‘Community’: The next step for ‘six seasons and a movie’ should be Hulu

This is the first “Community” article that we have written in years without NBC in the title somewhere, but that is indicative of the fall of the relationship between the network and show. We’ve tried to take some time to reel from the cancellation news yesterday, and it still feels like it hit us like a ton of bricks.

The truth here is that we spend so much time (especially over the past five years) writing non-stop about television. Over time, you get numb to some of the small stuff, because the end of one good show typically means the beginning of another. This is the most upset that we’ve been over the end of a show since that point in 2009, and it is strange because, in a way, we have no right to be angry. NBC gave the show life at times when other shows would have given it death. It wouldn’t have made it passed season 2 on ABC or CBS,and Fox probably would have bailed in season 3 after Dan Harmon was let go as showrunner. It had five seasons despite not having the ratings for five seasons on a broadcast network. You could say that NBC never let it have big ratings against “The Big Bang Theory,” but five seasons are five seasons. It’s even more impressive given that this is a Sony TV show that NBC does not produce in-house.

Yet, we are upset. Maybe we are crazy for thinking that there was at this point going to be a way for us to get the six seasons and then the movie that had become a rallying cry for the show. Maybe we just love the show so much that we would be angry and irrational about it regardless.

So where should “Community” fans go from here? The obvious temptation is going to be calling up Netflix, but this could be a very difficult proposition given the way that rights are arranged right now. The more likely candidate here is going to be Hulu. This is the streaming service that already has the licensing for the show, and it would be far easier to work with them on getting more episodes being made. The only viable TV option to us is Comedy Central, since they already air repeats and have done something similar with “Futurama.”

Other than this, maybe the best thing to do is hope for a Kickstarter someday. We suppose that Netflix and Amazon are possible still, but unlikely given the current makeup of things. We’ve also yet to hear on what the next move for the parties involved is really going to be.

We’ll have some more soon if there are further updates available, but for now sign up to get more updates courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: NBC