& “Just as a performer that would be my guilty pleasure. Anything that felt like you were doing an action movie was a blast.”

“Community” may have been a fan favorite, but that feeling never extended to the halls of NBC, where it was perpetually on the bubble. What had launched in 2009 as a sitcom about a group of misfit community-college students had morphed into its own quirky universe, impossible to categorize, rife with pop-culture refer-ences, Internet-ready memes and experimental episodes where the characters were transformed into animated versions of themselves.

While it attracted a passionate fan base online, it never drew a sizable audience (its fifth season ended with a 1.5 rating in adults 18-49, and 3 million total viewers). And the now-infamous behind-the-scenes drama with its showrunner — Harmon was fired after a tumultuous third season, then rehired for season five (along with co-showrunner Chris McKenna) after fans and the cast, including star McHale, rebelled — certainly didn’t help its cause.

Yet when the Peacock finally canceled the show for good last May, Sony refused to accept it as the final word.

“We seem to be the studio that fights to keep shows alive,” says Sony Pictures TV president Steve Mosko, pointing to the company’s success in finding a second run for “Unforgettable.” “It’s so hard to get a show out there. If you think it has opportunity to grow and build and keep an audience, you fight for it.”

Yet Harmon says he was relieved when the ax fell. He was heading off on vacation with friends when he got the call from Sony. “Five years of guilt and anxiety and shame and self-loathing and workaholism and being somehow just a little bit separate from God in that I was trying to make him happy … ” he says. “All of it just going away — and becoming a human being in a van on the way to an airport.”

The negotiations to relocate the show to a new outlet came down the wire. Netflix and Hulu (which holds streaming rights) were among the bidders — but then Yahoo swept in with a last-minute pitch that won over a skeptical Harmon.

"I just spoke from the heart,” says Yahoo chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt, who oversees the digital platform’s emerging content strategy. “We’re trying to be the place that guides audiences to the best content and the best storytellers. I told him, ‘Your show is beautifully written, beautifully acted, and with a fanbase of 3 to 4 million. … It should have another zero on the end of it. Let’s see if we can help.’ ”

Harmon was swayed. “She was just so honest … or the most gifted liar in the world,” he says with a laugh. “I just found myself thinking, ‘You can’t go away from this phone call and then go back to complaining about the way television is produced. You have to say yes to this because if you don’t, then God, for the rest of your career, will be going, “You’re full of s---.” ’ ”



Not to mention he’d finally be free of the Nielsen ratings that plagued him for so long. “The joke that we keep making,” he says, “is ‘now we’re just entering this nice, simple world where the company airing your content can tell you that at two minutes and 11 seconds, 47% of women who buy Prada shoes clicked two happy cats.’ ”

The cast was won over, too. Savitt met with the actors on set, gathering everyone in the cafeteria to deliver her pitch. She talked for about 10 minutes about her aggressive marketing plans — from a premiere party to an Emmy campaign — and suddenly realized no one had said a word. She thought she was doing something wrong. Finally star Ken Jeong explained, “You have to understand that nobody’s ever talked to us this way.”

Once the deal was signed, the Yahoo team hit the gas pedal to deliver on its promises, using last summer’s Comic-Con to announce the website as the show’s new home, which Sony TV chief marketing officer Sheraton Kalouria dubbed a “coming-out party.”“

We had to tell them what Comic-Con meant to the ‘Community’ fans,” says Kalouria, who credits the show’s “rabid, engaged fanbase” with keeping the show alive. “And they embraced it instantly.”

Since then, Yahoo has rolled out a first-look promo in movie theaters nationwide. There’s a launch party and panel planned for SXSW. The site offers season-by-season primers, which Savitt says are getting “millions and millions of views.” And Sony and Yahoo teamed up on the new season preview trailer, which in “Community” tradition, spoofed a movie — this time taking on “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

Savitt promises more to come once the show launches. Among the ideas on the table: a weekly Harmon commentary dubbed “Communitary,” which will debut the Friday after each episode airs.

Yahoo has opted for a weekly rollout of the show, rather than the bingeable, all-at-once strategy now common online. Savitt says it was Harmon’s decision; Harmon says it was Yahoo’s. He does note he’s happy, though, with the incremental run. “Because I’m old,” he says. “It was weird to think that ‘Community’ would just be all put out there on one big cookie tray.”

One thing is for certain: Savitt will be following what’s become the industry standard of not releasing viewership data immediately. “Our hope is to be as transparent as possible with our customers and our advertisers,” she says, “but at the same time, join an industry that’s redefining how we measure success.”