They say dying is easy, comedy’s hard. Apparently, that’s because of all the backstage stuff that goes down behind the scenes at sitcoms like TWO AND A HALF MEN and COMMUNITY. Today, we thought we’d offer up a little advice to the latter on how to handle the fact their new season will be somewhat* Chevy Chase free. Hey, just because you’re losing the actor doesn’t mean you have to lose the character, right?
Remember how much we all enjoyed MURPHY BROWN’s rotating stable of secretaries? Well, what if each week, a different guest star played Pierce? We can see the guest gig becoming a wildly sought-after gig, with everyone from William Shatner to Courtney Love.
Pierce isn’t the only old dude attending Greendale Community College. Imagine if following a tragic karaoke accident, an emergency braineotomy (hey, we’re not doctors!), Pierce’s brain was transplanted into Leonard’s body. Hey, it could happen… at least, it could on a show where Craig Pelton is allowed to be a school’s Dean!
COMMUNITY fans have always loved watching the show rip-off… er, sorry, pay homage to… pop culture. So why not have Pierce recreate one of the most famous deaths in television history by having him fall down an elevator shaft ala L.A. LAW’s Rosalind Shays?
Pay an intern to watch every past episode of the show and create an index of every line uttered by Pierce. The writers could then work said lines into each new script. Continuity be damned as, within a single scene, Pierce’s lines feature him in five different wardrobes in three different settings as clips from past shows featuring the necessary lines of dialogue are edited into the new episode!
Everybody loves to watch a car wreck, so why not recast the part of Pierce with Lindsay Lohan? After all, she bears at least as much resemblance to Chevy Chase as she did Elizabeth Taylor! 
* Editor’s Note: According to TVLine, “the Season 4 finale, which was shot out of sequence once word came down that Chase was exiting, includes a cliffhanger that leaves the fate of several characters up in the air — one of them being Pierce.” As a result, should NBC renew the show for a fifth season, it won’t be tough to explain why Pierce is MIA. “[Episode 413] wasn’t intended to set up his departure,” notes an source. “It just worked out that way.”