Our friend Chris Albrecht at NewTeeVee has the details:
NBC posted an early look at the pilot of its upcoming show Community online, but you won’t find it on the network’s site, or even the NBC-owned Hulu. If you want a sneak peek at the new sitcom, you have to become a fan of it on Facebook.
The networks are bound to try out a lot of different promotions to boost audience numbers (and get those upfront ad dollars back up), but this is worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. First, as noted, NBC isn’t driving traffic to NBC.com or Hulu with this offer.
This appears (I'm guessing) to be a four-day sneak peak on Facebook, of which, as of this writing, there are 83.5 hours left. With such an approach, I have no doubt it will wind up on NBC.com and Hulu before the broadcast season premiere on September 17. But I do find it to be an interesting approach.
“For US Residents only”
How sad
For US Residents only” (2)
I have to say I’m really excited for this show. I think this is going to be a good one for NBC…
For US Residents only” (3)
i don’t belong to facebook, i’ve been banned for life
Thanks for posting this. GREAT cast. Favorite character is Abed. Solid 8/10 from me.
For US Residents only” (4)
I am looking forward to this show! Who doesn’t love Joe McHale?
I LOVE “Ahbed the Arab” LOL! I love shows like these and it definitely made me laugh.
I’ve tried loading it several times, only to have it play about 6 minutes of the show. Hopefully I can get it working before the offer expires.
Aaron, I heard from several others that they had similar (or worse!) experiences with not getting to watch the whole thing. looks like their video servers couldn’t handle it. Hopefully it will work again sometime over the next few days, but if not I think you can still bet on it being on NBC.com/Hulu before 9/17
Oh, so it’s not just my crappy connection. I was able to watch about 10-15 minutes of it and I’m currently trying to reload it now. So far, John Oliver, unsurprisingly, is the best part of this, but it’s gotten a few other laughs out of me.
Community’s creator, Dan Harmon (www.danharmon.com), has always been a top-notch talent. Before there was a YouTube, Harmon and Rob Schrab created Channel 101 (www.channel101.com) that provided a free outlet for 5-minute “Internet TV” pilots that either failed, progressed to a series, or ultimately were canceled. Channel 101 participants have included Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Sarah Chalke, and Andy Samberg among others. Andy Samberg landed his SNL job producing the digital shorts based on his Channel 101 work.
I too have had a hard time watching the show. Why they didn’t put it on HULU or NBC.com boggles my mind. It’s like chimps are running the network.
This little project shows the stupidity of most NBC network exec.’s. Not only is it unwatchable by the thousands in the US, it is unwatchable for millions outside
the country. NBC.com and/or Hulu are no better choices since they restrict
viewership to US residents. If you are going to wet the appetite of a potential viewing public, I would think you might want to ensure that the ‘event’ is available to as many of the viewers as possible. The greater the viewership, the greater the buzz, be it positive or otherwise. Somebody needs to raise the white
flag outside the NBC building a little higher – this ‘experiment’ is one big FAIL.
Of the comments on the Facebook page, only about 10% have anything good to say. That’s mostly to do with player issues…you can’t fast forward and even the slightest bump in your high speed connection will cause the feed to terminate, making you rewatch it from the beginning.
Not surprised! I taped about half the Dollhouse and watched the rest on hulu. Did not see more that 5 miutes live broadcast. I like to watch at my convenience. Hulu commercials I watch. The short ones form Fox were acctually annoying because it messed up my manual FF pacing by being TOO SHORT!