How Community changed sitcoms 10 years ago

GQ

The critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged NBC community college comedy from Dan Harmon premiered 10 years ago on Sept. 17, 2009. "A decade later, Community has become more a symbol for the evolution of television, for better or worse, than an (eventually) fairly successful show about friends hanging out," says Tom Philip. "That’s in part due to its smart, mercurial creator, its amazing foresight for talent in front of and behind the camera, and the evolution of its more out-there high concept episodes, which would become the rule rather than the exception by the end of the show’s run. Here’s how it all happened: Community was created by Dan Harmon, now best known as one of the creators of Rick and Morty alongside Justin Roiland. A lot of the DNA that impresses that fervent fanbase can be traced to Community's earliest episodes, including an adherence—sometimes to a fault—to either honoring or subverting traditional story structure; meta explorations of tropes across every conceivable genre; and questions posed to viewers about what it really means when we call a character 'unlikeable.'"

ALSO:

• Community is the perfect show of our moment: Somehow, says Tyler Aquilina, "a decade after it premiered, Community finally feels like the perfect show for our moment, for reasons that have nothing to do with what people usually talk about when they talk about Community. Because when you look past the pop culture parodies, the hyper-referentiality, the structural innovations, and the showboat episodes, Community starts to look a lot more traditional at its core."
• Recalling Community's best concept episodes, from Pulp Fiction to Paintball
• Community was basically the Russo Brothers' Avengers before Avengers