COMMUNITY outreach - Kim Rogers speaks out against possible cancellation of the NBC comedy Community

A NERDSBURGH EXCLUSIVE WRITTEN BY POP CULTURE EXPERT:

KIM ROGERS

Follow Kim on Twitter @dramakim

I’m a certifiable Pop Culture Junkie.  And I watch a LOT of TV.  I have loved and lost many shows (I still miss you, Pushing Daisies), but I have never done anything about it.  I would say “Oh, that sucks,” and then move on and find a new show to love.  This all changed the night I came home from a work event and found out that NBC had put Community on “hiatus” beginning in January.

In case you were wondering about that “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” you might have heard around 10 PM on November 14th?  That was me.

Community

So, I did what any concerned citizen would do, I took my outrage to Twitter and Facebook.  But it wasn't enough, so I emailed executives at NBC.  Then, I reached out to the Internet and connected with other Community fans (speaking of Community fans, they are awesome…and very passionate about saving this show) and inevitably found myself jumping feet first into a “Save Community!” campaign.

Let’s get a few things straight.  Community is NOT cancelled.  NBC has NOT reduced the order of episodes (like ABC did recently with another benched fan favorite Cougar Town), and the show is still in production (unlike Prime Suspect, which was also left off the midseason schedule and shut down production immediately).  So, it is highly likely that Community’s third season will air in its entirety (there are 12 episodes remaining), and if it is brought back by early March, it will air in its entirety within the span of the traditional TV Season.  Yes, I pulled out my calendar and did the math.

Another point in Community’s favor for not only coming back, but for getting a 4th season, is the fact that a 4th season would put it at the magic number of episodes to sell it into syndication, and that is where the big bucks lie.

“Save this Show” campaigns are nothing new. In recent memory, fans bombarded CBS with nearly 20 tons of nuts to protest the cancellation of Jericho which brought the show back for an abbreviated second season to tie up all the loose ends.  The campaign to save another NBC show, Chuck, has got to be one of the most successful campaigns in TV history, combining letter writing and fans buying foot-long subs from corporate sponsor Subway.  It bought the show two more seasons.  It may have not been a fan-led campaign, but a deal with DirectTV and NBC (…is there a trend here?) saved the critically beloved but low-rated Friday Night Lights.  So “Save this Show” campaigns CAN work if they are done correctly.

Why was Community yanked from the schedule in the first place?  The ratings were not there, plain and simple.  This is where I get angry, because I strongly feel that the way we measure TV ratings is broken.  Who ARE these people who have Nielsen boxes and why do they only watch Wipeout and The Jersey Shore?  I don’t know a single person who has a Nielsen box.  So why are these people speaking for me when it comes to what stays on and off my television set?  Why can’t EVERYONE who has a TV have some sort of method to be counted?  It is also a fact that we watch TV differently now, with the advent of technologies like DVR, online streaming, and downloading episodes from iTunes; the way we come up with a ratings system has GOT to change.  But, sadly, the Nielsen system is what determines ad sales, and ad sales determine revenue, and revenue for the network is the bottom line.  How can my Twitter feed explode with 11 different worldwide trending topics related to Community’s December 8th Christmas episode and the overnight ratings actually DROP?  People were watching!  It’s not like a tiny group of people can create a worldwide trending topic so specific to an episode like “Merry Changmas”!  But clearly, no one on Twitter that night had a Nielsen Box.

Lastly, why do I think Community is worth saving? Because there is no other show like it on television, that’s why.  It doesn’t always go for the easy laugh.  It takes all the sitcom tropes we know and turns them on their head.  For example, instead of a traditional sitcom clip show, Community gave us the brilliant “Paradigms of Human Memory” which was a clip show made of entirely new footage.  Is there another show on TV that would do attempt an ambitious episode like “Remedial Chaos Theory” (where we saw 7 different timelines of what would happen depending on which member of the Study Group left the room to go pick up a pizza)?  No.  There isn’t.  

Community features one of the best ensembles on television and it is written by people who clearly love all things pop culture. The show is firing on all cylinders creatively.  I haven’t had a show that has consistently brought me so much joy in 22 minutes in a long time.  It deserves to be able to tell the story that creator Dan Harmon mapped out from the beginning.  And I think that all along (despite our adopted hashtag of #sixseasonsandamovie) that story has been a 4 year story. While I would love to have this fantastic show around forever, I really just want to see Jeff Winger and his Study Group graduate from Greendale.

If you want to know more about the various efforts being made to save Community, check out http://savecommunitynow.blogspot.com/. It’s the most comprehensive site out there, featuring everything from addresses for NBC execs to lists of advertisers and their contact info. Last year’s Emmy winning Claymation episode, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” airs tonight on NBC at 8/7C.  I dare you to watch it and NOT be charmed.