Inside: This week in TV

We tuned in for the series premiere of Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin-off (Wednesdays on ABC). We won't be making that mistake again. (Though I do hope that ABC continues to cast Taye Diggs until he gets a winner. We watched all last year's Daybreak, even when it was canceled and we had to watch the remaining episodes online.)

However, we're pleased as punch about the new seasons of My Name is Earl and The Office (Thursdays on NBC). Both shows have somewhat narrow premises, unlike the plots of their "Must See TV" forebearers Seinfeld and Friends, which could include almost anything as long as the same characters showed up in each episode. In MNIE, the titular Earl has a list of people he has wronged; in each episode, he pursues a different person on the list in order to right the wrong. In The Office, each episode is a mockumentary; the film crew's presence is both a vital part of each episode (employees provide video "confessionals" in each episode) yet somehow invisible.

Reliance on these plot devices could have resulted in both shows stagnating after a single season. Neither has. Both season premieres (the third for MNIE and fourth for The Office) included enough changes to make them feel fresh (Earl is in jail! Pam and Jim are hooking up!), yet continue to employ all the elements that make them funny in the first place. (One example: The Office's always creepy and sporadically-used Creed matter-of-factly explaning that he's been in several cults, both as a leader and a follower, "You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader").

In other TV news, the Rock of Love season finale is tomorrow -- squee! (Okay, I know it's bad, like really, inexcusably, uber-bad, but at least we're not the only ones who are enjoying this "ridiculous but highly addictive" guilty pleasure.)