Now part way through its thir
d season Dan Harmon’s COMMUNITY has managed to turn the sitcom right on its head and force the genre to look at itself in a fairground mirror. The show without a doubt is amongst one of the most interesting new additions to the sitcom genre and will quite possibly be looked at as an influential series in the future.
As we look enthusiastically onward at a new generation of the sitcom with more and more groundbreaking shows like LOUIE, EASTBOUND AND DOWN, PARKS AND RECREATION and IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, its hard not to get excited about the changes in genre that are going on right in front of our eyes. As exciting as all of these changes are it seems that we might lose one of the most boundary pushing shows out of the lot of them, COMMUNITY. Beloved, adored and admired by many, it now seems the show might be put to a permanent compromise.
Granted the show had a shaky start in the opening six or so episodes but from mid season one, COMMUNITY has blown viewers away week after week. Although the show doesn’t have fantastic ratings it does have a huge fan base and a lot of sitcom/TV fans will be devastated to hear about its potential demise.
The New York Times’ Bill Carter (relayed by colleague Brian Stelter) has issued a statement saying that the show will only be taken off the air ‘for a brief time’ but this open-ended statement certainly doesn’t look favorably upon the show attaining renewal next year. Once the show does take a ‘brief’ hiatus Thursday comedy nights on NBC will consist of 30 ROCK (which will fill the COMMUNITY time slot) PARKS AND RECREATION and THE OFFICE and there will be room added for UP ALL NIGHT.
With any luck the alleged brief absence of COMMUNITY will cause some sort of backlash and it will be returned to our screen to finish its four season intentions. If COMMUNITY gets cancelled prematurely I’m quite sure it will upset a lot of people and will surely be a huge loss to the TV community.
