‘Community’ Season 4: Dan Harmon Previews the Nicolas Cage Episode That Never Was

Despite 'Community' having aired only one episode under new show-runners Moses Port and David Guarascio, the debate continues to rage over the show's continued quality, and differences from the show's creator and previous show-runner Dan Harmon. That debate was no less prevalent at this past weekend's "CommuniCon," where Harmon spoke out about the show at length. In particular, Harmon revealed one of the many concept episodes as a potential Nicolas Cage episode that never materialized! Find out about the 'Community' that never was inside!

It remains to be seen how the remainder of 'Community's fourth season will shake out after the past week's premiere "History 101," but fans of the series no doubt hope for more of the many concept episodes that gave 'Community' its buzz in the first place. Not all of series creator Dan Harmon's ideas made it to fruition however, as the creator recently revealed at "CommuniCon" that a Nicolas Cage-themed episode had been in development, but never made it past the conceptual phase:

For two seasons we wanted to do an episode where Jeff Winger pretended there was a class called ‘Nicolas Cage Appreciation,’ and then the Dean caught them and as punishment to them he was going to make that a real class and force them to watch all the Nicolas Cage movies in one night.

The thing about Nicolas Cage movies is… unless you’re a total cynical dick, you have to embrace the fact that Nicolas Cage is a pretty good actor. He’s done a lot of weird, dumb movies, but that was supposed to be the point of the episode — that Nicolas Cage is a metaphor for God, or for society, or for the self, or something. It’s like — what is Nicolas Cage? What is he? Is he an idiot? Or a genius? Can you write him off, or is he inexplicably bound to your soul?

It isn't clear exactly why the episode never materialized, or if the current writing staff under port and Guarascio might revisit the concept, but 'Community' fans have more to worry about a fifth season than the episodes therein. "History 101" provided a nice ratings boost for the series and a struggling NBC in particular, but isn't a guarantee of future 'Community' beyond the next 12 episodes.

What say you, Cage fans of the world? Would a Nicolas Cage episode have been 'Community's most internet-baitable yet? What other concept episodes would you like to see the series tackle?

(Via Warming Glow)