ABSTRACT
Debuting at a time of significant technological and content upheaval within US television. Community could have easily fallen through the cracks. It was a series meant to be rewatched (ie, perfect for DVD or streaming), and its hypermeta references relied on an audience conversant with an extended television and film history, gesturing toward television’s future, and yet was still subjected to the Nielsen rating system. Its consistently low numbers implied it was a failure, and yet it built and retained a strong fanbase, in no small part due to DVD and streaming. Situated at the crossroads of old paradigms and new technologies allowed Community’s to embrace media history allowed it to frequently—and simultaneously—subvert and embrace stock situations of sitcoms and drama through a hyperawareness of their tropes and pitfalls. In that respect, it served as educational for its viewers by exposing, through its use of meta, the development and sustainment of broadcast sitcoms in a changing televisual environment.
