Bad Medicine

First off, Community is a great show.  What started off as a pretty boring concept that had no chance of keeping my attention & was only being viewed by me due to it's very-convenient time slot very quickly evolved in my most anticipated show on Thursday night (& believe me, that's a list with some very steep competition).  It might have been around the GoodFellas spoof (and "Annie's Boobs") that I first realized that something very special was going on here.

Unfortunately, I have been in this type of position before:  Firefly, Veronica Mars, Perfect Couples (shut up, you just don't know), etc.;.....it's almost guaranteed that the next thought I have after opening my eyes to a great piece of entertainment is the one where the realization that "Oh, this isn't going to last".  It's.  All.  So.  Very.  Cliched.

But to be honest, I had been enjoying Community consistently for so long now that I had simply not been paying attention to whether or not this joy of mine was being viewed as a "success" or a "failure" in the eyes of the PTB;  I've got way too much OTHER important shit to worry about with that part of my limited brain space.  So when NBC announced that they were putting the show on hiatus, it would have gone completely off of my radar had I not seen the deluge of outrage over the action on Twitter & other sites (but....let's be honest, mostly Twitter).  It seems that there are way more people who will no longer have a reason for living in a world without Community than NBC's numbers-that-it-uses-to-sell-ads-at-prices-that-keep-the-donuts-churning was showing them on paper.  Go figure.

And this is where I usually get lost & start feeling like I'm alone in this world with only the corporations* to sleep with at night because we share the same POV.  No matter how much I may love something in corporate entertainment, I never lose sight of the fact that this IS a business and it is the shows that go around the commercials, not the commercials that go around the shows.  Creators, actors, directors can all do public speaking and tell us fans what we all want to hear all day, but shit, nobody is working for free.  Nor should they.  And seeing how I *ahem* work inside one of these big huge corporate models 5 days a week, I have faith that The Beast will not shut down my Gmail account (=My Life) if I share something that is Gospel in the inner workings:  Growth is King.  If something is steady, then it is failing.  No, stop, none of this makes sense, but you NEED to believe & understand this.  If something is NOT growing in a expected capacity, or in ANY kind of capacity, then it's time is limited as fuck.

And this is why everything that's cool in this world is usually a "failure".  Most nerds** of culture are usually pretty insulated people, in that they're not very much with the whole "sharing" thing;  at least in the way that a normal person will be able to attract other people outside of their clicks to something.  When you create a product that you're heavily invested in, for the most part, you can't control who your fan base is going to be. But whoever they are, you're going to need them to talk good about your product to people who aren't already buying your product.  If you see your fans only Tweeting about your performance to others who are already in that particular circle, then you know it's pretty much it's a wrap for you.

People in society value loyalty like no other quality.  Smart people with skin in the game know this is all a bunch of bullshit;  loyalty doesn't keep you afloat, addiction that can easily spread from contact does.

......So why don't we ALL get some skin in the game & even the odds?

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The way we view TV is changing rapidly.  We have widely different options than simply being at a said space at a said time.  We can view it any different time, any different pace, any different setting that we choose nowadays, and yet, the way "our" actions are being viewed is still through the old, outdated, inaccurate measure that has been used for all this time.  And yet, I can't disagree with this.  Ads are THE thing that powers The Machine & if I were an advertiser, they would be no way I would accept any results from a DVR as an appropriate indication of the audience I will have at my disposal to sell my wares.  The truth is that the price for the advancement of our convenience is the death of any long term quality.  In order for this trend to balance out, we may need to bring some inconvenience back into the equation.....

Nielsen ratings are fucked and that's never going to change, including bitching about it.  So what can we do? Well....we can BUY it.

A majority of TV shows are now being sold on iTunes & Amazon (that Hulu & Netflix shit ain't helping nobody) and while it's public knowledge that any profits from these purchases are being split with their respective distributors, a buck for something without any sponsors is still a buck.  Nobody for one second thinks that the average online sales on any given TV show is fucking with the numbers of it's public showing, but THAT.  HAS.  TO.  CHANGE.  If advertisers are not going to invest in a TV show, then it's time for it's fucking fans to.

Take a paycheck & buy the DVD sets.  Order all the episodes online.  After you view it on your DVR, buy that episode as soon as it's available, whether you plan on rewatching it or not.  OWN the show.  If this is done with the same passion & commitment that it takes to Tweet or write a half-ass blog, then do THIS instead.  At a certain point, you can't tell me that taking THIS action is not going to get noticed by the people who control whether or not we get more episodes.

#OccupyGreendale all you want, it'll probably just get you pepper-sprayed. #sixseasonsandamovie doesn't happen on love alone.

If Community goes off the air for good, then I will be sad; but make no mistake:  my life will go on & be just fine.  If you can't say that with such ease, then you need to do something about it.  And now.

This is your burden, not mine.  And don't let anyone fool you, you are alone in this.  The only actions that you will know for a fact to make a difference with be yours, not anyone else.

Fuck me, don't let yourself down.  Peace.

#saveCommunity






*Which have been ruled by The Supreme Court to be people & I should legally be allowed to marry them;  unlike another man or something, I guess.

**Basically anyone who is a smarty-pants about any given subject.  Ex. Music nerd, TV nerd, Font nerd, etc.