I Can’t Believe It’s Not Inspector Spacetime! “Community” Actor Launches Webseries Based on Character

When Travis Richey shot his first scene as Inspector Spacetime (Community‘s Doctor Who equivalent), he immediately saw the potential of the character outside of a cameo here and there. So Richey set out to create a web series with his writing partner and pitched it to NBC and Sony. That didn’t work out so well, even when he went through “official channels.” However, that didn’t stop Richey and one Kickstarter later, we have the first episode of Untitled Webseries About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time! More after the jump.

When Travis Richey couldn’t get the series picked up by NBC, he turned to Kickstarter because he knew that this was something the fans of Community wanted. When he launched the campaign back in February, NBC lawyers contacted him with a cease and desist letter, demanding that he halt production on the Inspector Spacetime web series since the character is owned by NBC. Richey struck back by dropping the Inspector Spacetime name from his project and retitled it ‘Untitled Webseries About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time.’

Lawyers from Sony and NBC have contacted me demanding that I cease production on an Inspector Spacetime web series.

Though I firmly believe the law would be on my side in producing this parody, I have no wish or ability to fight a show that I love as much as “Community.” I had hoped that they would embrace what is essentially a fan film and appreciate the value it adds to the character, and the audience that we would bring who are finding “Community” for the first time through this character, but alas, that’s not the case. So, I will be removing all references to Inspector Spacetime from this series (it only happened in the title anyway), and altering the appearance of the Inspector so that he does not look like Inspector Spacetime. What remains is 100% the creation of myself, my writing partner, and you, the fans.

The project was fully funded on April 1st with $25,026; $5,026 more than the goal. The first episode in the planned 6-episode series is now online and I must say, it’s pretty good. Check it out below!

What did you think of the first episode? Are you looking forward to seeing more episodes? Let us know in the comments!

In the upcoming fourth season of Community, the gang is going to take a trip to the Inspector Spacetime Convention. I wonder if NBC and the team at Community will ask Travis Richey to appear in the episode, despite him continuing with this project. Find out when Community returns to NBC on October 19th at 8:30 PM EST.

Source: /film, i09