The university world is a strange place where people from completely different generations and lifestyles can form almost family groups before going their separate ways, never to meet again. Only in retrospect do you realize how unusual the experience is, at least if you entered it as an 18-year-old, suddenly thrown into the pool that is adulthood and desperate to keep your head above water. Dan Harmon's “Community” isn't the most realistic college comedy show on the surface — in fact, the further it went, the freer and more cartoonish it became — but it's one of the most honest. He knows what it's like to be in that world, and his mix of loving pop culture parodies, satirical attacks on community college politics, and serious character work serve to capture the experience of aspiring to mature as a person in an environment where development has been arrested. is abundant.
15 years after the show debuted on NBC on September 17, 2009, “Community” has carved out a lasting legacy for itself thanks to the people who revisited it or checked it out for the first time in syndication and streaming. During its initial run, however, the series struggled mightily to stay afloat. It was constantly on the verge of being axed due to low ratings before The Sword of Damocles fell for real after season 5, only for Yahoo! Screen (who? Don't worry, we'll get into that soon) to revive the show for a sixth and final performance. Therein lies the contradiction at the heart of “Community”: The incredible specificity of its nerdy homages and observations of human nature give the series a degree of universal appeal, but its esoteric sensibilities (itself a reflection of Harmon, a celebrated, but undeniably problematic writer) also prevented him from achieving more than cult success during his lifetime.
Briefly? “Community” was ultimately canceled because it no longer made commercial sense to keep it running – as the show’s own cast and crew would say.
More community, more problems
As wild as it may seem now, Chevy Chase was easily the most recognizable name in the “Community” cast when the series debuted. By the time he left after Season 4, though, all of his major castmates had become major players. Avoiding the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the actor's exit (which is a conversation in itself), Chase's absence, coupled with Harmon's return as showrunner after being fired at the end of Season 3, actually proved to be a creative boon. for the show. Unfortunately, though, that wasn't the case when Chase's colleague Donald Glover also departed midway through Season 5, nor when Yvette Nicole Brown graduated for real at the end of that season.
Still, with an ensemble that included Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong (plus new additions Keith David and Paget Brewster), “Community” had plenty of star power in Season 6. which was also the problem. Speaking to Metro Semanal after the show ended in 2015, McHale explained that it simply wouldn't have been feasible to keep the antics at Greendale Community College. (something Harmon and his writers were clearly aware of – hence the Season 6 finale feeling like a series finale):
“All of our contracts ended after six years. All of the actors on the show, almost without exception – their stock has risen significantly and is outside the affordable pay rate to do the show. get more Alison Brie or Gillian Jacobs on a regular television salary. There simply isn't enough money to pay for the program.
Combine the rising costs with the show's cult fan base and it's no surprise that “Community” proved to be the downfall of Yahoo! Screen instead of your savior. As much as this media hosting service had ambitions to become the next big thing by producing Season 6 of “Community,” it ended up taking a massive $42 million cut on that and other projects in 2015 (via Variety). before dissolving completely four years later. As for whether “Community” will ever live up to its promise of “Six seasons and a movie” (a rallying cry that originated with a one-off joke in Season 2)? Unlikely comebacks are pretty much the Greendale study group's thing at this stage, and they're closer than ever to making another one.
