The biggest mystery of the fall season doesn't involve a detective or dead body; the suspects are, in this case, '2 Broke Girls.' Why doesn't the CBS sitcom do a much faster and more efficient job of fixing what's wrong with it? These problems are eminently fixable and they're getting in the way of what's working about the show.

'2 Broke Girls,' you may recall, was one of the best-reviewed pilots of the season, but since then, it's often found itself mired in a morass of cringe-inducing supporting characters, brain-numbing predictability and jokes that feel as though they were exhumed from dead sitcoms of the '80s. What gives? The show is doing well (it got a full-season order from CBS), but I can't escape the feeling that it'd be doing even better if it ditched its more groan-worthy elements.

Given the magical ability to fix '2 Broke Girls,' here's what I'd change right away:

1. Dump the racist caricature.

It's always tempting at this time of year to look for patterns where perhaps none exist. With four confirmed cancellations ('Charlie's Angels,' 'The Playboy Club,' 'How to be a Gentleman' and 'Free Agents') and several on-the-bubble new shows ('Pan Am,' 'Prime Suspect,' 'Body of Proof'), the only real theme (besides being awful) is a tendency to take themselves too seriously. I do take some satisfaction from seeing all the nostalgia shows die an early death. Apparently the one thing 'The Playboy Club' team didn't look up about 'Mad Men' were the ratings -- a couple million viewers. It was also the only thing they were able to duplicate.