NBC’s ‘Community’ season 4 spoilers: How Chevy Chase will be written out

It’s been a solid week now since the news first broke that Chevy Chase and “Community” were to part ways, and we now know a little bit more information when it comes to just how producers for the gem-of-a-comedy are planning to do in order to make Pierce Hawthorne’s exit makes sense.  As you would expect for this show, even without Dan Harmon in tow, it is a pretty ballsy move.

According to TVLine, the season 4 finale for the show was deliberately shot out of sequence so that Chase would be a part of the episode, and the ending was designed as a massive cliffhanger in which the fate of several characters’ lives are left in the balance. Therefore, if a season 5 happens and Chase is not there, no one will be surprised.

First of all, how much guts did it take to give this show a cliffhanger considering the low ratings? This is basically “Community” daring NBC to cancel them and face the wrath of fans in felt goatees. A season 5 still seems like a longshot, but anything can happen given that so many of NBC’s shows are tanking out, and 13 more episodes would bring the show up to the 88-episode threshold needed for syndication.

One final thing to share when it comes to Chevy: even though the actor left the show before shooting the eleventh and twelfth episodes of the series, producers are still looking for some alternative ways to include Pierce’s character? Are they go to splice together old footage a la Chef in “South Park”? We don’t know, but considering the creativity of these people they will surely come up with something.

What do you think of the show’s currently-planned cliffhanger, and do you think it may help to make season 5 a possibility? If you want to read some more scoop on season 4, you can do so over here.

Photo: NBC