<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Community creator Dan Harmon has admitted that he relates to the show&amp;#039;s character Abed. Harmon told Zap2It that Abed, played by Danny Pudi, began the show as a commentator. &amp;quot;He was a sidekick kind of a character,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;But that was there as a safety valve for anybody who was so sick of TV and didn&amp;#039;t trust it anymore. Here he was a fan of everything in the past and also now a fan of what you were watching with him.&amp;quot; Harmon continued: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s really hard to launch what you want to be a classic sitcom. Where people just trust the characters, believe they&amp;#039;re real and stuff. Abed was an emergency sort of nitro tank for that. You know his ability to sort of caress the fourth wall, thereby shoring it up in my opinion.&amp;quot; However, Harmon suggested that Abed has become more of a character as the series has progressed. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m really more identifying with Abed and becoming him more,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s me now in many ways. Everybody has some kind of trait that I am making fun of about myself. But Abed really kind of has a lot in common with me, so that&amp;#039;s really all I can say. He is sort of the umbilical point through which the writers are able to be invested in the show.&amp;quot; Community continues on Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/community/news/a286296/community-exec-relates-to-abed/>