Fall TV Preview

What’s It All About? Facing the possibility of being disbarred, lawyer Jeff Winger (McHale) enrolls in a community college where a former client he once got off the hook works as a professor. Thinking he’ll be able to coast his way through as the result of that relationship, Jeff is more interested in pursuing a fellow student from Spanish class who looks like Elisabeth Shue than the degree that he needs in order to go back to work. His pursuit of the former inspires him to form a bogus study group, which just might help him obtain the latter.

We were disappointed two years ago when NBC canceled its version of the brilliant British comedy The IT Crowd starring McHale before it ever reached the air, but in hindsight it made the snarky host of The Soup available to play this role, for which he is ideally suited. And speaking of effective casting, Chase is as funny as he’s been in two decades as aging yuppie Pierce Hawthorne (and yes, that is Hawthorne as in Hawthorne Wipes, the award-winning moist towelette). For a show about a bunch of mismatched misfits — there’s even a direct reference to The Breakfast Club in the pilot — Community fits in very well with NBC’s other Thursday night comedies. Fans of The Office and 30 Rock should eat this up.

What To Expect: Well, like seemingly every other show on television, Community will get a guest appearance from Betty White this season. Drew Carey and Rob Corddry will also guest-star, as figures from Jeff’s past life as a lawyer — but what we really want to know is whether the kiss that Jeff and Annie at the end of Season 1 will lead to a relationship, or if Jeff will go back to playing Archie to Britta and Professor Slater’s Betty and Veronica. Aside from that, we’re guessing Troy and Abed will continue sharing a brain, and Pierce will continue to only understand about half of what’s going on.