Dan Harmon recently conducted an AMA on Reddit, in which he revealed that in the emotionally charged season finale of Community, "Digital Estate Planning," Chevy Chase didn't show up to film a scene that was partially told via an original 8-bit video game. Since it was the last day of shooting, it was their last chance to do the scene, and they lost it. So one Reddit user, Derferman, of /r/hawkthorne, created the scene and made it downloadable for everyone to play out the scene for themselves. Community writer Megan Ganz was positively verklempt and showed it to the cast this morning.

It is a full-on Community-Harmontown lovefest, kids.

Harmon, who proved himself to be an extremely human human being in this AMA, didn't hold back when asked about the Chevy Chase question. Probably not because he no longer runs his show, but because he is Dan Harmon. And while there were no secrets that Harmon and Chase had, ahem, issues towards the end of the third season, the former didn't shy away from providing details about Chase walking off the set and his own disappointment. According to Harmon in the AMA, Chase expressed issues with the quality of the script, that he had problems with the name "Cornelius" (the name of his character's father), and all sorts of things that reminded everyone that Chevy Chase has never been easy to work with. (To his credit, Harmon has never once claimed to be a saint.) A shiny new revelation that did come out of the AMA, however, was that there was a lost scene that would have been great, and the fact that it was lost is a huge bummer. But now, it lives in the form of a fan-made video game.

The game, Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne, has been an ongoing project since the episode aired, but this scene is new, now that a new part of the story has been introduced. And it is making people feel serious feelings. The scene involves Chase's character, Pierce, playing catch with the floating head of his late father, and hearing "That's my boy!" while scoring a thousand points every time he throws the ball. All of this happens while the Britta-bot music from last season's stop-motion Christmas episode plays, a song that causes even more emotional crying events in Community fans. Upon scoring 4,000 points, sad Pierce finally smiles.

Ganz had promised to show the cast and crew the game, and reported back this morning that they loved it. Though she did avoid showing it to Chase ("Didn't want to stir that pot"). Probably for the best.

It might not be a winner in ye olde fashioned ratings. As Harmon put it, "network TV doesn't know the internet exists yet." But Community's internet fan base is alive and well, even with the changing of the guards.

The missing Digital Estate Planning "tag" -- Pierce and his Dad [Reddit]

Thanks, Christian!

And could Community pull a Buffy and find more success at a different network?

While Harmon's new show is signed-and-sealed official news, the latter question about a possible network move by Community is merely a thought I've had lately. And while others may have thought of it, it probably doesn't even qualify as conjecture. But could it be worth a thought? After all, Fox has now brought on that show's creator to write a pilot for a multi-camera comedy show. That's all we know about it, no premises, no casting speculation, nothing concrete yet (if we're going by TV Guide, anyway). This won't even be Harmon's first show for Fox -- maybe you remember Heat Vision and Jack, about the talking motorcycle played by Owen Wilson that belonged to Jack Black. Harmon co-wrote that show, and after it left the air in 1999 (the same year it began), it became a cult favorite. In fact, it only went as far as the pilot, so that's a pretty culty cult following.

But fast forward just a couple of years and Fox airs another cult favorite, Arrested Development. It becomes an instant favorite with fans, but never really hits its stride in the ratings. While it is praised by critics, the cancellation question is constantly hanging over it. In 2006, that finally happens, and a specific portion of the TV audience mourns while everyone else discovers it a year too late. (But it's doing fine now, gearing up for its huge Netflix comeback, and Ron Howard has proof for us in the form of a script.)

Something to keep in mind, however, is that when Arrested Development was not winning the ratings, reality shows and American Idol were. And that's simply not the case anymore. Now, while American Idol meanders into oblivion (despite the addition of the fabulous Mariah Carey as a judge), Fox has become the home of silly, quirky scripted television -- Glee, its animation block featuring the Seth McFarlane brand of comedy, Fringe, its live-action sitcoms. This is not the Fox of 2006. This is the channel that NBC is too timid to become. And that could be the perfect place for Dan Harmon (besides Adult Swim, where he also developing a show) -- and maybe even Community. It's just a thought.

Fox eyes comedy from Community's Dan Harmon [The Hollywood Reporter]

I have mixed feelings about Kickstarter. However, I don't have mixed feelings about Dan Harmon (Community), Dino Stamatopoulos (Moral Orel, Mary Shelley's Frankenhole), and Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaption, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). And the thought of them working together and making something is really, really exciting. Probably even exciting enough to warrant giving money to a Kickstarter campaign, which is exactly what they're doing! In an attempt to bypass the studio system and the corporate entertainment world completely -- which is totally not a statement on the way Harmon was fired from the show he created by NBC, nope! -- the trio are hoping to raise $200,000 on Kickstarter in order to make a 40-minute stop-motion film called Anomalisa (and some other projects) and do it without any meddling from executive types. I have a feeling they will probably accomplish this.

Let's address the elephant in the room: The obvious selling point in the video on Kickstarter (which is, by itself, pretty great) is that it's very existence promises no corruption by a studio system that would try to change it for the sake of ratings, advertising, and all those other dirty, dirty Hollywood sausage factory things that we don't want to think about. Because that is exactly what meant the end of Dan Harmon's tenure as Community's showrunner, and that sucked. It still sucks. And we will get through it. In the meantime, there is Starburns Industries.

Yes -- Starburns! The character played by Stamatopoulos on Community who died near the end of the season... or did he? A very fitting metaphor for Harmon himself.

Not that there is anything wrong with this, and it will probably mean a huge success for this campaign. News of its existence hit the web yesterday and it's already raised over $82,000. The campaign ends September 9th, at which point it will probably make double the intended amount. But that means more money for more projects that may or may not include the input of Robert Smigel and Louis C.K., who has also seen great success by instituting a more democratic way of disseminating his product.

So, what is Anomalisa about? Written by Kaufman, the short plot summary says "The film is about a man crippled by the mundanity of his life." Splitsider has this longer version:

The film follows a celebrated motivational speaker travelling the country, changing the lives of countless people. But in the course of transforming others, his life has become hollow and meaningless. It’s a grey and monotonous existence where people literally look and sound identical. Suddenly one day, a girl’s voice pierces through the veil of nothingness. She fills him with such a rush of “aliveness”, he’s willing to abandon everything and everyone, including his own family, and escape with her to a better life.

The very idea of Harmon, Stamatopoulos, and Kaufman working together is going to be enough for a lot of people to say "Shut up and take my money," and as is part of the deal with Kickstarter, some of those people will be rewarded with prizes for their contributions. Those prizes are not too shabby, either, even for small donations: $20 will get you a digital download of the finished film (after it's been released), but five more dollars will also get you a "downloadable set of Anomalisa Character Designs and Artwork from the film." Contributions in the triple digits will get you things like signed scripts, a tour of Starburns Industries during production, and tickets to the premiere.

Some people might be tempted to give things like "their left nut" to see this made, but there are no prizes mentioned for that specific and visceral of a contribution. So, feel free to hold onto that nut. (via Splitsider)