Title: “Pilot”
Written by: Dan Harmon
Air date: Sept 17th 2009

After it’s discovered that Jeff’s (Joel McHale) law degree is from Columbia (the country not the college) he’s forced to attend Community College in order to earn his degree and continue to practice law.  He sets up a fake Spanish group in order to hit on Britta (Gillian Jacobs) but more show up to his group than planned.

I’ve already done a script review for the pilot so I won’t go over this too much, other than to say that it sticks very closely to what I remember was in the script.  I’ll use this quick review to comment on how the script actually plays out on screen.  And that, in a word, is fantastic.  All that I noticed which didn’t make the transition from the script was the second encounter with the black cafeteria lady in the hallway.  It’s a shame because that was another great exchange between her and Jeff but they probably needed to cut something to get the right length for the episode.

On the cast front, the standouts from the pilot are certainly Jeff, Abed (Danny Pudi) and Duncan (John Oliver).  Chevy Chase really doesn’t do much in this episode other than seem a little creepy.  All three female characters also come off as a little bitchy, but I’m sure there’ll be development in that regard.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

CONCLUSION
The pilot episode contains most of what was in the script save for a few minor adjustments and one or two cuts.  It’s an enjoyable episode which sets the groundwork for future episodes but it’s not the knockout that you hope pilots will be, although this may be because I was already aware of what happened due to reading the script.  I think with some development of the female characters and the show establishing more of a biting edge, rather than the safer middle ground which most sitcoms take, that it could be a good addition to NBC’s Thursday comedy block.  It’s also worth noting that whilst Ken Jeong has been added to the cast he does not appear in this episode.