The return of the NBC comedy Community was just announced after a near 2 month hiatus to the absolutely bliss of Community's intensely loyal fans. The comedy was pulled from NBC's Thursday lineup due to low ratings. But this is the age of technology and the voice of the common man (or woman) has never been heard so loud in all of history. We live in a time when social media, such as Twitter and Facebook is king. Community itself references many of these forms of media throughout show, as it is a comedy constantly using spoofs and pop culture homages to from a backbone of comedy. The fans of the show are naturally good as using these outlets because it is what they enjoy to do, and it is one of the reasons they watch and love the show. Consequently, these fans, (myself being one of them) were not going down without a fight. We fought to save the shows life using whatever we could such as Twitter hashtags like #SaveCommunty, and #Sixseasonsandamovie to get the attention of NBC and let them know that this show is important to us and there is a dedicated (albeit small) fan base who will not let our favorite show die. Well it seems our efforts may not have been in vain.
That being said, I will get to the point of this blog post. As, some might call us, "hardcore" fans of Community we are obviously ecstatic that our show has found its way back into the mainstream, but it leaves us with some unanswered questions, like what has changed? For some reason that we as fans do not understand, Community did not gain the attention of the masses the way we all thought it was deserving of. It has amassed many positive reviews and critics have praised the show for being one of the most innovative, original, and best written on television, which we already know, but so many others have failed to realize. Because of these facts, we really don't want Community to change. We obviously want new episodes and want to see character development, but we don't want to lose what has made Community such a classic show. We don't want to lose the awkward meta-humor and nerdy movie and TV show parodies. We don't want to lose the connections that we have all made with these characters, and the sense of "community" that we have developed with other fans of the show. We do however, want the show to continue and not be taken off the air again, so whether we like it or not, we might have to stop isolating potential fans by using these "inside jokes" from the show that we have come to know and love. Just because the fan's of the show are "streets ahead" for having recognized the potential of the show from early on, it does't mean we can't be a growing community of fans. Community has, and will hopefully continue to do things right. So it is our responsibility as fans to embrace new ones and find ways to help them connect with this crazy, insane group of misfits we know as Jeff, Britta, Annie, Troy, Abed, Shirley, Pierce, and yeah even Chang, that we can so easily identify with. If we want our favorite TV show continue to be just that, we need to find new creative ways to develop new fan bases so we can all enjoy this truly remarkable show, and become our own real life "community."
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