Posted in: NBC, Netflix, Peacock, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: community, D & D, d&d, dungeons & dragons, ynb, Yvette Nicole Brown

Community: YNB "Sad" S02E14 "Advanced Dungeons" & Dragons Was Pulled

Community star Yvette Nicole Brown hopes Hulu & Netflix reconsider and put S02E14 "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" back into rotation.

Ever since Peacock's Dan Harmon & Andrew Guest-written, Joel McHale (Jeff), Gillian Jacobs (Britta), Danny Pudi (Abed), Alison Brie (Annie), Ken Jeong (Ben Chang), Jim Rash (Craig Pelton), and reportedly Donald Glover (Troy Barnes)-starring Community movie was announced, the series has been back in the spotlight in some very big ways. In fact, just try to find a member of the cast who's been interviewed over the past few months about a totally different project who didn't get asked about the beloved series. In fact, that's how we learned what Yvette Nicole Brown's (Shirley Bennett) thoughts were on Hulu & Netflix pulling the episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" back in 2020 over what the streamers claimed was the use of blackface. In the second season episode, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons," Jeong's Chan takes part in a Dungeon & Dragons campaign while wearing black make-up and a white wig. Brown's Shirley calls out Chang's visual "hate crime," but Chang defends himself by saying that he's portraying "a dark elf or a drow," a creature from the popular fantasy role-playing game. Chang's Brutalitops the Magician would continue along with the campaign, eventually getting killed and thus eliminated.

In the following clip from a much longer interview between Brown and io9 to promote Apple TV+'s Frog and Toad, Brown begins by stating that she's sad that the episode isn't in rotation and believes that the move came as an "over-correction" on the streamer's part over what they perceived was the use of blackface. From there, Brown explains how Shirley initially seeing it as blackface was meant to demonstrate that she wasn't aware of the D&D world and that Chang was actually accurately portraying "a dark elf or a drow." As Brown sees it, the episode was built to address the matter, and it did – and by removing it, viewers are being deprived of an episode that had some very important messages (including one on bullying and "showing up for your friends"), and Brown hopes they reconsider. Here's a look at the clip:

Dan Harmon on What Won't Work for Community Movie

Checking in with Six Seasons and a Podcast, Harmon had some intel to share on the script (written by Harmon and Andrew Guest) for the upcoming movie. In the following highlights (you can listen to the entire episode below), Harmon addresses some of the thematic concepts that worked during the show's run not making the cut for the film & why, and discusses why there needs to be a reason for the gang to reunite that doesn't go down cliched routes like "class reunion."

Community Fans Shouldn't Expect a "Greatest Hits" Tour: "It's a lot easier for me to rule stuff out than tell you what we're pursuing. For instance, we go, 'Do we really think it'd be a good idea to be a paintball episode?' It's one of the first things to rule out because it's the first thing off the top of your head, and that's an issue with the 'Community' movie concept. We did a lot of episodes where you are joyfully locked into a construct that isn't a traditional sitcom narrative but is rather through the lens of David Fincher or Martin Scorsese. There were a lot of special episodes that were kind of like genre homages. The paintball thing was one of them. We tried to do a bunch more paintballs, and they were all perfectly wonderful things to do, but would anything ever capture the joy of the original paintball episode?"

Harmon On Why "Paintball" Wouldn't Play Today, Dungeons & Dragons Out: "You're running around with guns in a school, which was never a good idea on TV, even back then. How can we do that in a way that's acceptable? You sit down to write the movie, and you're like, 'So, we'd do that, right?' Because it's so emblematic of what made our show special and the triumphs we had, the things we contributed as a show. Or we'd play Dungeons & Dragons for 90 minutes. I kinda gotta rule that out — maybe a better writer wouldn't."

Community Movie Won't Go Reunion/Closing-the-School Route: "You're not gonna do anything terribly clever with using the school's demise or resurrection as a device because you don't want too much of your movie to be spent unrecognizable. It wouldn't be outlandish to suggest that enough time has gone by in 'Community' that the world, and not these characters, has changed so significantly that there's a lot to deal with. They haven't been together in a long time, but it's not because they swore each other off… there's a reason to get together, and there's a reason they have to stay together."

Now, here's a listen to the entire episode of Six Seasons & a Podcast, "Intro to Remedial Cinematic Pitches with Very Special Guest Dan Harmon":

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!