Community - observations of a couple of strange casting choices

Cafe Society
1

Hey, so my wife and I never saw Community, but we are watching it now and finding it to be good, but not great. We’re on season 3 and the show’s quality is quite up and down. Anyway, that isn’t the main point of this thread, but is actually about the casting of the main actors and the character/script decisions made after they were selected. I’m always thinking of the making of movies and tv while watching and here are some thoughts that have been bouncing around.

Ok, the casting:

Chevy Chase - perfectly cast as Pierce. Clearly they made the character for him. He has a reputation for being a jerk and saying racist things, so they made Pierce for him. It’s great and I get it completely.

Danny Pudi as Abed - again, I think Pudi did a great job and helped develop Abed into being the way he is. No issues here.

Don Glover as Troy - Well, I love Glover, but he is a bit miscast here. Having said that, nothing is noteworthy or so odd it deserves a full thread. I’m getting there, I promise!

Gillian Jacobs as Britta - Again, just fine. Not amazing, but she is well cast.

Yvette Brown as Shirley - She’s great and just right for her part.

OK, so the main event. What casting choices do I find odd and how so?

Allison Brie as Annie - Oh, I like Allison Brie and she plays the character well. But why did Season 1 reveal she is 19 when Brie clearly was not 19? She was 26-27 when the show was filmed and why in the world would the show want a character(and potential love interest) to be 19 on the show? The error is not in the casting, but in not adjusting her age when they picked Brie to be the actress. Annie should be 25, spent a couple years in the psych ward, and is now rebuilding. Making her 19 was insane and a very awkward choice.

Joe McHale as Winger - Ok, so I have a theory on this one as well. I believe that on paper and concept, Winger was supposed to be about 27. Went through fake law school and got caught and is now back to rebuild his life. The fact that McHale was 39(I think?) when they began filming the show is very strange. I mean, he’s great and plays the part well, but all of this leads to a weird issue.

Winger has fallen for Annie more than once, including the first season where she was supposed to be 19. His character is…well, 40? I don’t think they aged him down like they did her. He did date that professor…

So my questions:

  1. Why did the show settle on 19 as Annie’s original age? If they did settle on that in concept, should they have not adjusted that when they picked Brie? Additionally, should they have eliminated any romantic storylines once McHale was cast?

  2. When they cast Joel McHale, should they not have adjusted the Winger character some? I think he…kind of portrays it like he think he is in his late 20’s…but then other times he does not. Is Winger’s age unstated?

I like all the cast, but I find Mchale and Brie to be very strange choices. Or more accurately, I feel like most shows would have adjusted their storylines and writing to more correctly fit the actors they chose.

Anyone else notice any of this?

2

I didn’t, but then, I don’t pay a lot of attention to actors’ ages. And it is incredibly common for movie and TV teenagers to be played by actors who are well out of their teens.

When I started watching Community, I was totally unfamiliar with all of the actors except Chase, so I didn’t know anything about the actors or their real-life ages that influenced the way I perceived the characters.

3

Did you believe that the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 were really in high school? How about Riverdale?
Estelle Getty was actually younger than Bea Arthur in Golden Girls.
James Dean was a 24yo “teenager” in Rebel Without a Cause.
Bob Denver was 30 when he played Gilligan…
There are many many more examples. It’s quite the Hollywood thing to do.

4

Jeff’s age

Jeff’s age in the Season Five episode “G.I. Jeff” is revealed to be forty. This information contradicts established canon that his age at the start of the show was around 35. It is possible he was lying the entire time, however this revelation conflicts with information in previous episodes as well as statements Community creator Dan Harmon himself had made early in the show’s production. Below are several “Community” episodes which hint at Jeff’s age.

"The Art of Discourse": in 2010 Jeff is called "35" by Mark Cahill and doesn't dispute it.
"Early 21st Century Romanticism": In 2011, Ben Chang steals Jeff's driver's license which clearly says "November 21, 1971" (this is actor Joel McHale's birthdate). On DVD commentaries for this episode and also in a tweet to a fan, Harmon dismissed this as a production error and suggested that Jeff was several years younger than him or Joel. At the time McHale was 40 and Harmon was 38.
"Intro to Political Science": In 2011, a videotape of Jeff's audition for "The Real World: Seattle" is shown. Jeff says he was "like 19" when he recorded that tape. The Real World: Seattle premiered on June 16, 1998, and if it followed the production schedule of other Real World shows, then it accepted audition tapes the previous year in 1997. This then suggests that Jeff was born around 1978. That puts Jeff's age at that time around 33-34. It should then make him 36-37 in Season Five.
"Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism": In 2012 Jeff claimed he was 10 years old when he met Shirley "Big Cheddar," who was 12 at the time. Either Jeff was lying and was small for his age according to how he looked in the flashback shown (14-15), or Shirley's age gets increased to 42. Incidentally, the child actor hired to play young Jeff (Jacob Bertrand) was 11 years old at the time.
"Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations": in 2012, Jeff very specifically tells his father he faked an appendectomy in seventh grade "22 years ago." The average age of a seventh grader is between 11-13, older if Jeff had failed a grade and was held back or younger if he skipped a grade (unlikely as it would probably be something he'd brag about). This is consistent with previous episodes as it places his age at that time to be around 34-35 which would make him 36-37 in Season Five. Additionally, it's unlikely Jeff could get away with lying about his age to his own father.

Community writer and executive producer Andy Bobrow had a discussion with several fans on his Twitter account about this discontinuity: “@Funkapus @SaraLinnLinn We try not to be sloppy. Try to make the characters as real as possible. Sometimes we screw up and everyone tells us.”

5

Maybe so–but I’ve never heard anyone else say that?

6

Upon rewatching it, I thought it was kind of creepy having his character drooling after a girl just out of high school (not to mention kind of creepy having a bunch of leering comments about her boobs).

7

Ok, I’ve been watching this, and I’m finding myself… actually caring about TV characters.

I think the casting… or rather I don’t think about the casting.
Abed isn’t some actor named Danny, he’s Abed!

The casting, and their ages, works for me…

Winger is meant to be old… too old for community college. Therein lies the humor. Any age between 30 and 40 works for me.

And Annie’s too young and too naive for community college. Which is what makes her attraction to Jeff (and vice-versa, on again/off again) wrong, verboten, a bad idea, or, dare I say it? Icky.

Though I think of Annie being in her twenties (if they made a point of her still being a teenager, i totally missed that). But Winger and Annie being attracted to each other, and the boob jokes ARE presented as creepy.

If you want a show where everyone’s motives are pure, this is not the show for you.

8

Come on–who doesn’t love Annie’s Boobs?

9

They needed Annie to be 19, because they needed a naive character fresh out of high school. I had no problem accepting her as 19 when the show started. The actress was obviously older, but not by that much, and she was good at playing the naivete of someone fresh out of high school (because Brie herself has that kind of naive energy). So I never found it too hard to ignore the age discrepancy.

But I get why that might bother you especially as the show goes on. But I don’t get your reaction to Glover as Troy. He seems absolutely perfect in that role, to the point that I have trouble remembering that’s not him. I view him as just as perfect casting as Pudi for Abed. Childish Bambino only works for me because he completely changed his look for that. But, in his standup, I forget he’s not Troy.

As for Winger, I’ve always thought of him as just a bit younger than McHale. I don’t see any problem with him having milked his fake diploma into his 30s. Sure, he sometimes acts like he’s younger, but I think that’s the character. While he doesn’t act like he’s quite college-aged, he does still have that vibe where he doesn’t want to grow up. Actually having to go to college is him growing up.

Having seen Jacobs in real life, I think she is perfect for Britta—at least, before she starts getting too exaggerated. She has the same awkward energy and the same granola aspects.

Shirley is played perfectly, though she’s nothing like the real actress. And Pierce, Chang, and the dean all seem like they were written for their actors.

So, no, I never really had any issues with the casting.

10

That’s actually part of why I think they upcast Annie somewhat. I think that, if she looked 19 and Jeff looked almost 40, it would make it feel a lot creepier.

As is, I find it works okay. It’s just creepy enough to not be offputting, thanks in large part to the fact that it’s acknowledged like @digs says.

11

She and Troy were in the same year in high school, and Troy turned 21 in season 2.

As for the relationship between Jeff and Annie, the show made much mention that it would be inappropriate for them to be together. As for a 35 to 40 year-old man being attracted to 19-year-old Annie Edison, there is a word for that kind of man, and that word is “heterosexual”.

12

The original plan was for Jeff to pursue Britta and Annie and Troy to get together but as they developed the show, they realized that Britta was more fun played as an idealistic dummie and Troy worked much better with Abed than Annie so they retooled the storylines.

13
14

Thanks, folks, I’m not entirely sure I did a good job explaining my thoughts, but I appreciate the conversation.

I actually like the castings, but I’m surprised they did not simply re-adjust the ages of the characters to fit.

15

I agree.

And when they cast an Englishman for the starship captain, why didn’t they quit trying to make his character French?

(Why, yes, these things do bother me for quite some time…)

16

Because they didn’t see anything wrong with the characters or their casting?

17

In the fifth season episode G. I. Jeff, Winger is depressed because he just turned 40.

18

The storylines about the age difference between Jeff and Annie were intentionally creepy but funny, recasting it to be age-appropriate, especially Annie (say, if they’d cast Jennifer Lawrence or Emma Watson or Kristen Stewart, all actually 19 y.o. in 2009), would be real-world creepy, not funny-creepy.

19

This is enough for me to stop.

The likes of Glee pretty much having 16 year olds played by 25-35 year olds, this is standard practise for a long time in US Tv and Films.

Annie was early 20s as far as I’m concerned. Jeff mid 30s. Anything else was artistic license (often about whether they could drink or not, which didn’t feature heavily in the programme so more useful for plot).

But if you think anything much in Season 3 was down, then you’ll be done with the awful Season 4, and the changes in Season 5. Apart from not wonderful first few episodes, the show held its quality from early Season 1 to end of Season 3.

20

They may not have changed that, but they did get rid of his French superiority complex. He just comes off like a Frenchman who eliminated his French accent. It’s even different when he was a kid vs. an adult. At least, it seemed so to me.