NBC's Community Thread - 6/2 - Ep. 13: "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"

[bean pie slanga]

Is there still going to be an episode tomorrow or is this real life?

 

[mycoldyourdone]

what if they made christmas episodes? doesnt it totally ruin their timeline?

 

[big j 33]

It was pulled from the mid-season schedule, so as far as I know, the show will continue regularly until the end of the fall season.

 

[thatpersianguy]

I'm midway through Season 2, this is an amazing show, top 3 current comedy show (although it won't be so current after the fall

). Can't decide if I like Parks & Rec better than Community or vice-versa.

 

[livemyreality]

Reading the tweets from cast and it's good to see them also upset about the decision of Community being moved. I don't know if Dan Harmon was joking in one of his tweets, but when the news broke that the show was going to be moved, Harmon tweeted that Chevy Chase didn't even read his lines for the scenes they were filming that day, due to the news. Sucks if Chevy was truly upset. I wish Community to incorporate Clark Griswold. Highly doubt it though. haha

 

[mronegative]

So...Community fans did Community fan things.

 

[mronegative]

• 11/15/11 at 4:00 PM

[h1] Vulture Answers Your Questions About Community’s Future[/h1]

• By Josef Adalian

Yesterday, NBC announced that Community would be pulled from its winter schedule. "Oh hells no!" went Twitter, the Internet, Vulture headquarters, Inspector Spacetime aficionados, and every one who likes their sitcoms fast, clever, referential, genre-deconstructing, and to often feature Joel McHale in his undies and Annie's gif-ready cleavage. "Does this mean Community is canceled? Why would NBC do this? If it's not canceled, will it be soon? And what will happen to Troy and Abed???" But now it's time to take a deep breath and not pull an Abed (i.e. freak out about the mid-season benching of your favorite show, in Abed's case Cougar Town). To help you understand what NBC's decision means for the future of the show, we're asking — and answering — the six big questions raised by the scheduling change.

Oh my God, they've canceled Community! What are we going to do?
Don't make me slap you like Dean Pelton would love to slap Jeff Winger: Community  has not been canceled. Far from it. The show remains in production on the second half of this season, and NBC insiders say there are absolutely no plans to cut back on the episodes already ordered. A Peacock rep told Vulture yesterday that the network was simply putting the show "on the bench for a bit." You know what awesome show NBC put "on the bench" for a few months last season? Parks and Recreation. It felt awful to tune in Thursdays last fall and not find Leslie and Ben and Andy and Tom and Ron Effing Swanson enjoying life in TV's best small town since Mayberry. (The producers were forced to make slideshows for random websites in order to survive.) But just as NBC promised, the show returned. Community will be back as well. What's more, after last year's scare, Parks was ultimately renewed for another season. There is every possibility that this scenario could be repeated with Community.

So why did NBC take Community off the air? Couldn't Whitney have been deep-sixed?
It's just not that simple. Unlike last year's decision to bench Parks for the unproven, unworthy Outsourced, NBC's scheduled shift yesterday was driven mostly by a very admirable goal: turning Up All Night into a bigger hit. Up has been holding its own on Wednesdays. Despite facing monstrous competition from ABC's well-established The Middle, Fox's The X Factor, and CBS's veteran Survivor, Up was posting better ratings at 8 p.m. than more established NBC 8 p.m. shows on other nights, including The Sing-Off, Chuck, and, yes, Community. It was also up about 40 percent from NBC's (admittedly pathetic) performance in the time slot last season, but given how many other NBC shows are underperforming versus last season, that's huge. Finally, Up All Night has proven to be particularly powerful when you add in DVR viewership: It's the most time-shifted comedy on TV right now (on a percentage increase basis), with its adults 18 to 49 rating improving nearly 50 percent.

With Up showing promise, industry experts have been quietly wondering for weeks why NBC hadn't already shifted the show to its must-see Thursday lineup, particularly with Whitney fading behind The Office. NBC execs have been trying to maintain calm in the face of collapsing numbers, so they obviously decided to hold off making any radical changes until January. But guess what was also waiting to come back on the air in January? Yup, 30 Rock. In order to keep 30 Rock on Thursdays and give Up a well-earned chance on the night, NBC had two options: expand to a six-comedy schedule, with laughs in the 10 p.m. hour, or lose two shows currently on the night. While we think six comedies might have been a wiser move, NBC brass clearly aren't ready to give up on finding a drama success at 10 p.m. (which is why The Firm will replace Prime Suspect in the slot). So that means ditching two comedies. Whitney, which has been doing better than Community in the ratings, it sadly needs saying, and has a full season order, was moved to Wednesday.  The Office is still NBC's biggest hit on the night, so it wasn't moving. That left Parks and Community. We don't know exactly why NBC chose one over the other (the network isn't commenting), but since Parks took one for the team last season, perhaps NBC felt it only fair to avoid torturing its fans once again. Community fans should at least take solace in the fact that NBC didn't experiment with one other possible schedule scenario: shifting the show to Wednesdays. That almost certainly would've been fatal.

Okay, but this move certainly isn't a sign of faith in Community, either. NBC might say it's just resting it, but isn't it possible that this is just the prelude to inevitable cancellation next May?
No. There are strong incentives for everyone involved to find a way to keep the show in production for a fourth season. And the strongest is spelled s-y-n-d-i-c-a-t-i-o-n. While shows can find an afterlife on cable or on Netflix after just three seasons (see Arrested Development), four seasons, or about 80 episodes, is considered the minimum for more lucrative off-network packages involving both cable and local stations. Indeed, Sony Pictures Television, which co-produced Community with NBC, has been out trying to sell the show to cable networks this fall. As we noted back in September, Sony really, really wants four seasons of the show, and they've demonstrated a willingness to go all out to make sure its shows get to syndication. Classic case in point: Til Death, the critically loathed Brad Garrett Fox comedy. It seemed pretty much dead after its third season, but Sony struck a deal with the network that, according to industry insiders, all but paid Fox to keep Death alive for a fourth season. If we believed in conspiracy theories, we might even start wondering whether NBC brass chose to bench Community over Parks in part because they wanted to have as much leverage as possible over Sony when it came time to negotiate a renewal deal next spring. TV can be a very brutal business.

Beyond the financial motives of syndication, let's remember that, while Community is no powerhouse, NBC is still a network with virtually no pulse. This season, the network  has never finished higher than third place on any weeknight (Monday through Thursday); it's ranked fourth on Thursdays — Thursdays! — every week this season. It has just one show in the top twenty among adults 18 to 49 (The Office), and its next highest series, Law & Order: SVU, is ranked No. 45. Community continues to do well in DVR ratings, adding nearly 50 percent more viewers via time-shifting. It's also got a massively loyal fan base and is a massive media darling. Given how many woes NBC has, would it really make sense to dump a fan favorite that generates endless reservoirs of positive publicity in favor of yet another unproven sitcom, or a second season of Whitney? The fact that NBC boss Bob Greenblatt found a way to bring back Chuck for one more go-round suggests he'll be open to at least ordering thirteen more episodes for next season, even if they have to air under the banner of Community: Summer School.

Whew. So you're saying a fourth season is likely and this is all just posturing? Community is safe! Huzzah!
Now, now: Don't go counting your chicken fingers before they're, um ... fried. We do not live in a Dreamatorium. The reality is Community isn't a ratings giant, even after three seasons. (We'll pause here to %!%@* about the fact that NBC has never given the show much support, and that save for airing its first three episodes after The Office, the Peacock has expected Community to be a self-starter at 8 p.m. for its entire life.) If Up All Night takes off even a little bit behind The Office, and NBC has a strong spring (The Voice is even bigger, Smash is a surprise hit, Awake actually gets on the air and becomes the new 24), then Community could be collateral damage. And while new NBC owner Comcast has until now been willing to give Greenblatt pretty much as much money as he wants to spend on programming, it could get nervous next May and decide to tighten budgets. If Greenblatt has to choose between a promising new drama (that he developed, and thus will get credit for if it works), and one more season of a show that will never be a hit ... well, the Greendale gang could end up graduating early. At least one veteran showbiz insider we talked to after NBC's moves yesterday thinks this would be a mistake. "NBC blew it," our wrinkled pro e-mailed us. "They continue to look at Community as a ratings underperformer, as opposed to a show with a wildly devoted fan (and critical) base." If the worst happens to Community, the show would join a long list of beloved series that made it to three seasons, and no further. (Unless, of course, Netflix decides to save it. Quick, everyone: Send an e-mail to Netflix promising to un-cancel your subscription if they save Community!)

This all makes sense. But one thing doesn't: Why didn't NBC mention Community at all in its mid-season schedule press release? Usually networks offer up some boilerplate like, "Such and such will return later in the season." But NBC was totally silent. That can't be good.
We do not pretend to know what goes on in the head of network executives. Why did CBS insist on calling its new Rob Schneider comedy ¡Rob!? If ABC canceled Charlie's Angels, why did it keep airing new episodes through November? It could be that NBC's media relations team simply had to rush out a scheduling press release before too many sites started reporting its various moves. Or maybe Greenblatt didn't want to offer up fake-sounding, easy-to-attack quotes about "loving" Community when he considers the show very much on the bubble. Or, finally, if you believe those conspiracy theories we mentioned above, NBC may have remained silent simply to increase the paranoia level among Sony execs.

Ugh. All right, bottom line: What are the odds of a season four of Community?
We still think it's about 70–30 that the show returns next season in one form or another. While the show's ratings have drifted dangerously low this fall, just about everything on NBC is headed in a downward direction. Sony might have to offer cost concessions to NBC, a cast member or two might have to go (seriously, we love Chevy Chase and Ken Jeong, but at this point, can you argue that they're essential to the show?). But if Chuck and Friday Night Lights were able to tough it out against all odds, the Human Beings should be all right. At the very least, we're hopeful NBC will give creator Dan Harmon time to end the show properly, be it this season or next. As our industry vet noted, perhaps "all of this will be worth it to see how meta the show gets about its own impending death."

Nothing to really highlight, just read it.

 

[|A-Man|]

Can someone school me on the whole "six seasons and a movie" thing? I've felt I've heard that even before Abed was obsessing over Cougar Town.

 

[ayejreeun]

Originally Posted by ATGD7154xBBxMZ

Can someone school me on the whole "six seasons and a movie" thing? I've felt I've heard that even before Abed was obsessing over Cougar Town.

When Abed was obsessed with "The Ca

pe"

 

[|A-Man|]

Originally Posted by ayejreeun

Originally Posted by ATGD7154xBBxMZ

Can someone school me on the whole "six seasons and a movie" thing? I've felt I've heard that even before Abed was obsessing over Cougar Town.

When Abed was obsessed with "The Ca

pe"

He was saying that for the Cape too? Guess I forgot since The Cape got canceled so quickly.

What I mean to ask is that like some saying outside of Community I've felt I've heard a mantra like that for other low rating yet good shows. Like I'm trying to think of a good show that's had 6 seasons and a movie.

 

[mronegative]

omg...dean Jeff...Luis Guzman...docu style back

 

[big j 33]

This episode is amazing so far, I think I've laughed at every single joke.

And that's not just me upset at the midseason news

it's really good so far

 

[bkmac]

I completely forgot there was still a new episode tonight. Damn, I'll have to catch it later tonight.

 

[|A-Man|]

The Dean transforming in to a monster.

Chang with the poorly worn bald cap.

 

[shogun]

I think this is my favorite episode of the season.
When I saw Jeff as the Dean and wearing that bald cap 

.

I'm still laughing from the karaoke scene in last week's episode.

With Chang's limited appearance in episodes this season, the Dean is now the funniest on the show.

 

[mronegative]

They made an Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness ep work.

... Chang's hair hurt me so bad.

 

[shogun]

Originally Posted by ATGD7154xBBxMZ

Originally Posted by ayejreeun

Originally Posted by ATGD7154xBBxMZ

He was saying that for the Cape too? Guess I forgot since The Cape got canceled so quickly.

What I mean to ask is that like some saying outside of Community I've felt I've heard a mantra like that for other low rating yet good shows. Like I'm trying to think of a good show that's had 6 seasons and a movie.

I though it was a reference to sex and the city since it had 6 seasons and then a movie.  I was going to say entourage as well but they had 8 seasons with a planned movie in the works.  So maybe he's just talking about wanting a show to last at least 6 seasons.

 

[big j 33]

Six seasons and a movie is Abed talking about The Cape.

I loved tonights episode.. Jeffs transformation as the Dean, Luis Guzman, the awful attempts for Troy and Britta hugging and the Dean threatening to segregate the school

Great episode, especially on the news of the midseason pull.

 

[703flipfiend]

I loved Abed looking into the camera at the end of the episode.

 

[ballinboykz]

Best episode of the season by far.

Changs awful hair

Jeff turning into the dean and losing his mind

The dean in general

. Him burning his degree and clothes had me dyyyyyinnnnng. "Nobody please use the ice cream machine until it has been cleaned".

Awesome.

#SaveGreendale to #Sixseasonsandamovie

 

[mycoldyourdone]

jeff played him well haha. that arm flail was hilarious

 

[illmaticsoulchild]

Another great episode. I love how they're using Pelton this year and the fact they're finally utilizing Chang correctly.
"I've chosen you, Greendale's brightest, most coincidentally diverse, Hispanics not withstanding study group..."

"I am trying to pull a 400 year old dagger out of this nation's heart."

"You get this wrong one more time, I'm segregating the school!"

"Stop saying I'm different!"

"I loved you in... innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.. IMDB."

"Some flies are too awesome for the wall."

 @ Winger's impression of Pelton. On... point....

BTW, anyone else notice Pavel filming at the last scene.. they really had all the angles covered in this episode.

 

[illmaticsoulchild]

Originally Posted by MrONegative

She already did this shoot:

 

[hood17]

Jeff's impression of the Dean

 

[justscrap]