Three weeks ago, NBC announced that they would be shelving their Thursday night comedy, Community.

Not only was this a big shock to me, but it made me severely disheartened. Not only am I a fan of the show, but I personally think, besides Community, NBC’s lineup is rather weak. I do enjoy Parks and Recreation, and I have seen a few episodes of 30 Rock, and I do not disapprove, but I would hate to see Community replaced by a show like Whitney, or even worse, the X Factor.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that this is what the American people want to see, especially those watching NBC, and I respect your right to watch whatever the heck you want.

But if Community is in fact cancelled I would be very disappointed with NBC.

Community is one of the smartest and funniest shows on primetime television right now. It has witty, well-placed humor, great pop culture references, and it even takes time out of its way to subtly bash Glee. Sorry Glee fans.

What I really enjoyed seeing, though, is the aftermath of NBC’s announcement to shelf Community.

Fans rallied together, held viewing parties, sent intelligent tweets to primetime advertisers during the show, changed their twitter icons to have little goatees, and even wrote letters, threatening to boycott NBC until Community was put back on the air. Fans bound together via social networks and trended the topics, #SaveCommunity and #SixSeasonsAndAMovie as a reference and homage to one of the characters quotes in the show.

After watching this season’s episode “Remedial Chaos Theory,” I really thought the show would be fine. But soon after was NBC’s announcement of the shelf.

Two weeks later, fans had bound together, and the show reached a high point in viewership for this season.

What amazed me and even Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, as he said on his blog, is that even before the announcement was made that Community would be shelved fans were already bonding together over the possibility that NBC would make this decision.

TV Guide held a fan favorite contest. Together, Community fans, myself included, along with Chuck fans, rallied and brought Community to the top of the fan favorites list. We were graced with six special covers of TV Guide Magazine. If this wasn’t a slap in the face to NBC, then I don’t know what is. Right after shelving Community, to have it win TV Guide’s fan favorite contest must have been a real shock for them. ­Truly, if anything, I think this showed NBC that Community fans were a force to be reckoned with.

What does this shelving business mean for viewers? Well, it means this for now, after Thursday’s Christmas episode, Community will be shelved indefinitely until further notice. Cast and crew expect to be back on the air by mid-spring, but we have seen this before with such shows as Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, and even Firefly.

One thing is certain, this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Community fans. Personally, I would like to see the show finish with a fourth season, which would have our cast and crew wrap up the story and I think most fans could be happy with that.

But as for now it is uncertain. My advice for Community fans is not to give up hope. Keep tweeting, keep it trending, keep fighting. If we all band together Community will surely see its fourth season, and we can keep the laughs coming.

Currently, Community airs on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. My advice is to watch it, enjoy it, and love it while it’s still on.