I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

42: 30 Rock

I amazingly made my feelings on 30 Rock to some extent clear on this blog before - it's a stellar, good overall, show, but for some reason there has developed around it this bizarre critical consensus that it is the best comedy on television (certainly as far as Emmy has to say about it). Like Steve Nash a few years back in the NBA, 30 Rock is good, sure, but the praise has become overwhelming that you can't help but think of something you like without also thinking of it being overrated (though I do think it's gotten to the point where Steve Nash is so overrated, he's underrated, but 30 Rock hasn't reached that point yet). 30 Rock was well-liked from the outset but it cemented its status and Tina Fey's as a critical darling with her extremely well-received take on Sarah Palin for Saturday Night Live, which may have revived any commercial fortunes for the show as well (probably Fey has more to thank Sarah Palin for, after maybe Barack Obama, maybe).

30 Rock took its time finding its way - for the first half dozen episodes or so, I thought it was pretty lacking, and it was not helped by my preconceived notions of it being overrated, before I even saw it, and none of this was helped by the multiple appearances of Rachel Dratch, who was originally cast to play Jenna, which would have been an absolute disaster. It found its sea legs though, helped by the likability of Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin's performance as Jack Donaghy, one of the only people in the show who can actually act, and whose role really is almost equal to Fey's. What I originally thought would be a true ensemble show is really tiered - Baldwin and Fey, then Jane Krakowski's Jenna Maroney and Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan, and then everyone else - there's always some Kenneth (Jack McBreyer) and sometimes some Pete (Scott Adsit) and Frank (Judah Friedlander) and maybe others.

There's sometimes a little too much Kenneth for my taste - he's a one-dimensional character who shouldn't really get plots, but rather have just a couple of lines an episode, but overall it's a solid show, and has been successful enough on occasion to get me to say a couple of its phrases repeatedly ("shut it down," "I want to go to there"). Unlike How I Met Your Mother, which I think is strongest with its gimmicks sometimes, I think 30 Rock is often weakest with its gimmicks - I was not a big fan for example, of the Jon Hamm episode in which the premise was that he was so handsome that he lived in a bubble, in which everyone would bend over backwards for him (my bigger problem with this episode, and I'd be fine if women told me that I was wrong, is that Jon Hamm didn't seem quite handsome enough to carry out that premise in a believable way for me).

I know this is the cliche answer for the highlight of 30 Rock, but for me, it probably is still the episode in which Alec Baldwin portrays Tracy Jordan's mother and father as well as several other people from his childhood. I couldn't stop cracking up watching it the first time, and though I certainly laugh bit watching 30 Rock, I don't crack up like that very often.

Also, 30 Rock are complete guest star whores - barely an episode goes by it seems without guest stars. I don't necessarily say this as either a good or bad thing but they really take advantage of their connections, and surprisingly, considering it would be so easy to fit the guest stars in as playing exaggerated versions of themselves as in Entourage or Extras, usually playing characters.

So, watch 30 Rock. It's good, it's funny - it's just not the best comedy on TV.