Greendale Community College, setting for Dan Harmon’s almost-too-smart-for-its-own-good sitcom Community, was the sort of school that offered courses in the history of ice-cream, theoretical PE, and an intriguing module called “Will it fry?” For three glorious seasons, fans watched a quirky band of life’s losers form a surrogate family in a college whose flag resembled a bumhole (motto: E pluribus anus).

The show centred on a study group thrown together accidentally by Joel McHale’s disgraced ex-lawyer Jeff Winger. “I thought you had a bachelor’s from Columbia?” a friend remarked in season one. “And now I have to get one from America. And it can’t be an email attachment,” Jeff replied, utilising his potent blend of sarcasm and smarm. Greendale’s other washed-up misfits ranged from Alison Brie’s suffocatingly driven Annie Eddison (“It’s called a stress headache – I got my first one when I was four”) to Chevy Chase’s endearingly bigoted Pierce Hawthorne. Together with the rest of a cast of outcasts, including Donald Glover’s vacant Troy, they formed an ensemble sitcom with heart and brains in the style of 30 Rock and Scrubs.

The show developed a cult following thanks to its knowing winks to the audience, many delivered via Danny Pudi’s pop culture-obsessed Abed. When Abed role-played the escapologist hero from ludicrous-yet-surprisingly-real TV show The Cape he would counter any criticisms by prophesying it would last for “six seasons and a movie!” (it was cancelled after just one). This became a rallying cry for fans, as producers fought for Community’s renewal each year. Many, however, would come to regret the show getting to its sixth term.

After three series of surreal whimsy, the show’s steep decline was caused by drama off-screen. The line between Chevy Chase’s dickish onscreen persona and his antics on set grew ever thinner, with Harmon delivering a profanity-laced speech about Chase at the wrap party for season three. Harmon was fired soon afterwards and, as the woeful season four dragged on, Chase’s role diminished, culminating in an off-screen death.

Without Harmon, Community’s own death was to be painfully played out on-screen, the nadir being season four episode Intro to Felt Surrogacy. The worst thing that can befall a show happened: they made a puppet episode. And then they went and made the puppet show a musical. The conceit was that the gang were speaking via avatars to make it easier to discuss their darkest secrets. Once revealed, however, the secrets were inconsequential and changed nothing about the characters’ interactions. All we got was half-an-hour closer to death. So cringeworthy was the season that Harmon was invited back to revive the show. With an archness that might once have been charming, he had the characters reference recent failures by mentioning a gas leak that had caused everyone to act stupidly. Unfortunately, by then, most viewers had graduated to other shows and weren’t looking for a school reunion.