The summer didn't seem that long, and the Age of Love fling was what it was. Kicking off the season this week, we've had the Simpsons beginning strangely, with an episode that got worse before it got better, and a Family Guy too in love with what it was mocking.

How I Met Your Mother did better but not amazingly. Shaking off summer rust and trying to accomodate guest stars weren't the things to attempt simultaneously. But it was much better than the Big Bang Theory, which imagines Two-and-a-Half Men with two Jon Cryers. How long could Chuck Lorre keep two men out of a car-trip scene if he tried? The world would never know.

The world would, however, look forward to Thursday. This week has been all about Thursday. Earl and The Office return, and we dream of 30 Rock returning soon. A Times story helps us.

For Ms. Fey, 37, the responsibilities of writing and acting on "30 Rock," combined with the pressures and joys of raising her 2-year-old daughter, Alice, have left her little space or inclination to reflect on the past year.

But over dinner, with her brown hair pulled back tight and her glasses off, Ms. Fey did acknowledge one guilty pleasure. Seated in her makeup chair at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens, usually just after 6 a.m. most weekdays, Ms. Fey would sometimes troll the Internet for references on message boards or MySpace to the catchphrases she and her co-writers had worked so hard to insert into each week's episode.

The paper also lets us ask Ms. Fey a question. I have a question.

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