Community celebrates its (apparently real) return!

Will Community actually return on February 7 as NBC has promised us, or will this be another October 19 situation? (By the way, NBC, thanks for totally ruining by birthday by cruelly yanking my Community away!) Only time will tell, but this epic Steve Porter remix of moments from the show's third season is good news.



You tried to destroy Community, NBC, but you only made it... MORE AWESOME!

NBC is picking up new shows left and right (including what looks like The Hunger Games: The TV Series)

Perpetually last-place network NBC went on a shopping spree yesterday, picking up six new series for the 2012 season. One of those series, the J.J. Abrams-produced post-apocalyptic thriller Revolution, look like a reasonably promising sci-fi adventure (although that could just be because I'm a sucker for a good apocalypse). It also looks suspiciously like a certain smash hit young-adult book (and film) series, at least as evidenced by the promotional picture below (via Vulture):

I mean, the girl in the middle is wearing Katniss Everdeen's exact hunting jacket, and the guy on the left  in the white shirt is a dead ringer for Peeta Mellark. Not to mention that all of them are holding bows (which, between The Hunger Games, The Avengers and Pixar's upcoming Brave, are really having a moment.)

In other NBC pickup news: Vulture reported that the poor, bedraggled peacock has decided to pull itself out its ratings slump with the Ryan Murphy sitcom The New Normal (it worked for FOX!); the Matthew Perry-starring series Go On; and Save Me, starring Anne Heche, which is just sort of baffling. Then, as if fans of 30 Rock, Community, Up All Night and Parks & Recreation weren't sweating enough, the network also greenlit 1600 Penn, a White House-set family comedy starring Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman, and Animal Practice, which TVLine described as a workplace comedy about "a House-like veterinarian who loves animals but usually hates their owners."

With the exception of Revolution - which could take Fringe's place as the critically-adored-yet-ratings-challenged science fiction series when the former ends its run after a thirteen-episode fifth season - none of these look terribly promising. The New Normal has the double advantage of Ellen Barkin and The Book of Mormon's Andrew Rannells, but it also has the black hole of awful that is Ryan Murphy. Mr. Sunshine and Studio 60 proved that Matthew Perry can't really carry a show on his own. 1600 Penn contains another Book of Mormon alum, Josh Gad, but Pullman and Elfman are pretty far past their primes by this point. As for Save Me and Animal Practice; I have no words. None whatsoever.

NBC Thursday Night Recap: or, Conceptual, Tired and Sweet

Clockwise from top left: Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski in "Nothing Left to Lose"; Maya Rudolph and Megan
Mullaly in "Hey Jealousy"; Krakowski; Donald Glover and Danny Pudi in "Pillows and Blankets"; Chevy
Chase as the Pillow Man in "Pillows and Blankets."

This recap is meant to be read in the reassuring but powerful voice of a documentary narrator. Morgan Freeman, maybe. Or that guy from The Cape. He seems like he's pretty good at this type of thing.

It is a Thursday night on NBC. The network is desperate for higher ratings, as it is consistently beaten by the Spanish-language network Univision. It responds by airing a high-concept episode based on PBS documentaries; a comedy that no one thought would last more than one season that has hung on for six; and a series starring an actor best known for a critically acclaimed, prematurely cancelled sitcom. What could go wrong?

8:00 p.m., ET.

Community airs an episode about the dissolution of the show's most innocent, joyous friendship, structured as a Ken Burns documentary about a campus-wide pillow fight. The episode brilliantly captures the sadness of a friendship that will never be the same again, while also capturing the foibles of the Greendale study group with amusing efficiency.

Narrator: Troy would later say of the war, "It was awesome. But, it wasn't?"

Narrator: Unfortunately for Britta, and millions of photographers like her, just because something is in black and white doesn't mean it's good. 

Jeff: Guys, I wasn't going to show this to anyone, but it's pretty profound, I kind of nailed it.

"Pillows and Blankets," however, is not content with merely exploring, with great precision, the subtleties of friendship and the idiosyncrasies of its characters. It also gives the viewer a chilling glimpse of a future in which our exploits are not documented by beautifully written prose and the detailed descriptions of historians, but by text messages and Facebook status updates.

It's really sad to be NBC right now

Big Brother may be watching you, but he sure as hell isn't watching NBC.

Seriously, it is really, really sad to be NBC right now, although that can only mean good things for Community (via Splitsider):

These last couple of weeks have been pretty great for Community, which saw its ratings shoot up higher than ever before. But alas, what goes up, must come down — at least on NBC. Last night's (really great) episode lost a whole lot of last week's audience, hitting a season-low of a 1.3 rating and 3.1 million viewers. But hey, it could be worse for our friends from Greendale: every NBC show hit its season low last night, meaning Community still won the night for the peacock. And it's kind of tough to justify giving the axe to Community for a 1.3 when 30 Rock had a 1.2 and Up All Night had a 1.1 (The Office was a repeat, yet again). Silver linings?

I mean, those ratings are just sad. Think of it this way; if Fringe was on NBC Thursdays, it would be solidly in the middle of the ratings heap. The Vampire Diaries, which airs on perennial ratings loser The CW, would have tied Up All Night. Rules of Engagement, which I continually forget is actually a show, got three times the viewers that 30 Rock did.

On the bright side, this is probably good news for Community, because NBC can't fire the study group without canceling a good chunk of their other programming. Of course, it's also looking increasingly likely that the network will just go bankrupt and stop broadcasting. Maybe Subway will be willing to give them some financial support...

NBC's casts band together in a fantastic Super Bowl Promo

Suppose you're an actor from a show on a network whose ratings are tanking faster than the GOP's enthusiasm for Newt Gingrich. Suppose that your network has one property - NFL Football - that's keeping it afloat enough that your show can continue, even though there are less people in your audience than cast members on your show. You would want to celebrate that event, wouldn't you? Well, if you are on an NBC series, you would, and you would do it with song and dance.

This promo, like so many NBC productions, is weird, fantastic, and totally alienating to its target demographic. I'm prepared to assume that there is not a huge overlap between people who enjoy sharp, self-deprecating parodies of famous Broadway numbers and people who want to watch Tom Brady either crush or get crushed by the Giants. (And no, liking the Family Guy "Shipoopie" number doesn't put you in the first category.) There are moments when NBC seems more like a niche cable network than a big four station, and at this point they should probably just embrace that.

It's also a little puzzling that the cast of Community plays such a prominent role, given the show's recent disappearance from the primetime lineup. Maybe the screen time given to the adorable, talented cast, in combination with a brief, listless shot of the leads from Are You There, Chelsea? and Whitney (seriously, the gang from SVU was having more fun), is a sign that the study group is poised to return to the airwaves. Oh, and did anyone else find it weird that the only people who didn't sing were the successful, chart-topping singers on The Voice's judges panel? And that, right after Jenna Maroney and Jack Donaghy sang their lines celebrating mediocrity, the cast of Smash was introduced?

Besides a few perplexing bits, however, the ad was great fun. The stars of Up All Night and Parks and Recreation were almost as charming as the Community cast, and it was nice to see the hosts of Today perform with their late-night antithesis, the cast of Saturday Night Live. I'm hoping that Katrina Bowden's appearance as the scantily-clad Cerie is a sign of her imminent return to 30 Rock, because I was just wondering where she had gone. And the tag, starring a tap-dancing Jimmy Fallon, was a lovely ending. Here's hoping that next year he'll make it in time.

Help Save 'Community'!

Help save Community, or Alison Brie will kill you with paintballs. Photo courtesy of cnn.com.

I know that, like me, many of you are upset about the recent news regarding Community; specifically, the news that everyone's favorite study group will be going on an "indefinite hiatus" after Christmas. (And, as we all learned from the most recent season of 30 Rock, this kind of "forced hiatus" means that everyone needs to start working on their back-up plans, be they stand-up comedy or substitute teaching.) Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that Community will be canceled, but it's not good. At all.

However, there are things you can do about this! First of all, you should visit save-community.com, sign their petition, and then browbeat all your friends until they do the same. (If you're a Community fan, I'm sure they're used to it by now, and they'll probably just sigh quietly and do what you ask.) Then - and this is the most important part - sit down in front of your TV on Thursday at 8:00 and watch the show. Watch it live, on television, if you can; if not, watch it on Hulu or buy it on iTunes. Do everything you can to let NBC know that you watch the show and that you love it.

You can also send letters to NBC. Seriously. If they start getting enough letters, there is always a chance it will have an effect. Write to the network (yes, write, with a pen, on paper), and tell them why you love the show. Tell them about your Community Halloween costumes, viewing parties, blog posts, anything. Show them that you care. You may not think it helps, but knowing that the show has a fervent, invested fanbase is the sort of things that network executives (sometimes) take into account. Just read Maureen Ryan's piece about Community if you don't believe me, and send a letter to NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, care of NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608. So, put on your darkest timeline felt goatees, and let's get to work! I already have.

Watching the show and writing letters might be more important, but darkest timeline goatees are FUN.