- [Narrator] A few months ago I made a video called, Efficiency in Comedy:
The Office vs. Friends. In this video I took two shows that both hold a special place in my heart and compared them based on one metric, how many jokes are there per minute, a.k.a. which show in my eyes
is more comedically efficient. While I'm very happy with
the way this video turned out and the reception was mostly positive I think the biggest
problem with this video despite just not being
thorough enough with my data is that these two shows
are just too different to compare head to head. Completely different styles of comedy made during two distinct
areas of pop culture making this relationship
too apples versus oranges to draw any real conclusions. So when I set out to revisit this format I made it my goal to only compare shows that are both apples, or both
oranges, or both bananas, you get the idea. Two shows that are very similar. And when I made this my goal two shows immediately came to mind, Arrested Development and Community. The closer I started
to compare these shows the more I realized how
many elements between them are nearly identical. They each feature ensemble cast made up of a bunch of quirky weirdos and one straight man to react
to their quirky weirdness. They're both very meta shows that repeatedly break the fourth wall in ways most other shows don't, and they both seem to have
mastered the art of the callback with numerous jokes that
span multiple seasons. - Shut up Leonard.
- Her? - [Narrator] Hell each show even has one notorious asshole
fuckface that has a history of making the people they
work with feel unsafe. So we're really checking
all the boxes here. But the biggest thing that
ties these series together is their shared fate. These are both shows that
were critically acclaimed but ultimately unsuccessful during their initial network runs and we're each given
individual opportunities to come back to life but
with underwhelming results. But while these two shows
suffered eerily similar fates the path they each took to get there really couldn't have been more different. Arrested Development 2.0 was
served on a silver platter and still managed to disappoint, while Community's attempted resurrection seemed doomed to fail from the start. Two shows each given a
second chance at life but which one did a better
job at fucking it up? And would they have been better off just quitting while they were ahead? (soft jazz music playing) So first let's do a quick history lesson that will never be taught
in any school ever, starting with Arrested Development. The first season premiered in
2003 to initially high ratings that slowly dwindled
over the next few months. Almost instantaneously
Fox was ready to give up on Arrested Development despite the fact that they were literally
winning awards immediately. They won five Emmys in 2004, and yet none of the cast was even sure if they were gonna be brought
back for another season because the critical
acclaim wasn't translating into broad enough
popularity for Foxes liking. You see Arrested Development
was always praised for its cleverness and originality during a time when
simplistic formulaic sitcoms were being birthed left and right. Each episode weave together storylines and long running bits in
such a carefully crafted way that just wasn't typically
seen on television. In fact, the show was
so jam packed with jokes that I think it was actually
ahead of its time in a bad way. Because while Arrested Development has since earned a reputation as a show you sometimes have to pause and rewind, or re-watch episodes all
together to catch subtle nuances you may not have noticed at first you couldn't really do that at the time. In 2003 if you sat down with your family to watch a show live on TV that you can't rewind, or
pause, or anything like that and the show you're watching
feels almost like an onslaught of punchlines and dialogue and information it's not necessarily
going to satisfy the need that most people had when
they watched television. Which was more or less
to turn off your brain for an hour or two with easy laughs after a long day at work. And a lot of ways Arrested
Development was made to be binged before that became the
standard for television. The writers seem to have more
foresight from the beginning than in any show I've ever seen. Certainly in any comedy I've ever seen, even small things like Buster
getting his hand bitten off by a loose seal, but his love interest and mother, two separate characters I should
say are both named Lucille. - Watch out for loose seal!
- I don't care about Lucille! - [Narrator] And have
been from the beginning, that's a small detail. But things like that make you think, whoa, did they map out the
entire show from day one? Is that why those characters
were named Lucille in the first place all to lead up to this
one moment in season two? Like I said that's one small detail, but just one of many examples of the writing on the show indicating an unprecedented level of foresight. Arrested Development sets a standard for how a show can be written but you have to zoom out and
look at the entire picture as a whole before you
can fully appreciate it. An option only available in hindsight and not to the viewers who at the time were only able to watch
one episode a week. It's for that reason that I
think the shows cult following didn't fully establish until
a few years after it ended. As a result Arrested Development suffered right out of the gate
failing to match the ratings of comparable sitcoms at
the time like, Will & Grace, Two and a Half Men,
Everybody Loves Raymond, each of which proved to be more accessible to mainstream audiences. The first major blow was
dealt to the show runners when their second season
which began in 2004 was cut back to 18 episodes from its originally scheduled 22. Ratings dropped ever so slightly over the span of the second season but it was enough to cause
Fox to wanna move the show from Sunday nights to Monday. In general when an underperforming show moves to a different night altogether it's usually a pretty solid indication that cancellation is imminent. This proved to be the case
for Arrested Development when after an even more
significant ratings drop to begin their third season Fox who was quick to
step in and deliberate, you know what, I think we're done here. Giving the show only 13 episodes
to finish its final season. But although Fox felt they had seen enough of Arrested Development, the show wasn't in the water just yet, or I guess I should say, dead
in a police boat in the water, like in the show Its a reference to the show. Anyway, both Showtime and ABC were originally in task of
taking Arrested Development on, with Showtime actually
offering Mitch Hurwitz, the show's creator, two
seasons spanning 24 episodes, which he eventually declined stating the show had reached
its end creatively as a series. However we now know that
that is not the case because in October, 2011, over five years after
the last episode aired, it was announced by
Mitch Hurwitz on a panel at the New Yorker Festival, that there would be a fourth season to serve as a quote, "limited run TV series which
would lead into a movie." Four seasons and a movie sounds familiar if you're a fan of Community but I'm getting ahead of myself. Now of course what really
happened to Arrested Development is that we got a season four released on Netflix in
2013 to mixed reviews. At that point it had been over seven years since the show's hiatus began and it ultimately proved
to be too long of a time to not do something before
attempting to do it again. Despite years of fan
anticipation and excitement for the new rendition of the show, season four didn't receive
nearly the same praise of its original network run with several factors potentially to blame. For one, due to schedule restrictions with the now absurdly famous cast episodes had to be split up to focus on only one or
two characters at a time which made the plot move along
in a palpably awkward way. Another one of my personal complaints was that each episode is just too long. Rather than a nice compact 22 minutes, every episode seemed to drag on with none of the fat trim simply I think because
there was no network anymore forcing them to trim it. And yes there are some incredible
moments in season four. And I personally think that
the episode where Will Arnett and Ben Stiller are both
under the impression that the other wants to have sex with them but actually neither of them do, it's probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life seriously. But aside from moments like that which are unfortunately
few and far between too much of the season is just, eh. When Arrested Development
had built its reputation on being this joke-filled
powerhouse of a comedy, Arrested Development
continues to live on today with a fifth season now on Netflix which might actually be news
to you because it was to me. I wasn't even aware of it until I started writing this video. But even as the show lives on fan reception seems to be pretty unanimous in deciding that Arrested Development 2.0 just doesn't hold a
candle to the original. And while the reception and audience both continue to decline it feels like it's only a matter of time before Arrested Development
is gone for good, perhaps even ruining their
own reputation on the way out. - I have made a huge mistake. (soft music playing) - [Narrator] So now let's
transition over to Community. A show with a similar story but a sadder, weirder, darkest
timeline kind of a story. Community premiered his
first episode on NBC in September, 2009 with what would end up being a series high of just under 8 million viewers. As tends to happen with television the show started off a little wonky but seemed to find its footing
throughout its first season which culminated in a fantastic and highly rated final
episode, modern warfare. The first of many paintball
related season finales to come. At the time Community was
unlike anything else on TV with the exception of maybe 30 Rock. Because where most shows
have a very simplistic and safe format that they
rarely stray away from Community seem to pride
itself in its boldness. Community wasn't so much a sitcom as it was a parody of a sitcom and it would alternate
genres from week to week. You could watch five episodes
of Community in a row and feel like you were watching
a different show every time. It seemed to the goal with Community wasn't just to tell a story
or to make people laugh but to transcend the genre
that it was a part of and it did that successfully
establishing itself as one of the most inventive
shows on television. Unfortunately much like
with Arrested Development this didn't necessarily
result in commercial success. In fact, the shows genre hopping ambition probably had a negative effect on the general TV watching public most of whom would prefer to laugh at a show like, Virgin
nerd guy say smart thing, or two hot girl do dumb job, because it's simple, it's easy, you know what you're gonna get every week and you don't have to think. The first season of Community average just short of 5 million
viewers per episode, underperforming relative to
similar shows airing at the time like, The Office, 30 Rock,
and How I Met Your Mother. Each of which garnered nearly double the viewership of Community. Although the quality of the
show only improved immensely over the first three seasons,
especially in season three, if you haven't seen this show and you just wanna watch one episode, watch season three episode
three, remedial chaos theory. I believe this episode was nominated for a Hugo Award and an Emmy, when you watch this episode
and you just think like, how did they write this? How long did it take to conceptualize? It's fucking brilliant. But anyway even though
the quality of the show continued to improve as time went on the ratings consistently
were on the decline, and so NBC after three seasons felt like they needed to make a change. So in 2012, Dan Harmon,
creator and writer of Community was without much explanation let go by Sony Pictures Television and replaced with David
Guarascio and Moses port, who found success with their
90 sitcom, Just Shoot Me! Starring David spade. Their more recent body of work however includes a show so terrible and bizarre. You have to wonder how
they were even considered for a job like this. The show in question is
called, Aliens in America. And the basic synopsis is that this family ordered a foreign exchange kid from London to be like friends with their son because the son is a loser and they thought this would
make people think he was cool if he had a friend from London, yeah, that's the real
plot of the show guys but it gets even worse. You see, the family ends
up being disappointed when they find out that
the kid they ordered was actually from Pakistan
and they wanted a white guy. - [Justin] It seemed impossible but somehow my life had just gotten worse. - [Narrator] It almost seems as if this whole show only exists to shit someone else's culture and is just full of racist undertones even by the slightly
inflated 2008 standards. (dramatic music playing) - Allahu Akbar. - [Narrator] Aliens in America ran for, and you're not gonna believe this, but only one season. Crazy, right? On the CW. And all the episodes are
on YouTube to my knowledge if you wanna see how bad this gets. But the point is, the masterminds behind
this embarrassing travesty were given the keys to
one of the most creative and unique shows in
modern television history right at its peak. What could go wrong, right? Well, pretty much everything. Needless to say, the fourth
season didn't go so well with the drop in quality
immediately apparent to fans. In fact the season was so out of place and generally disliked that they even began
the eventual season five by having Abed relate the previous year to that weird final season of Scrubs that nobody asked for and
basically ruined the show. - See, he does a voice-over wrap-up at the end of every episode. - Wow!
- cool. - [Narrator] Despite Dan Harmon eventually being brought
back for that season five and I think reviving the show creatively it seemed that most of the damage done by the previous season was irreparable and the show never fully recovered with the ratings now at an all time low. Season five would end up being Community's final season on NBC. This slept a lot of fans confused due to Community's commonly used mantra, six seasons and a movie, which was interpreted as
like the plan for the show. But NBC chairman, Bob Greenblatt came out and basically said, and
I'm summarizing here, but basically said, no, that was their thing that
had nothing to do with us. So NBC canceled the show in 2014 claiming it just didn't
make sense for them to have another season with
that level of an audience. And just like that Community
like Arrested Development before it was dead in the water abandoned by their own network. In a desperate attempt to
finish the show's creative arc and fulfill the self-imposed prophecy of six seasons and a movie, Dan Harmon was forced
to do the unthinkable. In a last ditch effort
to keep his show alive he turned somewhere few
have even dared approach and none will ever approach again. And maybe you're thinking
it can't be that bad. Who revived the show? Comedy central? No. Netflix? Not quite. Community's six season was picked up by none other than the
world famous Yahoo! Screen. A streaming service so good
it doesn't exist anymore. Yahoo sunk $42 million
into Community's six season and as a result had monumental, I'd even say unrealistic expectations for the financial success of the show. As you can probably imagine advertisers didn't
really have any interest in providing funding for a show that failed on its own network and then move to a streaming service that nobody had ever heard of. Community's tumultuous six season would end up being its last with most of the cast
out of their contracts and moving on to bigger and better things. A reputation basically destroyed by Yahoo and less fan support than ever. After years of riding a roller coaster that had far more downs than ups which actually sounds
like a fun roller coaster, but not if you're describing
the path of a television show, anyway, Community was finally
and perhaps mercifully laid to rest. The weirdest thing about all of this and maybe even the saddest
part is that the sixth season was actually pretty good. It was clever. It was ambitious. And it had the same charm that the show had for four
of the previous five seasons. The problem wasn't that it was bad, the problem was that nobody watched it because it was on Yahoo! Fucking Screen. That sounds like a joke. That sounds like something
ClickHole would come up with, like what's next, AOL go, the blockbuster app. What did this gift of a
show do to deserve this fate besides try their best? Nothing. Because sometimes life just isn't fair. Especially when you're trying
to make a television show. So you have to well-received
shows that were murdered, brought back to life, and
then murdered once more. Well, one of them hasn't
been murdered quite yet but it feels inevitable. Most review websites have season five of Arrested Development rated even lower than the already
disappointing season four. So it's safe to say that it's trending in the wrong direction. But you have two shows
who both died twice, but which one died worse? At first glance it's easy
to point at Community's almost comically explosive ending and say, well, it doesn't get much worse than that. To lose your show runner who was imperative to
the voice of the show, to then get kicked off your own network only to be rescued by
essentially a geriatric patient who then not only died
while trying to save you but then blamed you for
being the reason he died, how could it possibly
get any worse than that? It doesn't. But how much of that
was Community's fault? I mean, in spite of years of adversity, Community still delivered a
relatively consistent product that continued to stretch
the boundaries of television even by their own lofty standards. Arrested Development on the other hand had basically everything going for them when they came back for a season four. They had all the marketing in the world from an online global superpower entering peak of its worldwide dominance. They had years of buildup and hype and a cast that had more star power now than they did initially
when the show was first on and they still fucked it up because they lost what made
them so good in the first place. If this was a game of poker, Arrested Development
was dealt a royal flush from the beginning, while Community was given a handful of that one card in the pack that has like the return
policy on it or something. And also one UNO card that
accidentally got shuffled into the deck and has
like a weird stain on it. But even with two drastically
different hands to play the game ended the same for both of them. They both folded their hands and walked out of the casino in shame probably wishing they had quit hours ago before arrogantly squandering
away their winnings. I think the tragedy in all of this is how good both of these
shows were at their peak and how a few missteps even if not through any fault of their own could cause the perceptions of these shows to be permanently altered
in a negative way. Maybe the story can be
a lesson to networks and streaming services out there who insist on pulling dead
shows out of their grave to dance around for us one last time only to disappoint us when we realized that the
corpse doesn't dance as well as it did when it was alive. Am I getting a little out of
hand here with the analogies? I feel like I might be. But the point is, maybe it's okay to let something end, even if it's still good. Not every mildly successful
movie needs 14 sequels, not every full house needs to get fuller. Sometimes it's okay to just
let our memories be memories because we as humans
suffer from recency bias, so we should do our best when we can to let our most recent memory of someone or something we love be a positive one. That's it for today's video guys. I really wanted to do a
video like this again. I know it's been a while since I tackled something like this, but again I had a lot of fun making this. So if you liked it, let me know. If you didn't like it, don't let me know 'cause
it'll hurt my feelings. And remember as always
our goal with this video is to get 1 billion likes. So don't forget to smash that
like button on the way out. Thank you guys so much for watching. Remember to like, subscribe, comment and do whatever else you feel
is necessary to show support. Thanks again for watching and
I'll see you guys next time. (soft jazz music playing)
"I think a lot of people get into porn, they watch porn because they're, you know, they're sexually frustrated. But I've had so much tail in my life so I'm not sexually frustrated nor have I ever been. I mean, I've got hot tail throwing itself at me all the time and I have since I was in high school. And, therefore, I'm usually tired and my nut sack is so drained because I'm dumping my clip all the time--that's why I've never been into porn...I don't need it."--Michael Cera
Arrested Development was the worst revival attempt ever! Scrubs a distant second.