Well, the television gods giveth, and, lo, they taketh away.
Season 3 of the Closer 
wrapped up on Monday, and I have to say I was a little bereft. Even though it's about murders, it's just so cozy! I read somewhere that it's basically Mary Tyler Moore with murders, and I think that's pretty apt. Brenda came close to calling the squad her family on Monday, and co-workers as surrogate family is pretty much the whole conceit of the MTM television archetype. I was also glad they finally gave Fritz something more interesting to do besides be exasperated.
Another one of my favorite shows, Kappa Mikey, 
on Nicktoons Network, is another MTM knockoff, only this time the naif at the center of the surrogate family is a bumbling American who co-stars in a Japanese action show with two young women, a guy with big blue hair, and a little purple creature named Guano. And yes, there's a gruff, but mostly kind-hearted boss too. It's fast-paced, funny, and completely absurd and made with respect for the audience that is so lacking in most kids' programming. I think I may actually like it more than the kids do.
And another of my favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (not true! I used to live there!) returns tonight. 
While three of the five main characters are part of the same family (sort of--you may recall that the kids were actually the result of Anne Archer's adultery and not Danny DeVito's biological kids at all, which explains how Danny DeVito got two tall kids, one of whom is blond.), it's, again, a Mary Tyler Moore-based workplace comedy with a bar instead of a newsroom and a band of gleeful sociopaths in place of the crew of eccentrics that surrounded Mary Richards.
It's really starting to seem that in TV, less is more. All of my favorite shows above, plus Halfway Home and The Sarah Silverman Program, run these short, 6-10-episode seasons, and I'm totally okay with that because it keeps the quality high. I just think it's a lot easier to do ten great episodes than 22. (Or, you know, 24, which I stopped watching even before it became The Official Show Of Republican Torture Advocates).
It's also starting to seem like everyone in television should just bow down before the Mary Tyler Moore show
, since it seems to be keeping shows in all kinds of genres running. Plus, what other show has had its theme song covered by the likes of Husker Du and Joan Jett? I guess the Ramones covered the Spiderman theme, and Scooby Doo was covered by Matthew Sweet and, uh, Billy Ray Cyrus, but I still think the MTM theme is out front for coolest covers.
