LeVar Burton To Play Himself On ‘Community’ + Joins Pilot For ‘Perception’

Another sitcom is looking to a Star Trek star to play himself. Star Trek: The Next Generation’s LeVar Burton revealed today he is currently shooting a guest spot playing himself on the NBC comedy Community. In addition, Burton has joined the cast of the drama Perception, from Trek vets Ken Biller and Mike Sussman.  More info and pictures from both shoots below.

 

Burton to play self on Community

This year the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory has had Star Trek actors George Takei and Wil Wheaton do guest spots playing themselves. Now it seems the NBC sitcom Community is trying to catch up. For their Halloween special they had George Takei do a voice-over (take a listen), and today LeVar Burton announced he was shooting an upcoming episode Community by tweeting a picture of a Community call sheet, and the message "Back on the Paramount lot. On the set of…"

Back on the Paramount lot. On the set of...
#memories on Twitpic

Burton was of course referring to returning to Paramount, where he spent many years shooting Star Trek: The Next Generation and the TNG movies. Burton later revealed who he would be playing by tweeting the following picture, with the comment "In this episode of @nbccommunity I play…"

Burton also tweeted a picture of himself with Community’s Donald Glover:

Burton joins Biller/Sussman "Perception" pilot

Speaking of what LeVar is up to, it was also revealed over the weekend that LeVar Burton shot a role for the pilot of the new TNT drama Perception. As TrekMovie previously reported, Perception is about eccentric university professor Dr. Geoffrey Pierce (played by Eric McCormack), an eccentric and brilliant neuropsychiatry professor who works with the FBI solve complex cases. The show was created by Star Trek writer/producer vets Mike Sussman and Ken Biller. Over the weekend Sussman tweeted a photo of Burton with Biller, shooting the Perception pilot in Toronto. Sussman revealed Burton will be playing a character named "Paul Haley", but no other details yet.

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1. Create awesome show
2. Add awesome guest star
3. ???
4. Profit

“Community” needs its numbers to get up, but it’s the best comedy series on the air (except maybe for 30 Rock).

Always nice to see former (or can they ever be truly former?) Trek actors doing shows and or/movies.

Geordi LaForge was the most relatable of the TNG crew in my opinion.
He had a disability, (which didn’t stop him from flying the ship early on, HAH!), didn’t have much of a social life, spent a lot of time working, and had trouble finding love.

I loved how high-strung and slightly irreverent Geordi was in the first season of TNG. You could tell Burton was having a lot of fun with the role (he seemed like the only one—besides Spiner—to be enjoying himself). Thankfully, the rest of the cast more or less settled into their roles over the course of the second season. By the third, it was all good. :)

I loved that in the last episode “All Good Things” it was suggested that Georgi married Leah Brahms, the scientist whose hologram avatar he fell in love with.

…and this whole “virtual love” episodes predated the internet and online games for many years.

The quality of episode of “Community” range from “Good” to “Brilliant”. Looking forward to this one.

Very much enjoy ‘Community.’ This should be good. Levar always brings something to whatever project he’s on. Wonder if there’ll be more TNG references, or whether they’ll poke fun of ‘Reading Rainbow.’ Or hell, ‘Roots.’

I think making fun of “Roots” is crossing the line.

It´s like Seinfeld making out in “Schindler´s List “.

Apparently just above LeVar’s name on the list is Donald Glover who will be playing Counselor Troi – although spelt differently! LOL

Does Perception sound similar (although obviously different) to Lie To Me?

It’s probably me just getting my isolinear chips mixed up…

Yay, Community! Currently my favorite network TV show. Go Human Beings!

No one could sigh as well or as often as Geordi LaForge.

#1… No non-animated comedy on TV better than “The Office” and “Modern Family”.

LOOOOOOOOOOOVE that show. I am excited.

#2

Most unintentionally funny meta-post ever?

And, as an aside, Geordi was always the most troubling male character on the show, at least for me. He was both desexualized and a racial/ethnic/cultural void.

A cultural void? Like he had no race/culture/ethnicity? As if he was Canadian?

I thought he started out as really easy-to-relate-to/likable and then, as the seasons went on, became a lot less so.

I thought everyone was kind of desexualized, maybe except for yar and ensign ro. Has there ever been a depiction of grown-up sexuality/a relationship in Trek? Maybe Spock and Uhura in Trek 09?

12. Huh? How’s it meta? Or unintentionally funny? It’s a joke/observation — getting laid as a star trek fan isn’t always easy.