Danny Pudi has gotten to go to some very odd and very fascinating places as Abed Nadir in Community , and that looks to continue in a big way in Season 5. This season, Abed will be saying goodbye to his best friend, Troy, as Donald Glover leaves the series. When I visited the set of the show this fall, a few weeks after Glover had wrapped up his work, I spoke to Pudi about what to expect in the new season and what it’s like exploring Abed without Troy in his life.

Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir in Community: Season 5.

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I'm glad to be back. This is I think the eighth episode this season, something like that? I'm still being surprised, which is wonderful. If we're looking at it, this would be episode number 92 of Community. The fact that I'm still being surprised is... I mean, yesterday there were two scenes where it was very hard for me to keep a straight face. So that is a wonderful thing.It's amazing. I think that's a big part of why I'm saying these things, with Dan and Chris McKenna. It just breathes new life. It's another way to bring new life back to this group, which is so nice. The thing about our show is week to week it is so new and different. It feels spontaneous. It's good to keep having new energy here. It's just exciting. From the beginning, this all spawned out of Dan's twisted and funny and beautiful view of humanity. Especially for me personally, playing Abed, there's no one who's written dialogue for Abed in a way as honestly and as personal to me as Dan. So having that back is just exciting. It's really, really exciting. And with everything that's happened this year. It's been a really weird year, with Chevy leaving and now with Donald leaving, us never knowing if we're going to be on the air or not. It's just nice to have Dan back, because there's a little bit of "we're starting again from the beginning." We're re-grounding ourselves, and it's really good. The thing that I love about our show is I get to say that we're in our fifth season, we're starting syndication, and I still feel like we're just starting. That's really, really exciting. It's been really, really good -- and weird, which I love. It's very weird this year. It's a really fun, weird year.That's a lot to deal with. Man, that's the first time I thought of it… No! [Laughs] In some ways, like you said, it's a little overwhelming. At the start of the season, there is a little bit of a reset, where we all come together again. You see that not everyone is in the best place. In many ways we realized that this group has been the best experience for a lot of us. For Abed, certainly, it's been the best experience of his life. It's been the first time he's had a truly great friendship with Troy. It's the first time he's been accepted unconditionally by a group, in a social setting. He's learned a lot, but I don't know how much he's grown outside the walls of Greendale, that kind of thing. So we start to deal with that a little bit this year, which is really nice. There's a lot of simple lessons, going back to simple lessons, honest reflection. Honest reflection is how we start. The big thing that we started with and we just finished up was addressing the loss of Troy in Abed's life, which is a big thing. I think for most people it's always been such a great component of our show, such a fun part, not just to watch, but as an actor, I love being with and playing with Donald, because we would show up to set, and they'd be like, "What are you guys gonna want to do today?" It was always fun, because it was pretty easy. We would show up, and they'd give us Bert and Ernie and some sweaters, and we'd have fun making stuff up. The writers would give us great, great material to work with, and that was fun. So losing that aspect of the show I think was something that I was definitely scared of, and it was hard, but Dan and Chris and the writers did a great job of writing that story honestly and giving it a really good ending. It's a really nice, sweet ending, so I was excited about that. I guess the first third of the season was spent doing that.Now, after that, we're kind of moving in a new direction with the show, because now John Oliver has been back, and Jonathan Banks is here. Chang is a presence as well. Last week I had a scene where it was me, John Oliver, Jonathan Banks, Gillian and Jim Rash -- I believe it was just us -- and I've never had that combination on this show before. It was an incredible scene. It was really fun, super exciting and just totally different. It was a completely different thing. You know, we're all intimidated by Jonathan Banks, because he's incredible. He's such a good actor, such a strong actor. He makes you step up your game. Then having John Oliver back, fresh off his Daily Show stint, having Jim Rash -- it felt good.

Continue to Page 2 as Pudi describes more of Abed without Troy and the great tags at the end of Community episodes he's often a part of.