Superstore - The show is really good but what puts it into “great” territory are the segue scenes of random customers doing horrible things throughout the store.

Favorite Character: Sandra

4. Parks and Recreation - Michael Schur is one of my favorite comedy people. Most of us know him as Mose, Dwight Schrute’s cousin who resides at the beet farm. He was a writer on “The Office” and then he went on to create 3 of my Top 4 comedies of this decade including this one. It had an okay, 6-episode first season (last decade). Then it came back, figured out what works, and ran with it for six more seasons.

Favorite Character: Ron Swanson

3. Community - When I was in school, I told someone I didn’t like “Frasier” and they said it was probably too smart for me. That was hurtful. Now, if they had said that about “Community,” I would have agreed with them. It was so well made. Every character was so important to the show and treated like a different person. It was also really good at bottle episodes (an episode where the entire episode is spent in one location like an elevator or conference room) which are not easy. I want to watch them all again.

Favorite Character: Dean Pelton

2. Brooklyn 99 - I love Andy Samberg and that was enough to get me to watch the show. And, sure, there are times where the show relies on him to make an “Andy Samberg” delivery of a line before it cuts to commercial but it became more that just a silly Andy Samberg show. If you want to know how good the show is, Terry talks about himself in the third person, which is definitely not a funny thing to do anymore, and it’s fine. I don’t even care. It works somehow.

Favorite Character: Captain Holt

1. The Good Place - I have to watch this show the second it is available. It is my favorite show on television. They have philosophy scholars on staff so the writers can work complicated philosophical concepts into the show and have them be both funny and understandable. I watch it in awe and I’m sad it is almost over.

Favorite Character: Chidi Anagonye

#best of the decade #tv shows #comedies #comedy #the good place #brooklyn 99 #community #parks and recreation #veep #phineas and ferb #the marvelous mrs. maisel #detroiters #corporate #superstore #top 10

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taaroko · 6 years

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Post-IW MCU Rewatch: Captain America: Civil War

Time for a bunch of in-fighting!

Was there any significance to those code words?

Howard and Maria. :(

Freaking Runlow.

I read something about how they’re all being very bad at undercover, sitting around in sunglasses and hats. They’re being like actors undercover from paparazzi, not low-profile spies. Whoops.

Runlow’s team is kinda lucky the rubble from that crash didn’t block their entrance.

This is some top notch fighting from both Cap and Sam. Sam’s wings are super versatile.

Whee, Steve getting a telekinetic boost from Wanda!

Ohh, it’s Nat who used the motorcycle as a projectile in this one. Okay. I thought it happened at least twice.

Heeeey Cap’s shield is half covered in soot. Symbolism.

FREAKING RUNLOW.

That blast was either going to kill everyone in the square or the people in that building. If it had been the former, it wouldn’t have been a big international crisis.

Aged-down Tony is easily the best of that kind of special effect we’ve ever seen. *suppresses memories of CG Leia*

I think that seminar was the first we've seen of the "philanthropist" part of billionaire genius playboy philanthropist. (Donating a collection of modern art to the Boy Scouts is too weird to count.)

Hi Dean Pelton.

Awkward actress recycling! But it was worth it. She’s so good as Mariah.

Vision’s social graces are so funny.

Uggggggh General Ross. Who is now Secretary of State.

Man that footage would’ve made Bruce so sad.

“For the last four years, you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision.” Wait does that mean it’s been four years since Winter Soldier? This timeline is a freaking mess.

I know where Thor and Banner are!

Okay, Zimo talks about painstakingly decrypting the Hydra files Nat leaked on the internet, but did he start doing that before Ultron or after? How long has it been since Ultron?

Tony’s face.

What makes this movie so good is that both Tony and Steve have very good points and multiple movies of backstory that brought them to those positions. The Tony of IM1 would’ve been anti-Accords, and the Steve from the ‘40s would’ve been pro-Accords, but here they are now. And the Accords were very inevitable after Ultron.

Noooo Peggy.

Headcanon: the non-Steve pall-bearers were Peggy’s son and grandsons.

“Plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say ‘No. You move.’”

I love that Nat’s priority is sticking together as a team, but she does get Steve’s position. (I mean obviously; she defects to his team halfway through.) Steve’s friendships with Nat and Sam are so wonderful.

Hey T’Challa!

Does the actor who plays T’Chaka have a glass eye? *internet research* Holy crap, he does. This is from John Kani’s IMDB page: Kani lost his left eye during a beating by South African police after returning home from a Broadway production of "Sizwe Banzi Is Dead", which was critical of Apartheid. He survived after being left for dead and subsequently won a 1975 Tony Award for his performance.

They did a really good job introducing T’Challa, and his arc in this movie is excellent.

Dangit Steve and Sharon would’ve kissed if Sam hadn’t interrupted.

More hats and sunglasses. You guys look real suspicious wearing hats and sunglasses INDOORS, especially when you start passing files around.

Man, Bucky just wants to buy some plums. Also, so cool that Seb got to go home to Romania and speak his native language for this bit.

Isn’t it easier to shoot out the lock than all three sets of hinges?

Bucky just came here to buy some plums and honestly he’s feeling so attacked right now.

So much multi-storey falling! I know these guys are all tougher than normal people but it’s still very stressful to watch!

These movies are always doing ridiculously cool things with motorcycles.

Rhodey makes a pretty good enforcer.

Vis and Wanda are adorable. But the conversation about the Mind Stone is really painful now.

The heck?! Tony thinks Wanda is unstable enough to cause another “incident” just by going to the store? Do Tony and Wanda still dislike each other or something? I guess they never reconciled over the whole thing where his tech killed her parents and she used her powers against him.

A fancy pen is not a convincing argument, Tony.

Steve was so ready to be thrilled for Tony if he and Pepper were gonna have a baby!

Tony just called Wanda a weapon of mass destruction. Either he’s playing devil’s advocate or he’s being really unsympathetic right now.

Bucky! Plug your ears and go LALALALALA!

I like how every time someone does the sleeper activation codes, he walks around Bucky in a circle. Is that part of it or just a cool filming thing?

Aaaaargh that elevator shaft fall.

Tony’s face when Bucky fires his gun into his glove.

Nat’s signature move is useless against Bucky.

RECOGNIZE YOU FROM WHEN?! The mission he foiled, or something else? I must know. Please answer this question, Black Widow movie.

Okay. The helicopter thing. It does not make sense. It should’ve just lifted Steve right off the ground. It is capable of carrying several passengers. One dude hanging onto it when there’s only a single occupant would not weigh it down. The part where he holds onto the railing and keeps it from flying away does work, though.

Heeeeey the scene with Bucky’s arm in the clamp is the exact midpoint of the movie. I don’t know why I find that interesting, but suddenly I very much want to analyze the significance of these moments. This one is a major turning point. The revelation of other Winter Soldiers. Team Cap now has an urgent mission.

Tony has an arc reactor scar!

HI PETER! *hug attacks him*

I love every single second of Peter’s intro scene.

“It’s a long story. I was—” “Lordy! Can you even see in these!” Bahaha, Tony cut off even a conversation of origin story.

Okay, the moment Tony leaned forward while Peter was talking obliquely about great power and responsibility. That was when he became emotionally invested in this kid. They’re both motivated by a sense of guilt and obligation.

Wanda and Clint’s methods for getting past Vision makes their team lose a bit of high ground.

Steve and Sharon’s kiss could’ve been handled less like an afterthought, but the reason I’m still cool with it is Sam and Bucky’s reactions.

How’d these three big dudes end up in a little VW Beetle anyway?

Hahaha, each team has a fanboy on it. Scott on Team Cap and Peter on Team Iron Man.

“Thinks for thanking of me!”

Yessss. Airport fight.

Um, why did Tony not even pause when Cap mentioned the other five Winter Soldiers?

Oh Peter I love you so much. And I love that Tom has this rivalry with Anthony and Seb in all the behind the scenes stuff.

“He also said I should go for your legs.” Man this is almost a vine reference.

Scott in Tony’s suit is hilarious.

Scott’s reaction to becoming Giant-Man is probably the single greatest two seconds in the movie.

Man, Clint just wants to make new friends, but T’Challa isn’t interested in this Avenger nonsense.

More tasing!

100%, Peter is trolling these geezers by pretending he’s not a gigantic Star Wars nerd.

It took me several watches to realize that when Scott says “Does anyone have any orange slices,” he’s making a reference to little league sports, and how the moms bring orange slices for after the games.

Tony went to check on Peter even though they hadn’t caught Steve and Bucky yet!

Rhodey’s fall is horrific. And the way they frame it so that you only see the ground when he hits it. Agonizing.

Part of me thinks Rhodey should’ve died right there, but there is rather a lot of precedent for falls not being fatal if you’re in an Iron Man suit. And if he’d died, I don’t think they ever would’ve been able to get past this split. Getting kinda paralyzed is an acceptable compromise.

“Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?” Okay that is a really interesting line. Tony is being pretty egotistical about the concept of surrendering accountability to the UN. He has been rather bad at considering alternatives. Admittedly, he’s on the clock, and then worse people will go after his friends, but he’s allowing for zero nuance here. He knows these people. He knows they don’t do things without good reasons. Steve was right that you can’t let accidents stop you from doing the right thing. Tony is letting it cripple him.

Tony is practically on Team Cap at this point, with the secretly flying after him and all.

Hahaha, Nat has a labeled gun rack. And Bucky is using her guns!

I’m freaking pissed at the trailer for this movie. It would have been a very good twist that instead of going to Siberia to fight five more Winter Soldiers, they were walking into a trap where the in-fighting was about to become far more personal. But I didn’t get to experience that twist, because the trailer includes shots of Tony fighting Bucky and Steve in this location. That trailer made me stop watching trailers entirely for over a year. I do think trailers can be good so you know at least the type of movie you’re about to see, but they should not give away stuff like this. I think Marvel has gotten better at that since then.

Okay, so it’s been over a year since Ultron.

Green is not a flaw in blue eyes, jerk. It’s cool.

Surveillance cameras don’t usually have sound. But oh boy this is devastating.

This moment. Tony coming apart and attacking Bucky. This is exactly the same thing that Peter Quill does to Thanos. This is the reason Tony figures out what Peter’s about to do before he does it and tries to get him to stop and think. But he knows pretty well that there’s no stopping and thinking in a situation like this.

Zimo is a lot like Frank Castle, except that his family died as accidental collateral damage, not a targeted setup.

“The living are not done with you yet.” Such a great line.

“I could do this all day.” Tony has taken the role of the bully from the first one now.

I think for a second, Tony was legit afraid Steve was going to kill him. But Steve was never the one driven to that point. This still does not count as Steve having a dark side.

Okay, Steve dropping the shield was pretty much a concession. You don’t want me using the shield your dad made if my best friend killed him? Fair enough.

TONY STANK.

Tony trolling Secretary Ross will never stop being funny.

Okay, on the whole, while I sympathize more with Cap, I think I’m actually on Team Iron Man when it comes to the Accords. The Accords are an overcorrection of long-running problem. There should have been oversight this entire time, and I think the idea is that SHIELD was that oversight until Winter Soldier. Steve didn’t want to be the dupe of a corrupt system again, so he no longer tolerated oversight, but that really can’t be his call. How transparent are the Avengers being about their missions? He doesn’t run around saving people from street thugs, he does military-style operations all around the world. That’s not the kind of thing anyone should be able to make unilateral decisions about. He’s doing what Tony used to do in his solo films. But now that the PR has gotten bad enough and the novelty of superheroes has worn off, suddenly everyone realizes it’s not a great plan to let them run around unsupervised.

But Cap’s side of the argument is valid too. Superheroes save the world. Collateral damage is a much better outcome than what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been there. Obadiah would’ve continued supplying both sides of conflicts in the Middle East, stoking the fires of war for his own gain. Red Skull would’ve blown up most of the major cities in the US and taken over. Killian would’ve had the world on its knees with his scam. Malekith would’ve destroyed all the nine realms. Loki would’ve taken Earth. Hydra would’ve wiped out anyone who could challenge their reign of terror with Project Insight. Etc. Some of the villains rose up as consequences of the heroes (Ivan, Ultron, and Zimo, for instance), but most of the threats exist independent of the heroes’ actions, which is why we need heroes.

After how much I’ve loved Tony in all the movies so far (though he was a bit iffy in Ultron), I was really surprised by how many moments he has of being kind of a jerk in Civil War. But it doesn’t make me dislike him. This is his guilt complex on overdrive. And losing it over finding out about how his parents died is heartbreaking. But the most redeeming thing for him in the movie is Peter Parker. He recognized a similar guilt-based motivation in Peter while they talked, and in that moment, he became extremely protective of this kid. He brings him in because he knows he’s got a really handy method of incapacitating people without harming them. He’s not recklessly endangering a child, because he knows none of the Avengers will use lethal force. And his concern for Peter’s well-being is actually what costs him victory in the airport fight. He could’ve apprehended Steve and Bucky, but instead he had to make sure Peter was okay.

So...if Thor and Bruce had been in this. Thor wouldn’t be cool with being beholden to Midgardian governments. He cooperates as a courtesy, but he doesn’t actually answer to Earth authority. And I’m pretty sure he’d be very sympathetic to Steve about Bucky, given that it’s a rather similar situation to him and Loki. Bruce, on the other hand, has never felt confident about his ability to stay in control, and he was a major source of collateral damage in multiple countries in Ultron, not to mention the extra footage Ross showed the team. He’d probably think Bucky needs to be under guard for the same reason. I think he’d not only side with Tony but be relieved that Tony was on the side of the Accords. However, you really can’t have two powerhouses like Thor and Hulk in this fight. On their own, they could demolish the entire opposing team. The only option would be to keep them fighting each other the whole time, which would be kind of lame. Much better for them to have a gladiator battle on trash planet where no on else can steal their thunder. (I am not sorry.)

My mind is pretty much blown by how well the MCU has traveled the path from the first few movies to here, and from here to Infinity War. The Avengers have pretty much been getting broken down since Ultron. This was where they fell apart. Infinity War is the consequences of falling apart.

#captain america: civil war #captain america #iron mask #steve rogers #tony stark #mcu rewatch #infinity war spoilers #avengers

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milady-milord-lj · 7 years

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Community Re-Watch Season 1: Debate 109

Community Re-Watch: Season 1 Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay. A large part of why it's been so long is because I was getting my ducks in a row for a Master's degree program. The other reason? Doing two of these a week eats up a lot of time. Transcribing is hard, y'all! So, I'll do better, but I really can only do one of these a week. If I can do two, I'll post two. But don't despair! Because this week is "Debate 109"! So, shipper-y goodness for all! C'mon in and play!

Debate 109 Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Alison Brie, and Joe Russo Joel makes a joke about the fact that Alison is not wearing any pants to do the commentary. Alison counters that she’s wearing shorts. Joel complains he can’t see them because they’re so short. Alison jokes that she enjoys doing commentaries half-nude. Dan reads a Twitter question, “Did you know it would be so awesome when you had them [Jeff and Annie] kiss or was it an accident?” Dan says that they kind of knew going in. Joe adds that this is the episode that sent the show down the path to “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited.” Alison says that this episode marks a pivotal moment in Annie’s life (side note: which is kind of sad when you think about it). Joe agrees, and says that Jeff and Annie have interesting chemistry. He quotes something that he read online that states that what makes Annie “attractive” in this scenario is that she is Jeff’s opposite. Joel and Alison go “huh” at that. Dan jokes that he thought it was because of Annie’s Boobs (not the monkey). (Side note: Really, Dan? REALLY?) Joel de-escalates and says that he thought it was because of all the viral Jeff/Annie shipper videos that started cropping up after the episode. Alison says that Gillian was the one that broke the news to her that she’d be kissing Joel. She initially thought Gillian was joking...until she read the script. Abed’s Community College Chronicles cast is made up of people from Channel 101, except for “Pierce,” who is actually played by Chevy’s stand-in, John. John apparently has been Chevy’s stand-in for years. During the scene where Annie, Professor Whitman, and Dean Pelton gang up on Jeff to get him to agree to the debate, Joel remarks that the sheer amount of improve going on between Jim Rash and John Michael Higgins is incredible. Alison adds that this episode was the most fun for her because of Rash and Higgins, especially since she was standing between them while standing on the debate stage as the two of them kept feeding off of each other for the entire day. Joel adds that it was really funny. Jeff’s fakeout as he attempts to escape was Joel’s idea. Neither he nor Alison thought that it would make it into the final cut. Joel says that it was the best “juke” that he ever pulled on anyone, including the times he played basketball and football. Both Joe and Joel tell Dan that they hope that Higgins will be back for S2 (spoiler alert: he doesn’t). Although Higgins was part of this episode, apparently getting him for the episode was not a sure thing. Joe gives props to Chevy because he does every stunt and pratfall himself. Alison adds that Chevy will often suggest it if there isn’t one in the script. Joe points to the moment when Chevy stumbles into the drum set and adds, “That shit hurts!” Dan says the Pierce-Britta stop smoking through hypnosis storyline is based on a true story. Rob Schrab (whom Dan calls his occasional writing partner in this commentary) had “the world’s worst hypnotherapist” (no word on why Rob was seeing one). At one point, the hypnotherapist fell over and hurt his leg, but Rob didn’t want to hurt the guy’s confidence. So, he pretended to stay hypnotized because he felt so sorry for the guy. Joel remarks that Chevy is often stiff in the morning. He adds that it’s no wonder because Chevy’s been doing pratfalls for years. Dan adds that it’s roughly 20 years. Joe remarks that Chevy doesn’t use any padding or protective gear when he does it. Alison recalls a scene (which is in the outtakes) where Chevy falls backwards while seated in a chair and Gillian screams because she was taken by surprise (it wasn’t in the script). She adds that everyone thought Chevy really fell (as opposed to doing a pratfall…which is what it was). “We were terrified,” Alison says. In the scene where the Study Group confront Abed, Joel remarks that there was a big debate about his shirt because the socks had to match the shirt. Dan says he was mad about the joke because Jeff was supposed to protest that he wasn’t vain and then put his foot up on the table to reveal the matching sock. That little bit was cut for time. The debate portions of the show were shot over three days in a high school in Hollywood. Alison says that it was supposed to be a day-and-a-half, but there was a shooting at the school and the cast and crew were on lock-down in the gymnasium. Joe talks about how Simmons represents the depths to which Jeff has fallen. Simmons is the quintessential antagonist for a guy like Jeff, because he snotty, arrogant, and intelligent. There was some talk about bringing Simmons back for S2 (which obviously didn’t happen) and Simmons was supposed to be a love interest for Annie. Alison mentions that in this episode there was a subplot where Annie is obviously attracted to Simmons in a love-hate-he’s-so-sexy kind of way. Joe says that got toned down a lot in the final cut (i.e., as Alison notes, “it got cut”) because it got too confusing/complicated and because the chemistry between Alison and Joel in the episode worked out so well. Joel’s reaction to “the kiss” at the end of the episode was actually a set-based discovery (My reaction: Ummm, so you didn’t expect it? That’s…huh.). Cue Alison teasing Joel, resulting in Joel mumbling about “it’s called acting” and accusing Alison of eating an onion sandwich before shooting the kissing scene. Alison denies the onion sandwich but cops to wearing lip plumper. Joel says he thought her lips wore swollen because she was suffering from some kind of outbreak. Dan says the Jeff’s attempt at flirting with the blonde debate judge was to give the audience some insight in who Jeff used to be and what he did that made him “blow up the world.” Dan finds it interesting to watch Jeff pull out his old tricks only to see him fail, not because he’s necessarily doing something wrong, but because he’s not playing by the rules in the world he’s currently inhabiting. You can picture Jeff pulling these stunts in a courtroom and getting someone off on a DUI, but in a world of nerds, Type A personalities, teachers, judges, and coaches, Jeff has to humble himself, shut up, and actually do the work. Joel adds, “You need to debate.” Dan says, “No, you have to make out with Alison Brie. Otherwise, you’re not going to…” Alison jumps in, “…win. You’re not going to win. It’s just a good lesson in life.” (Side note: It’s at this point that I suspect Alison’s enjoying poking the bear — the bear in this case being Joel — a little too much.) Joel says that he’s been emailed by a number of church groups that show this episode to students (Side note: He’s trying not to laugh as he says this), because of the whole “is man evil” debate. Everyone’s really surprised by that. Joel decides to poke back with, “And the church is a really big fan of Alison.” Dan says that he took his hands off the script for this episode. Everyone gets distracted by the entrance of the gay basketball team. Joe says it was a tricky joke. Dan says that he had an “oh, c’mon man, for real” reaction when he saw it in the edit bay. He comments that if it was him, he'd have the basketball team be really awesome, like doing these amazing trick shots and dunks. Joel agrees with Dan. Dan says he took a step back on this episode because he was overworked and he was irritating writers/production because he was nitpicking everything. Dan says that he decided at one point during production of the episode that he’d loosen his grip, In short, he says, he passively-aggressively boycotted the episode. However, the episode turned out great, which (he jokes) “was a slap in the face to me.” Dan says when he sat in the edit bay with Joe, he was complaining that he said he wasn’t going to be that involved and then when he saw the gay basketball team he got sucked into a debate with Joe about it. Like how gay should the basketball team be, and other nitpicky stuff around the gay basketball team joke. Dan remarks that the hallway confrontation between Simmons and Jeff and Annie was the only thing people had for a long time to draw on to make their Jeff/Annie shipping videos, aside from the limited shots of Jeff and Annie looking at each other. Joe states that the vidders did a damn fine job with what limited footage they had. Dan and Alison agree. Joel says that he feels sorry of Yvette Nicole Brown because she has to wear so many wigs on the show. All of her wigs are named “Shirley.” Alison starts laughing when she sees Abed’s video where Shirley is running from a werewolf right by a kissing Jeff and Annie. Alison remarks that this episode spawned the running joke in the cast of “I’ma gonna die by werewolf.” She also says that she loves the cheap Annie wig on Annie’s fictional counterpart. Joe says the study room scene between Jeff and Annie came out of a conversation (he doesn’t remember who with). Joel jokes that he’s pretty sure that everyone conspired to take as long as they could shooting this scene. Dan says that they should’ve seen the editor’s cut of the scene. Alison says she remembers a lot of very specific conversations about her boobs. Joe says the study room scene was actually re-written on the set. The scene as originally written moved too fast, so the re-write slowed it down. He adds that a lot of the chemistry between Joel and Alison was basically being discovered during the course of the episode, which was another driver behind the rewrite. Dan admits that he does love the episode. During the part where Annie leans over Jeff, Joel says, “The crew had never been more quiet and concentrated.” Alison said they kept doing it over and over again. Joel adds that no one was trying to hurry up the process and telling them they had to get moving on to the next set-up. Dan says there was one cut where there was practically a close-up of Alison’s cleavage and Joel basically looking practically down her shirt doing a double-take. Alison says that for all the joking they’re doing, there was actually a lot of conversation and how she needed to stand and her placement at Joel’s shoulder and how close she needed to be standing. Meanwhile, back in the Britta-Pierce storyline… The second hypnotherapy scene was actually stolen from the previous scene. They changed the color of the shirt Gillian was wearing in editing to make it look like the whole thing was happening on a different day. Everyone is impressed with Chevy’s “slow” pratfall in this scene. Joe says that at first Chevy wasn’t sure how to do it, so he told Joe where to put the drum and the instruments and said that he’d figure it out as they went. Back at the debate… With regards to potentially bringing Simmons back (which didn’t happen), Dan says that it’s important to write up to the characters, don’t let there be real villains. They can be villains to each other, depending on their circumstances, but if they bring back Simmons they have to break the rule that he’s a villain. He’s not just an asshole. There’s a reason why he’s an asshole, so the audience understands what it’s like to be that guy. Joe asks if Troy tearing up at Simmon’s speech was the point where they latched on to “When Donald is crying it’s hilarious.” Dan doesn’t really answer, but he says that NBC gave him notes that they needed to guard Troy’s football masculinity, which evoked a “give me a break” response from him. Joel jokes that there must be some adept network executive saying, “Tell Dan to do this and he will do the opposite.” Alison says the debate montage was shot weeks later. They were standing in a crazy rig that involved ladder, a chair, and a platform. Joe says that’s because the high school location in Hollywood where they shot the scenes was crazy expensive so they couldn’t shoot it where they had the wide shots of the debate. So the debate snippets were shot in very tight close-ups against a backdrop on the Paramount sound stage. Joel asks why they had to shoot in the rig they had, and Joe says it was because they needed a very specific perspective on the character’s faces to make it work. The point where Jeff trails off with “like great seeeeeee….” was an on-set joke by Joel. Joe remarks that it was part of the great chemistry they were uncovering in the episode and they just wanted to keep playing with it. Joe says the whole closing bit starting with Simmons revving his wheelchair and ending with Jeff and Annie kissing was tricky, largely because they didn’t know if it would come across as hilarious or ridiculous. Joe continues and says that what made filming S1 so much fun is that everyone was experimenting and adventurous about trying different things and seeing how far they could push the edges. Joel and Alison start cracking up about Simmons flying out of his chair. Dan says the bit where Simmons risks himself makes him not a villain because he’s so dedicated to winning. Joe says the use of “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes was “genius.” Alison says that she hears the song everywhere now and she credits the episode for that. Joe credits editor Peter Ellis for pulling the song out for the closing scenes. Alison points out Jeff’s “look” after the kiss and says “good acting!” The wrap-ups at the end of the episode were another on-set re-write. Dan says the dovetailing of all the storylines in the episode was brilliant. Joe says the various cross conversations between the non-Jeff-and-Annie members of the study group was supposed to take place in the stands, but they had been kicked out of the gymnasium and had to shoot in the hallways. Also, Joel had to leave the set so he could work on The Soup (which Joel completely forgot). The closing scene between Jeff and Annie was actually shot later and was a last-minute add-on to the episode. Alison likes the head pat. Joe says that even the Jeff-Annie closing scene they were discovering the chemistry between Jeff and Annie and what worked about it. Joe says they all felt they needed a button on the episode to touch on their chemistry one more time, which is why the head pat added at the last minute.

#jeff x annie

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