I constantly worry that we’ve gone too far. I especially worry about that right now. At the end of season one, we decided to end the season itself on a departure episode. And I worry about the volume with which we fantasize in season two. And then I get worried that I really need to take stock and watch all the episodes again, because there are political reasons to worry about that stuff, too: When that conversation is happening in your head, it’s happening also in hallways where people make decisions about scheduling and promotion that affect the next twenty episodes, and I need those conversations out of people’s heads. Whether or not the show needs to change in this way or that way, I need people to stop using certain buzzwords when they talk abut our show at the water cooler, like “weird,†“inaccessible,†“off-putting,†“torture,†“experimental,†“irritating.†I’ve got to replace those words with “Parks and Rec.†[Laughs.] If this show is going to for seven years, it’s going to need to somehow roll out the red carpet for my mom in the third season, without alienating the fans that we have who love nothing more than the unpredictable nature of the show, people I’m compulsively unable to betray because I’m one of them.
Vulture has a downright-excellent interview with Community showrunner Dan Harmon today, and if you are a fan of the show, it’s an essential read. What, you don’t believe me? Well, it’s tough to pull just one or two quotes from it, as it’s long and in-depth, but here he is discussing his fear that they go too far in absurd directions, to give you a taste: