End of an era

Tomorrow morning, my very last recap of NewsRadio will post on the A.V. Club website.  I've been writing about the show, one of my all-time favorites, for four summers, encompassing five seasons.  It's been a labor of love, and a lot of wonderful people have come along for the ride, watching along with me and commenting each week.  I've learned a lot from them and made some new fans and friends.

I'm not going to able to find another show to revisit that has the same combination of appealing features for me.  NewsRadio was a traditional-format sitcom I have championed for more than a decade as one of the high points of the form and of broadcast television, despite its lack of ratings success.  In many ways it sparked my interest in treating television seriously and trying to understand how it worked.  Some sitcoms aspire to be little more than competent ephemera, but anyone who tuned in with more than a passing interest could immediately see that it assembled the elements of comedy with elegance, invention, and a deep passion for the possibilities of the form.

When I come back to TV Club Classic, probably early next year, I'd like to do another show that has a similar level of cult interest and formal excitement.  NewsRadio established me as something of a multi-camera sitcom specialist (although I have no formal training to support that status), but I can't think of another show that fits the bill -- relatively short run, underappreciated, pushing some envelope.  If you have any ideas, leave 'em in the comments.