You know, I do reviews of the pilots of all these TV shows, and I usually append, at the end, "Of course, this is only the pilot. It could go up or down from here." At least, I try to. I didn't so much with my review of "30 Rock" way back in October of last year, declaring "But once they get over the novelty-phase, this show is DOA." (Even my grudging follow up fails to give the show enough credit.)

So, in my time honored tradition, I'm going to man up and say it straight out: I called it wrong.

The show, soon after, picked up steam and by January was delivering funny on par with--but of a different flavor from--"The Office" and "How I Met Your Mother." And this difference, I think, is one of the reasons the show works so well.

Lately, sit-coms have been divided, somewhat artificially, into two camps: traditional and single camera. Traditional sitcoms being shot with three cameras on two or three sets and single camera shows being shot on film on locations more like a drama. The only traditional sitcoms to get numbers are on CBS' Monday night and the traditional sitcom is considered by many to be a moribund form.

And that's fine, whatever. I grew up watching traditional sitcoms and so I'd be sad to see it die out completely, but it'd grown stagnant, so, it needed shaking up. The 'traditional' sitcoms that succeed today aren't throughly traditional (with the exception of "Two and a Half Men" whose extreme popularity baffles me, even in light of it's very-funniness).

So, my contention is this: the 'traditional' vs. 'single camera' dichotomy is a false one. I think that there's something more subtle at work here: comedies are become more sophisticated and branching out in what kind of humor they employ.

Much has been made of the fact that "The Office" employs the humor of embarrassment. That is, you laugh less because what Michael Scott says is funny but because what he says is so ridiculous and he has so little idea that it's ridiculous that it makes you uncomfortable both for him and everyone around him. "How I Met Your Mother" plays very heavily with dramatic structure in order to build and diffuse dramatic irony far differently than sitcoms of the past could. What matters not is that "The Office" is single camera or that "How I Met Your Mother" is shot with three cameras is the sensibility that each brings is fresh.

Traditional and single camera shows fail all the time because they're not fresh. "Out of Practice," a traditional sitcom, if you'll recall, got canned because its tone and sensibility were "Frasier" up and down and left and right. And after 11 (mostly excellent) years of "Frasier," we were a little "Frasier"-ed out. And shows like "Emily's Reasons Why Not," "Help Me Help You" and "Big Day" were all single camera and all derivative (or innovative in the wrong direction) and all very, very canceled as well.

My point is this: 30 Rock brings something new to the table. An unhinged quality not reached even by the most unhinged (and successful) work-place comedy of recent years: "NewsRadio." Where Dave was "the last sane man" dealing with a workplace full of crazies, "30 Rock" abandons the straight-man. Everyone is wrong, everyone is crazy, even those--but, importantly, not particularly those--that seem like they've got it together. Liz Lemon knows that everyone around her is nuts and she's got to hold it together, but how can she do that when she knows that she's not right either? (Her declaration in a recent episode: "Jack gave me free reign! I'm the decider!" crystalizes the tone and wonder of this show).

Anyway, "30 Rock" is tops. It comes back from hiatus Thursday April 5th at 8,00 central on NBC.

Also: "Scrubs" has grown stale. So very stale. So very traditional-sitcom-y even though it's single camera. It's lost what used to make it unique. What carried it through its subpar fifth season: its wackiness. On paper, it's the perfect match for "30 Rock" but as been far weaker than the new show all season. Given that NBC is flip-flopping their time-slots, it would seem they agree.