Sam's+Booktalk

__**Title**__: Community

__**Author**__: Created by Dan Harmon. Airs on NBC.

__**Publication Date**__: 2009-present

__**Length**__: As of the end of season 3 on May 17, 2012, the series is 71 episodes long (22 minutes each).

__**Geographical Setting**__: The action takes place in and around Greendale Community College, a strange campus in fictional Greendale, CO.

__**Time Period**__: Present day

__**Plot Summary**__: Lawyer Jeff Winger has been disbarred for falsifying his credentials, and is forced to return to school to replace his degree. Upon arriving at Greendale Community College, he fabricates an identity as a Spanish tutor to get close to a pretty girl -- and winds up at the centre of a study group filled with colourful misfits. As the show progresses the group members come to rely on each other as an unlikely family, encountering bizarre and hilarious twists around every corner of Greendale’s insane halls. The show mixes a big heart with a bagful of televisual tricks, turning sitcom conventions upside down and often paying elaborate and delightful homage to some of the great moments in TV and film history.

__**Tags**__: humour, meta, sitcom, self-referential, pop culture, geek culture, community, family, heart, bizarre, life lessons, film history

__**Appeal**__: rapid pace, jokes and gags, self-contained episodes, character growth, flawed characters, character conflict, conflict resolution, heightened reality for comic effect.

__**Similar Works**__: Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Role Models, Mallrats, Be Kind Rewind, The Breakfast Club.

__**Title**__: Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon

__**Author**__: Spider Robinson

__**Brief Summary**__: Narrator Jake Stonebender tells tall tales of life at Callahan's Place, where time travellers, aliens & telepaths fight for elbow space at the bar. Often compared to Robert Heinlein, Spider's relaxed writing style is peppered with bizarre, world-in-peril twists and clever, frenetic humour. A joyous blend of hard scifi and heartfelt compassion.