The sixth and final season of the television comedy series Community premiered on Yahoo! Screen on March 17, 2015, with a two-episode premiere, and concluded on June 2, 2015. The season consists of 13 episodes released weekly via Yahoo! Screen on Tuesdays. Yahoo! announced in June 2014 that it had picked up the series for a sixth season after NBC had canceled the series in May 2014. The season features the exit of Yvette Nicole Brown in a starring role. It also features Paget Brewster and Keith David, who previously made guest appearances in seasons 5 and 3 respectively, returning to the show in new roles as series regulars, Brewster playing Frankie Dart and David playing Elroy Patashnik.
Cast
Starring
Joel McHale as Professor Jeff Winger
Gillian Jacobs as Britta Perry
Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir
Alison Brie as Annie Edison
Jim Rash as Dean Craig Pelton
Ken Jeong as Ben Chang
Recurring
Paget Brewster as Francesca "Frankie" Dart
Keith David as Elroy Patashnik
Richard Erdman as Leonard Briggs
Erik Charles Nielsen as Garrett Lambert
Danielle Kaplowitz as Vicki Jenkins
David Neher as Todd Jacobson
Darsan Solomon as Dave
Martin Mull as George Perry
Lesley Ann Warren as Deb Perry
Craig Cackowski as Officer Cackowski
Leslie Simms as Rhonda
Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley Bennett ("Ladders" and "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television")
Guest stars
Episodes
Production
On May 9, 2014, NBC announced that it had canceled Community. For several years prior to its cancelation, fans adopted the slogan "six seasons and a movie", a line from the episode "Paradigms of Human Memory" regarding Abed's hopeful legacy of NBC's short-lived series The Cape. Sony Pictures Television, the show's primary producer, was reported to have shopped the show to other networks and online distribution outlets, including Hulu and Comedy Central. Deadline Hollywood reported the low chance of such an outcome, with a revival deal from one unnamed suitor not likely to happen and creator Dan Harmon's enthusiasm for continuing on the show uncertain. On May 28, Deadline.com reported that Hulu was in talks with Sony Pictures TV to produce a new season of Community, with Harmon having a change of heart about the revival, saying, "I'm not going to be the guy that re-cancels cancelled Community." On June 24, TVLine reported that Hulu had ended talks with Sony Pictures TV, although The Wrap stated the report was incorrect. On June 30, the day the cast's contracts were due to expire, Yahoo! announced it had ordered a 13-episode sixth season to stream on Yahoo! Screen. The main cast return along with executive producers Dan Harmon, Chris McKenna, Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster. Harmon said, "I am very pleased that Community will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo ... I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online." For season six, the series moved shooting locations from Paramount Studios to CBS Radford, which is twice the size of the previous shooting set.
In August 2014, it was announced that the Russo brothers would direct the season premiere, however, this did not come to fruition. Writing began in September 2014, and filming began in November 2014. Unlike most streaming programs, the sixth season were released weekly, as opposed to being released all at once. In September 2014, it was announced that Yvette Nicole Brown, who plays Shirley, would not return for season six due to a family emergency; however, Brown returned in guest appearances in "Ladders" and "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television". Paget Brewster and Keith David (Brewster previously guest-starred on the series as a different character and David provided a voice-over role) were cast as regulars for the season in November 2014; Brewster plays Francesca "Frankie" Dart, a consultant to help improve Greendale, and David plays Elroy Patashnik, a retired inventor who now searches to reinvent himself at Greendale. In November 2014, it was announced that Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren would guest star as Britta's parents, George and Deb Perry, in the second episode of the season. The cast and crew celebrated the making of their 100th episode on December 8, 2014.