NBC’s ‘Community’ Gets Animated in New Web Series

Are you a fan of NBC’s self-aware sitcom Community? Were you ecstatic when you found out Travis Richey was going to create a web series based on the snippet of a Doctor Who spoof Britta (Gillian Jacobs) showed to Abed (Danny Pudi) that cheered him up when nothing else would? Were you a little disappointed with NBC when they cease and desisted the Inspector Spacetime web series, even though the network was simply protecting its intellectual property?

If you answered yes to any and/or all of the above, NBC has an online, animated Community companion program just for you.

Abed’s Master Key is a three-part cartoon web series set to debut on Hulu Wednesday, March 7, eight days before Community will make its broadcast return from a network-imposed hiatus

. The animated action will focus on Abed, who is the only individual to respond to Dean Pelton’s (Academy Award-winner and Angelina Jolie impersonator Jim Rash) request for an assistant. In order to help the dean, Abed is given a master key to Greendale Community College, which offers him unprecedented access to previously unexplored areas on campus and presumably a fair amount of meta referential humor.

The online spin-off isn’t the only recent good news for Community fans. During a PaleyFest panel over the weekend, the show’s executive producer Russ Kransoff said he’s feeling “pretty confident” about NBC picking up the television program for a fourth season.