Fans of NBC’s spectacular comedy series, Community, have all been set up for disappointment tonight by the major network television channel. So if you’re wondering why Community didn’t air tonight at 8:30PM, despite NBC’s former announcements, here is the reason: NBC hates Community fans. Okay, that might not be entirely true, but they certainly do a good job upsetting fans of Community. Last winter the broadcasting channel scared fans into believing the show was canceled due to NBC cutting season 3 of Community mid-season to give it’s time slot to 30 Rock. This lead to a large fan outcry across social networks, the creation of a hashtag that became the oft used unofficial slogan for the show (#SixSeasonsAndAMovie), a flash mob outside the NBC building in New York, and a College Humor skit featuring the cast of Community attempting to save Greendale Community College. By January, NBC finally caved and announced it had not canceled Community, merely put the show on hiatus with a mid-season break. Season 3 of Community returned on March 15th, 2012. In May of this year the fourth season of Community was finally officially announced, but with only 13 episodes having been ordered and without the crew of series creator and executive producer Dan Harmon, executive producers Neil Goldman, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, and Garrett Donovan, writer/producer Chris McKenna, and actor/writer Dino Stamatopoulos (who played the recurring character of Starburns). It was another slap in the face to the show’s fans by NBC, but still they dredged forward, fighting with crowds of Legend of Korra and Firefly fans to attend the show’s San Diego Comic Con panel with new showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio. Community went back into production for season 4 in August of this year, with an eventual release date being announced for October 19th…which happens to be today. Sadly, last Monday, October 8th, NBC announced they were pulling Community from that scheduled slot and giving the space to a repeat of Grimm. Sure, next week the slot goes to Eddie Izzard’s new show, Mockingbird Lane (a remake of the old CBS sitcom, The Munsters), which could turn out potentially enjoyable, but it seems foolish to hurt Community fans once again. Sure, now the show might finally return to Thursdays when it eventually does return…but hiatuses like this rarely end well for a show, especially with Community’s slowly dwindling viewership.

Thankfully the cast and crew of Community don’t have such a dismal view. In their mind they’re still premiering on October 19th…just not the October 19th that was today, or even a 19th day in the month of October specifically. Joel McHale posted on his twitter account earlier today this great message of hope:

It would seem NBC released a fun video on their official youtube account, lightly joking about the new schedule change for Community. It’s not a brand new episode by any means, but it is a sign of hope and humor that might tide some fans until NBC gives us a new release date (or another slap across the cheek). Check out ‘Community season 4 Premieres…Someday’ video down below: