The Thing Happens

As has been hinted (though I doubted it), Dan Harmon will be returning to run Community.  NBC and Harmon hadn't been getting along, and the show wasn't a big enough hit ("big enough"?--it wasn't a hit at all, it just had the most fanatical following), so he wasn't worth keeping around. But after a weak fourth season, and a semi-surprising renewal, NBC and Harmon have both seen the light.  Harmon created the show, after all, and made it what it is.

Shows have been canceled and brought back (Family Guy is a classic example), showrunners have left and come back, but I don't recall a show's creator ever being fired and then returning.  Maybe you can go home again.

Adding to the good news, it looks like producer Chris McKenna will also return.  He got the only major Emmy nomination the show ever received for writing its greatest episode, "Remedial Chaos Theory."

It's not clear how Harmon et al will continue the plotline, as lead character Jeff in the non-Harmon fourth season graduated and left the study group to go back to being a lawyer.  Will they figure out a way to bring him back into the fold, or will the show move in other directions?

However they do it, my guess is the show will last only one more year--really half year--which will give it enough episodes to be properly syndicated.  But with Harmon aboard, at least it will have a proper Viking funeral.

As Gillian Jacobs has alread tweeted, E Pluribus Anus!