Actor and producer Donald Glover starred on Community for years, playing the role of the beloved Troy Barnes. The show amassed quite a cult following in its six seasons, earning some impressive ratings at times. In fact, the show worked so well that the cast is currently wrapping up production on the Community movie.
But believe it or not, Glover was blissfully unaware of the show’s popularity when he was on it, at least at first. It took a trip over the Canadian border for him to realize he was famous.
Community, which debuted in 2009, starred Joe McHale as Jeff Winger, a disbarred lawyer suspended from his firm when he was busted for lying about having a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. He enrolls in Glendale Community College in Colorado in order to earn a legitimate degree.
Winger is immediately attracted to his classmate Britta. So he pretends to run a study group to spend time with her. Britta invites classmates Abed, Shirley, Annie, Troy, and Pierce. They all become friends despite their wildly different personalities, values, and political affiliations. Other quirky characters include the college’s flamboyant dean, Craig Pelton, and mentally unstable professor (and eventual classmate) Ben Chang.
Glover was on the show from the beginning until the middle of Season 5. Then, he departed to focus on his music career and other opportunities. However, he recently confirmed that he will appear in the movie, which is exciting to the show’s fans. His character, Troy, is very popular.
The moment Glover realized he was on a hit show
Recently, Glover discussed his most iconic characters for GQ. Regarding his time on Community, he honed in on a lot of skills, like improv and having to ADR (automated dialogue replacement) entire episodes. But the real shocker came when he admitted he didn’t know the show was popular until he took a trip to Canada.
“We had no clue that, like, people were watching Community,” Glover said, adding that the team at NBC made it very clear to the cast that the show was “a bomb” and “garbage.”
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“It was just like, you know, we weren’t the cool show,” Glover said. “Everybody was like, ‘Parks and Rec has all the cool people.’ We were kind of like, ‘Oh, I guess we’re kind of the misfits.’” He assumed that he was on a “silly show” that no one really cared about.
That all changed when Glover did a show in Canada, and, much to his surprise, people were “going crazy.”
“Everybody wanted me to do the handshake with them,” he said. “It was very intense… I didn’t realize people cared that much.”
Since the Community movie was announced last fall, fans have wondered who will return and who won’t. Obviously, Chevy Chase won’t be in it. His character was killed off on the show after the actor blurted out a racial slur on-set during Season 4. Until recently, Glover hadn’t confirmed his involvement, either. But it looks as though we haven’t seen the last of Troy Barnes.
Hopefully, reprising his role will be healing for Glover. He has admitted to dealing with personal issues around the time he left the show. The now-39-year-old’s social media rants about how people perceived him as his Community character and his Childish Gambino musical persona concerned his fans. Fortunately, Glover seems to be in a good place now. He’ll make a great addition to the upcoming movie.
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