Thanks to the producers and writers of NBC's comedy Scrubs for treating last week's storyline -- on a new-mom character (Carla) suffering from PPD -- with decency, accuracy, dare I say it (?), panache.

I admit, I was skeptical when I heard that the show would deal with the subject of perinatal mood disorders. Scrubs is a comedy after all...and one of the most "irreverent" on the TV dial, with leanings toward potty-humor and general crassness. It's also in a 30-minute time-slot, which made it even less likely that a little-understood, stigmatized medical condition would be well-represented. But I must say, I felt that the Scrubs team did a better job in their brief representation than do most television dramas - and even better than some news-magazine programming.

I especially loved the one-liner in Scrubs about the absurdity of birthing women taking medical advice "from an aging man-actor who worships a dead science fiction writer." Zing!