Y'know, it's strange that nobody started a thread for this show yet, considering how much love there is in this forum for Joel McHale. Maybe everyone's still bitter that NBC bumped My Name is Earl to fit it into the schedule.

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm definitely planning to check it out. So far, I've only seen one preview of it, and it did end on kind of a syrupy note, but the cast (mainly Joel and Chevy Chase) seems pretty solid, so I'm going to give it a chance. Your thoughts?

I hate in the description how it said he loses his law degree. Doesn't one lose their law license?

I thought the preview looked funny and quite promising. The only new shows I'm really looking forward to this fall are Community, Parenthood, and Glee. I hope they all do well.

It looks cute. It's got John Oliver which is a good thing, and Andrew from Reno 911! was in the clip I saw. He's not a regular but if they even just feature him the show could be very funny.

Judging from the ad they ran during The Tonight Show last night, he lost his law license because his law degree was discredited.

Paraphrasing the conversation between him and his buddy ('cause I saw it over 24 hours ago, and my memory sucks):

Here are a couple reviews of the pilot:

Televisionary: Pilot Insepktor

The Futon Critic: Rants & Reviews

Michael Ausiello says over on EW that the pilot is hysterical. I'm looking forward to this one -- sitcoms and I don't generally get along, but I'm always on the lookout for good ones. Plus, Joel McHale is awesome.

I always wondered what happened to The IT Guys, which was supposed to be a midseason replacement last year with him. Where did it go? But Community looks pretty damn funny.

Personally, I'm not bitter about My Name is Earl. That show had great stuff in the beginning, but the premise and the jokes had both worn thin.

As an individual who works in this particular realm of education, I'm very much looking forward to this show. That, and Joel McHale is hilarious. I hope this show does well.

Hey, dbrits, did you see the Time magazine feature on how community colleges might save America? They even had a little picture of Joel McHale and mentioned the show.

I don't know if everyone has this problem, but getting the videos on the NBC site to play smoothly is always a giant pain in the ass for my laptop. So, here's the youtube link to the extended promo for anyone else who doesn't feel like shouting at the NBC site while you wait for the vid(s) to load.

Thanks for the heads up, Split Ends! I hadn't read that particular article. I found it at Time's website and I particularly enjoyed how the writer integrated a mention of the show into the body of the article:

Another community college employee here. I haven't watched the nbc link yet but I know it will be odd to see my place is represented.

I'm not as big a fan of Joel McHale as others. So I hadn't thought much about this show until I finally realized where it was set. It might have some promise.

Meanwhile, with my current and past jobs at a communty college, a parks and rec department and in TV -- I'm qualified to write most of NBC's Thurs. night lineup. (And then there's my art institute gig if they ever turn Night at the Museum into a show ...)

I'm going to watch this just because it's created by Dan Harmon, but there's lots of other reasons to (Joel McHale, John Oliver, the Arrested Development directors....) and it looks funny.

I do enjoy Joel McHale and also work at a community college, so this has my interest! I hope this is funny - right now, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I just hope it doesn't simply base the humor on the various sterotypes that already exist about community colleges, you know?

If you become a fan of the show on Facebook, you can watch the pilot episode online. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but when I have a free moment - oh, I'm so there.

Just watched the pilot on Facebook. I realize that I'd seen most of it in the preview clips, but I was impressed at how quick it moved, and I thought it did a great job of introducing the premise and the characters in an action-packed way. Plus, seeing John Oliver and Joel McHale interact in several scenes was heaven.

Every time I try to watch the pilot, it cuts off just after the 17-minute mark, right when Joel is starting to explain why Pierce is awesome. Anyone else have this problem?

Just watched it (I used Firefox to save it to my computer and watch on my iPod, so I don't know about any problems, DK).

Very promising. Definitely going to keep watching this.

Just saw it on Facebook. I liked it, but I wonder what would happen if the show goes two years. Those students would have to move on at some point.

I enjoyed it. Most of the funny parts were in the trailers, but that won't be an issue when the show gets going. The cast is good. The concept isn't exactly what it would seem, and it was funny, so I'm in, for now.

Allison Brie, Joel McHale, Britta and Yvette Nicole Brown were the stand outs to me. Though I liked three of them beforehand, so maybe I'm biased. Loved Allison Brie's character. Chevy Chase should be good so long as they keep him as a supporting player. Abed was fine, but I'm getting a Rainn Wilson/Dwight best-in-doses vibe from him.

They don't have to go anywhere. This is community college. They can stay there for years.

I too had a problem with the video cutting off mid-way through the pilot, but based upon what I did see, I'll definitely be setting the DVR to record the entire season.

ETA: The Facebook video finally worked. I really, really enjoyed it.

I'm so excited about the premiere tonight! I love Joel McHale but I'm also looking forward to seeing Alison Brie in something else. I've only seen her as Trudy in Mad Men and I think she's great in that. I don't like Chevy Chase at all but I still think the show is going to be good. I hope it does well in the ratings.

EW has a short interview with Gillian Jacobs (Britta) in the PopWatch section.

I finally figured out why I recognize her. She was in a monumentally depressing but good movie called Gardens of the Night about 2 street teens who were abducted by pedophiles when they were little and she played Cherry Daiquiri/Beth in Choke. Damn, that was driving me nuts.

I really liked the first episode. This show has a lot of potential. I loved the call out to the Breakfast Club (and the remix of that movie's closing song) as well as the John Hughes In Memoriam.

Joel is one of my favs, so I was biased going in but I really loved it! I do have a bad feeling that I'm going to be saying "Booyah" way too much tommorow!

Definitely liked it. In fact, it exceeded my expectations, and I was pretty excited going into it (I so love Joel McHale). The dialogue is so fast and clever, and I liked all the characters.

The Breakfast Club references were awesome.

Sounds like it's a 4 year college, which is weird for a community college.

Anyway, not the worst pilot I've seen, but wasn't the best. It definitely had some good laugh out loud moments, particularly AFTER Joel's speech about community.

Some states are moving towards allowing community colleges to start offering 4-year degrees, so I'm just going to assume that this school falls into that category. I was pleased that the show didn't rely on cheap sterotypes - the students actually seemed quite realistic. That said, I call a bit of bullshit on the dean who delievered the welcome speech!

I agree, and I really, really appreciate that we didn't have to waste 15 minutes watching Joel's character lose his license, decide to enroll in college, etc. I've rarely seen pilots establish their premise so quickly and effectively.

My dislike of Chevy Chase is pretty strong, but otherwise, I enjoyed the show. (He's one of those actors whose reported offscreen antics have affected my ability to enjoy him in anything onscreen.) Joel did a good job with his role. He didn't play it too over-the-top smarmy: I thought he had a very cool, almost understated humor.

Ugh. Unless this improves next week, I'll stop watching. It was boring. Very disappointing after the Office.

As someone who attends community college, there are a few bachelor degrees that can be earned at the small one I go to.

I enjoyed it and thought it was funny. Liked the fast pace style and though Abeeb(?) was hilarious. "Can you hear me? Am I deaf"? (something like that anyway). There are quite a few shots taken at community college, which I don't enjoy, but it's a stereotypical.

I agree, except for the part about next week.

This is one of those shows where I care more about the secondary characters more than the lead character and his love interest. I thought the secondary characters were a hoot and they made me laugh- I found the main character annoying and his story with the love interest boring.

Question for my fellow Mad Men fans: Was that Alison Brie's natural speaking voice? She didn't have that oddly high Trudy Campbell cadence thing going on and it threw me off for a minute.

I dug the show, but I hope they give Britta more to do and I hope Jeff keeps more to his douchebag nature. If we get a weekly epiphany about his general attitude every go-around it's gonna get tired quick.

What the deal with he timeslot, though? Is the Thursday lineup going to get shuffled around once 30 Rock comes back?

It's difficult to say how good it is because so much has been shown out of context in promos.

Funniest of the unspoiled was the motormouth doing the Bender bit and "am I deaf?"

I liked this a lot better than I thought it would. I didn't think Chevy Chase was obnoxious as I ordinarily do.

I don't know how old Britta is supposed to be, but I think Joel McHale might be a little too old for her.

I believe that Community will be on at 8 and then 30 Rock will be at 9:30.

Have to take exception to the "meh" comments. I dig this show. There was some fine writing going on there, and in Britta at least one really promising female character (a tragic rarity). I thought "Glee" was going to be my runaway fave new show, but this one could be a contender.

I found it a little overwritten... there was a lot of cleverness going on, but all of it seemed to be accompanied by a little wink saying "look how clever I am!" that left a real sour taste in my mouth. Maybe it's just McHale... I wasn't that impressed with him.

Bright spots for me included John Oliver and the quite remarkable sexiness that is Gillian Jacobs... either of them alone are enough reason for me to give it at least a few more weeks...

I thought it was pretty funny, especially Abhed's parts. I hope Jeff becomes less smarmy.

She did talk about being in the Peace Corp, dropping out of high school to impress Radiohead, and something else she had done. I'd put her charcter in her mid-20s, which is only about 10 years younger than Joel's.

I thought it was funny. As others have pointed out, even Chevy made me laugh (something he hasn't done since 1974). Joel's "too clever" dialogue can be pointed to his ability to bs as an attorney. John Oliver points out his genius in tying his driving while impared (?) to 9-11. So, the community speech was not too far-fetched.

I'll keep watching.

I love Joel McHale, so I tuned in just to see him and I must say I wsa impressed. I really enjoyed it. I hadn't seen previews beyond the one I saw on The Soup last week and didn't really have any expectations going in, but I enjoyed it and will be coming back again. I thought the cast was great and I look forward to seeing what else they can do since pilots usually are more lackluster than subsequent episodes.

As a community college student who got out of class an hour before the show's premiere, I enjoyed the show a lot. Joel McHale is great, the actor who plays Abed is fantastic, and even Chevy Chase was decent. Great ensemble cast and I can't wait to see Ken Jeong on there sometime in the future! The digs at community college didn't offend me at all because there was a bit of truth to all of them! Not for me of course, but other students I see at school... I'm just a 32 year old trying to get an Associate Degree in my chosen career to move up and make more money. Not sure which example of a community college student that I fall under.

I enjoyed the pilot. At this point I can't say much more than that, but I like the cast and I think the show shows great promise. It helps that I'm already a watcher of the line-up, or at least 30 Rock and The Office. Still can't get into Parks and Recreation, but 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

I thought it was pretty funny--a lot better than the first episode of 30 Rock, which I took forever to warm up to. I hope people give it a chance.

That Abeeb guy said Britta was 28.

I am very pleased. I liked the show a lot. It was nice to see Trudy from Mad Men. I will definitely watch next week. Has anything come out yet about the ratings?

Agreed. The Joel/Britta relationship had no value and it appears that's the crux of the show. I didn't laugh once at this. I love McHale from The Soup, but as an actor he brings very little presence or charisma to the dialogue. I also think this may have been written for someone younger.

Pilots are never usually the highlight of a series (as has been mentioned, 30 Rock took a while to warm up). So while I wasn't totally impressed, I think it has potential, and I'll keep watching.

I had trouble getting into this one. There were some parts that were funny, but overall it was pretty meh for me.

I couldn't figure out why something about Joel McHale seemed weird, and at first I thought it was that he seemed like he was reading off of a teleprompter. But then I figured out what was bugging me - he pauses at the end of the 'look how clever this is' lines, as though he's waiting for a laugh. Since The Soup has an audience or laugh track, he's used to doing it this way, I'd imagine, but it's not working for this type of thing. IMO, his timing is off.

Aaaaaw. I was so disappointed in this. Had been hoping to put it on my schedule as a must-see. Love me some Joel, but there was something "off" about the acting. And maybe that's what it was - I could tell that everyone was acting. I might watch one more episode to see if it improves, but I don't have much hope.