'Community': Dan Harmon Reveals Why He and Chevy Chase Got In That Fight

Lost in the hubbub about Dan Harmon's big feud with Chevy Chase, including all the reports of who left angry voicemails for whom and who insulted whom in front of his family, was exactly how the whole thing got started. It was clear that there was tension between the "Community" showrunner and the veteran comedic actor throughout the show, but there was apparently one moment that made everything boil over.

Now we know what that is, thanks to Reddit and Dan Harmon's new candor following his firing.

Harmon started an "Ask Me Anything" thread on Reddit, and since now he's no longer the showrunner for "Community," he can pretty much say what he wants. So, when someone asked what he had gotten so mad at Chevy over, Harmon gave an honest reply.

Here's the full response:

"He refused to do the "tag" for the Digital Estate Planning episode (the 8 bit video game episode). In the scripted tag, Abed comes to Pierce with the thumb drive he took, and says 'Pierce, I've been able to adjust some of the code for your Dad's video game and I've made a version I think you might like better.' He puts the thumb drive into a laptop in front of Pierce. We cut to the laptop screen, where we see Pierce's avatar on a front lawn with the giant floating head of Cornelius. Every time Pierce presses the space bar, his avatar throws a baseball to his father's head, which gives him a thousand points and a 'great job, son!' Pierce presses the space bar a few times, pauses, then leans over and embraces Abed and we fade to black.

"When Adam Countee pitched that tag, tears instantly rolled down my cheeks, and in point of fact, my eyes are getting watery describing it to you. It was the most important part of the episode and possibly one of the most important moments of the season. I was very upset to hear that it wasn't shot because someone didn't feel like shooting it, especially since it was literally the last day of shooting, which meant we'd never be able to pick it up. I regret nothing about how upset I got. My job was to care about my show."

Now, maybe Chase refusing to shoot that particular scene didn't warrant such a big blowup, but wouldn't that have been a really wonderful moment in the series? That would have been a major moment of vulnerability and emotion for Pierce, who doesn't get many of those... you would think that Chase would have been happy to do it. But he wasn't, and now we'll never see the tearjerker moment.