( CNN ) For years , they 've wanted six seasons and a movie , and at 3:01 a.m . ET Tuesday , fans got it ... almost . There 's no movie yet , but `` Community 's '' much-awaited sixth season made its debut . Not even cancellation by NBC could kill the fan favorite sitcom , as Yahoo streamed the first two episodes of the new season early Tuesday . The show appears to have suffered no decline in quality in the move to Yahoo , though cast member Yvette Nicole Brown ( now on CBS ' `` The Odd Couple '' ) had to leave the show for family reasons . The premiere briefly touches on this in its own way , with Shirley 's absence sounding a lot like the setup for a spinoff ( as the character Abed points out , along with several other inconsistencies throughout the episode ) . The `` new Shirley , '' as Dean joked , is Paget Brewster 's Frankie , who exists to play the disapproving authority figure to antagonize the former study group . Soon , the group was running a Prohibition-esque bar before they could learn to live with Frankie . And how about the end of the first episode , which gave us a look at the spinoff , `` The Butcher and the Baker , '' with Shirley and Steven Weber as a Southern lawyer ? Episode two got even more out there , with Dean Pelton 's adventures in 1990s-style virtual reality and a less-successful plotline involving Britta 's parents . Most interesting was the introduction of Keith David as '90s tech genius Elroy . Critics praised the show , with The Hollywood Reporter 's Amy Amatangelo saying , `` Everything fans loved about Community remains -- the first two episodes are chock-full of increasingly bizarre pop-culture references ( Portuguese Gremlins , anyone ? ) and meta commentary . The show has seamlessly transferred to an online venue . '' Time 's James Poniewozik also liked it ( despite some reservations about the plot ) , writing , `` The first thing that matters is if the latest reboot still has the comedy goods , and it does . '' Soon after the show went online , devoted fans on Twitter had their say .
The fan favorite comedy `` Community '' returns for '90s on Yahoo . The series is just as weirdly hilarious as ever , with surprises in store . Critics and fans loved the premiere .