While Community writer Dan Harmon may be returning to the cult sitcom this season, he is also working on an animated comedy for Adult Swim, titled Rick and Morty, created by Justin Roiland. During Adult Swim’s TCA Summer 2013 press tour panel Wednesday, Harmon praised the cable network and talked about what makes working for broadcast networks different.
According to Deadline, Harmon called Adult Swim executive VP Mike Lazzo a “bona fide genius, especially in the world of network executives.” When asked if cable was a better place to work than broadcast, he said that Lazzo “has the autonomy and the humility and the mental power to actually take a script, recognize it as what it is, a document, read it and then tell you what his reactions are to it as an individual.”
Harmon added that cable doesn’t have to worry about whether or not people will like something like broadcast executives do and that Lazzo doesn’t get in the way of the creative process. “On the NBC side, it’s even better,” Harmon added.
The New York Daily News notes that Harmon really tried to avoid questions about NBC and Community. He did just speak about the show at Comic-Con over the weekend, after all.
He did say that the Community situation is different from other sitcoms. “Honestly, it's a big, giant, complicated machine when you have a giant studio like Sony and a giant network like NBC in a marriage,” he explained.
If Community’s fifth season is it, he said that he would be open to working with a broadcast network again and is happy that he’s back to work on the show. When asked about his firing after season three, he said, “Everyone who is powerful and controls things and has lots of money – I’m sure they meant no harm and are very good people.”
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