geekosystem

Good news for people who thought last season of NBC's Community just didn't feel right -- apparently creator and former showrunner Dan Harmon let it slip in an recent episode of his podcast, Harmontown, that he's been asked to return to the program after being unceremoniously dumped by Sony at the end of Season 3. Cool! Cool cool cool.

NBC is reaching out to an ever-shrinking demographic, Community fans, and asking them to post their favorite puppet-related GIFS to Tumblr for tomorrow night's episode "Introduction to Felt Surrogacy" -- the show's much anticipated puppet episode. They'll even give you free things if you post the best GIF to their GIFathon! You guys like free things, right? The whole shebang even has a hashtag, #CommunityGIFathon, so you know it's thing on the Internet. It's an act that's as transparent as asking an ex out for coffee because you just want to catch up, and about as dignified, and I don't know what makes me sadder: What it says about the state of a show that was a favorite of mine until mere months ago, or the fact that I only barely care.

It's as official as it's going to get: Jay Leno is stepping down from The Tonight Show again and Jimmy Fallon will be replacing him, though we've all been here before. The switch is expected to happen during NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics next year, and will bring The Tonight Show back to New York City under Lorne Michaels as Executive Producer. Will it all go down smoothly, or are we in for another round of late night wars?

Yes. That is the cast of NBC's Community in puppet form, and that is wonderful. An episode airing in April will have the gang from Greendale working out some issues with each other through the use of puppets. While the news that any other show on television right now was doing a puppet episode would probably be an obvious nightmare, considering how much I love Community, I'm really pretty pumped about this.

We're not saying Pinterest is for the birds, but the social media platform definitely attracts a certain kind of material. If it's not cute pictures of animals, inventive uses for leftover cardboard boxes, or something to do with fashion, it probably doesn't belong on Pinterest. That said, someone over at NBC has totally figured out this social media thing. A recent Parks and Recreation episode saw Ben Wyatt and Leslie Knope tie the knot in their own haphazard way, and NBC put up a faux wedding album for the characters on Pinterest.

Did you know that NBC had a sitcom called Next Caller and starring Dane Cook percolating away? No? Well, that's okay. After filming just four episodes, they've now pulled the plug on the entire thing due to displeasure with its "creative direction." This sounds like a surprisingly sane move on NBC's part considering they're the same company that keeps shuffling Community around.

Louie and Community, in my opinion, are two of the best shows on TV right now. While wildly different, both are exceptionally smart, laugh-out-loud funny television programs that deserve all the critical acclaim they get. Both, as of today, are going on hiatus. Here's why it's good news for one show, which not only features but really captures the definitive stand-up comic of his generation, and bad news for the other, whose network increasingly looks to be run pretty much entirely by saboteurs dedicated to bringing the place down from the inside.

Every so often, television studios like to prove that they're not entirely without merit. That's not to say that they're quick to embrace change, but they can eventually come around. Kind of like how Neptune eventually goes around the Sun. NBC has proven this by hosting the entire pilot of J.J. Abrams' newest television series, Revolution, online for everyone to view. They've even enabled the ability to embed the video, as you can see above. Given that the series is about a world without power, it's somewhat amusing that they've gone ahead and provided it to the medium that absolutely relies on a functioning grid.

We reported yesterday that Guy Adams, the Los Angeles bureau chief for The Independent, had his Twitter account suspended after he directed those displeased with NBC's London 2012 Olympics coverage to a corporate email address for Gary Zenkel. Twitter responded to Adams' queries saying that he had violated their privacy policies and NBC had complained. NBC Sport's Vice President of Communications, Christopher McCloskey, has now told The Telegraph that NBC's social media department was actually alerted by Twitter.

Chances are that, if you're reading this, you're already aware that NBC has been broadcasting their London 2012 Olympics coverage on a delay. In an age where we can almost instantly know everything happening everywhere, one of the greatest collaborations between nations is essentially being held hostage in order to boost ad revenue. Guy Adams, the Los Angeles bureau chief for The Independent, had his Twitter account suspended after complaining about the delay and suggesting folks email Gary Zenkel, an NBC executive, with their own thoughts on the matter.

Copyright infringement is a pretty murky environment, especially on the internet. Piracy is constantly brought up in nearly every conversation had about media being broadcast across the tubes and for good reason. But zealous over-enforcement and bogus takedowns seem to be the norm now. Such is the case with Brian Kamerer's campaign video he made for a friend that Jay Leno aired on his show in 2009. And now, NBC claims they own the video.

This year, the ancient tradition that is the Olympics will be taking a big step into a digital future; NBC and YouTube will be livestreaming every single 2012 Olympic event online, for free. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future. Whether you're at work, in class, or not in front of a TV, you will be able to watch any Olympic event you choose live on the Internet.

Using data from two measurement firms, Omniture and mDialog, NBC stated that 2.1 million tuned into the live stream of Super Bowl XLVI this year. Of course, NBC is counting the legal stream, and given the prevalence of illegal ones, one can only assume the total number of people who streamed the Super Bowl, regardless of legality, is much higher. In NBC's release, they said the legal stream of Super Bowl XLVI represented the most-watched single-game sports event online ever.

As everyone knows, the current season of NBC's The Office will be Steve Carrell's last, and he is supposedly leaving one month before the season finale. This is significant, of course, because he's the "main" character of the show, and whether or not you love him or can't stand even a nanosecond of his screen time, the show most likely won't be the same without him, leading most fans to wonder whether or not the show can even survive. Regardless of the uncertain future, show writer Mindy Kaling, who also plays character Kelly Kapoor, tweeted some fun Michael Scott ideas that were passed on, or could've been in his future had he stayed on the show. Head on past the break to see some of the fun ideas, and to feel sad about the character's departure.

When NBC fired Conan O'Brien last year in favor of giving Jay Leno his time slot back, they worked out a deal in which O'Brien was forbidden from appearing on TV and/or disparaging the network that dangled the Tonight Show in front of him and then snatched it back. What we do know is that not long after that deal was made, O'Brien took to Twitter. What we didn't know until now was that NBC wanted that Twitter account shut down. Because when you've already disappointed so many fans in the 18 to 49 demographic, why not go big or go home? Definitely go after a former employee's Twitter account. Brilliant!