Why Bother, NBC? The news of Dan Harmon’s dismissal as showrunner of Community has been as

Why Bother, NBC? The news of Dan Harmon’s dismissal as showrunner of Community has been assumed for some time and confirmed for a few days now. But in that time I’ve just become more confused by the whole process of the Community renewal saga. The fact that the show was renewed in the first place should probably make Community fans grateful enough, and showrunners get replaced all the time in television. But in this particular case, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to keeping Community around for a fourth season if this is going to be the way NBC handles it. This lack of reason has extended throughout NBC’s behavior during upfronts, particularly when it comes to scheduling their comedies. As this relates to Community, that means shipping it to Friday night and sandwiching it between Whitney, a single-camera by-the-numbers sitcom hated by comedy nerds with a passion, and Grimm, a light supernatural procedural squared more toward casual viewers. Friday has always had a reputation as the place where shows go when they’re put out to pasture (which might not entirely be deserved, considering how long shows like Fringe have survived on that night), so that alone seemed to indicate that season 4 would likely be Community’s last. But the fact that it was being paired with two shows that share little of its audience seemed to ensure it. So why reshuffle at the top? If you are going to effectively turn Community into a placeholder on the schedule and provide it with little to no opportunity to grow its audience, why kick out Harmon? Do network execs just hate working with him that much that they couldn’t tolerate his existence in the NBC Universal family for 13 more episodes? That seems to be the only logical explanation for me, considering Harmon’s abrasive reputation. His firing really can’t be a way to fix ratings, because NBC doesn’t seem concerned with fixing Community’s ratings. But then again, as mentioned earlier NBC isn’t necessarily letting logic drive their decisions these days. So Community will be back next year. But it will be back without the man who, unlike those oft-replaced showrunners I mentioned earlier, really is the central brain behind one of the smartest shows on television. Maybe Community would have been better off canceled. I’ll otherwise hold out hope for consistently maintained creativity. But right now, I can’t help but think Community should have died along with Starburns. -- source link

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