Movie Box Review

COMMUNITY returns to the NBC schedule at 8PM on Thursday, March 15.

WHERE WE WERE:  Greendale Community College, of course!  Where the school mascot is a Human Being and the Dean (Jim Rash) is to be seen in outfits intended for any and all genders and species, a place of air conditioning repair secret-police cults, magic trampolines, a statue of famed alumnus Luis Guzman, and the occasional paintball massacre and zombie uprising   In short, the altogether strangest and most surreal place of higher learning in television history.  Where a motley gang of study buddies (Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Donald Glover) and one wannabe (Ken Jeong) bicker, protect, scheme against and occasionally hook up with one another, while pop culture references rain down unrelentingly on all their heads.

WHERE WE ARE:  Still Greendale.  Any fear that Community's time off the NBC schedule was spent altering the show's unique DNA can be quickly laid to rest.   The March 15 episode "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts," screened at tonight's PaleyFest salute, lacked writing and directing credits, but was thoroughly in keeping with the Community all of us--well, a tiny, tiny portion of us, but so far enough to keep it on the air--love.

Actually, "Urban Matrimony" is a little different from most Community episodes, in that something actually takes place with effects that will presumably go beyond the given episode:  Shirley (Brown) and ex-husband Andre (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) decide to remarry.  While this causes the expectedly unexpected, as Britta (Jacobs) discovers her deeply hidden inner wedding planner, Abed and Troy (Pudi and Glover) determine that they need to be "normal" for the occasion, and Jeff (McHale) has to give the toast (always remember:  a toast that starts "Webster's Dictionary defines..." is the Jim Belushi of toasts), it also gives rise to some genuine emotion, and a less abstract superstructure than the show sometimes provides.  Meanwhile, Shirley and Pierce (Chase) pitch a college sandwich business to the Dean.  Also, there's a cameo appearance from one of the series' most especially beloved recurring characters, which I won't spoil. 

Community is what's good about NBC's wretched standing in the ratings.  On any other broadcast network, it would have been canceled halfway through its first season, but terminal ratings at CBS or ABC still allow for renewal at NBC. (In fact, it did just as well in its timeslot this season as its replacement, the television royalty that is 30 Rock.)  It's a show that, for better and worse, the bulk of the network audience will simply never get, nor want to. Let's face it, either you care to watch a half-hour of television devoted to a conceptual joke about the 1981 cult-indie classic My Dinner With Andre, or you don't. 

There will always be ups and downs to Community, as gasp-inducing inspiration is followed by tiresome eccentricity for its own sake.  (Or as show creator/showrunner Dan Harmon put it at PaleyFest, sometimes the show goes very far up its own ass.)  But that inspiration stuff is awfully heady, and network television would be a markedly less accredited place without Community.

For those who don't know, PaleyFest is a yearly 2-week program sponsored by The Paley Center For Media in Los Angeles, in which every night (or occasional weekend afternoon) is devoted to saluting a particular television show, usually a mix of the season's brightest new series and a few older shows.  Each presentation begins with a screening--often of a yet-to-air episode, although sometimes a "greatest hits" piece--and then features a panel discussion with the creator/showrunner and most if not all of the cast, starting with a moderator's queries and then with questions fielded from the audience. 

In the annals of PaleyFest, few audiences can have been more jubilant than the crowd at tonight's salute to COMMUNITY.  When the show was placed in the festival's line-up, it had been pulled from NBC's schedule, and it was unclear just when--or, really, if--it was going to return.  Now it's set to come back at 8PM on Thursday March 15, and in fact the midseason premiere episode was screened tonight (and we have a review).  

All of the cast was present for the evening's festivities except Chevy Chase (a subject raised briefly in the Q&A and quickly deflected) and Donald Glover, as well as creator/showrunner Dan Harmon and Executive Producers Russ Krasnoff, Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman. 

The evening was mostly joyous and funny--this cast doesn't need writers to get laughs.  In fact, Greendale's Dean, Jim Rash, is as of last week an Academy Award-winning writer himself, as co-screenwriter of The Descendants.  (What may or may not have been Rash's actual Oscar was brought out, and even the PaleyFest videographer got into the spirit of the evening's comedy, cutting to the Oscar from time to time seemingly on his/her own initiative to provide the occasional visual punch-line.) The chemistry among the group seemed genuine and unforced, to the extent that an event like this can truly reveal such a thing. 

What was most interesting, though, was seeing just how seriously Harmon takes what often seems like a series put together on an abstract, conceptual, episode-by-episode basis, rather than one with a consistent plan.  Asked about the effect Community's stay in network limbo would have on the dozen episodes left to air this season, Harmon spoke of the darkness and uncertainty that was meant to affect the characters this season in any case, and how that may have been heightened by the mood of the production as episodes were created without any idea when they'd air.  Notwithstanding this, Harmon and Krasnoff were cautiously optimistic about Community's chances to be brought back for a 4th season.  (Objectively, the series has one thing going against it--The Office, Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock and probably Up All Night have to be renewed from NBC's point of view, which leaves Community as the possible Thursday sitcom without a seat--and one going for it:  Sony, the studio that produces the show, is just a few episodes away from a fully syndicable number, and would likely be willing to make sacrifices in the network license deal in order to get there.)  However, Harmon more than once spoke of his vision of the show as the 4-year journey of Jeff to earn his BA degree, which may mean that next season would in any case be its last.  He promised the final episode would not involve Abed and a snow-globe.

There was little in the way of spoiler talk:  a Law & Order parody is coming up (the old Law & Order, Harmon stressed), John Goodman will be returning, there's an all-Dreamatorium episode that even the actors aren't quite sure they get, an episode in which the whole gang plays a video game, and oh yes, at some point in the finale the Dean wears a mask and a costume that McHale didn't describe, but said may be the funniest thing in the history of television.  

It was a fun 90 minutes spent with a very happy group of actors and producers (well, Harmon seemed to be about as happy as he gets), before an equally happy audience.  Fittingly, it ended with an audience member asking if she could hug Danny Pudi--and him jumping off the stage to rush into the crowd and grant her wish. For a moment, it was PaleyFest as a Taylor Swift concert.

  

If you hear bells pealing and catch sight of Human Beings dancing (well, not so much dancing as meta-dancing that references obscure pop culture artifacts from 20 years ago), it's because NBC has finally freed COMMUNITY, its low-rated, selectively-beloved, utterly bizarre captive sitcom.  

As of March 15, Community will be back in its 8PM Thursday timeslot, with 30 ROCK moving to 8:30.  The bad news is that this will keep PARKS & RECREATION off the schedule until April 19, when that show will come back at 9:30PM (when UP ALL NIGHT will have finished its season order). 

The network also announced a set of changes to its disastrous Wednesday night schedule that are as twisty as a John LeCarre novel, so pay attention:

For the next 2 weeks (Feb 22 and 29), Wednesdays will continue to be:

8PM:  WHITNEY

8:30PM:  ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA?

9PM:  ROCK CENTER

10PM:  SVU

After that, the changes start.  March 7-14:

8PM:  Whitney

8:30PM:  Are You There, Chelsea?

9PM:  ???

10PM:  Rock Center

March 21-28:

8PM:  Whitney

8:30PM:  Are You There, Chelsea? (both their season--please God, series--finales air March 28)

9PM:  BENT (Amanda Peet sitcom being burned off with 3 consecutive weeks of back-to-back episodes)

10PM:  Rock Center

April 4:

8PM:  BETTY WHITE'S OFF THEIR ROCKERS (reality comedy)

8:30PM:  BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (semi-improv sitcom)

9PM:  Bent

10PM:  Rock Center

April 11-May 23:

8PM:  Betty White's Off Their Rockers

8:30PM:  Best Friends Forever

9PM:  Rock Center

10PM:  SVU

Got that?  Planning to watch any of it?  Did I mention that Community is coming back?

Whatever America is doing early in this holiday season, it's not watching network television.

NBC:  The network attempted to help GRIMM in its return after a 3-week hiatus by giving it a showcase Thursday night run, but its 1.6 rating didn't suggest bubbling fan interest (and may prefigure an ugly score in its timeslot return tonight)--it scored better than PRIME SUSPECT, but that's the definition of "not saying much."  Earlier in the evening, a parade of season lows:  PARKS & RECREATION, THE OFFICE and WHITNEY all tied their lows, while the "winner" was COMMUNITY, a whopping 0.1 above its low for its last pre (permanent?) vanishing episode.

CBS:  BIG BANG THEORY was just above its season low, while RULES OF ENGAGEMENT narrowly set a new one.  Initial numbers have strong results for PERSON OF INTEREST and THE MENTALIST, but CBS in Pittsburgh aired the Steelers vs Browns game, so those numbers are due to come down.

FOX:  The FOX affiliate in Cleveland had the other end of the NFL game, so these numbers are probably high as well.  That won't be good news for FOX, since even with the NFL boost, right now X FACTOR is at a season low and BONES is only 0.1 above its own low.

ABC:  WIPEOUT's season premiere at 1.9 was 20% below last season's average.  After that, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS and  THE GREAT BIG AMERICAN AUCTION specials were nothing of the sort, with lousy 1.9 and 1.4 numbers respectively.  

CW:  Gone fishin till January.

Tonight, as noted above, the question is how GRIMM will fare in its return to timeslot, against atypical competition:  CBS and FOX are airing holiday specials and reruns.

Even with weakened competition on the other 2 networks, NBC and FOX weren't able to capitalize.

NBC:  There were holiday specials on ABC and reruns on CBS, and none of it did much for the NBC line-up.  COMMUNITY could only benefit by one or two ticks, and PARKS & RECREATION tied its season low.  Even worse, THE OFFICE (which creatively has utterly lost its way this season) remained below a 3 rating.  WHITNEY tied its series low as it waits for its demotion move to Wednesdays, and although the dead PRIME SUSPECT climbed slightly, it was to an irrelevant 1.3.

FOX:  Winner of the night, but X FACTOR tied its season low with a 3.1.  BONES was up only slightly from recent weeks.

ABC:  A rerun of the 1970 holiday special SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN didn't perform as well as other holiday chestnuts have lately, although its 2.2 was certainly better than Charlie's Angels had been doing in the slot.  CMA COUNTRY CHRISTMAS, with a 2.1, was well below what the network usually does with its 9-11PM shows.

CBS:  BIG BANG THEORY was below its Thanksgiving night repeat, while the other reruns were in line with what they'd done on the holiday.  This was good enough for 2d place in every timeslot of the night, except 9PM where PERSON OF INTEREST lost steam.

CW:  Its Thursdays are now firmly in repeat mode until next month, and the lights barely stayed on with a 0.4 average.

Tonight NBC airs a 2-hour family TV-movie Game Of Your Life, which is an advertiser-funded show, while FOX has the inaugural PAC-12 Championship college football game, which unfortunately for all concerned has turned out to be a mismatch between Oregon, ranked #8 in the country, and 31-point underdog UCLA.

The final Thursday of November sweeps wasn't impressive for anyone.

ABC:  The network had to be disappointed with the 2.5 earned by its 2-hour, much-promoted "intervention" episode of PRIVATE PRACTICE, which was down not only from Grey's Anatomy numbers but even from Practice's 2.8 last week.  (It was, however, a strong episode, especially the first hour written by Shonda Rhimes.)  The Katie Couric/Regis Philbin interview special at 8PM did better than recent episodes of the dead CHARLIE'S ANGELS, but not by much.

FOX:  X FACTOR continued its slide, with last night's 3 its lowest Thursday number by a factor of 10%.  That was, however, still good enough for an easy 2d place finish in its hour.  The news was better for BONES, which capitalized on the absence of Grey's to win at 9PM.  

NBC:  Well, on the plus side COMMUNITY and PARKS AND REC were both up slightly from last week.  But THE OFFICE, despite reduced competition in its hour, tied its season low, and WHITNEY, preparing for its move to Wednesday--where it will have to be a self-starter--hit a new all-time low and went below a 2 for the first time.  The cancelled PRIME SUSPECT played out the string, tying its series low.

CBS:  Even though all its shows except RULES OF ENGAGEMENT were down from last week (and PERSON OF INTEREST and THE MENTALIST both tied their season lows), the network was able to win the night thanks to the absence of Grey's.  

CW:  As the network's Thursday is on hiatus until January, it filled in for the night with an obscure aquatic action movie that happened to star VAMPIRE DIARIES' Paul Wesley.  Even with the temporary and artificial boost of NY and Denver preemptions for the brutal (if you're a Jets fan) football game, the movie did no better than the CW norm, and that will be reduced later today as national numbers come in.

Tonight the Grimm watch will continue for NBC.

NBC has unaccountably decided not to air a midseason schedule consisting of a test pattern and the words "For the love of God, bring back football..." scrolling at the bottom of the screen.  On the contrary, today they announced several notable premieres and moves:

Monday:  As expected, THE VOICE will return to run 8-10PM, followed by the new musical drama SMASH.

Tuesday:  BIGGEST LOSER continues 8-10PM, but starting Feb 28, it will be followed by the new reality show FASHION STAR, with PARENTHOOD, which as a serialized series repeats horribly, taking a break.  However, no word as yet on when or where on the schedule Parenthood will reappear.

Wednesday:  In a movie that makes sense, UP ALL NIGHT will be moving to Thursday with the other single-camera comedies, and the network will launch a multi-camera hour they hope will appeal to young women, with WHITNEY followed by the new ARE YOU THERE, VODKA?  IT'S ME, CHELSEA.  Then the newsmagazine ROCK CENTER, displaced by Smash on Mondays, takes the 9PM slot, followed by SVU.

Thursday:  30 ROCK returns to the schedule at 8PM, followed by PARKS & RECREATION, THE OFFICE and now UP ALL NIGHT.  No word on where this leaves COMMUNITY.  At 10PM, PRIME SUSPECT (not officially cancelled, but clearly on life support) is replaced by the new series version of THE FIRM.

Friday:  Once CHUCK is properly buried, the reality show WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE will be the lead-in to GRIMM, followed by DATELINE.

Saturday:  Reruns, reruns, reruns.

Sunday:  The unfillable hole where football used to be will be covered over with DATELINE, HARRY'S LAW and CELEBRITY APPRENTICE.  It's fair to say there will be a ratings decline on this night.

So where does all this leave the Peacock?  Clearly Monday is set up as the big night of the week.  Tuesdays will likely stay more or less as is in the ratings, and although the Whitney/Chelsea hour is logical, it's not likely to be high-rated.  Thursday should get an uptick with 30 Rock and Up All Night in the place of Community and Whitney, and The Firm very much a question mark.  On Fridays, 8PM will improve on Chuck because, well, anything would improve on Chuck.  And Sundays will see a huge, inevitable decline from the halcyon days of football.

For one network, a night that moved in the wrong direction.

FOX:  Does FOX have to start worrying about X FACTOR?  The show seemed to make its way through the wave of baseball-related preemptions and reschedulings very smoothly, but this week has been troubling.  Both Wednesday and last night, the show has hit season lows for those respective nights, and while the numbers are still perfectly fine (last night's 3.3 was enough for a strong 2d place in its hour), this is the part of the season when competition shows are supposed to start building, not falling apart.  BONES was also down almost 20% from last week, although a drop after the season premiere isn't unusual.  

ABC:  If the network hadn't used the 8PM hour to burn off what may have been the last completed episode of CHARLIE'S ANGELS, ABC might have won the night.  The "fall finale" episode of GREY'S ANATOMY was up to a very solid 4, the highest number it's seem since the season premiere, and PRIVATE PRACTICE is peaking at the right time, with its season-highest rating as lead-up to next week's  2-hour special.

CBS:  Even with mostly reruns, CBS was in the hunt to win the night.  BIG BANG THEORY and RULES OF ENGAGEMENT won their hour handily, and the MENTALIST rerun easily beat NBC's new programming at 10PM.

NBC:  The good news was that THE OFFICE stayed on the safe side of a 3 rating, and WHITNEY, while far from a hit, retained a steady 70% of that number.  The 8PM hour was a disaster, though, with COMMUNITY and PARKS & RECREATION both tying their season lows.  (And when it comes to those shows, that does mean "low.")  PRIME SUSPECT, like a crippled racehorse no one will have the mercy to shoot, continued to howl in pain at a 1.2.

CW  The "fall finale" gambit worked less well for VAMPIRE DIARIES and SECRET CIRCLE, which were both down a bit from last week.

Tonight the Friday watch will be on GRIMM, which needs to stop dropping so NBC can reasonably claim a fall hit (by Friday standards), and A GIFTED MAN, fighting to stay off the autopsy table.

November sweeps began with a baseball bat in its hand, and for one network, that bat was the one wielded by Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables.

NBC:  A disaster, although its full extent won't be known until the World Series is over next week.  COMMUNITY and PARKS AND RECREATION tied all-time lows (and for those shows, that's really low), and THE OFFICE had its lowest ever rating on a Thursday, which means the network will have zero non-football shows this week with even a 3 rating.  NBC could take a tiny bit of solace from the 0.1 uptick for WHITNEY, but all that promotional effort this week aimed at PRIME SUSPECT came to naught, with an even lower rating than last week's episode.  And the news just gets worse:  Awake, the midseason multiple-dimension cop show that would be the obvious substitute for Suspect in the Thursday lineup, has been forced to take an unscheduled break in production for several weeks because of script problems.  And the cherry on the whipped cream on the network's cake is that tonight's series premiere of GRIMM will have to launch against the first World Series Game 7 in 9 years.   Truly:  Ow.

ABC  It's nice to be a female-skewing network when the competition is a sports event.  IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, from 1966, doubled what Charlie's Angels had been doing at 8PM (but why are Angels episodes still scheduled for the next 2 sweep Thursdays?).  Then GREY'S ANATOMY and even PRIVATE PRACTICE were up, despite the fact that FOX doesn't usually air programming in the 10PM hour.

CBS:  A little bruised by baseball, with the 8-10PM shows all down from last week.  Surprisingly, though, even against the unusual FOX competition, THE MENTALIST held even with last week.  (Note:  rather than face World Series Game 7 tonight, the network has substituted reruns for their entire schedule.  This means the next 1 or 2 ratings for A GIFTED MAN will be life-or-death for that show.)

FOX:  We don't know just what the network's number was last night due to time-zone adjustments for live sports, but we know it was good.  Last night and tonight are the reasons there's still some value for the network in staying in the baseball business. 

CW:  Their target audience of women 18-34 has little interest in baseball, and both VAMPIRE DIARIES and SECRET CIRCLE did just fine.  (Vampire tied NBC in its first half-hour, and its rating was higher than Prime Suspect's).

8PM: Thursday is DVR night, as all the networks pack in some of their hottest shows to get premium dollars from movie studios advertising the weekend's new openings.  COMMUNITY and PARKS & RECREATION are two of the best shows NBC has left, and PARKS & RECREATION, in particular, took giant leaps in quality this past season.  Meanwhile, there's no better guilty pleasure on the air than THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW, far more ingeniously plotted than other TV shows (and blockbuster movies) that delve into the high school realm of the supernatural.  That's not even mentioning the enormously popular BIG BANG THEORY or X FACTOR, which FOX certainly believes will be their appointment series of the Fall.  Odd ladies out may be CHARLIE'S ANGELS, which looked decent enough in its promos but entirely predictable, and may have taken on too tough a time slot for its own good. 


9PM:  Will THE OFFICE recover from the loss of Steve Carell?  Maybe not--the post-Carell episodes this past season weren't exactly promising--but the show has been so good for so long that it deserves every chance; its new slotmate WHITNEY, though, will have to be better than its promos if it's to survive.  Fans of BONES know that the season finale set the stage for a new season not to be missed; the reboot could either work smashingtly or bust the show's fragile mix of mystery, screwball comedy and occasional soap.  Thinking of soaps, GREY'S ANATOMY isn't the behemoth that it once was, but it's still a sturdy entertainment that delivers the suds.  Even the new shows in this slot are big guns:  PERSON OF INTEREST has the JJ Abrams pedigree and stars the LOST cult's favorite Michael Emerson, while THE SECRET CIRCLE will test Kevin Williamson's ability to launch a new franchise back-to-back with his VAMPIRE DIARIES.  Advice for this hour:  DVRs won't be enough, so make sure you know where your chosen network streams its shows online.

10PM:  After the rush of 9PM blockbusters, things calm down in a big way at 10PM.  THE MENTALIST and PRIVATE PRACTICE both have their core audiences, but it would be awfully nice to get some new blood flowing in this slot, so the hope is that NBC's PRIME SUSPECT will be worthy of its classic British predecessor; casting the very strong Maria Bello in the lead is a good first step.

WHAT TO WATCH THE REST OF THE WEEK: