I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Ken Levine. The veteran TV guy has kind of done everything, from taking over as showrunner (“M*A*S*H*), to producing, writing and consulting on everything from “Cheers” to “The Simpsons” to “Wings” to screenwriting (Tom Hanks’ awesome Volunteers), and to creating a show (“Almost Perfect.”) The guy has even done play-by-play commentary for Major League Baseball for a few years. He’s been around. He knows the business. He’s highly respected, and he’s old enough now that he can say what he wants and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks. Now, he doesn’t know Dan Harmon personally, but he hears things, knows people, and has a fairly great understanding of the business, so his take on the situation certainly carries some weight.

His take? 1) The industry is heartless and brutal, and 2) Dan Harmon pretty much shot himself in the foot. He wrote at length about it on his blog, but here are some choice excerpts:

On the history of sacking showrunners:

Networks have been firing showrunners for years. You just never heard about it. Before social networks and the internet, showrunners were essentially invisible. Just names in the credits. Now showrunners have become quasi-celebrities themselves, which I think is a good thing. Only 70% of the viewers think Joel McHale makes up those funny things he says instead of 90%. But the point is, this isn’t precedent setting.

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When “Community” was picked up for a fourth season last week, one of the few storm clouds on that otherwise bright, sunshine-y day was the fact that a deal had not yet been reached with showrunner Dan Harmon. There was speculation at the time, and a pretty ominous sounding quote from NBC bigwig Bob Greenblatt, that indicated he may not be brought back. Well, now it’s official: Dan Harmon is out as showrunner, and will be replaced by a team previously unaffiliated with the show.

Dan Harmon will not be returning as showrunner of NBC’s “Community,” and whether he’ll remain involved at all with the series he created at remains very much in doubt. Sony Pictures Television, which produces the series with Universal Television, has closed a deal with “Happy Endings” writers David Guarascio and Moses Port to join “Community” as showrunners and exec producers. The deal comes less than a week after Vulture broke the news that Harmon hadn’t been signed on for season four and that no negotiations between him and Sony had taken place. Vulture hears that now that Sony made its deal with Guarascio and Port, it plans to ask Harmon to remain involved as a writer and consultant — but not as the person in charge of the show. [Vulture]

There you go. Harmon’s exit comes on the heels of executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan leaving the show, and late last night as this was all shaking down, longtime writer Chris McKenna also announced he would not be returning. I don’t know if this is the darkest timeline, but it’s definitely one that blows a whole bunch.

As he often does, Harmon took to Tumblr to explain the situation. In doing so, two things became very clear: 1) Sony never had any intention of bringing him back. 2) Harmon has no intention of staying with the show in a diminished capacity:

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With “Community” airing its final episodes of the season tonight, we’re just going to get ALL of our “Community” wiggles out and probably peep down about the show for the next few months and focus our attention on TLC fare (did you here, there’s a dwarf competing on “Toddlers and Tiaras” now?). We’ve got the 12 Shows With Higher Ratings than “Community” that were canceled, we have All 68 Episodes of “Community” Ranked from Awesome to Awesomest (now, with only 8 slides), and we will have a massive live discussion tonight in which some awesome guests drop by. Please join us.

In the meantime, here’s a supercut of every single time Abed said “Cool, Cool, Cool.” 102 times, to be exact.

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We give an enormous amount of crap to NBC for its treatment of “Community” and the way it is often promoted the show, and perhaps the crap is deserved. But on the other hand, this is a show that has no business being on NBC or any other network, for that matter, and yet it’s been renewed for a fourth season. If you stop and consider it, and compare it to any other show on network television — even “edgier” fare like “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23″ or “Happy Endings” or even “30 Rock” — it’s clear as day that “Community” is not like the rest. It’s a show that goes on manic, obscure half-hour genre riffs with inside jokes piled on top of inside jokes. This season alone, there was an Apocalypse Now episode, an episode built around a fake show (“Inspector Spacetime”) based on a niche geek show (“Doctor Who”), and a clip show that used fake clips essentially to make more inside jokes. Alison Brie’s boobs? That’s universal, that’s been the draw for some, but “Community” is not a mainstream show. It wouldn’t even be popular on cable. It’d be a mid-rated Adult Swim show that dorks would get together in their college dorms to talk about over Tastykakes and joints.

So while it’s fun to hate on NBC for almost canceling “Community” three seasons in a row, they should get a little credit for keeping it alive. The Friday time-slot next year does seem more appropriate, but I do worry that without next day GIFcaps and reviews (who is going to do those on a Saturday?) the buzz may eventually fade. It is up to the audience to keep the fires lit next season, to keep the tumblr accounts going, to keep producing fan art, and to keep generating interest in what’s already a dismally-rated show. There’s still an opportunity for six seasons and a movie, but it’ll be up to the Internet to keep the pressure on NBC to renew. After all, there were at least 12 shows with, sometimes significantly, higher ratings than “Community” that were cancelled this year. Those include:

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This week is the upfronts, in which the networks present their new schedules and preview the shows they’ve picked up for the fall and spring season. It’s a magical time for TV wonks. It’s like opening day, where all the teams get to start anew with fresh hope for the next season. Based on all the new shows that NBC has picked up for next year, however, it appears as though they are the Pittsburgh Pirates: They just don’t have the talent to compete, bless their hearts. Josh has already posted NBC’s new schedule for next year, and while we’re all grateful our favorite shows are returning (even if “Community” has been dumped into Friday nights), what about all those new shows on the schedule? How do they look?

Two or three look promising, but overall, I’d give NBC’s new slate a C-. Here, from best to worst, are the new shows we are looking at for next season with video previews.

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