After meeting the cast and crew of The New Adventures of Old Christine and catching up on all of the past episodes I had missed, I was really looking forward to the return of the show last night with two back-to-back original episodes. With my TiVo programmed to catch the first few minutes, I could take the extra time to load the kids' clothes into the washing machine and pour a much-needed glass of wine. As I settled onto the couch, I was giddy with anticipation. After all, I reasoned, these people are my friends now.

Really. Did you know I met them in person?

OK, so maybe Kristin and I have told you this one thousand times already using every possible tool in our arsenal: video podcast, converted audio version, quick time movie, blog entries, newsletter, flickr photos, You Tube video. After all, that's what CBS was hoping we'd do when they invited us out to LA in the first place. They were hoping we'd talk up the show and get people watching.

Truth be told, we probably wouldn't have gone to such great lengths for just any television show or product. The work Kristin put into producing the video podcast alone was nothing short of extraordinary for a mom with so little free time she can go an entire day without using the bathroom. No joke, I have witnessed this first hand. On our 12-hour flight home from LA she used the loo once. And it wasn't until after we'd landed at JFK and taken the stupid shuttle to the Hertz counter. That's right, the girl's got a bladder of steel. But I digress.

Kristin is the first person to have turned me on to Christine and the show is like nothing else on television. Where else is there a divorced, self-employed working mom with a child in private school? What Christine represents is the mom trying to do it all but who is, as Kristin points out, neither sinner nor saint. She's fallable. She's gullable. She makes mistakes. But most of all she is real. Real funny.

Take last night's episode, for example. Christine could not fall asleep. She looks at the clock at 3am. She says to herself "Ooh, It's 3am. If I fall asleep now I can still get 3 and 1/2 hours in. Maybe an extra half hour if I don't shower. Ooh, can't do that. I did that today. Maybe it's my smell that's keeping me awake." And then she sniffs her armpit. Hysterical.

I guess you could say the Manic Mommies feel Christine is one of us. Sure, we know she's just a character in a sitcom. But what Christine represents is an image we'd like to see more of. An honest look at the challenges of trying to keep a million balls up in the air while maintaining some sense of humor. A show that's not prescriptive, that's not exploitive, that's not all twists and turns and full of plot lines no mother running on five hours of sleep can follow.

A show that says it's OK to laugh at motherhood and you're a better mom if you don't hire a professional from the local craft store to create your kid's science project.

Now that's my kind of TV. Or should I say TiVo.