LOS ANGELES — Dan Harmon entered an editing suite on the Paramount lot here, planning to cut a minute from an overlong episode of “Community.” Before he finished tinkering with its opening sequence, it was nearly another minute longer.

Mr. Harmon was sweating every minuscule detail in this NBC comedy he created about misfit friends at a lackluster community college. Should he slice a few frames from a one-liner delivered by his lead actor, Joel McHale? Add more frames? Rerecord the dialogue entirely?

Having had “Community” wrested from him and then given back to him, Mr. Harmon could have been celebrating this reversal of fortune — proof, perhaps, that he should be allowed to make “Community” exactly as he wants.

Instead, he was in a familiarly fussy, insecure mood, and he disagreed. “I’m not flattered by it, and I don’t feel vindicated or boosted by it,” he said earlier.