10 TV Episodes That Should Have Jumped the Shark (But Didn't)

Long before Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon channelled his offbeat humour through Community, the community college campus-set sitcom, where a study group of oddballs come together to try and survive a sub-standard academic journey. With an ensemble cast including Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, and Chevy Chase, it was an instant hit and managed to strike a fine balance of weird and watchable.

But the already out-there show went several steps further in a single episode by establishing a chaotic multiverse. Season three’s fourth episode, “Remedial Chaos Theory”, takes place at a housewarming for two of the younger study group members, Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Pudi), and things get dicey when Jeff (McHale) rolls a die to decide who will answer the door to the pizza delivery guy. Seven timelines unfold, in which the scene is replayed, each member of the group answers the door, and something different happens every time.

Going far beyond the bounds of the show’s usually imagination-based strangeness, this episode establishes the diverging timelines as canon, including the so-called Darkest Timeline, in which Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) becomes an alcoholic, Pierce (Chase) dies, Annie (Brie) is institutionalised, Jeff loses an arm, Troy loses his larynx, and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) dyes her hair.

Rather than destroying the show’s tenuous grip on reality and plunging it into obscurity, the episode was wildly successful, boosting the flagging season, and Harmon and co. brought the characters of the Darkest Timeline back in future episodes.