Fun Facts from the interview with Joel McHale

• People got mad at Joel for asking if the Tiger King should be in jail, which was never meant to be a hard hitting question. In fact all of the guests thought he should be in jail.
• The Darkest Timeline Podcast began when Joel and Ken had a lot of time with all of their gigs cancelled due to COVID-19.
• Monty Python, Sanford and Son, Flipper, Manimal, Sesame Street, Star Trek the Next Generation, MST3K, Cheers, Family Ties, Fawlty Towers, and The Cosby Show were all big influences on Joel.
• Friends from Catholic school led Joel down a path of doing plays which got him into acting.
• Joel’s friend Nick from that time was Mankini on The Soup.
• Joel graduated with his MFA from University of Washington, then was on a television show in Seattle called Almost Five, where Bill Nye also came out of.
• Joel did a showcase in 2000 in LA with no response. He did another in NY and had some good responses there, but still moved to LA with his wife because he wanted to be in TV and movies.
• He booked The Soup without an agent.
• He then moved into doing pilots and booked the IT Crowd.
• Giants of Radio was another pilot, which got huge reception, and also starred Danny Pudi.
• IT Crowd got picked up, but didn’t make it. Then Joel did The Informant. And then finally, Community.
• Community was actually one of many pilots that Joel read for that year, but he knew it was special at the time and something he really wanted to land.
• He read for The Russos, then Dan, who started championing him. Joel read for the network, who them promptly rejected him. Dan had Joel read again on tape, and only at that point did the network agree to cast him.
• On GI Jeff – Joel grew up with GI Joe, and loved it.
• Joel would be very excited to make the movie.
• After the table read, Donald said he would do the movie. and Alison.
• Joel would be a 10/10 to do a movie.
• Jim Rash lived in Joel’s guest house for almost nine months, so by Community standards Jeff ends up with Dean, not with Britta or Annie.
• Joel is very thankful for all of the wonderful guest stars they managed to get, just a few: Malcolm McDowell, Mitch Hurwitz, Nathan Fillon, Nick Kroll, Tim and Eric.
• Trending on Netflix for a few weeks really did change Joel’s perspective on the show, after so many years of living on the edge of cancellation.
• Only guest stars Joel can think of he wishes had been on the show was Samuel L Jackson.
• Of favorite Winger speeches – Joel goes to defending Chang. He remembers NBC removing a line where Jeff says “He’s Chinese, but he seems Korean.”
• Joel also really remembers the Pilot Winger speech since he had to rehearse it so many times to land the role.
• Joel relates to Jeff in the skepticism, sarcasm and insecurity – but has been married for a long time and has kids, so diverges significantly there.
• Joel’s Chevy story – first time he met Chevy, he said “Hi my name is Joel” and they shook hands. And Chevy didn’t say a word and that was that.
• On a possible quarantine-style episode for Community, Joel thinks that is unlikely, since unlike Mythic Quest, Community is no longer a show in production. But given a funding source anything is possible.
• What’s next for Joel?
  • Guest stars on Stargirl
  • A movie called Becky with Kevin James and Lulu Wilson
  • The game show Card Sharks
  • An unnamed pilot with writers Joel knows well
  • A movie called Happily
  • The Twilight Zone

Research Thanks To: MinotaurMan