Has Scrubs become the template for all other subsequent successful TV sit coms? That seems to be possible when you compare it to other popular, more expansive sit-coms such as My Name is Earl and The Office, but odd when you consider how this style of comedy show was relatively unsuccessful up until now. What did Scrubs do different?

Scrubs is what they call a single camera show, i.e., shot like a movie rather than a stage play on a set before a live audience (though that too is an illusion). The show has a sophisticated use of pop music and blends gross humor with a sentimentality. You may recall that Larry David ruled that Seinfeld would have “no learning, no hugs,” in defiance of prevailing Cosbyesque sit com practice in the 1980s (though insult humor has always been a large part of sitcom culture). My Name is Earl is almost a direct descendent of Scrubs, and The Office shares some of its attributes.

The new disc Scrubs: The Complete Fourth Season underscores this in episode No. 17 on the second (of three) discs, entitled “My Life in Four Cameras.” This is the one in which Charles James is admitted into the hospital and J. D. imagines a “four camera” version of Scrubs. By reverting to the canned laughter and the playing to the camera in a typical sit-com the episode shows how different Scrubs is from the rest of the sit-com litter, yet also ends on a note of affirmation that honors the sit-com in general as solace in a sad world. (On the disc, Sarah Chalke, who it turns out thanks to this episode, has a great pair of gams, does an engaging audio commentary for the show.)

As you recall, season three ended with Turk and Karla married, and J. D. and Elliot breaking up (again). Season four is the one in which J. D.’s residency ends, J.D.’s dad dies, the janitor gets a crush on Elliot, J. D. briefly dates a malpractice attorney (Julianna Margulies) and an African-American bartender, Turk learns he has diabetes, and Elliot takes a job in a new hospital. Four is the season that features cameo appearances from Heather Graham, Colin Farrell, Matthew Perry, and Clay Aiken, and has the usual mix of fantasy sequences, animation, and other surprise shifts in style and content.

The bulk of the supplements are on the third disc, and include “Will You Ever Be My Mentor?,” about J.D.’s relationship with Dr. Cox, “The Sweethearts of Sacred Heart,” about the romantic “** Grey’s Anatomy” aspect of the show, a video interview with Donald Faison, “The Weapons Chest,” on some of the secondary cast members, “Who Is That Man?,” an unhelpful piece about Nick Flynn’s janitor, 17 minutes of deleted scenes and six-minutes of alternate lines, which are really bloopers and deleteds, and finally a music video by G Tom Mac for “Half.” There are also audio commentaries on two episodes, the other by Braff on disc one.

We are well into the second season of My Name is Earl and the third season of The Office, which are comfortably linked to each other, at least for now, on Thursday nights on NBC. By some weird coincidence, the first season of Earl and the second of The Office have also just appeared on DVD.

My Name is Earl is the surprise kind of hit that I didn’t even watch during most of its first season. I only caught up with it over the last four or five, and of course, loved it. I should have been watching it all along, especially given that I like Jason Lee and Jaime Pressly (who was born to be a Pussycat Doll; remember the New Yorker profile of her that made her sound envious of more successful starlets and one of those pampered actresses with a large retinue, but it still didn’t dissuade me). In any case, seeing the whole first season in order was a treat.

Like Scrubs it is a one camera series that blends edgy humor with sentimentality. Like the other show, each episode ends with a “lesson” that Earl learns, as he pursues the rectification of 266 sins of his youth, scrawled on a sheet of yellow legal paper (here is the complete list). Surprisingly it works. Even though the show is an insult to all trailer park residents everywhere, it still manages every week to be both as harsh as an old issue of ** National Lampoon, and convincingly endearing about human perfectibility.

The four discs of My Name is Earl: Season One contain all 24 episodes of the series, with chaotic commentaries on six of them by creator Greg Garcia, stars Lee and Ethan Suplee, and the guest stars of a given episode, plus a commentary by the mothers of Garcia, director Marc Buckland, Lee, and Suplee (Debbie Suplee) on the episode called “Dad’s Car.” Each disc has deleted scenes, and the last disc has what is called the “lost pilot,” which offers up a Bizarro world version of Earl’s story, in which Catalina picks up the winning lottery ticket and Earl and Randy decide to get back at the world, not help it (it’s called “Bad Karma”). Finally, there is a blooper reel called “Karma Is A Funny Thing” and a lengthy making of, “Making Things Right: Behind The Scenes Of My Name Is Earl” In which we learn that Earl is based on a real person, creator Garcia’s step dad.

The Office has also gotten off to a great start, and for a refresher on what happened before it is a delight to submerge oneself into the second season all at once. I’m glad that the show has overcome the prejudice against it that it couldn’t be as good as the British version, but now that the stories have carried on so far beyond the two brief British seasons now the writers and actors really need to explore and build off of the characters and set ups. As is well known, in season two Michael had a “date” with Jan which he chooses to see as a relationship, while Jim and Pam finally kissed in the season’s last shot (as season three opens, Jim has taken a new job at another branch).

The essence of the show is, of course, Michael Scott, whose approach to life is like that of a professional comic’s. Unfortunately, though he wants every to laugh with him, but they always end up laughing at him, primarily because his idea of comedy is from the 1950s. He takes an improv class, where as in life, he never listens to the instructor, and like a Jerry Lewis is always one for promoting causes, until he finds out how much they cost (Michael spends a lot of money in the show, including on a new house and a series of “togetherness” photos). Like an Andy Kaufman routine, The Office traffics in discomfort, and the task of the cast is to take it as far as they can without alienating the audience. Thus in season two, some of the other Dunder-Mifflin employees, such as Jim and Pam, take pity on him and rescue Michael before he descends to some of the depths that tempt him.

The set of the first season of The Office, which was only six episodes long, had a commentary or two and some deleted scenes. As befits a hit, the second season package is rich in supplements across its four discs. There are commentaries for 10 of the 22 episodes by various combinations of actors, writers, directors, and producers and numerous deleted scenes on each disc, plus the full version of the “Faces of Scranton” video from the episode “Valentine’s Day.” On the fourth disc, there are 17 fake NBC “more you know” PSAs, 10 webisodes about the accountants from nbc.com, a 16 minutes of bloopers, Olympics coverage promos, and “Steve on Steve,” a video self-interview with Steve Carell for the Office marathon.

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