Highlights from Joel McHale’s feature include:
- “Acting was always my first love. That’s what I trained as. I just ended up doing all these other things in between.” – Joel McHale reflects on how he had longed for this day when he is seen as an actor, and not merely a comedian or host.
- Joel McHale shares how he convinced his wife to move to L.A. so that he could pursue acting. – “Just give me five years to see if it can work. And if it doesn’t, I’ll go back to Seattle and I’ll do weather and traffic on a country station, and that’ll be fine.”
- “Someone once told me that 90 percent of all art is crap, and 10 percent is tremendous. I think it’s the same way with TV. And there’s just more TV than there was, so the more crap we see, the more great stuff there is. It’s getting worse and better at the same time. Anyway, it must be a golden age. I’m on two shows!” – Joel McHale on his belief that television is experiencing another golden age.
- “Joel is a delight. He’s naturally funny and athletic, which is important. Because all comedy is physical…Whether it’s a gesture or lifting an eyebrow. But I’m a better eyebrow guy. – “Community” co-star and comedy icon Chevy Chase on McHale’s comedic attributes.
- “Community” creator-executive producer Dan Harmon discusses McHale’s character Jeff Winger, who was inspired by Bill Murray’s characters in the 1981 film Stripes and the 1979 film Meatballs. – “He’s a solipsist, he’s status–oriented, he’s materialistic and vain. He thinks there’s a video game of life that has to be won, and he’s going to do it on his own terms. He’s not of the usual male leads of sitcoms who are required to divest themselves of their masculinity at the door. He’s not a stumbling fumbler. He’s more [from] the vintage school of supreme leader. He’s tall and handsome and he thinks he’s always right.”
