Laura Bennet calls the comedy tour of “Community” creator Dan Harmon, who was axed from the show last spring, “a cautionary tale of a showrunner feeding off the hermetic flattery of a self-constructed feedback loop.” Why was he fired? Poniewozik explained it thusly:
Harmon is notoriously, and by his own admission, not the easiest guy to work with. He’s clashed, loudly, with NBC and Sony for three seasons over the show’s creative vision (the network and studio wanting him to aim for less complex, more accessible storylines in hopes of higher ratings). … [M]aybe most important, Harmon didn’t manage time, budget or personnel well–he controlled the show’s vision down to the most minor details, but by his own admission, he was not great at keeping the trains running on time (or keeping its various engines happy).
Bennet, who thought “Community” under Harmon was one of the best shows on television, warns about the insularity of believing too much of your own praise:
We may have entered an age of TV auteurship—in which the totalizing visions of creators like Lena Dunham and Louis C.K. and Matthew Weiner are behind some of our most critically-acclaimed series—but the process of making a television show, especially a network sitcom, has always been collaborationist. There is the writers’ room, the relentless feedback from executives, the rotating cast of directors from episode to episode.
Though she laments the current state of “Community”, she doesn’t see Harmon as having learned how to keep any of his upcoming shows on the air:
Harmon has deals with both Fox and CBS for next season, which is great news for network comedy. But in [a recent Grantland profile,] he certainly does not seem too eager to leave the “Harmontown” bubble. He unleashed a full tirade against the current television landscape. “You only have to take a couple steps back before you realize that you’re looking at a bunch of goddamn baby food made out of corn syrup,” he told [Grantland’s Alex] Pappedemas. “It’s just a big blob of fucking garbage. The medium is dispensed to people who can’t feed back, can’t change it.”
But the one person who could have changed “Community,” of course, was Harmon himself. Instead he felt the cultishness of his audience, and he reveled in it. He let it justify his iron-clad resistance to conceding any small part of his vision. And listening to “Harmontown”—its indulgence, its rancor, its charming self-deprecations and flashes of brilliance—it is hard not to think about the showrunner Harmon could be, if only he would force himself outside his own head, outside the fortifying enthusiasm of his fans.
The Dish 