SDCC, Day the Second, pt.1: The Community Affair
After the hustle and bustle of the first day, I knew that Friday and Saturday was going to be far worse. There were some pretty large panels happening on Friday. Three of them were in Ballroom 20 which was one of 3 large rooms. One was largely film and some network television. One was largely television and the other was mixed between online and television (Hall H, Ballroom 20 and Indigo Ballroom respectively). While I largely ignored most of the rooms, there was one thing I wanted to see more than anything on Friday morning, the Community panel in Ballroom 20.
Image from blog.zap2it.com
Being that this was my first year at Comic Con, I didn’t realize how heinous the line would be. I should have known that it would be pretty bad as the Firefly tenth anniversary panel was going to be in the same room. There were Firefly fans lined up as early as 9 PM the night before. I figured it was going to be pretty popular so we got there at 6 in the morning. I wasn’t ready for the frustration and upset where I thought I was going to miss the one panel that I was really looking forward to.
There was a nice, long 4 hour wait where I wasn’t certain if I was even going to make it in for the beginning of the panel. As you can imagine, 4 hours of not really knowing if you’re going to get to see the panel that you really wanted to see can be nerve-wracking. Of course, I chalk up this expectation to being a n3wb when it comes to Comic Con.
And when I got in to the panel only minutes before the beginning of the panel was such an incredible relief. I was actually giddy rushing in to Ballroom 20 and beside myself when I was handed a Community inflatable pillow.
The panel itself was awesome. I’m not going to lie. I love Community. I’ve watched it since the beginning of the series. It’s gotten better with every episode and every season. It was awesome to see how the cast (minus Chevy Chase, Donald Glover and Jim Rash due to other engagements). All I have to say is wow. Even on the panel they were a very cohesive group. Of course, the panel started off with a joke as the moderator called Joel McHale Ryan Seacrest. It’s amazing to see how incredibly grateful the cast is to their fans and how humbled they are. During the panel we were given teasers/spoilers for season 4. We were also treated to Dani Pudi (Abed) rapping with Joel McHale (Jeff)… where he used language that he wasn’t supposed to and was promptly reminded of the warning on the back of his name card that says to use family friendly language.
Elevators at Comic Con
It’s really refreshing to see a large part of the crew act like they were family. It would have been interesting to see almost all of them as well. People have prior engagements that keep them from going. The most amazing thing was to watch them answer questions from the people who were there. One guy loved Brita and mentioned as much. She got up from her seat to give him a high-five. One lady loved how they managed to write a character with Asperger’s with such sensitivity and not to make it the butt of the joke. It was truly amazing to see how blown away they were by the sheer volume of fans… and I was jealous of some of the sweet Community shirts I saw some of the people wearing in line.
Community: http://www.nbc.com/community/
Community on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/community