Community Created Web-Only Episodes That Even Fans Might Have Missed

If you're a fan of "Community," you might often find yourself disheartened by how there are only 110 episodes of the show. That might sound like a lot, but 13 of those episodes were part of the Gas Leak Season (otherwise known as season 4), and the final 20 episodes or so don't include Troy. On the same note, the final 13 episodes don't include Shirley, and Pierce is gone for most of the final 30. Add on the fact that the show didn't truly find its footing until about 10 episodes in, and the number of golden era "Community" episodes is depressingly slim.

Luckily, there are some bonus episodes you might not have known about it. They're not as long as a typical 22-minute sitcom episode, but they're still fun little additions to the show that you'd never get to see if you only binged "Community" on Netflix. They vary a ton in terms of tone, content, and structure, but the one thing they have in common is that they all serve as callbacks to a time where NBC truly seemed to care about the show. Most of these bonus clips are back in the first two seasons, when "Community" had its best ratings, and the network seemed to have the time and budget to do more than just the bare minimum with the show.

The 5 As of Greendale

Before the pilot of "Community" even aired, showrunner Dan Harmon starred in his own fake ad for Greendale Community College. He plays Dr. Pat Isakson, an awkward man trying his best to make the deeply mediocre school sound appealing. The video is intentionally low-budget and weirdly paced, making fun of college ads in a way that should be deeply familiar to anyone who's watched "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux," the season 3 episode where we get to see the Greendale ad from the '90s. 

Although there are no familiar characters in this video, it's still a fun first glimpse at the sensibilities that would make up the show. The video is a sarcastic (yet sincere?) celebration of the mundane and mediocre. Dan Harmon himself went to community college when he was in his 30s, and you can certainly tell from this video. Also, Randall Park is one of the Greendale students for some reason.

Season 1's in-universe episodes

Do you remember all those mini-films Abed used to make back in season 1? It turns out that the show actually went and made an actual video of each of them. Above is the first episode of "The Community College Chronicles," where we get to see Abed's interpretation of the other study group members in action. You can watch the second episode, where the alternate-universe study group has to study for a Spanish quiz, here. One noticeable detail is the way Abed himself is the only character in these videos without a distinct personality, something that would also be a factor in Abed's later pitch for season 7 of "Community" in the series finale.

You can also find the mini-movie Abed made to convince his father to let him take film studies here, although there's not a whole lot of new content in there. Where you can find a ton of new content, however, is with the clip of Abed and Starburn's special presentation for their Spanish class, which is wild in the best way possible. What's better is the unexpected sequel to Abed and Starburn's video, in which Chang (Ken Jeong) forces his way into their presentation, for better and for worse. It's the perfect example of a show going the extra mile: Nobody expected them to make an entire bonus video about Abed's Spanish presentation, but they went ahead and did it anyway.

The study break mini-episodes

If you're looking for clips that truly capture the feel of the regular show, these study break mini-episodes are the best. The first one's shown above, and you can find the second study break episode here, and the third one here.

The best moments of regular "Community," regardless of the quality of the episode as a whole, are those scenes where all seven members of the study group are in the room with each other. None of them have a plot, exactly; they're just 2 minutes or so in the lives of the study group, where all the characters simply get to exist and bounce off each other. These are fun, low-stakes videos that focus on perhaps the show's biggest strengths: the chemistry of the cast, and the sheer sharpness of the dialogue.

The mini-episodes are also just a fun callback to the season 1 dynamics: There's still all that sexual tension between Jeff and Britta, Troy still has some of those jockish qualities and he's still being paired up as a comedic foil to Pierce, as the writers originally intended him to be. They provide a nice nostalgic glimpse of a simpler time within the show.

Road to the Emmys

Okay, so admittedly these are just commercials, but they still provide a fun look at the study group's dynamics back in season 2. The first commercial (shown above) features Britta in full season 2 mode, as she delivers a self-important rant against the Emmys as the rest of the group drowns her out with the car's radio. (A commercial made halfway through season 1 probably wouldn't have done this.)

The second commercial (seen here) features Chang scaring everyone by waking up in the back seat of the car, a joke that also wouldn't have made much sense back when Chang was a Spanish teacher who didn't care much about joining the study group. The third and final one (seen here) concludes the saga with the reveal that Abed lied about the Emmy party so he could spend more time with the group, which has become a typical move of his by this point of the show — think his behavior in the "Dinner With Andre" episode.

If you're looking for another car-related commercial from "Community," there's also the season 6-era Honda ad, starring Abed and the Dean. These two characters rarely get to interact one-on-one together — and when they do, we get to see the Dean in his rarely-seen straight man role — so this is a delight to watch.

Dean Pelton's office hours

As the show went on, Dean Pelton slowly became an honorary member of the study group. He wasn't constantly trying to force his way in like Chang did, but it became clear he had a soft spot for the group (Jeffrey in particular), and that the writers really wanted to keep him around as much as possible. That's why it felt particular fitting when, starting in November of 2010, the show released a trilogy of mini-episodes focused entirely on the Dean as he talked to people in his office.

The first episode focuses on him interacting with extremely-minor side character Angela. The second one (seen here) features a rare extended interaction between Dean and long-time recurring character Leonard, and the third (seen here) ends up revealing the identity of Greendale's mascot, the Human Being. The mysterious identity of the unsettling school mascot is a long-running gag in the series, so there's something kind of charming about the idea that the show decided to reveal it in a mini-episode that 95% of viewers would probably never know about.

Abed's master key

A spiritual sequel of sorts to "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," this mini-episode features the study group existing as cartoon characters. All the characters are aware they're in cartoon form, but this time around, nobody thinks Abed's mentally unstable for it. The story focuses on the Dean giving Abed access to a master key to the school, which results in everyone he knows asking him for favors. The story's got twists and turns, resulting in a nice 5-minute story that could've easily functioned as a B-plot in a normal season 3 episode. The episode was released in March 2012, and feels like a test-run of sorts for the animated video game-themed episode that would air just two months later.

These are the last of the "Community" web episodes that we're aware of, likely as a result of all the behind-the-scenes drama that hampered the show past this point. Not long after "Abed's Master Key," showrunner Dan Harmon would be fired and the season 4 length would be cut down to just 13 episodes, which would be come the norm from that point forward. Still, this bonus content serves as a nice reminder of what we could've had if "Community" had managed to develop a massive audience in its time, not just six years after it ended. Who knows what it would've looked like if we'd gotten more study break minisodes in seasons 2 or 3, or some Jeff Office Hours minisodes in season 5. Most of the little we got is gold though, so as we patiently wait for more details on the "Community" movie, all this bonus content is definitely worth checking out.