The New "Must See" Thursday

Even though they aren't calling it that anymore, NBC's Thursday night line-up is for the first time in way too many years deserving to be known as "Must See TV." Of course, current tagline "Comedy Night Done Right" is pretty accurate as well.

Throughout the nineties, the "Must See TV" formula seemed to be: Great Show, Filler, Great Show, Lame Piece of Unwatchable Crap. Honestly, NBC would have been better off running infomercials after Friends than garbage like Jessie, The Single Guy or Veronica's Closet. (How did that one last for three seasons?) But now you've Great Show (My Name Is Earl), Great Show (The Office), Great Show (Scrubs), and Good Show That Would Be A Lot Better If They Would Dump Tracy Morgan (30 Rock). Seriously, it's like Morgan's off doing an entirely different and really bad show of his own inside of the good show with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

This may be the first comedy block on network TV in which none of the shows has a laugh track. With these shows, however, I don't need a prompt to know when to laugh.