Community recently got a surprise reprieve, season 5 is coming! More good news came when it became apparent that showrunner Dan Harmon would return. However, in the 13 episodes Harmon was gone, the fans were generally disappointed. Jim Rash, who plays the flamboyant Dean Pelton, defended season 4.
Harmon especially was hard on season 4, insulting on his podcast. He later formally apologized to the cast, crew, writers, and fans. The fans and cast are excited for Harmon’s return, especially Community star Joel McHale.
Rash appealed to fans about season 4, saying they “did all we can do, and we did our best.”
“I thought the cast and the writers did a great job taking over a difficult task,” Rash told Vulture. “And despite that some episodes were probably tonally different, I think they fit in. And we had Megan Ganz, we had Andy Bobrow, great writers who were there two years before, you know, and wrote great episodes last year. So I feel good about what we did to keep it afloat, but it’s nice to have Dan back.”
Season 5 will consist of 13 episodes, which will be presented as the second half of season 4 (which was shorter than the previous seasons).
“Having [Harmon] back is just a great way to — if this is the final 13 [episodes] or whatever it is — to sort of bookend,” Rash said on HuffPost Live. “Maybe that was what lured everyone back was the idea of sort of finishing this whole thing off.”