sharptongue wrote:
> Some of the NHK 7:30 current affairs shows were quite informative

It should be クローズアップ現代 (Close-up today). That's a great work
of effort for research and composition, keeping a keen eye to current
affairs for 10+ years.

プロフェッショナル−仕事の流儀− (Professional -the way of business-)
also deserves to watch on Thursday night. It explores and digs their
defeats and victories of various professionals at the front line, from
a lawyer to a beverage planner.

As for comedy, サラリーマンNEO (Salaryman NEO -
http://www.nhk.or.jp/neo/) is one of the most favorite shows for me,
shown every Tuesday 11:00PM. Detailed palodies of "salarymen" and
"salarywomen" always make me fun, and you adsolutely find yourself
inside the caricatured behaviors of acted characters. Well, it has
something common to the Monty Python, but in contrast, it's very, very
real. It also features palodies of other program by NHK itself, or
sometimes other commercial broadcasters, for example, its opening
scene is a quite well-made palody of "Weapon of Choice" PV.

--OTA Takashi