Dan Harmon Calls COMMUNITY's Future "Bleak"

Community is one of my all-time favorite shows, but the show's sixth season — which aired on Yahoo after the streaming service saved it from NBC's cancellation — was only OK. I think the concept may have been played out by that point, and with actors dropping off the show left and right (Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, and Yvette Nicole Brown were all absent), it just didn't have the same chemistry that made its first few seasons so brilliant. The fan mantra of "six seasons and a movie," once chimed loudly across the internet, seems to have fallen to a dim whisper from only the show's most devoted and obsessive fans, and now the future of the series is in jeopardy.

THR has a new interview with creator/showrunner Dan Harmon in which he calls the show's prospects "bleak" following the departure of Kathy Savitt from Yahoo to STX Entertainment. The former chief marketing officer was Community's biggest advocate, and without her there to help get things done, Harmon isn't confident the show has anywhere left to go:

"I, of course, as a narcissist and a self-loathing person, when I read that [she was leaving Yahoo], I blamed myself. Like, I only know one thing that she did, and I think she got fired for it — which was hire me.

That changing is a little bit of a dent in the optimism — I'm trying to find out a way [to say it]. That makes it look a little more bleak just because before she was gone, she was the person that anyone could pick up the phone and say, 'Let's make this Community thing happen,' whatever it was, and she's the reason it would get done.

And again, I say half-joking and half-sincerely, maybe that's why she's gone because she believed in the show and loved it so much."

While Harmon also admits that "anything can happen," it's tough to see this as anything other than a blow to the show's chances at moving forward. Frankly, after watching the sixth season, I think a seventh would be a bad idea. I'd rather not see Harmon taint his legacy by keeping the show going longer than necessary, and while a movie might be cool a few years down the line, it might be best if fans can fondly look back on their time at Greendale Community College and not regret any more hours spent there. What do you think?