This isn’t sports, journalism or sports journalism, and generally I’ve tried to stick with one of those three.

I don’t expect anyone to care what specific programming brands I follow avidly,  as of Feb. 14, 2009.

But that’s where I’m going today. Starting with “30 Rock.”

Why it took me two-plus seasons to discover “30 Rock” … I’m not exactly sure.  I believe it had to do with some scheduling conflict, when it first started. I’m not sure I liked the title; it seemed obtuse. Meaningless. But I made a point of not watching, even when it was getting critical acclaim.

Though there were aspects of it that should have attracted me immediately. Beginning with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. But, no.

Then came four months in Hong Kong, when access to American television was fairly limited to what various Japanese bloggers pirated off the U.S. networks and posted. Series available on regular cable over there almost always were re-runs — and I saw a fair amount of the Seinfeld franchise all over again. As well as perhaps a dozen “latter years” episodes of Friends — when I had stopped watching (and now remember why).

Anyway, the one cable network showing American network TV did a relentless campaign about its New Year’s Eve “30 Rock marathon,” and with nothing better on tap … we started watching. I saw much of Season 1 into the wee hours of Jan. 1, 2009.

Within a month, I had seen every episode in the history of the show, thanks to the Internet, and now make a point of watching each week.

This is a brilliantly written show, with muttered asides and bon mots tossed off at machine-gun speed that would be The Best Stuff on most of modern television. I recommend recording each and every episode, because you simply will not catch every bit of dialogue on first viewing.  For instance, today: I watched Thursday’s episode and needed three attempts at picking up a line Tiny Fey (as Liz Lemon) muttered after Jon Hamm (as Dr. Baird) told her that one of her breasts had fallen out of her dress. Said Fey, sotto voce, “And that’s not even my good one.” … Or a few minutes later, when Baldwin was concluding a cathartic recitation of his sins in confession at a Catholic Church. Baldwin said something like, “And I may have sodomized a former vice president while under the influence of weapons-grade narcotics.” But, again, it was said so quickly that I didn’t pick it up on first take.

That’s how good “30 Rock” is. Its throwaway lines are better than nearly everyone else’s Big Laugh Lines. Which reminds me of how much of a writer’s show it is, because the cast, though brilliant, is a bit short of star power.  (Though I have much higher regard for Tracy Morgan than ever I did when he was a sort of blundering odd-man-out on Saturday Night Live. My only question now is … is the Tracy Jordan character the real Tracy Morgan?)

Anyway, 30 Rock runs at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday (at the moment), which means missing the second half of CSI (which I no longer watch) as well as killing time while The Office (which I just cannot get with) unspools for the 30 minutes just before it.

The rest of my top five, at this moment:

2. The Big Bang Theory. Perhaps the most intelligent sitcom ever created. Which perhaps was inevitable when its four central characters are all represented as world-class nerds of the brainy scientist sort.  Jim Parsons is an inspiration as the Nobel-envious physicist Sheldon Cooper. It’s no wonder he has been nominated for an Emmy. The patter here is quick and incisive, and requires attention on the part of the viewer. Supporting casters Simon Helberg (as Howard Wolowitz) and Kunal Nayyar (as Rajesh Koothrappali) are outstanding as two more socially inept geniuses. This is not a Lowest Common Denominator show. Which I appreciate. If you can find the most recent episode, with Christine Baranski appearing as the stone-cold psychiatrist mother of Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), and take it in.

3. Two and a Half Men. Not as good as it was in its first few years (going back to 2003) when it pretty clearly was the best sitcom on television,  but Charlie Sheen is still doing his deadpan lothario, Charlie Harper,  to a turn … and the transformation of Angus T. Jones (as nephew Jake) from wide-eyed kid to an egocentric teenage dope is inspired writing. Also, this show pushes the edge of good taste week after week, and manages to get enough stuff onto the air that it makes you wonder what did get stricken by censors. Turns out it runs on CBS on Monday night, same as The Big Bang Theory.

4. Mad Men. My history with this show is/was odd. I don’t get the cable station it runs on (AMC, is it?), so I missed the critically beloved first season (as did 99 percent of the country). Somehow Season 2 bled over to some network I do get, and we picked it up two or three shows in (and months late) … Like everyone else who lived through the 1960s,  I spent the first 2-3 episodes to come my way just mesmerized by the dead-on recreation of that decade. Which is an equally fascinating and horrifying concept. From early 1960s fashion to interior decoration to the pre-feminist, pre-Voting Rights Act culture. … In Hong Kong, we were able to pick up the first season on some Asian site, and discovered it actually was better than Season 2. Much better. And I had loved Season 2. My concern now is … thinking back on Season 2 and some of the meandering it did toward the end (what’s up with this sidebar between the priest and Peggy Olson? Hasn’t the Betty Draper portrayed by January Jones been acting like a psycho hag for, oh, about three episodes too long?) … I’m wondering if they are going to be able to take this in an interesting direction in Season 3. Jon Hamm as Don Draper has been worth the price of admission, so far. For a half-century, when someone talks about the self-satisfied white male corporate executive from the middle 20th century, Draper’s alcohol-swilling, cigarette-sucking, skirt-chasing sociopath will come to mind.

5. A tie between Rules of Engagement (yet another of CBS’s Monday night sitcom lineup, at least the half-year it runs; Patrick Warburton, previously best known as “Puddy” from Seinfeld,  is taking deadpan guy’s guy to new heights/depths, and anything with the unctuous David Spade on it is likely to hook me); and Survivor (still love it, 17 seasons in) and … I think I’m done. I can’t think of anything else, at the moment, that I plan a night around, or make sure I get taped. A few shows have some promise, and a few more are out there (I keep hearing about The Wire) but unavailable to my circumscribed cable plan.

So. There. Skews sitcommish, but the genre is making a healthy comeback. At least in the four shows above. Plus the one under-the-radar show (Mad Men) and the one and only reality show I’ve ever liked.

That’s what I watch. Leaving sports aside, of course.