In their continuing quest to make the April through May period of the year less fraught with tension for television fans, the networks are picking up more and more low-rated but creatively well-done shows for the 2010-11 season. Today, it was NBC, which picked up The Office for its seventh season, 30 Rock for its fifth and Community for its second, according to Variety. The Office and 30 Rock were considered shoo-ins, but Community was thought to be very much on the bubble. Parks and Recreation, arguably the best show in the line-up and definitely the lowest-rated, was already picked up for a third season some time ago.
In fact, Community creator and executive producer Dan Harmon was so pleased, he even put up a video of him attempting to fool the cast into thinking the show had been canceled (poorly) and then letting them know they'd be back for another year of work. Joel McHale even dances. Aw.
In other good NBC comedy news, though this news has a slightly sad tinge, Adam Scott, all-purpose funny straight-man, is joining the cast of Parks and Recreation for its third season. Scott would be a good fit for that show's slightly goofy world, but we know that because the show that proves he can do "slightly goofy" so well is Starz's Party Down, which he'll only be able to appear in three episodes of in season three (should it be renewed). Since Scott is unquestionably the center of that show, it's a pretty big loss for the series and a fairly big rebuke of Starz's "wait and see" attitude toward renewing the show. But it'll be fun to see him on Parks and Rec.