When Community returns for Season 5 on Thursday, it will also mark the return of the show’s creator, Dan Harmon. Harmon returning to the show was a big surprise, given the less than happy circumstances around his departure, but many involved in the series credit Joel McHale for playing a huge role in pushing for it to happen. When I spoke to McHale on the set of the show, we discussed bringing Harmon back to the series and the other changes in store for Community this season, including Jeff Winger becoming a teacher.

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Joel McHale as Jeff Winger in Community.

Well, it's like someone's giving you a new tank of air underwater, and now you can breath again. It's the restoration of what the show is and who the show was created by. The show is in Dan's brain, and that's why last year was kind of all over the place. One of the episodes was written by Jim Rash, which was a really good episode. Megan Ganz and Andy Bobrow were there, but it just wasn't the same, because everything comes out of Dan. The impetus starts with Dan. Obviously, Dan's particular brand of comedy for Community is very distinct, and that was lost last year.Instantly. First page. Yeah. It was like the old days when we'd read a script and go, "Don't change a word," and "Why can't television comedies be half an hour long instead of 20 minutes now?" You guys don't see it, but Dan will write a script, and it'll be 33 pages long, and stuff has to come out. Comedies now are 21 and a half minutes. Commercial breaks are so ridiculously long now. I wish there was a version we could show in the DVDs where we shot everything and showed everything that you would have seen, because I think they're that good. I've always been pretty vocal about how good the writing is. You can see what we're doing in there. I am as happy as a schoolboy to do these scripts. I know I'll look back on this time whenever -- hopefully we'll go six seasons, or f**k it, seven seasons are fine with me -- I know I'll look back on this time as getting to be a part of one of those creative things in television history.Yeah, that's about right. I was very vocal about it, because as I said, the show's in his brain. I think if we want to get to six seasons and a movie or seven seasons and a movie or eight seasons and a movie, we need Dan. I took a lot of meetings, and Jim Rash and I spent a lot of time with each other working, figuring out what needs to happen. So yeah, having him back is like the spell has been lifted, it's just been great. It's so clear now. The shows all go together in a way like Game of Thrones or I guess more like X-Files, in that there's big story stuff about where the whole thing's going and side stories that can exist on their own. There's one B story this year that is I think possibly one of the greatest B stories ever written -- that I'm not going to tell you about.Nope, not gonna tell you anything. Uh, it is being shot for television. I'll tell you that.Okay, that'll be good. Believe me, last year was pretty stressful. I mean, not stressful in relation to people who have really stressful things, like being soldiers or air traffic controllers or people taking aid to Sierra Leone. But I'm just so happy. I know these scripts are some of the best that we've ever done, and I think the fans will be thrilled.

Continue to Page 2 as McHale discusses cast changes in Season 5 and Jeff becoming a Greendale teacher.