Dan Harmon Replaced As Showrunner

Bad news came in the other night, Community fans.  Dan Harmon - the show's creator  - was replaced as showrunner by Sony Pictures Television.  Comedy veterans David Guarascio and Moses Port (Just Shoot Me, Happy Endings, etc.) will be taking over while Harmon will remain as a consulting producer.

At this time, there is no formal announcement from the television arm of Sony Pictures.  NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt said of the change: 'I expect his voice to be part of [the show],' but Harmon himself followed up by adding that 'NBC is not a credible source of All News Dan Harmon.'  Harmon also mentions on his personal blog that 'I kind of don’t want to hear what their complaints are because I’m sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I’d be listening for free.'

Harmon was a beloved, dedicated, hands-on producer for the show, and one certainly cannot imagine how Community may be without him.  As the show will continue on to a shortened 4th season, it's really with great hope that the fallout from this news will be minimal and that there will be no cast, writing staff, or creative changes after this.  Executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan had already announced earlier in the month that they were leaving after having signed a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television to develop new projects and work on existing series.

Dan Harmon's personal blog article 

 

 

Looking a bit into the future, Harmon's co-created animated series Rick and Morty - a show about a genius inventor grandfather and his dimwit grandson - has been picked up by Adult Swim, so look out for that.

Fans have gotten three incredible seasons of current television's best comedy under Harmon's guidance, and he will most definitely be missed. Thank you, Dan, for Community.  We love you!

For this instance, the TV executives involved Britta'd it...big time.

Get Your 8-bit Main Title Theme Here

Did everyone love 'Digital Estate Planning' that aired during Community's 3rd season finale night on NBC?

For anyone interested, here is the 8-bit version of the show's main title theme.  Add it to your music play list or make it your new ring tone:

• At Least It Was Here - Main Title 8-bit Version - .MP3
• At Least It Was Here - Main Title 8-bit Version - .WAV

Cool, cool, cool!

NBC Rolls Dice On Fall 2012 Schedule

Good news came last week from NBC in the form of a 4th season renewal for Community.

Then came the so-so news that NBC was only ordering 13 episodes instead of a full-season 20+ episode commitment.

Now today comes NBC's announced Fall 2012 schedule, and it looks like Community has been moved to Friday nights at 8:30 PM between Whitney and Grimm.

Some are seeing this as certain death for the show since Friday night programming has historically been difficult for shows to attract and/or maintain a young viewer audience.  Others have noticed that while Whitney has not been a critical success, it has been getting decent (by NBC standards) ratings when it was originally on Thursday nights and even after it moved to Wednesday.  Whitney has strong DVR ratings, and Community does well with both the DVR and Internet crowds.  Moving Community out of The Big Bang Theory's shadow may also be a good thing.  And finally Grimm has had success with its Friday night slot.

At this point, NBC has nothing left to lose.  It has had a terrible 2011 to 2012 season with show after show either failing or continually dropping viewers.  It has ordered lots of new shows for the Fall in the hopes that something will stick.

Now the next big question mark will come as Community approaches the end of those upcoming 13 episodes.  Will NBC stick by the show and order up additional episodes to complete a full season?  Will it renew the show for a 5th season afterwards?  Unlike the announcement for 30 Rock where NBC stated its next season will be its last, Community is more open-ended.  So either NBC will keep Community going or it will be canceled.

Keep your fingers crossed that this new schedule works out!

3 New Episodes Of Community In One Night

NBC recently announced its plan to shuffle the upcoming May 17th Thursday night schedule.  The major change will be the airing of the final three episodes of Community that night:

• 8:00 PM - 'Digital Estate Planning'
• 8:30 PM - 30 Rock season finale
• 9:00 PM - 'The First Chang Dynasty'
• 9:30 PM - 'Introduction to Finality' (season finale)

For the 2011 to 2012 TV season, May Nielsen ratings 'sweeps' is considered to be between Thursday April 26th to Wednesday May 23rd.  So if Community were to go by its usual single-episode-per-Thursday schedule, its final two episodes would actually miss that all-important time frame.

While some might see the May 17th night as an episodes 'burn-off' for Community, it may actually be a strategic move to capitalize on the show's following and continued Internet buzz.  Also, The Big Bang Theory, as well as The Office and Parks and Recreation, will have finished off their season the week before, making Community and 30 Rock the only network comedies of that night not in any kind of re-run situation.

NBC was originally prepared to air a two-hour finale of Awake during that night from 9 PM to 11 PM, but decided to push that out.  Since Awake's viewership has shrunk so much, the extra episodes of Community can also be seen as a vote of confidence that it can (and most probably will) get better ratings for the evening than Awake.

The only thing to worry about is how NBC promotes this super-sized night of Community.  Right before the show returned from hiatus, NBC aired many commercials to excite fans and to get new viewers to tune in.  That plan worked well for the return episode.  However, ratings have pretty much slipped back to where they were pre-hiatus.  NBC needs to do the right thing and promote this upcoming night to make the most of the situation.

Go Greendale, go Greendale, go!