15 Best TV Shows Like Community

Real fans of "Community" know there's never really been anything quite like it before or since. Created by future "Rick & Morty" co-creator Dan Harmon, "Community" premiered on NBC in 2009, following a smarmy ex-lawyer, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), whose attempts to sleep with classmate Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs) result in him leading a study group of eclectic strangers, including pop culture fanatic Abed (Danny Pudi), clueless jock Troy (Donald Glover), type-A overachiever Annie (Alison Brie), octogenarian magnate Pierce (Chevy Chase), and single mother Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown).

Though the early episodes feel like any ordinary ensemble sitcom, the show evolves into meta commentary on television as a medium, with enough homages to make some of the best concept episodes of "Community." Along the way, this one-of-a-kind sitcom's cast redefines themselves in ways they'll continue to explore in future series. And with the "Community" movie still to come, as of this writing, the story isn't over yet. If rewatching "Community" for a hundredth time doesn't feel streets ahead to you, watching one of these 15 shows will feel cool, cool, cool. 

Although "How I Met Your Mother" doesn't take place at a college (even if Ted Mosby eventually becomes a college professor), its lovable ensemble features archetypes that are quite familiar to "Community" fans: you got the womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), the ambitious Robin (Cobie Smulders), the loyal softie Marshall (Jason Segel), and the tough sweetheart Lily (Alyson Hannigan). The one character without an easy "Community" counterpart happens to be the CBS series' lead, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), a hopeless romantic whose inevitable meeting with the future mother of his children looms over the entire series.

Though it doesn't play with pop culture tropes like "Community," "How I Met Your Mother" leans heavily on this flashback-centric framing device, allowing for some of the most fascinating and, at times, surrealist storytelling ever seen on network TV. Although many consider "How I Met Your Mother" to have one of the worst TV series finales of all time, the show, like "Community," proves that life's not about the degree you're seeking, but the friends you make along the way. 

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" technically has more in common with other workplace sitcoms produced by Michael Schur, such as "The Office" and "Parks & Recreation." However, it's not hard to find similarities between its cast and tone when compared to "Community": Melissa Fumero's Amy Santiago shares more than a few traits with Alison Brie's Annie, and Andy Samberg's Jake Peralta is like a cross between the playfulness of Donald Glover's Troy and the pop culture-obsessiveness of Danny Pudi's Abed. 

"Nine-Nine" mainly follows a squad of NYPD detectives led by the stoic Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), but it's the chemistry of its cast that makes it one of the best sitcoms ever made. It definitely gives fans what they want more than "Community" does, as evidenced by the character development of Rosa Diaz and the romantic growth between Jake and Amy, as opposed to the Flanderization of characters like Britta or the never-ending yearning between Jeff and Annie. Be warned: binge-watching this series may replace your chanting of "Pop pop!" with "Nine-nine!"

"A.P. Bio" trades Greendale Community College for Whitlock High School, but retains a similar lead with selfish motivations for returning to school. Whereas Jeff Winger was in search of a quick bachelor's degree to reinstate his illicit law license, Glenn Howerton's Jack Griffin enlists a class of eager high school students in a revenge scheme against his professorial rival. Especially once Jeff becomes a reluctant law professor at Greendale in the later seasons of "Community," it's easy to see the similarities between his character arc and Jack's in "A.P. Bio." 

Much like "Community," "A.P. Bio" also faced turbulence as it aired, getting cancelled by NBC after two seasons, only to be picked up by the network's streaming service, Peacock, before once more getting cancelled after four seasons. Maybe it's for the best, since "A.P. Bio" never had the chance to swallow its own tail like "Community" began doing in its later seasons.

What do you get when you take "Community" and replace its obsession with pop culture homages with references to philosophy, ethics, and religion? You probably get a show like "The Good Place," which follows Eleanor (Kristen Bell), a woman who dies and gets sent to "the good place" instead of "the bad place," where she actually belongs. Eleanor shares a lot of similarities with Jeff Winger, not just as a morally dubious person, but in the way she unexpectedly grows into a better one over the course of the series.

The rest of the cast of "The Good Place" contains traces of the "Community" ensemble, from the neighborhood's eccentric architect Michael (Ted Danson) — the show's counterpart to Dean Pelton — to the dimwitted, football-obsessed Jason (Manny Jacinto). Ultimately, this classic "Twilight Zone" episode premise never feels stale in the hands of a showrunner like Michael Schur, who continually challenges his characters and allows them to grow throughout the series.

While "Party Down" was cancelled by Starz in 2010 due to poor ratings, we always dreamt about the timeline where it ran for many more seasons. That timeline actually came true with a Starz revival in 2023. The sitcom follows a Los Angeles catering company staffed by out-of-work actors, including jaded commercial star Henry (Adam Scott) and optimistic restaurateur Ron (Ken Marino). Whether it's through lampooning the uglier sides of entertainment or highlighting a lovable cast of misfits, "Party Down" feels akin to the early episodes of "Community" that pushed the boundaries of what a sitcom could be. 

Thankfully, "Party Down" has also had a little more momentum since ending than "Community," thanks to its revival, which welcomed new cast members like Jennifer Garner and Zoë Chao while accounting for the absence of original stars like Lizzy Caplan. Though we'll probably never get a proper six seasons and a movie of "Party Down," the fact that they were even able to reunite just shows how special these cult-classic returns are, building the anticipation even higher for Greendale's own upcoming movie.

Since "Community" ended, Joel McHale has been a part of several other sitcoms where he's played characters who are barely a stone's throw from being Jeff Winger. One such example is "Animal Control," in which he plays Frank Shaw, an ex-cop reluctantly working as an animal control agent. The ensemble surrounding McHale's character feels "Community"-esque, to say the least, such as Vella Lovell's preppy director Emily (this show's Annie) or Frank's prank war opponent, Grace Palmer's Victoria (this show's Britta). 

Though "Animal Control" hasn't reached the same cultural impact as "Community," as one of Fox's only live-action scripted shows, it feels like a remnant of TV's past, when network sitcoms ruled the ratings. Plus, "Animal Control" offers plenty of meta references to "Community," such as establishing that Frank went to community college for a Spanish class, and even featuring cameos from McHale's "Community" alumni Jim Rash and Ken Jeong. 

Gillian Jacobs is one of the standouts in the cast of "Community," but as the seasons go on, Britta Perry becomes a lot less complex than she was in earlier seasons. Fortunately, Jacobs got the chance to explore a character reminiscent of early-season Britta in a Netflix series shortly after the end of "Community," albeit for a more R-rated audience than NBC would allow. In "Love," Jacobs plays Mickey, an alcoholic and sex addict who begins a relationship with Paul Rust's Gus, a self-centered misfit. 

Though the show is a lot more "day-in-the-life" than the structured college setting of "Community," its references to pop culture and portrayal of extremely flawed but lovable characters made it a natural next step for Jacobs after playing Britta for six seasons. "Love" only lasted three seasons, and may leave you with more mixed feelings about romance than its characters end up with, but along the way, there's a lot of adorable moments between its two leads that, for all their dysfunctions, are way more healthy than anything Britta had going on in "Community." 

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Between his successful career as Childish Gambino and appearances in blockbusters like "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "The Lion King," it's amazing that Donald Glover ever found the time to create an entire TV show after prematurely leaving "Community" in its fifth season. However, "Atlanta" proved to be one of the best TV shows of the 21st century, starring Glover as Earn, an ambitious Princeton dropout who becomes the manager for his cousin Alfred's (Brian Tyree Henry) burgeoning rap career.

Although "Atlanta" is tonally a complete 180 from Glover's work as Troy on "Community," the way he eschews typical sitcom formulas and explores the surrealist aspects of the African-American experience feels heavily inspired by Dan Harmon's show. It may not be as outwardly funny and whimsical as "Community" was, even in its weirdest eras, but you can see traces of Glover's comedic and creative genius poke through in episodes like "Teddy Perkins," "B.A.N.," and "The Goof Who Sat By The Door." 

Alison Brie's career has been incredibly diverse since "Community" ended, but there's nothing like seeing her thrive in an ensemble setting like in Netflix's "GLOW." Inspired by the 1980s television show "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling," "GLOW" centers on its fictionalized creation: assembling a misfit cast of out-of-work actors and Los Angeles locals, under the direction of the cynical Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron). Brie's Ruth, eager for a real job, must balance standing out in an eclectic cast with the awkwardness of sharing the ring with her ex-best friend, Debbie (Betty Gilpin), a former soap opera star in the midst of a divorce from her husband, with whom Ruth had been having an affair.

Though Netflix gave "GLOW" the chop ahead of its greenlit fourth season, the three seasons that premiered on the streaming service featured some of the most ambitious television of the 2010s. Brie especially shines as a character whose messy life and desperation for success still contain traces of Annie Edison from "Community," albeit in a much grittier and dramatic fashion. Other highlights of the ensemble include Gilpin's whirlwind performance, Jackie Tohn's memorable characterization of foul-mouthed wrestler Melrose, and Gayle Rankin's surprisingly emotional "She Wolf," Sheila. 

Apple TV+'s "Mythic Quest" might be from the same creative team behind "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," but it feels more similar to a show like "Community" both in tone and in overall nerdiness, and not just because Danny Pudi is in it. The show centers on a fictional video game studio, whose hit MMORPG is on the verge of major changes led by its creator, the narcissistic Ian Grimm (Rob Mac), lead engineer Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), and meek executive producer David (David Hornsby). Pudi, in a far cry from Abed, plays Brad, the company's callous head of monetization, whose sole purpose is to squeeze money from the MMORPG's players, often in opposition to the creatives. 

Though it's since been cancelled at Apple TV+ after four seasons and two special episodes, "Mythic Quest" takes a similar approach to "Community" in letting its characters grow closer as a family, not just as co-workers, though the lines do blur as the series goes on. It also takes some big swings to depart from TV norms, dedicating entire one-off episodes to completely different characters, including a tragic love story in Season 1's "A Dark, Quiet Death," or the flashback-centric "Sarian" in Season 3, revealing how Ian and Poppy's childhoods culminated in their first meeting. 

On the surface, "Scrubs" may appear to be any ordinary medical comedy, in the same vein as "St. Denis Medical" or "M*A*S*H" are for their respective generations. However, the tone of the show is a lot closer to the absurdism of "Community" than any of its fellow hospital-centric brethren, with frequent dream sequences and improvisation defining its sense of humor. The series follows a group of medical interns at the fictional Sacred Heart Hospital, namely the overzealous J.D. (Zach Braff), his best friend Turk (Donald Faison), and his love interest Elliot (Sarah Chalke). 

Though the show originally ran for a staggering nine seasons, it also, like "Community," faced a tumultuous cast transition. Braff returned for only six episodes of Season 9, while new characters played by Dave Franco, Michael Mosley, and Eliza Coupe, took the lead roles to mixed reviews. It's even referenced by "Community" during the fifth season in a joke about Donald Glover's premature departure from the series. Thankfully, despite creator Bill Lawrence initially being against the idea of a revival, "Scrubs" was rebooted with a tenth season, in which Braff returns to Sacred Heart to take over as Chief of Medicine — a transition into leadership not dissimilar to Jeff's character arc in "Community" Seasons 5 and 6. 

If part of what you love about "Community" is the reliance on running gags and characters (see: "Shut up, Leonard," "Troy and Abed in the morning!," and "Britta's the worst"), then you probably already have reverence for "Arrested Development." Sharing the same creative DNA (courtesy of directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who helmed the pilot episodes for both series), the Fox-turned-Netflix sitcom follows an even wackier ensemble than the one at Greendale: the Bluth family, whose patriarch, George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), is arrested for fraud in the first episode, forcing his son Michael (Jason Bateman) to keep the family business together amidst the chaos.

We'd love to consider "Arrested Development" the type of sitcom without a bad season, but sadly, many fans have mixed feelings about the Netflix seasons. However, those original three on Fox are widely regarded as some of the best sitcom television ever made, largely thanks to its incredible cast. Jessica Walter's batty Lucille Bluth puts Chevy Chase's Pierce to shame, and David Cross' Tobias Fünke is like if Jim Rash's Dean Pelton was a thousand times weirder. Creator Mitch Hurwitz even has a recurring role in "Community" as Koogler in both the fifth and sixth seasons of the Dan Harmon series, while Harmon cameos in an episode of the fourth season of "Arrested Development." 

Speaking of recurring gags, "Psych" is the master of them, making "Community" seem pretty tame for its cavalcade of Easter eggs and running jokes. Though it's on the surface a more straightforward police procedural, "Psych" has a strong comedic edge to it, as its lead character Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez) is a man who uses his photographic memory to convince people that he's a psychic, helping the Santa Barbara police solve crimes. The relationship between Shawn and his partner, Gus (Dulé Hill), is not dissimilar to the Troy and Abed friendship in "Community," albeit a little less childish and a lot more Holmes and Watson. 

The running gags in "Psych" feel as absurd as the ones in "Community," such as a hidden pineapple in almost every episode and making frequent references to popular movies and TV shows, many of which, like "The Breakfast Club" and "Clue," are also referenced by "Community" on numerous occasions. Though you won't find any paintball episodes of "Psych," there are entire episodes that pay homage to series like "Twin Peaks."

Of course, it wouldn't be right to talk about shows like "Community" without mentioning one of the iconic sitcoms that aired alongside it, "30 Rock." The NBC series is among the boldest meta commentaries about the state of TV, making the pop culture commentary of "Community" feel modest in comparison. Tina Fey, who also created and wrote the series, stars as Liz Lemon, the head writer for an NBC sketch show. Throughout the series, Lemon must juggle her personal life with a conservative new head of programming, Jack (Alec Baldwin), rambunctious stars Tracy and Jenna (Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski), and a childish, predominantly male writers' room.

Where "30 Rock" and "Community" especially overlap is in their depiction of fake TV shows and movies, with the latter show's "Inspector Spacetime" and "Cougarton Abbey" feeling ripped right from the script pages of "30 Rock." One of the most obvious connections between "30 Rock" and "Community" is that Donald Glover began his career as a writer for the series from 2006 right up until he was hired for "Community." 

"Dimension 20" is the only show on this list that's not a scripted series like "Community," though it's arguable that a show like this could never exist without the influence of Dan Harmon, who proved there was a comedy audience for tabletop gaming via "HarmonQuest," which premiered in 2016 and ran for three seasons. 

The most successful series to come from the streaming service Dropout, "Dimension 20" is an anthology series featuring a roundtable of comedians playing through TTRPG campaigns, heralded mostly by Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan. The campaigns often pay homage to popular movies and TV franchises, including "Mad Max," "Game of Thrones," "Harry Potter," and "Toy Story."

Obviously, these homages make "Dimension 20" similar in tone to "Community" as it is, but it also happens that "Community" has its own memorable "Dungeons & Dragons"-centric episodes in Seasons 2 and 5, which, with their emphasis on theatrical storytelling over high-budget visual effects, are essentially a more scripted, narrative-driven version of "Dimension 20" episodes. Not only is "Dimension 20" one of the best improvised TV shows of all time, but it makes us yearn for an entire campaign starring the cast of "Community," who'd be perfect guests led through a campaign by Mulligan.