Last week, it was announced that Yvette Nicole Brown — who plays Shirley — would be leaving Community before its sixth and (presumably) final season over on Yahoo to care for her ailing father. Brown had asked to be released from her contract for “personal reasons,” but everyone involved was copacetic with the situation. Dan Harmon wished her the best, and — since they parted on good terms — Brown agreed that she’d be happy to come back in the final season to do guest stints on Community.
At the time, however, we knew that she wasn’t giving up her gig as a recurring character on CBS’s new version of The Odd Couple, with Matthew Perry. She had said that The Odd Couple was much less demanding than Community, so she would still have far more time to care for her sick father.
This weekend, however, it was announced that Yvette Nicole Brown’s recurring role on The Odd Couple had been upped to series regular. Now, if you were a cynical, suspicious person, you might think, “That’s strange. I wonder if Brown used her father’s illness as an excuse to get out of her contract on Community to take a (probably) higher paying, more reliable gig on a CBS sitcom”?
And the answer to that is, yes, she probably did, but probably not (just) for the money, but because apparently, the weekly time commitment is much shorter on The Odd Couple than on Community, as she explained on Twitter.
I hope this helps folks who may be a bit confused. A single-camera work week is about 80 hours. A multi-cam work week is about 20 hours.
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) October 5, 2014
And please, don’t get any ideas about ulterior motives, folks.
Beyond that, I have always been a person of integrity. My reasons for leaving #Community have been stated. This new blessing is just that.
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) October 5, 2014
In other words, Brown seems to be saying, “Shut up, mind your own business, and let me lead my life the way I think is best for me and mine.” I’m OK with that, and as always, we wish her the very best of luck with her father, and with her new job on Perry’s sitcom (let’s hope that Perry can finally break his own Friends curse).
Source: TVLine
