I count myself among the lucky four million people who watch Fox's "Arrested Development" on a weekly basis. For me, it's the best television comedy since "The Larry Sanders Show."

Even if you don't watch it, odds are you've heard of "Arrested Development": It's That Show that everybody has been telling you to watch for the past two years. You may even have seen the ads — oh wait, no you haven't, because for some curious reason, Fox doesn't advertise the show.

I know it gets annoying having people tell you that you must watch a certain movie or television show. I refuse to watch "24" simply because so many people have been telling me how my life is incomplete because I don't have an intimate relationship with Jack Bauer.

Well, the good news is that pretty soon, all of the "You gotta watch 'Arrested Development'" chatter is going to stop. Last Friday, for the second time in nine months, Fox reduced the show's episode order, effectively signaling the end of the series. That's right folks, the Bluth family is being put out to pasture: no more GOB on a Segway, no more Franklin the Rapping Puppet and no more Ron Howard narration.

I'm not going into the who's who of the show: either you know it or you don't — you had two years to get to know something about it. I would rather explore how what is arguably the most critically acclaimed show of modern times, a program that has been lauded by every major critic across the country, just can't capture the public.

Of course, "Arrested Development" is not the first critically lauded show that failed to find an audience. Ask anybody who watches even a little bit of TV and they'll be able to rattle off the names of a few shows they thought were fantastic, but didn't catch on. "Freaks & Geeks," "Undeclared," "Push, Nevada" — the list goes on. The difference between these shows and "Arrested Development" is that by the time it finishes next year, "Arrested Development" will have had a run of 53 episodes, certainly enough time for the public to get its act together. Add that to the number of laudatory articles written by frantic media members desperate to save their favorite show, and it's not like "Arrested Development" has suffered from a lack of exposure. In spite of the lack of commercials mentioned earlier, Fox has made an effort to market the show, even if they haven't exactly gone about it in the right way. The truth is, Fox's own programming is the reason "Arrested Development" failed.

A lot of people take potshots at Fox, which I always think is a little unfair. Sure, they put out their fair share of garbage ("Joe Millionaire 2" will always have a special place in my heart), but the fact remains they have delivered some of the most inventive and risky programs of the last 10 years.

You have to remember that "Undeclared," "The Ben Stiller Show" and "Action" were all Fox properties that developed strong cult followings before being cancelled way too early, never allowing the public to really pick up on how good they were. Fox didn't make the same mistake with "Arrested Development." They gave it three seasons to build an audience, even though the show has an incredibly high budget. The truth is, the very structure of Fox prohibited "Arrested Development" from truly succeeding. Why? One word: baseball.

Every year, Fox is forced to interrupt its rollout of original entertainment programming to broadcast MLB playoff games during primetime. This can last more than a month, and during that time Fox's hands are tied while their competitors are trotting out new programs.

Fox's pursuit of baseball during the '90s, back when Rupert Murdoch owned the Los Angeles Dodgers, bordered on obsessive, but it has actually managed to do more to harm the network than help it. Baseball is a billion-dollar commodity that has not only failed to deliver ratings (the White Sox/Astros World Series tanked), but also is a drain on the network's entertainment division, which has seen ratings for their scripted programs steadily decline as baseball eats up more and more time. Even an old standby like "The Simpsons" has taken a hit.

If old shows are feeling the pinch from baseball, new (or struggling returning shows) are positively getting strangled. Fox has tried new ways of getting their programs rolling — this year, they started with original programming in early September — but the fact remains that they lose practically the entire month of October because of baseball. People are going to forget about shows that debuted in early September if they don't get to see them during October. That's what happened this year to "Arrested Development" — the show started strong in September, but as soon as baseball came around, it crushed any momentum the show may have gained.

Momentum is especially important for a show like "Arrested Development" that thrives on ongoing plot lines. This was one of the big obstacles to roping in new viewers: If you missed an earlier episode, it could be tough to catch up. When you're trying to get new people to watch a show, confusion doesn't help.

Of course, the ongoing plot lines are why we love "Arrested Development." If this is indeed the end, fans can take comfort in the fact that the show never pulled a "Happy Days" in an attempt to save face as the end approached. If anything, the show has gotten even more off-the-wall this season — fans certainly will remember "Tobias Funke: Analrapist" or GOB screaming, "That's my son, you pothead!" Truly high comedy.

There is a chance the show could be picked up by, say, NBC, which would make sense and would give The Peacock instant credibility as the network where risky projects are accepted (they're hitting a homerun with "My Name is Earl"). HBO might even get in on the mix. Even if another network doesn't pick up the show, I think I'm okay with that. In time, all of us who loved this show can take pleasure in knowing that, for a brief time, we got to see something unique and special. Well done, Bluth family.

My week was dampened somewhat when I heard about the loss of "Arrested Development," but it still didn't detract from some of the unbridled hilarity we saw on television this week. As a cherry on top of this column, I present the five funniest things I saw on TV this week (in descending order):

5) Mike Wallace continuously referring to Fresno State as "The State University of California Fresno" on an ESPN Classic replay of a segment he did seven years ago about Jerry Tarkanian. That is so something my dad would do.

4) Seeing Drew Rosenhaus' press conference in Terrell Owens' driveway live on ESPN News. Oh my God, this was hysterical. Drew showed us what Jerry Maguire would have been like if he were totally and utterly insane. This was one of those "Everybody in the dorm needs to get in here and watch this right now!" moments.

3) The White House press conference where NBC's David Gregory started screaming at White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. This has become more of a daily occurrence. Gregory looks like he just wants to scream, "Answer the question, sir!"

2) The broadcast of Steve Martin getting the 2005 Mark Twain prize at the Kennedy Center. This was great: Martin is one of my favorites and I was so happy to see him finally get his due. Martin, as usual, was gracious, classy and hysterical. Bonus points for showing my favorite Martin scene, the "cork on a fork" sequence from "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."

1) John Cusack's mullet in the opening scenes of "Serendipity." Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite movies (you heard me — I love "Sernedipity"). But the sight of him rocking that pseudo-mullet while ice-skating with Kate Beckinsale never fails to crack me up.