"Gina was a driving girl with geographic memory,
Karen dumped her boyfriend Jim, forget that slacker misery,
Charlie works in cyberspace, backslash dot com all day long,
Pamela, she couldn't sing, but kept a beat and kept it strong."
A change from all your high maintenance relationships.
Get in. Be moved.

• Buffy the Vampire slayer loses her slaying ability
• On "Mad About You," Jamie's ex dies and leaves her his entire estate
• Felicity gets robbed
• On "Spin City," the mayor of New York City gets mugged
• Finally new episodes of "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Party of Five"
• Pacey's older woman returns on "Dawson's Creek"
• Jenna Elfman's real-life husband guest stars on "Dharma & Greg"
• "Chicago Hope" airs its 100th episode
• KISS guest stars on "Millennium"
• A transsexual on "Fantasy Island"
• Dalmatians, dinosaurs, Oprah, and the Temptations on Sunday night

1. "Sports Night" http://sportsnight.tktv.net
   Tuesdays at 9:30 on ABC
   
   Well, "TV Guide" is calling this a dramedy, and I think that label makes sense, but since it's half an hour long, and it's hilarious, I'm fitting it under the category of "sitcom" for the purposes of this article. This is by far one of the very best new shows on television, no matter what category you put it into. It's lightening-fast, well-written, well-acted, and even well-filmed, which is not something I would say about any other sitcom. The characters are sympathetic without being pathetic, and the situations are very realistic. It's also nice to see Robert Guillaume (Benson) back on TV. Even though his role is one of the smaller, he keeps the same wry wit that made him a sitcom hero of the eighties.
   
   
2. "Will and Grace" http://willandgrace.tktv.net
   Mondays at 9:30 on NBC
   
   "Will and Grace" was recently written up in "Entertainment Weekly," and the author of the article marveled at how no one was freaking out over the fact that Will, one of the main characters, is gay. I think it's because Will and Grace together are a perfect couple. So they don't have sex. Big deal. In every other way they're like a second "Mad About You." James Burrows is my sitcom hero, directing both "Will and Grace" and "Conrad Bloom" this season. He can create comical situations without making them stupid. What I particularly love is that whenever there is a perfect setup line in this show, which comes out sounding plastic and stupid on most other sitcoms, the character almost seems to know that the setup for the funny line was just a little too perfect, and sort of winces as they say it, so that you end up laughing at the setup instead of the stupid line. I'm not sure that I said that very well, but perhaps you get the point anyway.
   
   
3. "Conrad Bloom" http://conradbloom.tktv.net
   Mondays at 8:30 on NBC
   
   I really do like Mark Feuerstein. He's the perfect actor for the too-good-to-be-true New York advertising executive named Conrad Bloom. Ever Carradine is also great as his bouncy sister. The wonderful James Burrows, once again, is directing. However, what blows all of these things out of the water is Linda Lavin, who plays Conrad's recently widowed mother. The scenes between her and Conrad are just perfect, and she delivers her lines with a steel precision that is too often missing in today's sitcoms. Let me buy a drink for whoever convinced her to come back to television.
   
   
4. "Jesse" http://jesse.tktv.net
   Thursdays at 8:30 on NBC
   
   "Jesse" just got totally harshed upon by "Entertainment Weekly." The strongest criticism in the article, which I must say I agree with, is that the supporting cast is lousy. Okay, I wouldn't say they're lousy, but they're not so great. However, Christina Applegate has totally come into her own. She plays a very realistic single mother caught between her family responsibilities and the fact that she's young and wants to have a life of her own. Okay, so her arms are maybe a little too rip for the part, but otherwise she's really great. If you turn on the TV looking for Kelly Bundy, you'll forget what you were looking for in a matter of moments. Now if I could just figure out why her next door neighbor Diego is the perfect man, everything would make sense.