All we know for sure is that Community isn’t going to be a part of NBC’s Thursday night lineup when the rest of the shows return from their mid-season hiatus. When, or if, it will ever return is the subject of conflicting information. Although the ratings have been less-than-stellar, Community has stronger than average support from the viewers it does have. The result of this combination is a show that the network doesn’t like enough to keep but likes too much to cancel.

Based on the first two seasons of themed episodes, I’d say it is a show worth saving. Based on the shortened third season, in which the writers abandoned the genre-spoofing in favor of straight forward situational comedy, I’d say the show’s time has come. So by a 2-1 split decision, I’m hoping the show returns — maybe as a summertime fill-in. Stay tuned. And let the letter-writing begin.

At the same time that the Peacock sends Community off to TV limbo, another Thursday night comedy is shuffling off to a more well-defined future. Whitney, which has been an odd duck among the Thursday night flock, is moving to 8:00 on Wednesday nights. Which is a little bit like moving to batting ninth in baseball – you’re still on the team, but you’re one move away from being benched.

After a year of Cathy Bates guest spots, her role has been replaced by James Spader as new Sabre CEO Robert California. The enigmatic and charismatic new boss brings a fresh and funny new input to the story.

That’s not to say that The Office is now any more than a shadow of what it once was. But a shadow of The Office’s heyday is still better than most sitcoms on TV today. The Office still has enough life in it to keep long-time fans coming back for more. We can’t give up on Jim and Pam, even if they’ve become half-hearted imitations of their formerly hilarious selves.

While Spader replaced Carell (and Bates – a veritable two for one trade) in the cast, it was Andy who replaced Carell’s character Michael Scott as the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch. Although the real world reason for promoting Andy was obviously to capitalize on the increased visibility of actor Ed Helms, I at first thought that Andy’s promotion was one of those inexplicable TV-mechanisms like the constant cycle of promotion/demotion on the Drew Carey Show. But the writers actually gave us a credible reason why California would choose Andy Bernard to be the new boss.

No, The Office isn’t what it once was. We can’t reasonably expect that it ever will be again. But as long as it continues to be above average – and provides a nice lead-in to the funnier Parks and Rec and Community – we’ll keep tuning in.

Now, three weeks into the new season, there has been nary a single film convention skewered. Community has become – gasp – a straight sitcom. The stories are about what they appear to be about without any deeper layers of pop culture reference.

Not only did the leitmotif change, but the characters have undergone an unwelcome reformation as well. Jeff, once the voice of reason, is now the crabby, self-absorbed jerk (to be fair, he was always crabby & self-absorbed, but he also managed to be the voice of reason for the first two years). Abed has been mostly invisible through three weeks. Britta devolved into her pre-college radical self. Pierce suddenly started making sense. It’s as if instead of being caricatures of various pop culture icons, the characters are now caricatures of… themselves.

It isn’t all bad. John Goodman’s all-too-brief cameo in the season opener was a bright spot that set the tone for a season-long subplot concerning the school’s financial woes. The once sexually-ambiguous but now downright flaming dean is coming into his own as a character. Former professor cum unpaid security guard Chang provides some over-the-top comedy as his character has evolved (for better or worse) from creepy weirdo to full-on lunatic.

When Community debuted, I gave it a favorable review but wondered how long the writers could keep up the theme-a-week format. Two years, it turns out, is it. Rather than going out with a whimper, the weekly homage went out on a high note, cutting it off completely rather than attempting lamely to keep it going. But unless things pick up in coming weeks, we may all find ourselves wishing that Community chose the whimper.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE), features a crew of carpenters and designers building a completely new house for a family who has experienced an ongoing hardship, or a family who has a member with a debilitating illness. Regardless of their situations, the families on EM: HE usually play large roles in their communities, making a difference as unsung heroes. In return for their selfless acts, the cast of EM: HE, led by Ty Pennington, help create special, unique homes for these deserving folks.

Recently, EM: HE just completed its eighth season on ABC. In the season finale, the crew visited the Sharrock family of Georgia — the reason being that the only child in the Sharrock family, Patrick, has a condition known as osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as ‘brittle bone disease’. Patrick is nine years old, and has had fifty-nine broken bones; most of which were caused accidently by the unforgiving physical condition of the Sharrocks’ home. Despite his condition, Patrick has a cheerful outlook on life with a sense of humor that makes him just like any other child. He is constantly an inspiration for others, and it is for this reason that EM: HE chose to remake his family’s home.

After a week of labor, the team constructed a house that is perfect for the Sharrocks. The house contains wide-open spaces that allow Patrick and his wheelchair to navigate efficiently, a therapeutic pool, and an internal camera system that allows the Sharrocks to see what Patrick is doing at all times. Aside from the necessary stuff, the house also contains fun things like a clubhouse for Patrick and a hidden door between Patrick’s room and the room that he is homeschooled in.

Although the season is over, the message of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition can be thought of year-round. The ideas that it is always important to help others in need and that lending a helping hand can make a huge difference are values that can be taken away from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

If you fall into any of the above categories but aren’t watching Community, you can read a brief primer here.  Even with all the water under the bridge, the show is accessible to new viewers.  The genre-of-the-week format ensures that each week stands on its own, even though there are longer running story arcs and character development.  While I initially feared that the well would soon run dry, two seasons in they still have not run out of themes and genres to parody.

The absolute highlight of the series to date was last season’s paintball episode, which skewered every convention of action movies. Obviously, I’m not the only one who thought so, because the writers brought back the paintball theme once more for a two-part season finale this year. This week’s episode, A Fistfull of Paintballs, played on the Western genre, with the entire student body of Greendale Community College falling into a collective old-West persona upon the start of a paintball war and the promise of a $100,000 reward (sponsored by an ice cream company) for the winner.

Josh Holloway, better known to all as Sawyer from Lost, guest-starred as the Black Rider, planted by the ice cream company to win the contest and avoid paying out the prize money. He failed, thanks to the evil machinations of Pierce. To balance out the excessive manly handsomeness of Sawyer, the show dialed up Annie’s (Alison Brie) normally formidable sexiness with her long-on-legs old west look.

The story continues next week, although from this week’s ending and the previews it would appear that the western theme will be dropped in favor of a more Sci-fi vibe for next week’s follow up, Sinners and Paints. If you watch any sitcoms, Community should be on your list. If you missed this week, check it out at this link, then tune in Thursday night for Part 2.

Community
Community keeps pushing the boundaries of social mores. This week’s installment continued on the theme of Jeff finding his humanity while also finding time to humanize Pierce, incorporate Chang, and give Britta a little extra face time. The downside of all the extra characterization is that there was no time left to parody a movie genre. The show still works as a straight sitcom, but the movie geek-out moments are what separates Community from the pack of here today – gone tomorrow half-hour comedies.

Parks and Recreation
Parks are Rec took a turn for the unexpected this week. Straight man Ron Swanson (whose Pyramid of Greatness now adorns my office wall thanks to a Valentine’s gift from my lovely wife) went places we never thought his character would go.
Did you notice the commercial for Andy and April’s wedding registry? Looks like someone in the NBC promotion department goofed. They aren’t engaged on the show, at least not yet. They’re not even dating, although she did send her South American boyfriend packing to open up the possibility.
And what ever happened to Mark Brandanawitz? He disappeared in the long, long offseason. The enlarged ensemble cast is working so well I didn’t notice he was missing until this week. I don’t recall them writing his character off, so he may be back someday.

Parks and Recreation

When last we saw our friends from Pawnee, the government had been shut down due to a budget crisis, much to the consternation of everyone except anti-government department supervisor Ron Swanson. Also, Ron had slept with Tom’s ex-wife from a fake green card marriage. Amy Poehler, the acress behind the delightfully goofy Leslie Knope, was running out of ways to hide her increasingly obvious pregnancy. Rob Lowe was busy adding ‘absurdly upbeat’ to the range of emotions on his resume.

Then came the long, cold Fall Season of our discontent. Parks and Recreation was replaced on NBC’s Thursday night schedule with Outsourced, a sort of copycat Office-lite set in India. But now, Poehler’s pregnancy is in the past, the first episodes of Season 3 are in the can, and the best show set in Pawnee, Indiana, in the history of television is coming back.

In order to accommodate the return of Parks and Recreation at 9:30 on Thursday nights, NBC has extended their normal two hour comedy block to a full three hours, eschewing the long-term policy of airing a drama at 10pm Thursdays. Community and The Office will maintain their anchor positions at 8:00 and 9:00. 30 Rock and Outsourced have been demoted to 10:00 and 10:30 respectively. The final spot in the new lineup goes to a new show, Perfect Couples, at 8:30

If you can’t wait another month, you can catch up on the comings and goings in Pawnee at the facetious website, Pawnee, Indiana, or the more straight-forward Parks and Recreation site, which includes full episodes on demand and an episode guide.

The group includes a young hot shot athlete, a young lady trying to right her life after some problems in high school, a recently divorced mom, a goofy old businessman, a goofier socially inept young man, a hard left social activist, and a disbarred lawyer who lost his license for faking his educational credentials in the past.

Each episode spoofs a different genre from TV or movies. Past episodes have parodied mafia, action, horror, and sports films. There are so many delightfully silly characters on Community that it is hard for the writers to give each one substantial screen time each week. Supporting characters, including the ambiguously gay dean, the mentally unstable Spanish teacher, and the unprincipled ethics teacher slip in and out of the stories without slowing things down a bit.

The theme episodes make the shows especially funny for fans of the spoofed genre, but they do not rely on your knowledge of the specific movie type for your enjoyment. There is plenty to laugh about each week, even if you’re not familiar with the underlying concept.

If you’re not watching Community, you can jump on board now. Each episode is self-contained, with little background necessary. While there are some continuing story lines, like Shirley’s pregnancy or Pierce’s injury, for the most part, you can drift in and out casually and still get nearly the full enjoyment out of the show each week. Even so, if you drift in for a few weeks you probably won’t want to drift back out.

In the episode Basic Rocket Science, Glendale Community College becomes embroiled in a race against a competing community college to be the first school in the area to feature a flight simulator. Cutting off the plans of his rival at City College, the Dean of Glendale manages to obtain a flight simulator of his own – an attraction that had been sponsored by KFC in the 1980s.

Of course, the best laid plans of the Dean go awry when Jeff and the rest of the study group (minus Abed) get involved and inadvertently find themselves trapped in the simulator. Along the way, the episode manages to skewer every stereotype and cliché about fish-out-of-water, every-man-in-extraordinary-circumstances movies like Armageddon.

KFC was a sponsor of the program, just like hundreds of other companies sponsoring dozens of other shows this week. The difference was that KFC and Community found a way to work together to include KFC in the show that felt natural. Only one brief mention of the deliciousness of KFC’s products intruded on the organic flow of the show, and even that felt OK because it was delivered to great comedic effect by the delightfully off-kilter Ken Jeong as Senor Chang.

For the most part, the repeated KFC references felt like any of the many other motifs that the show has picked up and abused throughout its short run so far. I actually had to slow down my DVR and check the commercials to confirm that KFC truly was a paid commercial sponsor of the program.

Community continues to operate on the leading edge of TV’s sitcoms. By embracing early and tastefully the coming reality of a dwindling audience for commercials, Community has positioned itself as the model that other shows will be imitating and chasing after in seasons to come.

The 8 p.m. time slot is a promotion for Community.  It is now the prime lead in for the night and is poised to take over the coveted 9 p.m. anchor slot when The Office makes its inevitable exit in another year or two.  Last season’s fairly surprising and highly amusing season finale has the gang at the community college set for a shake up in status quo.  Jeff’s decision to choose young Annie from the bevy of women pining for his attention will surely have deep (and funny) repercussions throughout the next season.

30 Rock is still on.  It is hitting with a certain demographic, but the overall audience is starting to show signs of collectively yawning at the continued exploits of the always-funny Tracey Morgan, the increasingly-annoying Alec Baldwin, and the ever-adorable Tiny Fey.  The move to the 8:30 slot (known as the ‘I might as well watch it because what else am I going to do between the end of the 8:00 show and the start of the 9:00 show’ time slot) is NBC’s acknowledgment that the show’s best days are in the rearview mirror by now.

The Office is another show that is starting to get a little long in the tooth.  Steve Carell’s planned exit after this season is casting a long shadow over this year.  Last season didn’t end on a cliffhanger so much as it dropped just a little hint of what may or may not be coming up this season.

Will Holly return?  Will it even matter if she does?  Can the show handle the return of a once-major character and the necessary preparations to continue without the central character and still be funny?  It will be interesting to see how much is left to mine in the slice of workplace life mine.

Finally, newbie Outsourced will be joining the Thursday night scene.  The previews scream “The Office in India”.  The clips that have  been released to the media promise some good laughs.  I have little doubt that Outsourced will have audiences entertained, at least for a while.  It remains to be seen how whether or not the show will have legs after the initial gag wears off.