If I may continue my belabored analogy, the Save Community movement is like a best friend to the couple that's taking a break. It wants the two to stay together, cause otherwise it won't get to use NBC's home bowling alley as much. Granted, they may also have a genuine belief that NBC and Community are perfect together: it would be difficult to imagine any other network taking on a quirky show about community college where anything and everything can happen(though in my experience, college is quite quirky and out-there. Community captures the true college experience accurately). However, this post is not about weather or not NBC is the best mate/network for Community. It's about how the Save Community movement is failing to accomplish their goal.
The Save Community website has a petition that you can sign and a short blurb that reads "Community is the best show on television and gets millions of viewers every time it airs! We can't understand why NBC would want to put our favorite show on hiatus." This blurb is what turned me off to the movement, even though it is technically something I support. Let's break it down. "Community is the best show on television" By being hyperbolic in their statements, they have made themselves appear, at least to me, incredible. The best show on television? That's an opinion. NBC is not in the business of opinions: it's in the business of making money. It doesn't matter if you think that it's "the best show on television" or "the greatest show of all time" or "a gift from the heavens that is capable of satisfying all the needs of mankind for all time", that's not what matters to them. If one guy thinks that Community is the greatest show ever and is the only guy watching that show, chances are it's not gonna survive. The shows that last are the one's that get the most views. That's why Jersey Shore is still on the air: lots of people watch it, for some reason. While Community may have a larger fanbase, or people who state that it is their favorite show to watch, Jersey Shore gets more views, and ultimately that is what advertisers and networks are after.
Even the most adamant fan of the show has to admit that the third season started off pretty weak. I had to acknowledge the same thing. But it did get better as the season went on. And that's what this break may provide: an opportunity for the show to improve and recreate the magic that they had the first two seasons. NBC and Community may be taking a break from each other, but this will give Community a chance to reflect on it's past mistakes and come back a better man/women/show (I didn't really know what gender Community would be in my "couples-taking-a-break" analogy). Meanwhile, NBC will get a chance to play the field and experiment with different lovers and will remember what it was that was so attractive about Community in the first place. Fans of Community need to give NBC a chance to sleep with 30 Rock. I mean, 30 Rock is a pretty hot man/women/show (again, not sure how to incorporate genders). I'm a fan of it. Sure, in my perfect world 30 Rock and Community would both be aired on the same night, like they were in the past, but that is not the reality of the current situation. This break does not mean that Community is cancelled, and if that unfortunate scenario were to come to pass, the Save Community movement would hopefully improve it's strategies. Cause a petition isn't gonna do much on it's own.
I offer this as my gift to fans of Community who are attempting to recover from this tragedy: a cute picture of a puppy.
