‘Community’ Has Been Saved (Again!), Now Heading To Yahoo Screen

Community, the niche comedy created by Dan Harmon for NBC nearly five years ago, has had its life threatened more than enough times for even the most loyal fans to roll their eyes and sigh, “Again?” And here’s another chapter in the Community saga: for its sixth season, Yahoo! Screen has signed the show onto its own online streaming player, resuscitating the beloved comedy once again. Does the show finally have a place to call home where it won’t have to hold its breath after every NBC upfront in hopes it won’t be canceled? Or will it go to Yahoo to die slowly but surely, once and for all? Here are a few reasons as to why Yahoo can and possibly can’t make it work.

Olivia: It isn’t the same Community.

The show has changed so drastically in just about every aspect since it’s first airing in 2009: cast, character developments, tone, and perhaps the most obvious, writing. Community has thrown its own fans for a loop nearly every season since its first. I thought Britta was supposed to be a feminist? Why is Abed now the center of just about every episode, and why are we supposed to care about his fantasies this much? It’s been a roller coaster to watch in the most annoying way because what started off as quirky, yet deadpan, comedy became a different show because of all the outside struggle; Chevy Chase wanted more airtime, NBC turned its back on Harmon, NBC then wanted Harmon back, Donald Glover moved on, and now this move to the web. It’s possible Community could fall to the same fate it has in the past or whether this new outlet of Yahoo Screen will allow it the freedom to simple be what it originally was – a great sitcom.

Meghan: This just means it’s the same Community as always.

As you pointed out, the show has repeatedly changed over the last five years. So, what’s to stop it from surviving yet another challenge? In fact, the meta nature of the show’s comedy could reach new heights now that they’ve got another public production change to combat and comment on. Not to mention, Harmon might finally have even more freedom to stretch his creative muscles.

Olivia: The one-at-a-time release model hasn’t quite caught on within streaming.

According to Yahoo, the new season will be released one episode per week. Even though this is the way we’ve been watching primetime television since television was invented (and decades before Netflix came along), for some reason the concept hasn’t been embraced by the on-demand generation—especially those who now prefer to watch entire seasons in one weekend. If we learned anything from Amazon’s experiment with its original series, Alpha House, releasing episodes in spurts doesn’t seem to be catching on with streaming audiences. The Netflix model (“Here it is all at once, so cancel your weekend plans!”) gives viewers the ability to choose whether or not to binge-watch an entire season at once. Community is a show that is easily binge-watchable, and Yahoo should use that to their advantage rather than break up the series in a traditional way.

Meghan: Once-a-week and online is how the show is already consumed.

Community is an unusual sitcom insomuch that its audience is comprised of die-hard, obsessive fanatics. If there’s one program that could live online in weekly installments, it would be a show with Community’s kind of fanbase. Not only that, but one of the issues NBC has been combatting in recent years is the fact that most of its edgier comedy fans prefer to watch their shows via streaming or on demand. By presenting Community fans with their show once a week online, they are merely delivering the product the way its been consumed this entire time. Community fans are so hungry for the next episode, they’d probably prefer them to hit the web ASAP rather than wait a whole year for the entire season.

Olivia: Yahoo isn’t a go-to streaming outlet yet.

The company has tried so hard lately, especially under the reign of Marissa Mayer who led the Tumblr buyout, to be the new cool kid on the block. Maybe this will be the start of a new, way-cool era of Yahoo, although it seems a tad desperate. One giant aspect working in Yahoo’s favor is the fact that Community has such an eager audience. These are the kinds of fans similar to those who brought Family Guy back to it’s original network after it was shunned from Fox and the kinds of passionate folks who resurrected Arrested Development from the grave for a fourth season on Netflix. While these shows, Community included, have always been cool, it’s the old adage that everyone loves an underdog. Plus, the fans feel a sense of pride for contributing to a show’s second life (or in Community’s case, more like its fourth) when it gets picked up elsewhere.

Meghan: Yahoo is a corporation with major money and the capacity to host major streaming technology.

We’re currently living in an age in which video content is moving away from cinemas and television sets and onto the web. No one took Netflix seriously as a television production house until House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black hit it big. So, naturally, why would people take Yahoo seriously as a go-to streaming outlet? They need that first big hit.

Rather than take a risk with a completely unknown property, Mayer is betting that a pre-existing show with a rabid fan base might prove the best jumping-off point to try out Yahoo as a streaming platform.

Not only that, but funding a television show isn’t a big monetary risk for Yahoo in the same way it is for NBC. Twenty-million dollars is chump change next to the billions of dollars it moves on a day-to-day basis. Plus, Yahoo’s got to be excited to corner the market on Community ad-revenue. They probably have the technology to build a player that allows viewers to use other Yahoo services (such as Tumblr) at the same time they watch the show—thereby creating a multiscreen experience on one single screen that optimizes the savvy viewer’s experience and Yahoo’s share on advertising dollars.
Photos: NBC/AP