Argyle Nation

I really think we need to redefine “success” in America.

News broke yesterday that NBC was pulling Community, probably my favorite comedy, from their mid-season schedule. Despite assurances from network brass that the show isn’t canceled…the show is most likely canceled.

From one perspective, I get it. The ratings have never been great for a network program, and it’s already gotten two and a half seasons, more than an off-beat show like this usually gets. Additionally, television is a business, and it doesn’t matter how much of a critical darling Community is or how many high-profile folks give it the thumbs up…it has to make money, plain and simple. What’s more, it has to make enough money to justify the effort of putting it on the air.

So, I get it. Except that, from a different perspective, I don’t get it at all.

A show that’s averaged approximately 3.7 million viewers per week this season is considered a failure. Really stop and think about that. Think about how many people that is, and how many creative ways there are for advertisers and the network to reach that many dedicated fans (because, with all beloved-but-low-rated shows, Community’s fanbase is sort of nuts).

I don’t have an easy answer to this problem, but getting into specifics isn’t my point. Across the board—TV, film, music, books and anything else that falls under the creative umbrella—I think we need to start taking another look at how we define success. With the changing media landscape in 2011, we’ve got one foot in the past and another one (gingerly) in a world of new media and niche markets. Technological advances are drastically reducing overhead in creative pursuits. Find a way to lower overhead enough and anything becomes a success, not just something with 3.7 million eyeballs staring at it every week (and I won’t even get into cable vs. broadcast expectations, where, say, AMC executives would be breaking out the champagne to celebrate if great shows like Mad Men or Breaking Bad pulled Community numbers).

Again, I understand things need to make money, but there’s more than one way to skin a TV show (wait, I think I got that one wrong…). Dickens pretty well summed up both personal and professional success in David Copperfield: “My other piece of advice, Copperfield,’ said Mr. Micawber, ‘you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”

Spend less than you make and you’re good. It can’t be that hard. Let’s get creative, folks.

There’s a quote I like to use from Sports Night, another favorite show of mine that was also low-rated (and, eventually, canceled). In the finale, mysterious billionaire Calvin Trager makes an 11th hour buy of the CSC network, which the “Sports Night” show-within-a-show is broadcast on. The staff was planning for the worst, thinking the corporation would be dismantled and sold “for parts.” Trager explains his purchase by saying that “Sports Night” is a good show and “…anybody who can’t make money off ‘Sports Night’ should get out of the money-making business.”

This is how I feel about NBC and a great property like Community.