Hmmm. If Ally McBeal sets the standard for art on TV, here are some other examples — completely off the top of my head — of pop culture that approach or exceed that standard and achieve what I like to call true artness:

The episode when Howie Mandel died and went to purgatory in St. Elsewhere.

The 21 Jump Street where Johnny Depp goes undercover in juvie prison.

The Jericho Mile — a 1979 made for TV movie directed by Michael Mann.

The Barney Miller where Dietrich may be a time traveller.

Several episodes of “Profit,” “The X-Files,” “Tribecca,” and “Flying Blind” — three out of four of which were prematurely cancelled by idiots at Fox.

The entire new Battlestar Galactica series.

And, yes, this post is partly designed to goad John Podhoretz back into the Corner.

Note: With the exception of BSG, I haven’t seen any of these in at least a decade so if my memory is off, so be it. I don’t need to drown in email.