It is not uncommon for full episodes of licenced TV shows to wind up on YouTube but this is usually the illegal work of independent individuals. What is far less common is official uploads of those same shows, but that is exactly what is happening with Community.
The official Community YouTube channel has, over the past few months, uploaded full episodes to YouTube for everyone to watch. At this point we’d like to just link you to all the episodes for your viewing pleasure, but it’s not that simple.
For some reason the channel will, eventually, delete these uploads. This doesn’t seem to be some ongoing error, but instead a way to keep these uploads available for only a limited time.
At the time of writing only three episodes are available, those being:
- Season 3 Episode 6 | Advanced Gay
- Season 3 Episode 7 | Studies in Modern Movement
- Season 3 Episode 8 | Documentary Filmmaking: Redux
Should you click on this story in the future and find those links not working, worry not. Go to the Community channel videos page and search for the term “Full Episode” using the search function (instead of ctrl + F). Full Episode is the subtitle attached to the videos which contain, well full episodes.
Over the last few months we have been watching these full episodes with at least a dozen coming and going over that time, including beloved favourites like the first few paintball stories, so why are they being removed, and why upload them at all?
We don’t have a full reason for the removals, but our best guess is that the licence holders for broadcasting and / or streaming of Community have some clause that only a certain number of episodes can be made free to everyone like this, even with adverts. The common deletion stops this from being a problem, and the new uploads keep people returning.
And people returning may be why this is even done at all. For those who missed the news last year, a Community movie is finally in the works after almost a decade of “six seasons and a movie!” memes.
On top of drumming up interest for this movie, recycling TV show comedy content on YouTube is becoming a big business. Familiar names like 30 Rock, Seinfeld, The Office, Mr Bean and more each have official channels which upload content. Some of these uploads are to drive viewers to watch the full thing on streaming platforms, while other simply generate ad revenue.
Back to Community now and the YouTube uploads are perfect in terms of audio and visual, with the exception of captions. We know for a fact that captions exist for Community already, so we don’t see why they aren’t included on YouTube too.
That aside we recommend subscribing to the channel to catch the full episodes while they are available.
