8:30 p.m. tonight on NBC brings us the season finale of “30 Rock,” featuring, among other things, the fallout from last episode’s quasi-cliffhanger of Jack (Alec Baldwin) leaving GE (and joining the Bush administration) and the return of several supporting characters, like Paul Scheer as Kenneth’s page arch-rival, Dean Winters and Edie Falco. Should be good, even if the USA Today doesn’t think so (note to self: “Snapshots” good, TV criticism, not so hot). It’s already been renewed for next season, so yay.

Also on tonight, on NBC - the “finale” of “Scrubs.” They’re just calling it the “finale” instead of the “series finale” (because that’s not what it is) or the “season finale” (because that would be advertising, kind of, the fact that it’s going to ABC, a competing network, in the fall). While the ABC deal still hasn’t been officially announced yet, it seems to be a done deal - tonight’s episode is actually the last one produced pre-strike, so everything they’ve done since going back to work is for ABC, one would guess. It seems…worrisomely gimmicky (the Sacred Heart gang as if they were in a fairy tale! priceless!), but it could be cute. Yes, that’s Dr. Cox in a suit of armor on the right. The janitor, in a fantasy medieval setting? Who hasn’t wanted to see it!

Starting at 7 tonight, with a new “My Name Is Earl,” that hopefully won’t be quite as atrocious as last week’s hour-long post-strike premiere. Seriously, that episode made me hate everything forever for a good two hours or so afterwards. Jane Lynch’s appearance, in that role, was pretty much the definition of “slumming it.” But yeah, that’s new tonight, and everything else is getting their first new episodes since the strike ended and production picked up again.

“30 Rock” - Here we go. The last new episode aired in January and was brilliant (”I don’t drink hot liquids. That’s the devil’s temperature.” and the “Midnight Train to Georgia” sequence), and this one is called “MILF Island,” so quite naturally, I’m expecting the quality to stay consistent. More Tracy Morgan is always a good thing.

“The Office” - I thought the first part of this “Office” season, which was once one of my very favorite shows, was oddly sort of…bad, other than highlights like Andy singing ABBA with his buddies providing speaker phone backup. Dwight kills a cat, and then we’re supposed to feel bad for him? Even “The Sopranos” wouldn’t have Tony kill a dog. I thought the last episode, the deposition one, was actually rather good, but so bleak and depressing (being said with full understanding that a lot of the appeal of the original “Office” were episodes that were bleak and depressing, that’s not really how the show works here) that it didn’t exactly leave me “wanting for more!” Perfect time for them to greenlight a spinoff without knowing what it’s going to be yet! I’m sure this episode will be plenty funny. I hope they don’t skimp on the Angela/Andy (what’s the clever portmanteau for them? An-gela? An-dy? Doesn’t exactly work) relationship. And Jim and Pam have been so boring as a couple so far that I can’t imagine they would hold off for three years to put them together to have this be “it.”

“Scrubs” - It’s sort of weird watching these episodes now, knowing they were in fact produced before the writer’s strike, and that all the ones being produced now will probably air on ABC next fall. Well, as long as JD and Elliot don’t end up together, I’ll be fine with it.

“ER” -  Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with “ER.” George Clooney isn’t still on this show, is he?

One of my most favorite gigs ever was writing the “TV Best Bets” (later titled “Channel Surfing,” thus the name of this blog) column right here at the East Valley Tribune. I did it for a year-and-a-half straight and never got bored of it. I could plug stuff that I liked on TV, make fun of things I didn’t, and somehow was able to get paid for it. But on days like today, all I can say is, holy crap I’m actually kinda glad I’m not doing it any more.

From the indisputably helpful Web site The Futon Critic :

Yes, that’s right. That’s ALL THAT’S NEW ON TV TONIGHT, of course not counting sports like ASU in the Holiday Bowl. Even Christmas Day itself was better than that. Now, I wouldn’t go blaming the writer’s guild strike for this - this time of year is always pretty dead for shows - but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it quite that bad. To make it worse, I know that list is actually out-of-date, since Sci Fi moved the airing of “ECW” back to its usual Tuesday slot this week (apparently they originally figured no one would watch it on Christmas Day, but then realized that no one would watch it two days after, either). So your only options for fresh programming is another professional wrestling show, TNA Impact - considered by at least some experts to be among the worst in the history of the genre - “Varsity Inc.,” which I have never heard of before and apparently Google hasn’t either, and “The 9th Annual Family Television Awards,” yes, on the very same network that airs the “Search for the Next Pussycat Dolls” show.

Now, that list probably isn’t quite complete and exhaustive - The Futon Critic doesn’t index every network; last night’s “Transform and Roll Out!” special on Cartoon Network apparently wasn’t on their radar. But still. Bleak times.

So what to do, in lieu of resorting to “reading” or other such unwholesome activities? Well, there are a few good repeats on tonight. Will Arnett’s second guest spot on “30 Rock.” Michael and Darryl negotiating salary on “The Office” (did everyone see Darryl SING in “Walk Hard”? It ruled). It’s also a good day to catch up on online shows - like “Wainy Days,” created and starred by “The State” and “Stella” vet (and “Wet Hot American Summer” and “The Ten” director) David Wain , with copious help from all of his talented friends (Elizabeth Banks! Michael Ian Black! Callie Thorne! Julie Bowen! Thomas Lennon! Ken Marino! A.D. Miles! Other people!). If your idea of hilarity is a quadriplegic Jonah Hill using a Stephen Hawking-esque voice box (which it really should be), check it out for sure.

This is a little late because I didn’t get around to watching “Earl” until Friday night. I like to savor my Craig T. Nelson time when there’s not much else on.

It’s a little bittersweet, since it’s the last new episodes of “Earl” and “Scrubs” that we’ll get for…well, a really long time. One more “30 Rock” to go (and a few more “Scrubs,” but it’ll be a while before they air.

“My Name Is Earl” - Hey, this was pretty good! After last episode’s “Earl’s getting released!” fake-out, I didn’t think Earl would actually get released so quickly, but I’m sure it was done for a reason and the whole end of episode “why would karma want to reward me” thing will be dealt with soon. Oh wait, it won’t. Well, I’m sure if it would have been, it would have been cool. The “Craig T. Nelson as 80s porno star” revelation was a bona fide LOL moment.

“30 Rock” - Wowzers. It’s terribly cliche, but this show honestly keeps getting better and better. I’m just going to go ahead and list some quotes from this episode that were awesome:

“I call the movie ‘Risky Business’ ‘Risky It’ because ‘it’ means ‘business.’”

“That word bums me out unless it’s between “‘meat’ and ‘pizza.’”

“This corporation has a very strict bros before hos policy.”

“I drag myself out of bed at 4 a.m., go home, get dressed…”

And oh yeah, “Cajun style.” Edie Falco has been great on this show (who knew she would fit in so well on a wacky workplace sitcom?), and it was nice to see the supporting cast more involved in this episode given that much of the season has been solely Tina Fey-centric (nothing wrong with that, though, either). And of course there was that animated Tracy Jordan/Shaq segment. Fantastic episode.

“The Office” - A great repeat - the business school episode from last season directed by Joss Whedon. Michael’s whole speech to Ryan’s business class was amazingly well-executed - from the start with the candy bars and him ripping out pages from the textbook, getting flustered by all the questions and finally revealing that Ryan has never had a sale - great stuff.

“Scrubs” - This episode was rather blah. The only real intriguing element is the Janitor/Lady story; I wonder if they’re eventually going for the moral that sometimes you have to abandon your bizarre eccentricities for people you love, or that you shouldn’t have to change who you are for someone else. I think both have already been morals in the past on “Scrubs.” Probably earlier this season!

“ER” - Yeah right.