Classic sitcoms. Dick Van Dyke Show. Taxi. Cosby. Family Matters (the pre-Disney years). Several come to mind as being great and memorable. Lately, everyone seems to be heralding the death & rebirth of the sitcom. With the end of Seinfield, Friends, Raymond, and soon, Will & Grace, critics everywhere worried that the sitcom was officially dead. Well, they were right.

The sitcom that I grew up with was a very formatted genre. Major storylines always occurred in a central location, usually someone's home (or occassionally a workplace, a la "Just Shoot Me"), always had a laugh track, and almost always confined plotlines to the standard half-hour. It made for convenient entertainment for the viewer - you never had to see every episode to know what was going on, you were told when to laugh, and it was always comfortable & familiar.

That format has been altered of late, and in a sense, the sitcom, as defined above, is indeed dead. But that doesn't mean TV's not funny anymore. Now people are heralding "My Name Is Earl" and "Everybody Hates Chris" as the "return" of the sitcom. That's hard for me to buy. These shows look nothing like the traditional sitcom. They, and their partners-in-comedy "Scrubs," "Arrested Development," "The Office," and the grandmother of the new genre, "Malcolm in the Middle," defy traditional sitcom elements. Storylines carry over several episodes, and often viewers are required to recall past seasons to understand current situations (why is Pam so mad at Jim?). Laugh tracks are absent (unless you count the laughter in your living room as you watch). Action takes place all over - we see Malcolm and family at school, on road trips... JD and Turk hang out at home, work, the bar... Earl's karma-chasing escapades carry him and dimwitted brother Randy all over their quaint hometown.

In my humblest of opinions, you simply can't call the new comedy a sitcom. Leave that affectionate term for nostalgia-filled dream sequences of Coach, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Lucy. The sitcom may be breathing its last, but situation comedy itself has simply evolved. The new genre is a nomadic, ongoing, character-driven story that relies on its audience's intelligence for laughs rather than a tape player. (I personally think we should call them Nomongaracteries, but that could be annoying.) In this way, they are far more true to life, at least in format, than the sitcom ever could be.

I'm ok with bidding adieu to the sitcom if it continues to evolve into more shows like "The Office." As Dwight K. Schrute might say, embrace the winds of change - or get blown over.

Back in the day, I was addicted. Full House, X-Files, The Nanny, Star Trek, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Profiler, Pretender, 3rd Rock, and the list goes on. I used to watch so much TV, I would actually memorize the fall schedules and have my sister quiz me: "Ok, Tuesday night, 9:30, NBC." "Just Shoot Me!"

Then I decided that was a little unhealthy because I started theorizing that my friends were shape-shifters and everytime I went into a coffee shop I sat down with strangers on the couch and started telling them the the latest about my friend Chandler.

So, I haven't watched TV in a while. But then last year I was hanging out with my friend who loved to watch the Biggest Loser. Up to this point, I had thought the reality TV trend was completely absurd and had no respect for anyone at work who discussed who the Bachelor looked cutest with. But something happened during that season of Biggest Loser. Somewhere deep down, this show unearthed my shameful love of catfights, low-blows, and watching people give in to temptation. It fed an insatiable desire to see alliances (a grown-up word for 'clicks') develop, votes cast about who should be evicted, and backstage backlash as people slammed their previous BFFs. Finally, it made me all warm and fuzzy inside to see these people overcome thier biggest (no pun intended) fears and insecurities on national TV, shedding pound after pound and growing more and more confident (sometimes butt-headed) with every episode.

There really is a lot of good stuff on TV right now, and since I no longer have the time to memorize schedules and plan my life according to the mandates of the tube, I've found a few shows I like and I try to watch them every week. These include, but are not limited to:

Sundays:
-Simpsons
-Family Guy
-American Dad

Mondays:
-Surface
-Prison Break

Tuesdays:
-Biggest Loser
-My Name Is Earl
-The Office

Wednesdays:
-Invasion

And, someday, my beloved Scrubs will return and I'll have my JD/Turk fix. If, however, I start incorporating myself as a patient who wins over Dr. Cox with just the right amount of tug on his dry old heartstrings, I need someone to cut power to my home.