Great news for fans of television comedy and particularly the excellent shows airing Thursday nights on NBC: the network has officially decided to renew Community, Parks & Recreation andThe Office for another season! The news comes from TV Line where NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt said “I am so pleased to renew these three outstanding comedies which are all at the top of their game creatively.”

Source: Cinema Blend

Related articles

• ‘The Office,’ ‘Community’ And ‘Parks And Rec’ Renewed By NBC (huffingtonpost.com)
• NBC Renewals: Community (Yay!), Parks and Rec (Yay!), The Office (Duh!) (tunedin.blogs.time.com)

NBC’s upcoming fall season features additional guest stars, including the return of Kathy Bates to “The Office” (Thursdays, 9-9:30 p.m. ET). In addition, Drew Carey (“The Price Is Right,” “The Drew Carey Show”) and Rob Corddry (“Hot Tub Time Machine“) make guest appearances on “Community” (Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m. ET).

The following details their guest appearances:

* In the third episode of the new season of “Community,” Carey will portray Ted, a good-natured –but much feared patriarch — at Jeff’s (Joel McHale) old law firm. Meanwhile, Corddry will play Alan, Jeff’s best friend at his old law firm who bumps into him on the Greendale campus and lures Jeff back into his old life back at the prestigious firm. “Community” is from Sony Pictures Television.
Read more: Broadway World

Gillian Jacobs is the latest cast member from NBC’s half-hour junior-college send-up “Community” to spend her summer hiatus on a movie set. She’s currently in Los Angeles shooting the indie comedy “Let Go,” a project from first-time writer-director-producer Brian Jett that also stars David Denman, Kevin Hart and Ed Asner.

Set to wrap production at the end of June and targeting a debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the film casts Denman – best known as John Krasinksi’s rival during the first three seasons of “The Office” – as a parole officer dealing with midlife crises.

Read the full story on The Wrap

NBC edged out Fox for third place, with “Community” (4.5 million, 2.0) up 5%, “Parks & Recreation” flat (4.1 million, 1.9), “The Office” (6.8 million, 3.5) down a notch and “30 Rock” steady (5.6 million, 2.7). At 10 p.m., “The Marriage Ref” (5.0 million, 2.2) was up 16% from last week’s low.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

After weeks of reruns and Thursday night filler, NBC airs new episodes of its three funniest shows this week.

As teased in the video below, Community is back with a fresh half hour; Pam returns to The Office; and we’ll be treated to a pair of 30 Rock episodes.

Source: TV Fanatic

TV.com is trying to decide which NBC Thursday-night comedy is the best. Will Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, or 30 Rock reign supreme?

This is what they say about Community:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury (by the way, you look handsome and/or pretty today), you will hear my opponents talk about how The Office has launched careers, and how Parks and Recreation has a guy with a funny mustache. But one thing you won’t hear them talk about is heart. This, my friends, is what puts freshman comedy Community ahead of the pack. The way the show’s writers have transformed a group of misfits into a tight-knit clique has been natural and heart-warming. More than just a series of non-sequitor jokes, Community puts its characters into action for a purpose and not just a chuckle. As for its competitors, The Office and Parks and Recreation are basically the same show, and 30 Rock is just an overblown Saturday Night Live sketch. Plus, what other TV show could end its Christmas episode with its cast bloodied up from a street brawl, yet still manage to be touching? Only Community. I rest my case. —Tim Surette

Read their review of the rest of the Thursday night lineup at TV.com .

Coming direclty from NBC:

NBC Gives Pickups To Thursday-Night Comedies ’30 Rock,’ ‘The Office’ And ‘Community’ For 2010-11

Renewals Follow Previously Announced Green-light for “Parks and Recreation” on Thursdays.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – March 5, 2010 – NBC has renewed three more of its Thursday-night comedies – “30 Rock” (9:30-10 p.m. ET), “The Office” (9-9:30 p.m. ET) and the freshman series “Community” (8-8:30 p.m. ET) for the 2010-11 season.  The returning programs join the previously announced “Parks and Recreation” (Thursdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET) that also will return for next season.

The announcement was made by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

“We are happy to give these early pickups to these critically acclaimed, incredibly funny comedies,” said Bromstad.  ”As a result, we look forward to continuing our rewarding partnership with the respective creative teams and talented show-runners for ’30 Rock,’ ‘The Office’ and ‘Community’ as they all consistently deliver quality shows.”

First-year comedy “Community” is averaging a 2.7 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 5.9 million viewers overall so far this season, with “Community” originals winning the time period among adults 18-34 and men 18-34.  Since moving to the Thursday 8-8:30 p.m. (ET) half-hour on October 8, “Community” has improved the time period by 24 percent versus NBC’s adult 18-49 average earlier in the season.

Good news!! NBC has renewed COMMUNITY, THE OFFICE, and 30 ROCK for new seasons, according to Michael Ausiello. That means that their entire Thursday night comedy lineup will be back (Parks and Recreation has already been renewed).

Read more: NBC Renews COMMUNITY, THE OFFICE, and 30 ROCK For New Seasons | Daemon’s TV

“The thing I love about NBC is that comedies have a chance to grow their legs,” said Gillian Jacobs, who plays Britta. Jacobs and her cast mates talked about the show’s future during a recent set visit at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. “NBC allowed ’30 Rock’ to find its legs, they allowed ‘The Office’ to find its audience, and look at ‘Parks and Recreation.’ It really is taking off this year.”
Dan Harmon, the creator, head writer and executive producer behind “Community” describes NBC’s Thursday-night comedy lineup as a brand and his show as a part of that brand. “We’re like an emcee for an evening of fantastic comedy,” Harmon said. “They put us on at 8 o’clock and we really hold our ground.”

From The Detroit News.

Movie Line has an interview with Community star Yvette Nicole Brown. Here are some of the highlights:

Community has a great ensemble. What do you think Shirley’s place is in the show’s core?
I think Shirley’s kind of the heart of the show in that she’s really sentimental and she just adores everybody in the group, even Chevy’s character Pierce who hits on her all the time. She just really has a love for everyone, so I think the love that oozes out of her and her excitement for everyone makes everyone a cohesive unit. Because she’s got two sides where she’s really, really sweet and then also really, really full of rage — I think that kind of keeps everyone a little nervous around her. The “unstable-ness” of her is where the funny comes in from Shirley.

Some hubbub stirred up online recently, withCommunity fans wondering about the implications of the way your name is presented in opening credits. It appears that a knife is going into a cake that says “Nicole Brown” on it, while your first name “Yvette” floats above. Were you surprised to hear that people drew connections to the slain Nicole Brown and the O.J. Simpson trial?
It was not intentional, and it’s still on credits. People really took that the wrong way. People don’t know that my real full name is Yvette Nicole Brown, and I’ve had it my whole life, long before Nicole Brown was murdered. No one respects her name and legacy more than me, because I kind of carry it now, you know? That’s not something I would’ve chosen for myself, but that’s the way it worked out. The cake and the knife are the two sides of Shirley; she’s sweet and she’s rageful. No one ever thought, “Oh, let’s do something funny about someone who was murdered.” That’s horrible!Nobody involved in the show has that type of spirit.

I was really thinking that the people who saw that and made that connection, it said more about them than about any of us. It sickened me to see that, that people thought we would do that. That people thought I would allow that. You know what I mean? It was just disgusting to me. It has nothing to do with Nicole Brown Simpson, and I totally respect her and — I’m horrified by it. I think the reason it remained is because we knew we hadn’t done that for that reason. We knew why it was there. If you look at everybody’s credit, there’s something about each person. Like Alison [Brie’s] character Annie is very funny, so she has smiley faces. It all has something to do with who the person, or character is. It has nothing to do with anything else.

Can you talk about watching Joel McHale progress on the show? He appears to have become very comfortable as the season has gone on.
Joel is just one of my favorite people on the planet. He’s a very caring, loving family man. All of his snarkiness and smart-aleckiness hides, or is wrapped around, this amazing heart. So that’s the first thing. In regards to his evolution, I’ve been so impressed with him as an actor. I’ve seen him in a couple of things way before he did The Soup, but to see his level of skill? When you’re in a scene acting with someone, a lot of times, when the camera is on them and not on you, you get to actually watch them as a spectator and enjoy them. And Joel’s ability to, what we were talking abouy, change on a dime, but he is the person who has the supercomputer brain. I don’t know if you’d paid really close attention to the chunks of dialogue this man has to deliver, but [creator] Dan Harmon is so intelligent, and so witty and interesting, a lot of things are so deep and crazy, they’re hard to say. Joel has had more tongue-twister-type monologues stuff than everybody — he and Gillian [Jacobs] actually have the most. He is able to deliver it in a way that’s real cerebral, but you’re like “Oh, I get that.” But he’s able to deliver it because he’s such a skilled actor. He says things that are mean-spirited, but because Joel is so likable, you’re OK with it. His innate likability is serving the character Jeff in a way the producers probably never thought was possible. He can do everything as far as I concerned.

Lastly, NBC’s Thursday night lineup is, without a doubt, the most solid in primetime — though it’s not the most highly rated. Is that disheartening?
A lot of shows didn’t start out huge. Seinfeld was seen by almost no one when it started, The Office too. I think we’re going to be a slow burn. There’s going to be people who watch season two, and if we’re lucky to get a season three, people who are then going to go, “What is this show?” and they’ll catch up. I don’t know why more people haven’t found us, but there are a lot of shows that aren’t highly rated that I love. We happen to be on a network that loves to give comedies a chance. Other networks are quick to cancel shows that don’t immediately come out of the box with fifty thousand, million viewers. We’re on a network that says, “No, we love this show, and we’re going to give it a chance to get numbers.” I’m grateful we’re on NBC and thankful we’ll be able to find the audience we’re supposed to have.