Cult sitcom to end one season (and a movie) shy of goal
NBC’s Community built a rabid cult following out of a strong cast, a penchant for offbeat geek-culture reference meta scifi/fantasy digressions and strong writing to back it up; but it never quite made it to mainstream success. Now it seems the plug has been pulled for good, with the network declining to renew the series for a sixth season today.
The series began as the story of a disgraced lawyer ostensibly running a study group at disreputable Greendale Community College, but quickly spiraled off into a strange hybrid of conventional sitcom and reality-bending satire. Certain episodes transform into large-scale genre parodies, characters display fourth wall breaking abilities and almost all events – no matter how bizarre – are presumed to have actually happened (one way or another); up to an including full-scale paintball wars, secret conspiracies and potential alternate-realities. Series creator Dan Harmon (forced out of Season 4 but returning for Season 5) cultivated a strong fan culture, and turned his stated goal of “six seasons and a movie” into a major fandom catchphrase.
Community had faced the prospect of cancellation for each of it’s five seasons, making it one of the shows most often mentioned as having potential for a Netflix/Hulu/etc revival a’la Arrested Development or fan-funded movie like Veronica Mars, but no announcements have been made regarding such at this time.
Source: Deadline
