Flashmob Successes, Yoplait/General Mills campaign, WeLoveSony, Blanket Fort

Dear Community Fans,

Merry Changmas! http://bit.ly/sKxh78
If you don't want to read the details on our zombie war, please scroll down 6 paragraphs until you see bold text and TL;DR. Also, congratulations to Donald Glover/Childish Gambino for his many accomplishments!

Zombie War Update: We ran a tight race against the zombie hordes (http://t.co/Qlu8DHRp). I talked smack at @TeamReedus and also absolutely confused him by saying, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smells like elderberries! I taunt you, sir! BRAINS! BRAAAAAINS!" I then sent my own confused tweet to Nielsen and BBDO; we can't run a tight race against Walking Dead fans if there aren't any of us. Many thanks to Curt Wagner at the Chicago Tribune (@showpatrol) for giving us a zombie war for Christmas!

Tonight's news (12/28): we're tossing around the idea of a Guinness world record blanket fort at Univeral Orlando theme park in Florida, to coincide with National Blanket Fort Day (thank you @SpinolaG). Because there are a lot of us, don't worry; we'll raise the money to RENT a place to do this if we have to!

Also, this: http://twitpic.com/7zz3xo
In other news, there is an LA Flashmob: LA Flashmob FB page and Craigslist page
Thurs, 1/19/12, 4:30pm, Universal Citywalk, singing Baby Boomer Santa. I didn't know about it, but I fully support it. Also, I don't need to be a spokesperson. Anyone who loves the show can speak for all of us. Just try to stay positive and not slam NBC, other networks, or other shows, OK? Go West Coast! You're up next! This is so cool! :)

I learn a LOT of things from the Chuck campaign. They used to run flashmobs; one was Zachary Levi running a mob of London fans to a Subway. You would have to clear it with the store, but how about running a mob into a grocery store, buying Yoplait and General Mills products (Cheerios, Progresso, Muir Glen, et al): www.generalmills.com/brands. Like I said, some stores are funny with this, so you might end up juggling yogurts in the parking lot or somewhere else. I give a lot of love and respect to the Chuck community. They ran a good campaign and got a couple of extra years for a beautiful show. I love them.

(12/23/11, 6:18pm): Hulu just named Community the #1 comedy! A Hulu subscription is a nice last-minute present: http://www.hulu.com/plus?src=topnav

Send some nice hand-written letters to CEO Bob Greenblatt: Robert Greenblatt, c/o NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608

Quick note: I want NBC, Sony, Yoplait, and General Mills ALL to be #1! Mainly NBC! Also, we're buying shiz like crazy, so please don't overtly compare us to the Occupy movement, OK? We love those guys, and DON'T want to get on their bad side!

TL;DR Summary for the time-challenged!

1. Oh Canada! Vancity, you are the best!
2. TV Guide is Awesome!
3. Buy @GeneralMills and @YoplaitYogurt, either a little or a lot, for donation or for yourself, OR do a flashmob based on their products (scroll back 4 paragraphs for more); tweet/FB/mail. www.generalmills.com/brands
4. Go see Hugo in 3D again. @SonyPictures filmed the flashmob, OMG. \brainfreeze/
5. Say hi to Glenn at the NBC store on FB (filmed the mob): http://www.facebook.com/NBCUniversalStore?sk=wall
6. Keep Glenn hopping; buy ALL THE THINGS (they keep selling out, yay!): http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/?v=nbc_community
7. Next up: Guinness World Record Blanket Fort, hoping for one at NBC headquarters; Leno/Fallon could wear PJs and pillow fight with us.
8. VOTE in all the polls, especially for Jeff Winger, Josh Holloway, and Jeff + Annie: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/f0kjr6

There's a lot of information to cover here. First, though, I'd like to give a shout out to the two lovely ladies who traveled all the way from Vancouver for the flash mob! I didn't get to hug you goodbye because of interviews and it makes me sick to my stomach; please tweet me at @violincatherine and I'll give you a virtual hug, okay! Oh Canada, indeed! You guys also get the prize for the longest commute. Everyone who participated, especially @sararoseex3, cocreator @EvilTroyAndAbed, and all the participants online with the #OChristmasTroy hashtag and on Facebook, you did good. Real good! Thank you so much!

Max from TV guide filmed the event: TV Guide is Awesome!

Successes:

• TV Guide is a rockstar; where can I buy extra Community cover issues of the magazine?
• Sony filmed the ENTIRE THING. I've been asking everyone to see Hugo in 3D by @SonyPictures, and now I'm going to see it again. They interviewed all of us, and followed us as we went into the NBC Store and giggled over NBC Community merchandise. Guys, they're listening to us. Tweet them your thanks, show them love, buy Sony stuff, go see Hugo, ALL OF IT. They may have the power to save the show, and (if you have any spare cash left after buying some Yoplait/General Mills food), it might be nice to show some Community love!
• Glenn, the manager at the NBC Store at 30 Rock, was SO nice to us. He filmed the flashmob and put it on the NBC Store FB page, so please comment on the page and share it everyone; we can help NBC with their new media too: http://www.facebook.com/NBCUniversalStore
• More about Glenn: he gave everyone a Human Being keychain and magnet. I actually gave him my tree and goatee while Sony was filming me. How's that for an alternate timeline, y'all? If you're not getting chills, you aren't a Human Being! My Troy and Abed mug and #AnniesMove shirt actually made me cry happy tears when I woke up today. So, Glenn also runs the online store. He REALLY appreciates us. We keep buying up all the merchandise; they've sold out of Troy and Abed mugs now 3 times. I'm telling you, NBC had to approve this, so I see it as a BIG WIN. Keep up like the Bieber Army and buy ALL THEIR STUFF, ok? http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/?v=nbc_community 
• Re: Britta Bot and other figurines. Don't take any of this as sarcasm, I want NBC to be #1 and I want to help them. Pure fan demand in the NBC Store led them to bring figurines in the 30 Rock store for the 1st time. Note: this is during a hiatus, and we are so crazy that we're forcing them to put merch where it wasn't before. They also keep selling out online. They can barely keep up!
• I wore my @YoplaitYogurt shirt with pride yesterday. I told everyone who would listen about them, and the initiative to buy @YoplaitYogurt or donate food purchased from @GeneralMills brands. 
• I made a $60 donation to http://www.serenityhousenj.org/ the other day of @GeneralMills food, and GENERAL MILLS TWEETED ME for Christmas! Is it sad to admit that I cried more happy tears when that happened? OK, maybe it's sad, but it's true. Go General Mills!
• If we're going to get a corporate sponsorship, we really need to back it up with revenue. So the @GeneralMills tweet adds ALL their food to the campaign. Here are the many brands of General Mills, and I would highly suggest adding their cereals/soups/yogurt (also Muir Glen and Cascadian Farms) to your weekly shopping list: www.generalmills.com/brands. Donations are higher dollar amounts and good karma, but even a carton of Yoplait helps right now. @nannysox suggested we all pick one day a week to do this; any votes for Yoplait/General Mills love? I have weird hours as a musician, so I buy food on weird days and hours. But that's still a great idea, so please let me know! Take pictures, tweet them, send letters to: General Mills mailing address/phone: 3007 Stephens Boulevard  Joplin, MO 64804-3368, (417) 782-0300 (can address to Yoplait Yogurt, c/o General Mills, also)
• Community fans are the best in the world, period. Everyone who showed up yesterday was so bright, cheerful, happy, and willing to help out in any way. That brings me to:
• EVERYONE is down with a blanket fort. I'd like to do it in a month (which means indoors). My #1 dream, because I want NBC to be #1 again and I WANT to give them all this free PR, is an attempt at a Guinness World Record for blanket forts at NBC Headquarters. PJs and pillow fights would be required. I would hope for Leno/Fallon bits, but just the fort itself and the fans would be enough.
• Application for new category in Guinness World Records: http://member.guinnessworldrecords.com/member/is_it_a_record.aspx
• Glenn at @nbcstore gives me hope that NBC is listening to us. They deserve to be #1 again; they have SO MANY great shows that we can't afford to lose.
• If NBC is not receptive, I told the Sony crew that we would be happy to take over an empty backlot somewhere. A Florida fan, @r3g1t0dd, suggested Universal Orlando. Can you imagine a World Record blanket fort and overnight pillow fight plus pajama party at Universal? Road trip, baby! 
• If NBC and Sony don't bite, we can try General Mills headquarters.
• If General Mills doesn't bite, we'll do it ourselves! I was suggesting a dairy farm in upstate NY (yes, cliche), but if it's January, Momma Bear Yours Truly ain't signing up for outside. We'd have to find a huge indoor structure that would have the permits (and fire regulations) in place for extensive use of blankets and smashed pillows.
• Because we want to include EVERYONE, we have another blanket fort initiative running. The beautiful Spanish @be_cooky is creating a collage of blanket forts from across the world. Build one wherever you are, take a picture of it, and post it on FB at http://www.facebook.com/events/178705898894815/ or tweet @be_cooky. If you can take a video, send that too!
• Also, the beautiful TV Guide support comes from us voting Community onto their magazine cover as fan favorite. Keep voting in all active polls, and WIN ALL THE THINGS (shout out to @TweetingKerry)! The more things we win, the more press and the more leverage our show has, so:
• VOTE in all the current polls: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/equelg
• I've LITERALLY been up until 4 or 7 in the morning, every night, since the hiatus was called. I've got to stop procrastinating. Christmas is here, so I have to do a bunch of Christmas things with my family, and then I'm off on vacation. I'm trying to get this blog post in before I go off radar for a while. Keep up the good work, y'all! They are listening, they are talking about it, and we have their attention, so keep the momentum rolling with General Mills, Yoplait, Sony, the NBC Store, and finding ways on FB and twitter to promote the blanket fort idea. I'm behind y'all one hundred percent. 
• I know I'm a wordy girl. There are more ideas on earlier blog posts; if you see something you want to reinstate as an idea, please let me know. If there's something that you want to see up here, please tweet me and I'll put it up too, OK? This blog is for YOU, the fans. Speaking of which:
• @GuillaumeElleb from Belgium (OMG I love Belgium) has a great idea for a GreendaleCC page on FB, done as if it were a real college. We could give ourselves IDs, make up new crazy faculty, trade studying tips, stalk the Dean and Jeff, and follow Abed as Batman/Cougartown extra, trade Jeff and Annie googly eyes reports. I could spend an hour making up Dean Pelton behind the scenes stories. Anyone want to do join us if he sets this up? I absolutely love it! It gives us yet another productive and funny thing to do, too!
• You can always right-click on a show in itunes and send it as a gift. All you need is an email address! Speaking of which, I have a few copies of Holiday Regional Music (S3E10) left to give out. Tweet/DM me your email address to @violincatherine and I'll send you a copy. There are 10 left! If we all did this, well, we'd have less crud at the top of the itunes list, that's for sure! Who watches some of this other nonsense?
• I don't need to be the official spokesperson of the Community movement. (OMG someone said we're older than they thought when they saw the video, but I'm like, dude, I wanna buy an electric car and @artofkuzma hubby has a $6000 printer; BITE ME.) Others have been here longer. On the next go-round, I invite someone else to take the mic, OK? I love all of you guys. The flashmob was the best Christmas present I've ever had, and I'm officially designating it as our Christmas present back to the staff, crew, and actors of NBC Community. Happy Holidays!

Love,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(P.S. - It was funny, but NBC Security and the NYPD asked us to move a couple of times. I shook their hands, introduced myself, and said, OK, whatever you want! I wished everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked them for protecting us from pickpockets. Thank you again to all of NBC, the Rockefeller security team, and the NYPD! We love you! The only incident was: I think the Troy and Abed mugs sold out AGAIN! xoxo CB)
 (P.PS. - The Daily News hit: Ethan Sacks is a Rockstar
Hollywood Reporter hit: We Love Jethro Nededog
My favorite blog post: We Love Cult is VERY cool
Also, I saw this as I left NYC: Joel McHale's 50 Foot Head
There are others, but I have SO MUCH to do. Check my twitter feed or the #savecommunity hashtag for more. Happy Holidays! -CB)
(P.P.P.S. - When I said I am not a trained person in the video, I really meant that I'm not an actor. I respect the time and training it takes to master acting as a craft. The work the cast does is SEAMLESS and perfect. So, it's better that I sing and hold a Christmas tree, and have 100 beautiful fans show up with me, than make you miserable with my acting in a skit. If anyone ever wants some violin music as part of some film or happening, I HAVE spent my whole life busting my a$$ to learn the violin, and I play any style. I want to keep the focus on the show and on the other fans, so maybe as some background music? I also offer my services as a pillow fighting jedi. xoxo CB)
(PPPPS - Jeez, I really am wordy. The flashmob was one of the 10 best days of my life. Playing with kd Lang/Willie Nelson, some spiritually beautiful days, getting married, having a violin student study for 6 months and play at her daughter's wedding: these all come before. But not by much. I cried when the Milady tweets started coming in. I was in the NBC store, and I started sobbing until the mascara was done-zo. If I haven't thanked you yet for your support and love, it's because I'm emailing the press behind the scenes and haven't had a chance to scroll back. Also, this flashmob was never about me. But the love kept me going. I had to explain to other fans and bystanders that Milord/Milady came from the Jack Black episode when tears were running down my face, and that Milady is the highest honor anyone can bestow. Everyone laughed at me, and tears were running down my face. Outside, someone asked me the name of the Pop Pop character and I said Magnitude without missing a beat. This PS is for all the fans, and it's personal only when it comes to you. Dan Harmon is Justin Bieber, but YOU are BATMAN. I really do love you guys with all my heart. xoxo -CB)

Flashmob, Blanket Fort Ideas, Yoplait/General Mills campaign, NBC and ad sponsor addresses, other ideas

Hello Community fans!

UPDATE (12/21/11, 11:15pm EST):
Flashmob, Thursday 12/22, 1pm, 30 Rock Tree: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/eve/2758910778.html
Live Tweet/Facebook with us: Use #OChristmasTroy hashtag and Facebook event page http://www.facebook.com/events/263523627036650/, and feel free to send pictures and videos of yourselves! This IS an INTERNATIONAL fanbase. All of you count! If you are tweeting and posting with us, I consider that you are actually part of the mob. The next flashmob/event could be in YOUR town, right? 
VOTE in ALL the polls: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/equelg

TL;DR, 1) Buy a bunch of @GeneralMills and @YoplaitYogurt food and donate it for the holidays.
2) Buy some Community merch. Mgr Glenn offered a 25% discount; store is by the tree in 30 rock.
Online: http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/?v=nbc_community
3) Have a 30 second elevator speech about why you love the show, ready to go. That takes priority over singing, right? I hate to sound culty, but conversion and press are our jobs tomorrow.
4) Keep it light, and don't get arrested. Scroll down six paragraphs until you see bold text to move quickly through this stuff, OK? Thanks!

I bought and donated $60 worth of @GeneralMills and @YoplaitYogurt food today, and donated it to www.serenityhousenj.org. They needed cereal, soup, and pasta. I got Cheerios, Yoplait, Progresso Soup, and some milk/other items. Any Community fan, it doesn't matter if you follow this lead or just buy one @YoplaitYogurt for yourself right now; THIS is the actual one-two punch, riding the wave of the flashmob. Please go and do it, tweet it and put it on Facebook. Reasoning: Yoplait is an ad sponsor, and they are VERY responsive to us on twitter and facebook. They're sending swag to us! General Mills is their parent company. If we can show our support to them, they may be convinced to help our show with product placement, or some other fun marketing strategies. It happened to Chuck and Subway! Donations involve a higher dollar amount than other fan "Save the Show" ideas I've seen, get good press for the places to whom we donate food, and are all-around good karma. Let's go!

Also, BUY ALL THE COMMUNITY MERCHANDISE. I will be at the NBC Universal store, 30Rock, entrance by the tree, before and after. Manager Glenn is offering 25% for Community fans. He is very excited about what we are doing! I will be in NYC super early. Tweet me at @violincatherine if you'd like to photobomb the Today show, do a silent disco (see below), or get some snacks, OK? Obviously, any card carrying press member will get a funny sound bite from me too, I promise! My personal goal: to show the world a fun time with one silly stunt. For real!

My best friend just bought me a Duran Duran CD (I actually smacked myself in the head with it 20 times when I unwrapped it), so I'm perfectly happy doing silent disco somewhere with some of you (maybe I'll put my headphones on and rock out to Notorious in the subway).

Also, some people want to sing for 30 minutes, but it would be better to chat with the others and the press maybe, right? I vote to leave them wanting more. BUT, as my friends tell me, it's a mob and I can't control a mob. So I'll exit stage left and go run around. Love you guys. Don't get yourselves arrested, pretty please? We are representing a TV comedy (not Walking Dead or something like that) and need to keep things fun. We have NOTHING to do with the Occupy movement (I mean, we are buying stuff, OK?); all love and respect to them. I'm personally too frail for jail. Let's try to keep our Shawshank experiences to a minimum, like zero.

Have your 30 second spiel about why you love the show, ready to go. There will probably be singers there from all over NYC, and they and any press might ask you about the show. People want to know why we're doing this, why we love the show so much, and if we're doing this to be uppity with NBC. I love NBC. I want them to be the #1 network again, because they take risks with beautifully-written shows. So let NBC ride the happy wave with us, OK? And PLEASE don't badmouth other shows.

Also, don't worry about celebrities joining us or chiming in. WE ARE ENOUGH, and we are good enough. Please don't ask me what Dan Harmon thinks of this. He is my Justin Beiber, but right now THE FANS are saving the show. The fans are Batman!

Two big ideas for this week:
1) Please join us for a Community flashmob on Thursday, 12/22/11, 1pm. Bring a tiny tree or picture of a tree to the BIG tree at 30 Rockefeller Center, and sing "O Christmas Tree" /"O Christmas Troy" with us!
Craigslist posting: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/eve/2758910778.html
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/263523627036650/
Historically, flashmobs are short and sweet. If security/cops ask us to disperse after a couple of minutes, let's go get hot chocolate and plan...
2) The BIG MOTHER OF ALL BLANKET FORTS! Here's the Guinness Book of World Records link to start a new category: http://member.guinnessworldrecords.com/member/is_it_a_record.aspx
I confess: I see us partnering with someone with a dairy farm in Upstate New York. Oh wait... Or hey, make it a worldwide thing, see how many blanket forts can be made within 24 hours across the world! All ideas, please tweet them over to @violincatherine or post on the Facebook page, Evil Troy and Abed, OK?

Last week's pile of ideas. TL;DR, buy a bunch of Yoplait Yogurt, or donate General Mills food to a homeless shelter/food bank. Write handwritten, nice letters to Bob Greenblatt. Buy ALL THE MERCH; be like the Bieber Army. iTunes, DVDs, collectibles, hulu plus subscriptions. You can send itunes copies of episodes and hulu plus subscriptions as gifts to other people, too!

• @YoplaitYogurt, aka @YoplaitLove, has been very responsive to us on twitter. With the blessing of @EvilTroyAndAbed and @Greendale_Love, we're starting a two-pronged Save the Show campaign, taking inspiration from Chuck et al.
• 1) EITHER: Buy 7 Yoplait Yogurts a week, accompanied by in-store comment cards with the #savecommunity hashtag, plus tweets, FB postings (www.facebook.com/Yoplait), and letters sent mentioning @YoplaitYogurt, @YoplaitLove, and #savecommunity.  
• 2) OR: Using the @GeneralMills (Yoplait parent company) brand website (www.generalmills.com/brands), reach out to local homeless shelters/women's shelters/food banks/orphanages, use your imagination, and offer to make a donation of food on behalf of General Mills and the #savecommunity campaign. Get your family/friends/coworkers involved; get other fans in your area to work with you to get higher dollar amounts involved. If you are in South Jersey or Philadelphia, please contact me; I will be happy to work with you, OK? The Chuck campaign had several good donation efforts, which I applaud, and this time of year is especially cold and brutal. Let's do this! General Mills mailing address/phone: 3007 Stephens Boulevard  Joplin, MO 64804-3368, (417) 782-0300 (can address to Yoplait Yogurt, c/o General Mills, also)
• @SonyPictures, @Wired, and @Vudu recently ran a sweepstakes on behalf of @NBCcommunity. Sony, in particular, maybe has a vested interest in a fourth season for syndication. Any ideas on how to show the love to Sony, Wired, or Vudu are most welcome. I went to see Hugo (Sony Pictures movie in 3D) and would like to encourage everyone to see it. The movie is enchanting, uses 3D in stunning and unique ways, is (ironically) a full-out Marty Scorcese masterpiece, is a must-see for film history buffs, and is suitable for all ages.
• I am personally offering 20 (10 Twitter, 10 Facebook) iTunes copies of S3E10 of NBC's Community (Holiday Regional Music, a glorious musical episode) on a first come, first serve basis. You can send me a direct message on twitter at @violincatherine with your email address, or post it on my business FB page (http://on.fb.me/lOtMEZ). All are welcome, but please be honest and don't try to grab more than one copy, OK? This is coming from ME, as my heart-donation to the show and its fans.
• If you are dying to see the entire NBC Community series on Hulu plus, you can sign up for a free one-week trial here: http://www.hulu.com/plus?src=topnav. If you've never seen the show and would like a month to view it from the beginning, please contact me and I'll give you a free month. Only one available; first come, first serve!
• Legalese, legalese, blah blah blah. I don't know if the offers are good outside the US, but we can try, OK? iTunes shows are worth $1.99 apiece, and the month of Hulu plus is worth $7.99. I'm a big spender, I know! :) I LOVE the Justin Bieber Beliebers, buying out all the CDs in every city and giving them away to charity. Let's buy everything: merchandise, DVDs, itunes, Hulu. We can do this!
• VOTE! We've got 20 days to dominate BBT, OK? http://www.tv.com/features/best-of-2011 @EvilTroyAndAbed is on a personal quest here; who am I to say no? We're listed in several categories: Comedy/Underrated/Best of 2011/Guest Star (Josh Holloway)/Comedic Actor (Donald Glover)/Exciting Cast Addition (John Goodman). If I missed anything, tweet me and tell me.

Let's send letters to the CEO of NBC (Robert Greenblatt, c/o NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608). Please handwrite them and make them nice. Please try not to whine or to mention other shows, OK? Many are suggesting sending felt goatees with all NBC correspondence. I prefer black construction paper, as it's easier to find/cheaper/easier to mail. Rough visual template of a goatee folded in half vertically: http://twitpic.com/7rr0fu

Please show some love to the advertisers! We're tweeting them, and please find them on Facebook and on the web. This week is a good time to start writing letters (Greenblatt, advertisers, NBC executives).

UPDATE:

Ad Sponsors for 12/15/11 broadcast: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/eodcik Courtesy @Greendale_Love

West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

Okay, so what do we do now? I had a massive amount of brainstorming last week; please scroll down to the next post if you'd like to see all those ideas.

1) Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas repeats next Thursday, 12/15 on NBC at 8pm. It's a beautiful episode, and I'll spread the word and tweet the advertisers like normal. Parks and Recreation AND Up All Night are getting my full support during the hiatus. I'm also treating Danny Pudi's appearance on Chuck, since it's ABED (but not really, I know), like a Community show. 

2) I want NBC and Sony to find other ways to monetize the show:

• S3E10 Holiday Regional Music soundtrack on itunes.  (@Greendale_Love and @JHeaton416)
• Sheet music sent out for paid digital download from S3E10
• Dean/Chang/Starburns/Magnitude/Leonard Christmas ornaments. 
• DVD sales (also, can be used as prize incentive ANYWHERE for data mining).
• Greendale comic books. 
• Sexy v-neck shirts from American Apparel, that my female friends would wear, with Greendale logos.
• Or give me iron-on patches and I'll make the shirts myself.
• Santa Annie costumes, STAT
• Hulu+ conversion from Netflix; incentives/contests/prizes
• 12 days of Greendale Christmas twitter contest, with trivia questions and prizes (NO cost to run twitter contest except your legal fees and website setup for data mining on splash page to enter, FYI)
• Action figures (I LOVE the set you already did for last Christmas, too)
• Coffee table book of the show, with full-color pictures and quotes. I WOULD BUY in a heartbeat.
• All-purpose joke book, divided by categories, from character's perspectives
• Anything about Chevy Chase, #pierceorchevy, or Pierce Hawthorne
• I would like to read Dean Pelton's novel, or see a Day in the Life as video/story
• ***tweet me at @violincatherine and I will include your idea on this list***

 3) As fans, WE have collective powers. Keep talking about the show with your friends. We only had a couple of weeks to try to get viral awareness of the show. Both with friends and with mass media, we can bring people to the hulu website, show them DVDs, show them the brilliant cast stunts this week (College Humor: http://bit.ly/tA2lBG, #PierceOrChevy: http://bit.ly/rYf1fk), and show them  clips on NBC or Hulu.

4) I like the idea of viral videos, crazy stunts, etc (see the next post for ideas). Would any of you like to do a Flash Mob at 30 Rock, crash the Today Show, or try to go ice skating near the tree as a group? Do you have ideas for some crazy stunt? Blanket Fort? Paintball War? If we make it goofy enough and film it, it's REALLY good for the show, too. It's up to us. If any of you can find a way to get the show and cast stunts into high-ranking newspapers, radio, and magazines, please send that email or make that call now.

5) I'm hoping NBC will see the hiatus the way Netflix saw Qwikster: reversible and stupid. If we can organize to help monetize, we can help with NBC's cash flow problem too. If we all donated $10 to a "Save the Show" campaign, we'd have $30-$100 million FAST. We could all get a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. I don't care how it's monetized, NBC and Sony. We'll buy whatever you're selling if you say it will save the show! Also, I'm aware that Sony may roll out a 4th season to give a full 88 episodes for syndication. Still, any way I can pitch in to make CERTAIN this happens is better than sitting idly by and worrying.

Yours,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(PS - This is a lovely summary of last night's show: http://avc.lu/t599in)

NBC Community ad sponsor list, and what to do now

Hello Community fans!

Let's send letters to the CEO of NBC (Robert Greenblatt, c/o NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608). Please handwrite them and make them nice. Please try not to whine or to mention other shows, OK?

Please show some love to the advertisers! We're tweeting them, and please find them on Facebook and on the web. This week is a good time to start writing letters (Greenblatt, advertisers, NBC executives).

UPDATE: West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

Okay, so what do we do now? I had a massive amount of brainstorming last week; please scroll down to the next post if you'd like to see all those ideas.

1) Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas repeats next Thursday, 12/15 on NBC at 8pm. It's a beautiful episode, and I'll spread the word and tweet the advertisers like normal. Parks and Recreation AND Up All Night are getting my full support during the hiatus. I'm also treating Danny Pudi's appearance on Chuck, since it's ABED (but not really, I know), like a Community show. 

2) I want NBC and Sony to find other ways to monetize the show:

• S3E10 Holiday Regional Music soundtrack on itunes.  (@Greendale_Love and @JHeaton416)
• Sheet music sent out for paid digital download from S3E10
• Dean/Chang/Starburns/Magnitude/Leonard Christmas ornaments. 
• DVD sales (also, can be used as prize incentive ANYWHERE for data mining).
• Greendale comic books. 
• Sexy v-neck shirts from American Apparel, that my female friends would wear, with Greendale logos.
• Or give me iron-on patches and I'll make the shirts myself.
• Santa Annie costumes, STAT
• Hulu+ conversion from Netflix; incentives/contests/prizes
• 12 days of Greendale Christmas twitter contest, with trivia questions and prizes (NO cost to run twitter contest except your legal fees and website setup for data mining on splash page to enter, FYI)
• Action figures (I LOVE the set you already did for last Christmas, too)
• Coffee table book of the show, with full-color pictures and quotes. I WOULD BUY in a heartbeat.
• All-purpose joke book, divided by categories, from character's perspectives
• Anything about Chevy Chase, #pierceorchevy, or Pierce Hawthorne
• I would like to read Dean Pelton's novel, or see a Day in the Life as video/story
• ***tweet me at @violincatherine and I will include your idea on this list***

 3) As fans, WE have collective powers. Keep talking about the show with your friends. We only had a couple of weeks to try to get viral awareness of the show. Both with friends and with mass media, we can bring people to the hulu website, show them DVDs, show them the brilliant cast stunts this week (College Humor: http://bit.ly/tA2lBG, #PierceOrChevy: http://bit.ly/rYf1fk), and show them  clips on NBC or Hulu.

4) I like the idea of viral videos, crazy stunts, etc (see the next post for ideas). Would any of you like to do a Flash Mob at 30 Rock, crash the Today Show, or try to go ice skating near the tree as a group? Do you have ideas for some crazy stunt? Blanket Fort? Paintball War? If we make it goofy enough and film it, it's REALLY good for the show, too. It's up to us. If any of you can find a way to get the show and cast stunts into high-ranking newspapers, radio, and magazines, please send that email or make that call now.

5) I'm hoping NBC will see the hiatus the way Netflix saw Qwikster: reversible and stupid. If we can organize to help monetize, we can help with NBC's cash flow problem too. If we all donated $10 to a "Save the Show" campaign, we'd have $30-$100 million FAST. We could all get a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. I don't care how it's monetized, NBC and Sony. We'll buy whatever you're selling if you say it will save the show! Also, I'm aware that Sony may roll out a 4th season to give a full 88 episodes for syndication. Still, any way I can pitch in to make CERTAIN this happens is better than sitting idly by and worrying.

Yours,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(PS - This is a lovely summary of last night's show: http://avc.lu/t599in)

Ad sponsor list for NBC community, NBC exec mailing addresses, viral marketing ideas

Hello Community fans!

UPDATE: West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

Last week's tweetlist (Thursday, 12/1/11) of show ad sponsors: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/eg7430, courtesy @Greendale_Love.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Hulu sponsor list, 12/2/11: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/egj9f4

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

It's time to roll up our sleeves again this week. Ready? Here goes:

1) Please tell everyone you know about next week's episode, Thursday 12/8/11:
Link with promo pictures: http://t.co/NVJJftax
Plot synopsis: http://t.co/FOyInOBb
NBC promo: http://bit.ly/tTPxGU

a) Summary of this post for time-challenged fans: 1) Tell EVERYONE about next Thursday's episode, NBC 8pm. 2) Make and post a funny/surreal video. 3) Reach out to magazines/newspapers. 4) @YoplaitYogurt (http://twitpic.com/7omky7) and all ad sponsors are rockstars; show them support right back. 5) @rerorerocandy said: Has your movement considered creating a tumblr intro to Community w/ clips and then real-world posting QR code links to it? (This is Greek to me. I love you, @rerorerocandy, and I don't even understand what you're saying! I have to look into this. Does anyone have an operational version of this already? Thx!)

2) All right, guys, I think viral videos, connection with ad sponsors, and absolutely bat-crazy INSANE numbers of postings to watch the show are the best way to go here. Viral videos are #1 on my list. Here's the deductive reasoning; please note that many of these things are fixed and cannot currently be changed, so it's best to focus on what we CAN do.

• First point: if you are an improv troupe, filmmaker, standup comedian, comedy writer, marketing whiz, tumblr whiz, professor, social media maven, or ad sponsor with any ideas for ways to help us get a ratings bump and to try to bring in a 4th season, please send me a tweet at @violincatherine or send me an email at my personal email account. Any of you have a built-in rabid fanbase; if you create a funny film that gains us Nielsen viewers, you will be our hero FOR LIFE. Same goes with the other categories of expertise. I'm not joking here. 
• OK, you know those donation websites? If you say there are 3 million of us (5 million Nielsen 2 years ago, and I think it's really twice that number now), you could test us out. If we each gave $10 towards a "Save the Show" initiative, that's $30 million. Make it an ad sponsor corporate matching donation program to push it over the top. I don't even care; you can send me a thank you letter with a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. Rabid, die-hard fans think alike. Not all of us will want to do this, of course, but I think most of us would jump at the chance to save the show.
• Our demographic is strong, and we can extrapolate our potential fanbase by looking at ourselves. Comic Con participation was a brilliant move by NBC. Think of Monty Python/Eddie Izzard fans. Reach out to Ivy League schools, Cal Tech, employees in Silicon Valley. Can the cast be nominees for Harvard's Hasty Pudding awards? I sent tweets to gaming companies. Dan Harmon is a Skyrim player; gaming is HUGE and there is BIG MONEY there. Collaboration w/Skyrim, BBC, Pythons, Izzard? Has Eddie Izzard said anything publicly about Community? We CAN find and recruit fans.
• Does anyone know the hard figures or metrics which would save the show: money, viewers, product placement? How much does it cost to run the show per year? I don't mind the product placement when it's saving a good show, personally.
• NBC is currently #4 in the ratings. I did not know that until my favorite show, NBC's Community, went on hiatus. It's amazing how you don't know how much you love something until you're in danger of losing it.
• 25,000 Nielsen boxes, kept in secret on TVs across the country (and supposedly meant to be a true statistical snapshot of the nation), are extrapolated to 119 million households. Sometimes DVR viewing is also counted, but not always. The viewing numbers from these set boxes are what ad agencies use to purchase ads from the networks. Community's ads go from $93-98K. This is a VERY low figure.
• I know no one who actually BUYS the ads in the agencies really cares, but there are over a million users on FB and 25K active in Twitter on the #savecommunity hashtag. I offered us up for demographic study, and offered my laptop (where I watch everything) for tracking. My hypothesis is that viewers of this show likely opted out of Nielsen ratings because they are too busy. Being affluent, working late hours, and watching on laptops, that is. Scroll down if you want the demos; I know it doesn't matter. I'll work on viral videos this week and I'll send pleading emails to BBDO/Young Rubicam next week. I don't want to rail against the machine this week when we need eyeballs (Nielsen viewers next Thursday night) NOW. 
• NBC needs more viewers overall. Period. A professor friend said the quickest way to make an idea go viral is through actual, real life friends. So please mention the holiday show next Thursday, 8pm on NBC, to everyone you know, OK?
• Guys, it's hard to see the bigger picture or to be innovative when you're bogged down like this. Can you imagine trying to work at NBC, or on this show? We are new to this problem, so we can bring a fresh set of eyes to it. Please send a polite hand-written letter to the executives at NBC, but realize that anything whiny is like a kid begging for more allowance money when the parent is having problems paying the mortgage.
• Last week, I had a HARD time finding the plot synopsis. I personally sent the synopsis to all my favorite online magazines, then tweeted about 350 mainstream newspapers/magazines/organizations across the country on the airdate, near the airtime (papers: http://bit.ly/kbcgL. Magazines: http://bit.ly/14v6Lz; I will repeat this week). Logic: high circulation=more potential Nielsen viewers. Also, there was also a lack of promo from NBC, in addition to numerous bizarre cable outages/delays across the country (hello, where did Pittsburgh go). This week, we have S3E10 advance promo pictures, the TV Guide Fan Favorite magazine cover (it came out on Friday, giving us a week of PR on a high-circulation magazine cover), genuine critical support across the board, and time to work out a viral marketing campaign.
• Interesting article on marketing Red Bull to gamers: http://bit.ly/sOAaVp. All this information applies to our current situation, so I'm looking for ways to reverse engineer the ideas and present them back to the agencies.
• Given the Nielsen system, 210 people=1 million viewers. We need to treat this like a military campaign. Dead simple. Let's think of a Don Quixote, impossible dream. How about trying for 2 million extra viewers, or 420 extra Nielsen households? 
• This is where the viral phenomenon is in our favor, OK? On www.youtube.com's home page, the top video of all time (by Bieber, naturally) has 669 million views. This is a crazy number. OK, if we can come up with ideas that are funny enough, tied to the show, we can draw these 420 Nielsen unicorns. It has to be FUNNY. I reached out to an improv troupe today, who specializes in big stunts. For example, my husband and I think it's a funny idea to take a small Christmas tree for a ride on the back of a bicycle, and to talk to it like it's a person. My favorite two viral videos are (both NSFW, so I hesitate to post links) "Acid Can do Some Messed up Things" and "Happy in Paraguay". Please note that the top viral videos GENERALLY involve surreal humor, children, pets, or are from a top current pop star. I'm going to do my best to record some this week. Any ideas to start a flash mob? Should we emulate the Bieber Army and all buy something in unison? I personally switched to Hulu from Netflix today, and told Sony I would buy their products the rest of my life if they would be so kind as to give us Season 4. Is there anything else we can do? Do you guys have any other ideas for viral videos/mass action? What makes sense? Also, straight fan videos are a beautiful thing, so please send them around also. @rerorerocandy mentioned a Rube Goldberg-type video (direct twitter quote: Here are a couple examples http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2C-PWHpPoI Both use their name in the machine). I'm personally thinking of Diet Coke and Mentos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM. He says this would draw in Big Bang Theory fans. Does anyone know a Community fan at a major engineering school with cool experiments? This would be a chance to promote their work also. Rube Goldberg-type things, really fancy robots, anything like that would be good. I'll post to MIT, Cal Tech, and everywhere else. I think Jacka$$ style stunts would be good, too.
• The show is super funny, and please share videos from the show, but what I'm referring to specifically are ways to reach the maximum number of viewers in the shortest time period. So we have to think outside the box, and go into crazy zones. 
• But, yes, please share the show videos at the same time. My top picks: Levar Burton (http://bit.ly/hiFh7P), La Biblioteca (http://bit.ly/18tjbG), Chang as gonzo Spanish teacher (http://bit.ly/1ilXKu), Jeff playing naked pool (http://bit.ly/dENGcV), the holiday claymation episode S2E11 (http://bit.ly/m5qH35), Season 2 (http://bit.ly/s50pzH) AND DJ Steve Porter (http://bit.ly/107XzJ) remixes, www.greendalecommunitycollege.com. Please feel free to send these links to your email contacts/post them on Facebook, with a personal note to pass the video along and to watch the show to try to save it. Note that I'm including things that are surreal and that don't involve long punch lines. Also, to NBC/Universal/Sony assets department: 3 of these videos are youtubes. They are not full episodes in the back catalog; they are short clips. I will remove the youtube links in one month (i.e., by 1/4/12). I would like to encourage viral growth of your viewership; that is the only purpose in posting these links. Thank you!
• I've said this over and over on my twitter feed. Please do a google search for Chuck and Subway (and now Cougartown) to understand the power of fans to save a show w/product placement (example: http://bit.ly/uZPS5u). @YoplaitYogurt has been VERY nice to me on Twitter and Facebook. They asked me to spread the word about www.Greek4Good.com, which gives 25K to a local food bank. Please reach out to them. I am working out a meme with my cat: : "Who ate my Yoplait Yogurt?" with the picture of my cat in a goatee. She may not like the goatee, so it may just be a picture of my cat, looking guilty and mischievous as usual. I'm also buying a ton of Yoplait, every week. If you like the cat/pet/other creature/child/husband ate your yogurt idea, PLEASE use it, OK? Like I said, this is a military campaign now and we have to move FAST. Use ALL my ideas if they make sense to you and if they can help NBC. I've been buying things from every sponsor that I can, though. I got my Christmas shopping done at Old Navy already. We love them all!
• My favorite character in Community this week is Leonard (http://bit.ly/vAzD0d). He reviews frozen pizza on youtube as the end tag for S3E9. We can do the same for any of our sponsors, right? We can interact with the product in a silly, goofy way like this. I'm personally thinking to do a pizza review from inside a @PizzaHut this week.
• Let's go back to Marketing 101 in our minds. I don't know how NBC got to be #4 - it's weird to me too - but let's pretend we're starting from scratch. What makes our show hip/cool/funny? Why do you enjoy watching it? What does it give you that no other show gives you? Then twist that idea around, flip it, magnify it or make it the opposite, add another twist, make it SUPER funny/surreal and take a video of it. 
• Straight Marketing: STRONG CAST. Joel McHale (E!s Soup and a hottie), Chevy Chase (the LEGEND, playing against type as a lonely, crabby, racist mess), Ken Jeong (Hangover), Alison Brie (Mad Men), Jim Rash (Groundling who freaking co-wrote The Descendants and will one day OWN us all), Donald Glover (Comedy Central stand-up comedian and rapper aka Childish Gambino), Gillian Jacobs (bright shining Juilliard star, praised by NY Times for legit theater work), Danny Pudi (Second City alum), and Yvette Nicole Brown (Drake & Josh). (If I left anyone out, it's because it's 4:30am; please bring it to my attention, OK?) All members of the cast have great chemistry and work well together. The writing is cutting edge and deserves a chance to breathe and develop. There is NOTHING else like it on TV; the only thing that comes close is Monthy Python crossed with Cheers, but in a community college instead of in a bar. The cast is multiracial, and the characters are portrayed as human beings, not caricatures. A gang of misfits finds a sense of belonging in a Community College. Dan Harmon uses a unique "embryo" writing style, grounded in the work of myth-explainer/mystic Joseph Campbell: http://bit.ly/mT6zVd. In a dorm, we have: paintball/STD fairs/a SPACE BUS/blanket forts. John Goodman plays a power crazy HVAC dean. AMAZING guest stars include: Bette White, Luis Guzman, Dan Harmon (creator), Nick Kroll, Taran Killam, et al. 
• I LOVE the CBS shows too. Remember, though, this is a military campaign. If one of their shows was in trouble, we'd watch it to help them out if our friends asked us. So ask CBS viewers sweetly, but please ask them to watch NBC for a little while, OK? All's fair in love and war. This is both.

I wrote a bluegrass song last week in support of the show, and I enlisted my husband and cat as actors. It's pretty terrifying to do this, really, and I'm procrastinating on filming because I'm not sure what great actors I and my humble family will be (we are normal people, not hand-picked-for-sexiness-and-talent actors), but I'm aware that we have to do SOMETHING. We can do surreal things, off-the-cuff videos, that a straight TV network can't do. Plus, we are internet-savvy people: young, gutsy, funny, energetic, and bright. Let's reach those 420 unicorns, shall we? Tell the world why our show is funny, and why they need to watch it. Let's go!

Love to all you guys,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(P.S. - Universal, parent company of NBC, also owns Hulu, right? So I'm VERY happy to switch from Netflix to Hulu, personally. I don't care if there are ads; I can watch all the current shows and help my own. Also, my favorite actor is Colin Firth, and Netflix had some mothballed B movies of his on tap. I actually bought the Firth "Pride and Prejudice" because I was DYING. No drama here to switch. Qwikster; raise my fees 100%; whee! -CB)
(P.P.S. - Anyone who is being a jerk on the Internet, trying to tear down our "Save the Show" initiative, is a dill weed trolling for eyeballs. Don't even bother taking the time to reply; we need you to spend your energy writing a silly song/skit about the show and posting in on youtube. Also consider sending emails/tweets to your favorite media/products/ad sponsors/organizations. Since we have a limited time frame until the hiatus, we need to use the time wisely this week. We'll deal with the haters with a proper "Up your nose with a rubber hose" when we get a 4th season. Thank you! xoxo CB)
(P.P.P.S. - I know this is wordy. I do apologize. Also, I'm sure I forgot something tonight, so I'll add it when I've had some sleep. I keep joking, saying I'm like a Twilight girl, or it's like I'm in some kind of mindless cult. Differences: I have no Kool Aid. If I meet the cast, I'll act like a normal person, because I see them as happily employed actors. It's the writers I idolize, but if I ever meet them, I will run and hide and I will NOT scream. (NBC, I ask nothing of you, except please don't lay anybody off, OK? I read that you laid a show writer off today and I'm still in the shock/denial phase. Just don't! Give us this one chance to make a big Don Quixote tilt at the windmills, OK? Gosh!) I will not camp in a tent to see the cast/writers. I LOVE DVD commentary and eat it up like fancy limited-edition holiday chocolate. The writing work is actual quality work. I crunch Nielsen numbers while driving. xoxo CB)