‘Community’ season 6: Yvette Nicole Brown will not take part as Shirley

Well, the sixth and possibly final season of “Community” just got that much more awkward.

Speaking to TV Guide, Yvette Nicole Brown confirmed that she asked to be let out of her contract from Sony TV for personal reasons, and the studio obliged. Once you read her explanation for the exit, it is easy to understand why she would choose to say goodbye to a job that she has loved for so many years:

“My dad needs daily care and he needs me … The idea of being away 16 hours a day for five months, I couldn’t do it. It was a difficult decision for me to make, but I had to choose my dad.”

Brown said that she is open to coming back on the series (now on Yahoo Screen) as a guest star at some point, and she will be staying on the new CBS version of “The Odd Couple.” The reason this job works a little easier for her is because multi-camera sitcoms have a pretty friendly schedule. She can go into work, leave, and then go home with there still being some time left in the day for other things and to care for her father.

What is rough for “Community” fans is that with Chevy Chase, Donald Glover, and now Brown gone from the show, Gillian Jacbos, Alison Brie, and Joel McHale are the only original study group members who are still a part of the series. The show does still have both Ken Jeong and Jim Rash on board, but they will need to replace both Brown as well as Jonathan Banks, who left the show to do “Better Call Saul.” John Oliver is also unlikely to play a huge role due to his “Last Week Tonight” series on HBO.

Obviously, it would have been great to see more of Shirley this season, but our heart goes out to Brown and her family and it is easy to understand why she needed to make this choice.