By Matt Ern, Columnist

NBC’s critically lauded but criminally underwatched comedy “Community” will be back in the Thursday night lineup as of March 15.  

When it was announced last fall that “Community” was being yanked from NBC’s mid-season lineup, fans of the show lit up the internet with protests and a campaign for #sixseasonsandamovie (a joke from the show that “The Cape” would last that long).  

Poor ratings were attributed to the leave of absence, but “Community’s” rabid fan base has kept the show alive. “Community” won TV Guide Magazine’s Fan Favorites contest ending up on the December issue’s cover despite the fact that the show had already been pulled and there was no set return date.  

The show, which focuses on a community college study group, is best known for its meta-commentary and genre bending parodies. Most notably, the show has done several paintball episodes spoofing modern action movie tropes as well as westerns.  One episode offered a clip-show format but with all-new footage of episodes that don’t actually exist.  The parodies have even targeted specific movies and TV shows such as “Goodfellas” and “Glee.”  

While the return date is good news for fans of the show, it doesn’t come without a small bit of bad news.  This only means “Community” will air all of its remaining season three episodes; there is still no word one way or another about renewal for a fourth season.  Also, in order to make room for “Community” something else on the Thursday night lineup has to take a hit, and unfortunately that hit is “Parks and Recreation,” which will be taking a five-week break starting the March 15, when “Community” returns.  

“Parks” fans can rest easy though, after the short break it’ll replace “Up All Night” after “The Office” and air its remaining episodes.  No episodes will have to be cut because “Parks” was originally scheduled to finish early, a month before the other Thursday night shows.