But Samantha is, of course, a sitcom--single-camera, but still--which in prime time these days automatically makes it an endangered species. Even more perilous, when it comes to the ratings anyway, is that it's focused on a female character. The few comedies to have survived in recent seasons seem to teem with testosterone oozed by guys named Earl, Two and a Half Men, and Big Bang geeks. (At least ABC's cavemen are extinct.)

Now this season, something girl-power great is happening. The most engaging comedies revolve around women. Though the ratings didn't reflect it, ABC's school-set Miss Guided with Judy Greer was surprisingly sharp and zesty in its recent midseason run. And NBC's 30 Rock (back fresh this Thursday at 8:30 Eastern) has only grown loonier around onscreen/writers-room linchpin Tina Fey since snatching last year's best-comedy Emmy.

TV comedy just generally doesn't think this way. Last fall's lineup hyped the adolescent boy lust of Aliens in America and married guys mucking up in Carpoolers. The year before, it was more teen boy trauma in "The War at Home" and male midlife crisis in Twenty Good Years. Everybody hates Chris, not Christine. And According to Jim just won't die. Even when women are half the equation, as in Fox's Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton pairing Back to You (back fresh Wednesdays on April 16), they clearly play second-fiddle. Ensemble comedies The Office and Scrubs (also fresh this Thursday on NBC) are seen through the eyes of guys.

For good reason. Men dominate the ranks of comedy writers. And you know that whole write-what-you-know mantra. Also prevalent seems to be the notion that stories about males are "universal"--how many times have guy critics said that about shows like The Wonder Years, overlooking 51 percent of the population?--while shows about females get considered chick-specific.

Yet suddenly women are breaking out, certainly in quality terms, and even in commercial terms, Samantha being ranked No. 17 in Nielsen's season-to-date program ratings. That's two slots above Two and a Half Men, thank you. Ms. Applegate has this season's highest-ranked half-hour series. No, it doesn't hurt to have Top 5-ranked Dancing With the Stars as a lead-in. But that advantage didn't help Ted Danson's Help Me Help You last year.

What's working for Samantha is a hugely likable star with an equally winning supporting cast-- ex-Gilmore Girls pal Melissa McCarthy and Related sister Jennnifer Esposito (her breathiness nearly unbearable on that WB hour but brazenly disarming here), not to mention 24 drama revelation Jean Smart, who's returned to her Designing Women comedy roots as Sam's invaluably wry mom.

Clever casts also populate 30 Rock and Miss Guided, and all three shows sparkle with writing so deft, you're surprised you're watching network television, home of the hammer-it-home joke. It's no surprise to learn all three were created by women (30 Rock by Fey, Miss Guided by Caroline Williams, and Samantha by Cecelia Ahern with Donald Todd). They're all single-camera constructions, too. That no-laugh-track format may be more welcoming stylistically to women than the aggressive comedy style cultivated when studio-audience sitcoms needed to wrench loud, immediate reactions from live crowds. Single-camera is much more about extended character quirks than quick one-hit jokes.

So far, the ladies have a pretty sterling batting average. Turns out you really don't have to swing for the fences to score big in TV comedy. Samantha Who? and 30 Rock have already been renewed for fall 2008. Nielsen laggard Miss Guided, marooned last month in the lead-off spot of ABC's otherwise comedy-free Thursday night lineup, is a longer shot to return (though you never know about ABC deciding to make nice to executive producer Ashton Kutcher). Even if Miss Guided flunks the ultimate ratings test, at least we'll have another Brilliant But Cancelled gem to treasure.