It was never the biggest hit on television, though it managed to instantly develop a loyal and fervent following shortly after it debuted on NBC on September 17, 2009. Instead of struggling to find its place in a world that demanded big hits, COMMUNITY went out of its way to be itself: an irreverent look at the lives of a group of students at a community college in a place called Greendale.
I came on the bandwagon a little late. By the time I started following the show, it had already become a bit of a cult hit, with fans rallying around the show towards the end of every season to ensure that NBC didn’t cancel one of the smartest, funniest shows on its network. By the time I reached the first season’s holiday episode, Comparative Religion, I was completely hooked on the show and I stuck with it til the end, even through the show’s dismal fourth season, which was produced without creator Dan Harmon.
While COMMUNITY is now one of my favorite television shows – and a frequent binge watch – it’s also a popular topic here at the Geekery. The two most popular posts on the site are the two-part Ranking the Seasons column I wrote about the show. The FIRST PART looks at the three lesser seasons, while the SECOND PART looks at the three best.
In addition, at the start of the school year in 2018, I picked 25 of my favorite episodes of the show for the BACK TO SCHOOL WITH COMMUNITY feature, which turned into a FIVE-PART series highlighting the best that the show had to offer. I even managed to include a couple of episodes from the fourth season!
I don’t know if we’ll ever get the COMMUNITY movie to go along with the six seasons that show ran between NBC and YAHOO! Screen, but either way, we still have 110 episodes of a smart, well-written half-hour comedy to keep us occupied when we need something to binge.
What are your favorite episodes/scenes/quotes from Community? Let us know in the comments!