The 30 Rock team's sporty comeback is a touchdown

THE BEST WAY TO SPEND A THURSDAY NIGHT circa 2010 was to park yourself in front of an NBC comedy lineup that featured The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Community. All four shows have since become classics. But some have had more influence on the network-sitcom landscape—one that has never been the same since they ended—than others. The Office and its direct descendant Parks and Rec gave rise to a generation of sweet, faintly progressive mockumentaries: Modern Family, Abbott Elementary, St. Denis Medical. Last year, Peacock unveiled a confoundingly dated Office spin-off, The Paper.

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Having always preferred the darker, more manic and referential humor of 30 Rock and Community, I’ve found the relative scarcity of that style disappointing. So I’m extra delighted to report that The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins—an NBC sitcom, airing on Mondays, that stars Tracy Morgan and is co-created by Robert Carlock, a longtime collaborator of executive producer Tina Fey—is network TV's first worthy heir to 30 Rock. What that show was to SNL, this one is to the NFL. The surprise is that it also smartly cribs from The Office’s playbook.

One key ingredient of any Feyworld comedy is a cast of characters that balances incongruous, frequently delusional personalities: neurotics, fools, cynics, innocents. Morgan, in the title role of a football star desperate to redeem himself two decades after he accidentally confessed on live TV that he’d gambled on his own game, plays a more tender, athlete version of his wildcard