During Wednesday’s PaleyFest at L.A.’s Dolby Theater, the cast and producers of NBC’s “Community” introduced a first look at its animated homage to “G.I. Joe.”
The episode, which airs Thursday, April 3 at 8 p.m., re-imagines the study group as military heroes just like the ’80’s cartoon.
Creator and executive producer Dan Harmon predicted that the episode, which celebrates the toy companies and their memorable toys, will be “ratings dynamite.”
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In true “Community” fashion, the producers and crew are still working up to the last minute to finish the episode with just more than a week before it’s set to air, the producers said.
Titled “G.I. Jeff,” the episode centers on Jeff (Joel McHale), who has a mystery that he needs to get to the bottom of in this trek through the land of “G.I. Joe.”
In the preview, cast members Gillian Jacobs as Buzzkill and Danny Pudi as Fourth Wall voice their characters in a P.S.A. that harkens back to the ones that “G.I. Joe” offered with every episode with the tagline, “And knowing is half the battle.”
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The series about a group of friends who bonded over their years at a community college has aired several nontraditional episodes like this over its previous seasons, including an episode in the style of an 8-bit video game, a stop-motion Christmas episode and a musical puppet episode.
Watch the animated preview above.
