Image: Sony Pictures Television/NBC
A new viral video on YouTube suggests that Netflix is showing a much shorter version of the first episode of the first season of Community.
Throughout the video, you’re taken through various scenes cut from the pilot, ultimately bringing the running time down from 24 minutes 28 seconds to 21 minutes 48 seconds (Netflix lists it within the app as 22 minutes).
The episode titles are also different. On Hulu, the pilot episode is called, well, Pilot,» while on Netflix, it’s labeled «Community.»
Adjusted scenes include the opening scene where Dean Craig Pelton is struggling to get his speaker to work, while the «Netflix version» opens with an establishing shot and text reading «Greendale Community Colledge – three blocks from your home» before the opening gag arrives. to a close
Other changes include:
- The logo changed from a jumping letter version to the pen-drawn, unfolded-paper logo we became accustomed to for the rest of the series.
- Extended scene of Jeff introducing himself to Britta.
- Jeff’s conversation with the lady from the cafeteria.
- A shot of Jeff looking for Duncan and reacting in disgust when he sees his car.
- Troy asks Jeff if he should keep wearing his letter jacket.
You can see a visual breakdown of the changes in the full video from Sam McGee below:
Andy Heriaud, a screenwriter And someone who worked on the programtook to the comments section of the viral video to provide additional context as to why the episode differs.
In his comment, he states:
“The Netflix version is the cut made for syndication packages. The version on other platforms and the DVD are, in fact, the broadcast version of the pilot as it aired on NBC in 2009.
It is common practice to trim the longest episodes to a syndication-safe runtime of 22 minutes so that buyers can maximize their advertising time. This is the same reason many basic cable networks do things like turbocharge credits or, in the case of NickatNite, cut entire scenes arbitrarily.
I brought this issue to the attention of Netflix when Community launched on the platform and they simply responded with a shrug. More accurately, they said they only put what the distributor gave them, in this case it looks like Sony gave them the syndication cut and Netflix is happy with that.»
Of course, this wasn’t the only significant change that the Netflix version of Community has from the original. As it was covered well during the summer of 2020, just a few months after Netflix licensed the show, they removed the «Advanced Dungeons & Dragons episode featuring Blackface.
That removal remains controversial and subject to debategiven the context and intent of the trope in the episode.
how could you know Community is actually making a big triumphant return to our screens in the months and years to come with the long-awaited Community film in progress at Peacock.
as for of the community future on Netflix, as we revealed last year, Netflix currently has the rights through 2024.