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TV Eulogy: NBC Cancels the Critically Acclaimed 'Community' (VIDEO)

'Community' has been cancelled after 5 seasons and always-low ratings, despite critical acclaim and its fantastic cast.
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Actor Danny Pudi and Gillian Jacobs – who play Abed Nadir and Britta Perry on NBC's 'Community' – at the 2012 Comic-Con convention in San Diego

I write about this not because it's of any certain importance over any other bit of news today, or even so important for British Columbians that this site is intended to inform, but because I am heartbroken.

Community – the Dan Harmon-penned, anti-laugh-track sitcom that took viewers through the ups and down and emotional moments of six members of a loveable community college study group – has been cancelled by NBC (IGN).

Season 5 just concluded on April 17, 2014.

The show, which Harmon created, had been a bubble show almost every year with the network. It was an annual contender to be dumped, due to always-small ratings but despite critical acclaim.

It went through its drama with Harmon – who was pushed out of his creator's chair for a lacklustre Season 4 – and Chevy Chase, as well as hiatuses and half-seasons.

What made the show, of course, was its characters – each them wacky in his or her own way, relatable and also comically unrealistic.

They met for a reason and they stayed together for a reason, and we – the sho'w faithful – watched for a reason.

Community starred Joel McHale as disgraced former lawyer Jeff Winger, Danny Pudi as brilliant but slightly off-kilter film afficianado Abed Nadir, Alison Brie as the preppy, uptight, dough-eyed Annie Edison, Gillian Jacobs as the "needlessly defiant" Britta Perry, Donald Glover as former football star/sidekick Troy Barnes, Yvette Nicole Brown as religious mother-of-two Shirley Bennett, and Chevy Chase as elderly millionaire Pierce Hawthorne.

Also adding to the show's IMDB roster was Jim Rash, who played the Dean of Greendale Community College, and did a terrific job. They all did terrific jobs.

The show was brilliant. And it will live on Netflix, so it still is.

And to think, its characters were THIS close to what they always talked about – "Six seasons and a movie".

Well, funny story... (from IGN)

The question then becomes, is this really it for Community? Sony, who produce the series, could try shopping it to another outlet for one more season. The entire "Six Seasons and a Movie" campaign and the cult around Community make it a viable property, but with a relatively small audience, it would no doubt come down to cost. But one only needs to look at the existence of the Veronica Mars movie for proof of how a project of this sort can make a surprising return. For now though, we've got five seasons of Greendale to look back on.

Yup. Seems the optimism lives on. If it worked for Arrested Development, who says fans can't resurrect this one, too? Maybe on another network? Maybe on a silver screen?