I never stopped watching the old syndicated episodes, however, so when I revisited the new season--its seventh--I was struck by the ways the show has evolved.

The most noticeable change? Karen’s voice. In the early days, the M&M’s-lover used the full range of her speaking voice, and in fact usually spoke in her lower registers. She only ascended into the helium stratosphere for comic effect during hysterical moments.

Now it’s like Karen is constantly hysterical, and it’s much funnier.

As we all know, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes have become the real stars of the show. They had their shtick together in the early years, but now they are as good as comedy duos get. In the most recent episode, Karen offers a sickly Jack some soup. Jack smells the thermos she hands him and, with loving exasperation, exclaims, “Karen, this is gin!” “But with noodles,” she squeaks sweetly.

They’ve got the timing and delivery of the great show biz partners, and (at its best, at least) their dynamic turns the mildly amusing into the genuinely hilarious. Part of the reason it works so well is that even though they are the most over-the-top characters on the show, their friendship makes emotional sense. The real affection between the two makes them more than clowns.

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