‘American Housewife’ Sets up Mini ‘Community’ Reunion in Tonight’s Episode

The American Housewife Season 5 finale premieres on Wednesday night, but Community fans may want to tune in as well! Former co-stars Joel McHale and Jim Rash will share the screen this week for the first time since graduating from Greendale Community College. The unofficial “reunion” has fans looking out for some Dean wordplay.

According to a report by Entertainment Tonight, McHale will guest star as Doyle Bradford on American Housewife, while Rash will play Walker Montgomery as usual. McHale’s character is described as “the richest man in Westport and Cooper (Logan Pepper)’s autocratic father.” In an exclusive preview published by ET, Katie (Katy Mixon) seems to fall for Bradford upon first seeing him, while Walker explains that he’s “not impressed.” Before the scene is over, however, the two Community alumni are chatting with each other.

“You’d think with all that money and those good looks, he’d be a son of a b—,” Walker says in the clip. “And you’d be right. Everyone kisses his ass because he’s the richest man in town, but I come from money, so it doesn’t impress me.” Still, Walker shoos away another group of patrons to make sure Doyle gets seated quickly, then chats with him nervously before leaving Katie to introduce herself.

“I’m Oliver’s mother,” she says, then when Doyle doesn’t seem to recognize her, she says: “Your son lives at our house?” Doyle answers: “Oh! Right! Connie, yes, thank you for looking after Cooper. He loves being at your house. He says it’s like camping.”

Clearly, the dynamic will not differ from Community, where McHale played disgraced lawyer Jeff Winger, and Rash played Dean Craig Pelton. There, the dean tried to play it cool even though he was obviously attracted to Jeff and never missed a chance to touch him, spend time with him or insinuate to others that they were close. At best, Jeff ignored these advances.

Community ran for six seasons in its tumultuous time on TV from 2009 to 2014. It was canceled by NBC after Season 5 but picked up by Yahoo! for the short-lived streaming service Yahoo! Screen. The show’s avid fans rallied around the slogan “six seasons and a movie,” and to this day, many are calling for a feature-length reunion. The cast and creators, including McHale and Rash, continue to support the idea as well.

However, Community fans will need to depend on American Housewife to scratch their reunion itch. The Season 5 finale premieres on Wednesday, March 31 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.