When Arrested Development was cancelled in 2006, I was 16 years old and at that point, I wasn’t really interested in anything besides eating cookie dough and making Phish mix CDs.

So I had heard of Arrested Development, but it never registered on my radar as being an earnestly funny, fiercely brilliant TV show, which I learned later watching the whole series the summer before my freshman year of college.

And it ended.  Its 53 episodes wrapped up nicely and it was one of the most consistently good comedies of the decade.  But that wasn’t enough.

See, from the show’s very end to now, super fans wouldn’t shut their mouths or their blogpost queries about making an Arrested Development movie.  And year after year after year, everyone just kept singing the praises of this show and lamenting its cancellation, begging producers to make a movie and being the worst, most selfish people ever.

But that’s the way the Internet is, and that’s becoming the trend in the way the public interacts with television, which is reprehensible.

It was same with Showtime’s Party Down, which was cancelled after two seasons and it’s the same with NBC’s Community, which hasn’t even been cancelled yet.

But TV — especially NBC — is so skittish that it puts all of its stock in ratings and if nobody watches the show at the time it’s on, it gets the axe because more than anything, TV is in the business of making money, selling advertising and making more money.

It’s not about to feel bad because two million people are getting mad about Community to their Facebook friends, when 15 million people are sitting down every single week and watching The Big Bang Theory or whatever other grating tripe is easy and accessible.

So respectful TV fans need to be able to do a couple things instead of whining:

1. Watch TV

I don’t think it’s terribly fair to go on social media and criticize NBC for nearly cancelling Community, because you were the one that wouldn’t watch it when it was on.  I know, Thursday nights are busy, but somehow 15.4 million (of the worst) people seem to make time to watch The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men on Thursdays.

So please, before you start being needlessly angry, actually sit down and watch the show you want to survive.

2. Don’t be a child

It’s infinitely childish to demand more of something you can’t have.  You’re like a kid that breaks the PS3 you never play and then immediately yells at your parents to buy you a new one.  And that PS3 takes millions of dollars and two years of writing, shooting, producing and marketing to make.

Don’t throw a tantrum over a TV show.  Be happy with how good it is when you saw it and buy the DVDs.

3. Let it go

If a show you loved like Arrested Development and Party Down is cancelled, let it go.  Be happy that you had two or three seasons of brilliance to watch. Plus, you can be relieved that your cult hit didn’t sludge through six more so by the end, you hate it.

While Arrested Development, Community and Party Down are some of my favorite all-time shows, I’d rather relish the fact that I love them for what they are than run the risk of ruining them for me forever.