Community creator Dan Harmon took to Reddit a few weeks ago for a bit of fan service known as an "AMA." That stands for "ask me anything," and is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a chance for fans of the show to grill the creator and former showrunner about any questions they can conjure up. The AMA was lengthy and candid, with Harmon not shying away from sensitive subjects such as his feud with cast member Chevy Chase. It also revealed one of the sources of that feud. Harmon explained that Chevy had issues with the script and failed to show up to film the tag scene in the season finale, "Digital Estate Planning." The scene in question would have incorporated footage from an 8-bit videogame. Now a dedicated Community fan has gone to the trouble of recreating that game and posting it online for anyone to download.
The scene in question involved Abed giving Pierce (Chase) a thumb drive containing a videogame where an 8-bit Pierce throws baseballs at the giant floating head of his late father. Each time he threw a ball, the game would award him 1,000 points and Dad's head would offer an encouraging "Great job, son!" The scene wrapped up Pierce's often-addressed daddy issues, and would have ended with Pierce leaning over to hug Abed and a fade to black. Even just typing that you can feel what an emotionally powerful scene it would have been. Unfortunately we'll never get to see that Pierce/Abed hug, but we can see the game that would have precipitated it.
Community fans have been working to recreate the videogame, dubbed Journey to the Center of Hawthorne, ever since it was mentioned in the episode. After Harmon described the scene during the AMA, Reddit user /r/hawkthorne went to work recreating the videogame. Now that lost scene, at least in a small way, can live on.
As Boing Boing explains, the resurrected videogame has already won over some fans from the show. Community writer Megan Ganz reportedly teared up while watching it, and then shared it with the rest of the writing staff this morning. It's a great little moment from a show that has inspired passion in the fans from the get-go. Let's hope that Community's new showrunners can keep the bar of quality high.
You can download the videogame recreation here, and you can read more from Dan Harmon's AMA right here.
