TV Top 10: From `Mad Men' to `Glee,' there was plenty to cheer on cable and broadcast television in 2009

It was the year of Tigergate, "Jon & Kate" and a "Late Show" confession by David Letterman. Tawdry tabloid topics seemed to dominate the television landscape in 2009, heating up the water-cooler talks and providing constant fodder for monologue jokes.

The scandals formed a non-stop conga line parading across our TV screens in 2009. You'd think these were plots concocted for a soap opera: a South Carolina governor vanishing to be with his mistress; a former Illinois governor indicted on corruption charges; Kanye West declaring Taylor Swift an unfit award winner; the Heenes launching a balloon hoax that snared the 24-hour news channels; the Salahis crashing the White House dinner; Serena Williams threatening to shove a tennis ball down a line judge's throat.

Was there no place for challenging, compelling, sharp-witted, innovative viewing choices in 2009? There was. It was a refuge called cable.

Even with such landmark dramas as HBO's "The Wire" and FX's "The Shield" calling it quits in 2008, cable channels continued to set the bar for quality television in 2009. And that bar was set dazzlingly high.

It's not that network television didn't serve up some classy choices. The networks' fall crop included such promising newcomers as ABC's "Modern Family" and "FlashForward," NBC's "Community" and Fox's "Glee."

But in drama and comedy, cable series were at the head of the class in 2009. Here are my top 10.

"Mad Men" (AMC): Both the advertising agency and the Drapers' marriage fell apart in the cable drama's stirring third season, but executive producer Matthew Weiner's series held together and held true to its remarkable vision of America in the '60s. Television just didn't get any better in 2009 . . . except, perhaps for . . .

"Damages" (FX): Well, it's a close call, primarily because Glenn Close is so frighteningly good as high-powered lawyer Patty Hewes. After the riveting first season, even diehard fans wondered if this legal drama could hit the reset button and come back anywhere near as strong. It did, leaving us with great expectations for the third season, which begins Jan. 25.

"True Blood" (HBO): It's true. Executive producer Alan Ball's vampire series became a richer, sharper, more intriguing metaphoric mix in its second season. The peripheral characters grew in number and complexity, but the heart of the story remained the romance between telepathic Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).

"Dexter" (Showtime): The just-concluded fourth season was the most chilling and suspenseful yet, thanks to former Akronite John Lithgow's eerie portrayal of Arthur Mitchell, the serial killer known as Trinity. It was an artfully constructed ride through dark territory, inviting us to grapple with the meaning and appearance of normality.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO): Executive producer and star Larry David brilliantly combined the mock-documentary premise with a "Seinfeld" reunion, giving delighted fans two wickedly funny shows for the price of one. Textured into the "Curb" storyline, the faux "Seinfeld" reunion was more satisfying than the series finale that NBC aired in 1998.
"Battlestar Galactica" (SyFy): Television's best science-fiction series ended its run with an exciting and provocative payoff that brought the show's mythology full circle. It was a stunning finale for a series that always aimed for the stars while probing the grand questions of human history.

"Rescue Me" (FX): With so many high-caliber shows on cable these days, there is a tendency to overlook Denis Leary's series about New York firefighters. There have been off-seasons for "Rescue Me," but this sure wasn't one of them. Leary and company (and guest star Michael J. Fox) caught fire, splendidly mixing outrageous humor and heart-wrenching drama.

"The Daily Show" (Comedy Central): There also might be a tendency to take Jon Stewart's faux news show for granted, but the comedian had a sensational year, skewering hypocrisy, pomposity, quackery and duplicity. With his sights mostly set on politics, he obviously never lacked for targets.

"Breaking Bad" (AMC): Bryan Cranston continues to amaze as Walter White, the mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned drug dealer. He's swimming in morally ambiguous waters that always threaten to drown him. And you can't help being fascinated by the dangerous currents sweeping him along to oblivion.

"Glee" (Fox): Part high school drama, part goofy comedy, part Broadway musical, this freshman series is the lone network representative on this year's list. The glee-club misfits make for great company in this edgy hybrid that hits one soaring high note after another in the halls of Lima's fictional William McKinley High School.

'The Sopranos,' 'Lost,' 'American Idol' among decade's best TV

'THERE'S NOTHING good to watch on TV."

It's a familiar complaint, voiced repeatedly since mom and pop purchased their first black-and-white Philco. But if you uttered those words over the past 10 years, you weren't paying close enough attention — or didn't have cable.

This, after all, was the decade in which television raised its game — when TV junk food gave way to brain food.

That might sound ludicrous considering the decade tortured us with "Temptation Island," "Joe Millionaire" and hundreds of other reality TV nightmares. Yes, prime time, as always, served up its share of schlock.

But it also served up "The Sopranos" and "Lost" and "Mad Men" and "The Wire." It gave us shows that were audacious and ambitious, artful and sophisticated. Shows that embraced mature themes and challenged us to actually think.

Give some credit to pop-cultural fragmentation. As television splintered off into an array of niche channels, it may have lost some of its electronic-hearth power to gather the multitudes in communal unity. On the other hand, the dynamic enabled a new wave of TV auteurs to express their visions without being beholden to the masses.

David Simon, for example, could push boundaries with "The Wire" on HBO while averaging only 1.6 million viewers per episode, which would have earned him a quick cancellation on a broadcast network. And Joss Whedon took advantage of the relative obscurity of the WB (and later, UPN) to offer a very offbeat twist on the teen drama with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

That's not to say the major networks couldn't occasionally still attract the masses with high-powered programming. ABC's "Lost" completely rattled our notions of what television could be. Meanwhile, "American Idol" (Fox) and "Survivor" (CBS) proved that reality TV — when wedded to a great concept — could hold us in thrall.

Here are our picks for the best TV shows of decade — choices that were made on the basis of artistic achievement, originality and cultural impact. Feel free to disagree and let us know your thoughts.

1. "The Sopranos" (HBO, 1999-2007): Creator David Chase gave us a protagonist like none we had ever seen: A beefy, baggy-eyed mobster (and family man) with a hair-trigger temper, a weakness for the ladies and some very serious mommy issues. Impeccably played by James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano was both revolting and riveting. Chase surrounded him with a superlative cast, including the fabulous Edie Falco, and took them all on a wild ride with more twists and curves than a Bada-bing girl. Many shows later would deploy their own Tony-like anti-heroes, but none quite managed to replicate "The Sopranos" stimulating blend of social commentary, wicked humor, psychological depth and violent intrigue.

2. "Lost" (ABC, 2004-present): It's the Rubik's Cube of TV shows. This plane-crash survival drama has had fans obsessed with trying to crack its numbers-crunching, monster-chasing, time-tripping mythology. But in addition to an intricate mystery, "Lost" has offered us a compelling web of personal stories tied to a diverse and ever-engaging group of island castaways. We can hardly wait for the final chapter to unfold.

3. "The Wire" (HBO, 2002-08): At a time when quick-and-tidy procedural cop dramas were spreading like a virus, Simon's grim urban masterpiece resisted the simplistic approach, unfolding in novelistic leisure while deftly exploring its flawed characters and pertinent social issues. The result was a monumental achievement that was as rewarding as it was challenging.

4. "Mad Men DVD Box Set" (AMC, 2007-present): Creator Matthew Weiner could have immersed his 1960s-era drama in sugarcoated nostalgia. But to his credit, he instead plunged us deep into the dark side of the American dream, exposing the lies behind our idealized pop-cultural imagery and the emotional scars that come with unbridled self-indulgence. Don Draper and his booze-guzzling, skirt-chasing cohorts not only demonstrate how much we have changed as a society, but how much we haven't.

5. "American Idol" (Fox, 2002-present): Not even Simon Cowell could have predicted how big this show would become. Blending glitzy entertainment with heart-tugging stories, a parade of deluded oddballs (Bless you, William Hung), and a heaping dose of Simon's snark, "Idol" became No. 1 with a bullet. Along the way, it changed not just television, but the music industry and the star-making process.

6. "Deadwood" (HBO, 2004-06): At first glance, David Milch's violent and vulgar saga recalled a TV era when the Western was king. But this complex series shot gaping holes in all the innocent illusions, cartoonish heroism and open-range romance traditionally associated with the genre. At its heart was Milch's wonderfully theatrical dialogue and an astonishing performance by Ian McShane as the grotesquely sinister Al Swearengen.

7. "Sex and the City" (HBO, 1998-2004): Yes, much of it was about the shagging and the shopping. But Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her sassy gal pals also gave us a moving portrait of all-for-one friendship — the unbreakable bond shared by four soul mates. And that's something every viewer can admire, even if they don't wear Manolo Blahniks.

8. "Arrested Development" (Fox, 2003-06): A perfect show for the post-Enron era, this sitcom about a family of wealthy buffoons done in by their own greed was so fresh and bizarre and bubbling with larcenous wit that we were stunned to find it on broadcast television. No wonder it didn't last long. Let's hope the Bluths wind up on the big screen very soon.

9. "Friday Night Lights" (NBC/DirecTV, 2006-present): We're still leading the cheers for this big-hearted football drama that happens to be about so much more than football. "Lights" deftly delves into the hopes and dreams of its small-town characters with the kind of emotional honesty rarely seen in prime time. Meanwhile, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have given us television's most natural and realistic depiction of marriage.

10. "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (Comedy Central, 1999-present): The smirky Stewart may not have been the show's first anchor, but under his reign, the faux newscast gained a sharper edge and greater cultural relevance. In skewering the media and the people the media cover, he and his band of merry jesters have not only amused us, they've informed us.

11. "Freaks and Geeks" (NBC, 1999-2000): This tragically short-lived high school drama dispensed with the genre's typical glamour and gloss to capture the true essence of teen life — zits and all. It also gave us our first glimpse into the comedic genius of Judd Apatow and launched the careers of Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segal and others.

12. "The West Wing" (NBC, 1999-2006): Aaron Sorkin's White House drama might not have always depicted what public service in Washington was really like, just what we wanted it to be like. The show followed high-minded and harried staffers who were fiercely loyal to their feel-good president (Martin Sheen). This romantic idealism, blended with sharp acting, a breakneck pace and Sorkin's erudite banter, made for a winning campaign.

13. "The Office" (NBC, 2005-present): We scoffed when NBC announced plans to remake the British classic. But the Steve Carell-led version did the unthinkable by eclipsing the original and developing TV's most adorable couple in Jim and Pam. With their distinct comedy of discomfort, the oddball paper-pushers of Dunder Mifflin continue to have us wincing while they work.

14. "30 Rock" (NBC, 2006-present): Behind-the-scenes shows about show business too often disappoint. That's not the case with Tina Fey's delightfully demented satire, which accents the screwball wackiness with sly social commentary and a barrage of zingers delivered by a hilarious cast. The show's best-comedy Emmy is at three and counting.

15. "Survivor" (CBS, 2000-present): "Gilligan's Island" was never this much fun. When Mark Burnett tossed out the script and plopped a group of strangers on tropical turf near Borneo, he paved the way for a new brand of TV celebrity. There was naked Richard, mouthy Sue, cranky Rudy and all the others. Countless reality copycats have followed, but none have been able to outwit, outplay or outlast the original.

16. "Battlestar Galactica" (Sci Fi, 2004-09): To call "BSG" a successful remake would be selling it short. It was a total re-imagining of the cheesy 1970s original. To call it the best sci-fi show of the decade is even more of an insult. It was one of the best shows, period. Dark, moody and stylish, "BSG" was an out-of-this-world saga that hit close to home.

17. "The Shield" (FX, 2002-08): "Al Capone with a badge." That's how a superior described Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), an L.A. cop who was brutally corrupt and ceaselessly fascinating. With its raw violence and edgy language, "The Shield" pushed the basic-cable boundaries and then sealed its place in TV history with one of the best series finales ever.

18. "Dexter" (Showtime, 2006-present): Build a drama series around an emotionally detached serial killer? It seemed like a preposterous notion. But Michael C. Hall's nuanced and chilling performance had us hooked before the first drop of blood hit the floor. In the hands of a lesser actor, this dark drama would have been dead on arrival.

19. "CSI" (2000-present): We thought we had seen TV cops of every stripe, but along came a show that put the focus on the science geeks and their high-tech wizardry. Who knew maggots could be mesmerizing? "CSI" became so popular that it spawned two spin-offs and a mind-numbing slew of crime procedurals. But we won't hold that against it.

20. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (The WB/UPN, 1997-2003): Long before the arrival of "Twilight," this cult favorite had the audacity to weld vampires with teen angst while speaking volumes about the demons we face in everyday life. Whedon gave us a female hero (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who was smart, funny, strong and sexy. He also gave us the kind of hip and witty dialogue that made the show as much fun to listen to as watch.

Lifetime Announces New Project Runway Cast

Project Runway is back — already! Sure, Season 6, the first season to air on Lifetime, just ended with strong ratings, but the network has announced the 16 designers who will compete on the show's seventh season.

The designers range in age from 21 to 47 and are from all over the U.S. and from countries including China, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. Interestingly, none of the contestants are from New York or Los Angeles, a Project Runway first.

The new season of Runway returns to New York City, where the designers will eat, sleep and breathe fashion in the Parsons workroom. Heidi Klum will host, Tim Gunn returns as the contestants' mentor, and Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia will sit on the judging panel. The whole family back together again!

Season 7 premieres Thursday, Jan. 14 at 10/9c, followed by the second-season premiere of Model of the Runway (11/10c).

Are you excited for the new season of Runway?

Love and Life

It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone. But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don’t go for looks; they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile. Because it only takes a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.

Maybe god wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one. So that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve get until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.Giving someone all your love will not provide assurance that they will love you back. Don’t expect love in return. Just wait for it to grow in their hearts.

But if it doesn’t, be content it grew in yours.Always put yourself in others’ shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real.May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trails to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that come along their way.Happiness are for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried because only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Miley Cyrus Song Pulled From Grammy Nomination

A song performed by one of the world's top tween pop singers gets a Grammy nomination – only to be taken out of the running days later. No, it's not a plotline for an episode of Hannah Montana, it's what has really happened to a song performed by her real-life counterpart, Miley Cyrus.

The 17-year-old singer's single "The Climb," featured heavily in Hannah Montana: The Movie and written by Jessi Alexander and Jon Mabe, is no longer up for Grammy consideration for best song written for a soundtrack. That means that the song's nomination will go to the entry with the next highest number of votes, "All Is Love," by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and written for Where the Wild Things Are.
Since she didn't write the song herself, Cyrus was never personally nominated.

A source inside the Cyrus camp says the sudden swap was hardly a surprise and that the song was submitted in the category by mistake. The source says "The Climb" was withdrawn from the competition a day later.
A source inside the Cyrus camp says the sudden swap was hardly a surprise and that the song was submitted in the category by mistake. The source says "The Climb" was withdrawn from the competition a day later.
In an interview with Better Nashville, Alexander said that she came up with the song while driving to work.

Watch the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT,live on CBS – and catch up on all the news and style from the show on PEOPLE.com!

2010 TV Preview: 'Ashes To Ashes 3'

After three series (or five, if you count the two from predecessor Life On Mars), Ashes To Ashes will finally come to a conclusion next year with a final episode that the creators promise will answer all of the show's many questions. Who is Gene Hunt? What's really going on with Alex Drake? And whatever happened to Sam Tyler? In the next of our 2010 TV Previews, Tube Talk sat down for a chat with exec producer Matthew Graham to find out more about the highly-anticipated swansong.

Where does series three pick up?

"Series two ended on a cliffhanger with Alex in the present day. Or as far as we're aware, the present day! So series three is pretty much a direct pickup from the cliffhanger - obviously we deal with that. I know what the fans are fascinated by, and nervous about, is that we're not going to go back to the '80s, but 1983 is the featured year this time. So although we have this cliffhanger that brings us into the present day, very early on in series three you're going to see what we've been doing and what the twist is. We will find ourselves eventually in 1983."

Where are you at with production at the moment?

"We've finished filming episodes one to four, we're currently filming episodes five and six, then we start filming episodes seven and eight in January. We're doing our last ever read-through on December 14. That's the last time we sit down with the cast and read the scripts, which is obviously quite a momentous occasion for us."

What prompted your decision to end the show after three series?

Was it purely creative reasons?"Yes, it was totally creative. There were no mitigating circumstances. We had always hoped to do a third series of Life On Mars but the workload was too much of a burden on John Simm, so we agreed to bring it to an end. With Ashes, right from the start we always said there would be a three-year plan. The idea was to get darker with each series: series one would be quite frothy and iconically '80s, then series two we would peel back the layers and get a bit darker, then series three we would get right down to the nitty gritty and all the deep stuff we have to go through to get all the revelations we want."

Did you always know from the start of Ashes exactly how you would end it?

"Yes. From the start of Life On Mars, no - we evolved. We knew how Life On Mars would end, but it was never going to end with any revelations about Gene Hunt. It was always going to end with discovering whether Sam was in a coma or not, because that was the journey we focused on. With Ashes, we set out to explore what this world meant, who Gene was and what he represented. Along the way, we have come up with new aspects to that character and the show that we didn't have right at the start, but the basic end point has always been the same."

A few times previously you've hinted that there's a big revelation to come about Gene. What does that mean?

"Well, it is a revelation but it's really about finally drawing a line under Gene as a character and saying 'this is what he is'. If you think of this as a show set in the '80s about a brutish, anachronistic, maverick cop, then you don't need a revelation, that's just who he is. But we've always had this esoteric, supernatural aspect to the show which has been a very strong thread that ran through it. So we don't feel we've ever fully explained that. If you talk to any fan of the show, they still have conflicting theories about where Alex is and who Gene is, so in a way what we're saying is that we're going to finally explain the mythology we've created. And in theory, there will be no mystery left."

The ending of Life On Mars was somewhat ambiguous.

So you're saying that Ashes will have a more definite explanation?"Not only that, but it will also hopefully explain the ending of Life On Mars as well. The idea is to unify the two shows. Series three unifies Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes and makes them one show. By the time you get halfway through series three of Ashes To Ashes, you will actually feel like you're watching series five of Life On Mars!"

So with that in mind, can we expect Life On Mars characters to come back in Ashes series three?

"Umm... you can!"

How about a specific character...?

"Umm.. no! Hahaha! But you can expect Life On Mars to be bleeding in to Ashes To Ashes. I think that's a better way to explain it."

Old characters aside, are there any big new characters this series?

"We have a fabulous new character played by Daniel Mays, who is just awesome. I can't tell you anything about his character at the moment, but I can tell you he's a big, strong presence in the show - as big as Supermac - but running right through the series to the climax. He's crucial and integral to the mythology of the show, and he's amazing. Daniel has something of the John Simm quality to him, in that every scene he's in, he's magnetic. He roots everything in an amazing emotional truth - very centred, very focused, very real."

As far as you're concerned, will Ashes series three be the absolute end of the franchise?

Or could there be another spinoff, in the '90s?"No. No, no, no. I will go on record now and say there will be no other spinoff. This is it, this is the end, I've written the last ever lines I will ever write for Gene Hunt. The BBC are fine with that too. When we were doing series two of Ashes, they asked if we could carry on after series three, but we said 'please can we just end at series three? We're ready, the cast are ready, everyone is emotionally ready to finish the story.' It's the kind of premise that demands an ending. There's no way we could do another series of Gene Hunt after this. There would be no mystery left. So yep, this is it."

If you could sum up the conclusion in three words, what would they be?

"'A dog's breakfast!' No, how would I sum it up? 'It's very sad'. It is sad!"

Will people cry?

"I hope people will be crying, yes. I cried while we were making it, but that was for budgetary reasons more than anything else! But I hope so - I hope people are moved by it. The ending of Life On Mars turned out to be quite emotional and I hope we deliver something along those lines."

Do you think the time is right to end Ashes To Ashes? What are your theories on the real meaning of the show? Is Gene Hunt a real person? Add your comments to this entry below!

'Doctor Who': Dreamland - The Verdict

Move over Mulder and Scully! The Doctor is in Roswell's Area 51, armed with his sonic screwdriver and plenty of one-liners in this highly-watchable and undemanding animated adventure. About the length of your average television episode, it breezes along at a breakneck pace and never fails to entertain, despite some fairly bland companions and each character having about two facial expression settings.

Writer Phil Ford crams plenty of amusement into The Doctor's dialogue, and one can sense David Tennant's glee as he rattles them off throughout the adventure. Lines like "you never know when you might need to escape in a box" go down a treat, along with The Doctor's momentary confusion that The Reds are more of a Mancunian footballing threat than a nuked-up Soviet one.

Doctor Who DVD Box Set

It's also just as well that The Doctor drops in a reference to Aliens early on, as the story rips off pays huge homage to James Cameron's mighty movie with the Viperox Queen laying her egg pods underground. 'Dreamland' plunders other past material, too, but does so with enough gusto and pace to get away with it. However, the lightweight nature of the two makeshift companions Jimmy and Cassie isn't quite so forgivable, as neither makes an impression.

Animation allows a wider visual scope than the television series could feasibly realise, and this is taken advantage of through the exhilarating opening UFO chase and crash - and the epic sequence of the freshly hatched Viperox bursting through the desert terrain from their underground lair. Also, the 'camerawork', or whatever the animation equivalent term is, avoids many static shots and nicely roves around the landscape to give the action more of a dynamic feel.

On the visually negative side, the characters suffer from a severe lack of facial movement - even by animation standards. There's certainly an incongruous juxtaposition between Tennant's energetic vocals and The Doctor's expressions - which closely resemble Roger Moore doing his wooden eyebrow raising in the James Bond movies.

An over-reliance on the Sonic Screwdriver frustrates at times, but the story comes together in a satisfying manner and contains a range of well-worked cliffhangers. The emotional and moral nature of the revived Doctor Who is also well represented throughout, via the depiction of the two warring alien species and the repercussions of their conflict.
Overall, 'Dreamland' is certainly a worthwhile endeavour despite the flaws, and boasts fine vocal turns by Tennant and the imperious David Warner as Lorz Azlok. Anything that easily kills some time until 'The End Of Time' is most welcome indeed.

Top 10 most-watched shows of the decade

A list of the most-watched TV episodes of the decade reads like an exercise in nostalgia. Only one telecast aired after 2006. With the increasingly fractured TV universe, we probably won't see a list quite like this again. Excluding duplicate titles, here are the Top 10 TV series episodes since 2000:

1. FRIENDS
* Airdate: May 6, 2004
* Viewers: 52.5 million

Titled "The Last One," the "Friends" series finale closed a modern-day Golden Age of comedy TV -- and marked the end of NBC's "Must-See TV" era. At the time, the final "Friends" was the most-watched entertainment telecast in six years, and it has never been surpassed. A finale that stayed true to the series, the "Friends" closer was well liked by fans and concluded with slow pan across Monica and Chandler's empty apartment.

2. SURVIVOR: PALAU
* Airdate: August 23, 2000
* Viewers: 51.7 million

"Survivor" was a new series that premiered in the dead of summer, yet that didn't stop its August finale from nearly toppling "Friends" as the most-watched telecast of the decade. During its riveting two-hour closer, audiences expected tough whitewater rafting guide Kelly Wiglesworth to triumph over scheming corporate trainer Richard Hatch for the show's $1 million prize -- and then were stunned to discover that in this new TV genre called "reality," sometimes the villain wins.

3. JOE MILLIONAIRE
* Airdate: February 17, 2003
* Viewers: 40 million

Fox put a deceptive twist on the reality TV genre with "Joe Millionaire." Why tell contestants the truth when fooling them is so much more fun? With women vying for the attention of fake millionaire Evan Marriott, millions watched the season finale to see which bachelorette he would choose and, more important, how she would react when she learned the truth about his identity. Marriott's relationship with winner Zora Andrich didn't last and, once the show's twist played out, neither did "Joe Millionaire."

4. ER
* Airdate: February 17, 2000
* Viewers: 39.4 million

A car crash the previous week left Lucy Knight and John Carter gravely injured after they were attacked by a schizophrenic patient. A massive audience tuned in for this episode, "All in the Family," to see who would survive. Considered one of the most tragic episodes of the series.

5. AMERICAN IDOL
* Airdate: January 16, 2007
* Viewers: 38.1 million

The "American Idol" sixth-season premiere marked the pinnacle of the show's popularity, back when each season brought in a higher number than the one before. The Minneapolis episode opened a season that Jordin Sparks would go on to win, and introduced millions to the name Sanjaya.

6. GREY'S ANATOMY
* Airdate: February 5, 2006
* Viewers: 38 million

Code black! This post-Super Bowl episode of ABC's medical soap was jam-packed with attention-getting drama for the football crowd -- supply-closet sex, a doctor giving birth, a lesbian shower scene and guest star Christina Ricci as a paramedic with her hand on the trigger of a bomb that's also inside her patient. The episode sealed "Grey's" hit status and proved girly shows can score ratings touchdowns after the Big Game, too.

7. WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
* Airdate: May 3, 2000
* Viewers: 36 million

Three "Millionaire" episodes from the same week in May are clumped together on the most-watched list, as Regis fever swept the country. ABC was criticized for airing this flashy new game show three or even four nights a the week, though we'll never know if the network's scheduling saturation was to blame for the show's demise two years later or if the game show's popularity with viewers was destined to be short-lived.

8. FRASIER
* Airdate: May 18, 2000
* Viewers: 33.7 million

The seventh-season finale of "Cheers" spin-off "Fraiser" promised to end the suspense over Niles Crane's swooning over physical therapist Daphne Moon. Niles confesses his love for Daphne on the eve of her wedding, only to be rejected ... or so it seemed at first.

9. EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND
* Airdate: May 16, 2005
* Viewers: 32.9 million

The series finale for Ray Romano's long-running sitcom went off the air as a top 10-ranked show among total viewers. The episode was only subtly climatic, with Ray Barone's routine surgery resulting in a moment where his family thought he might have died. The episode concluded with the Barones talking and laughing around the dinner table.

10. SPIN CITY
* Airdate: May 24, 2000
* Viewers: 32.8 million

Yes, we were surprised, too -- and the ratings coup is not for the series finale. This was the final episode starring Michael J. Fox, who left the show because of his worsening Parkinson's symptoms. Charlie Sheen took the lead role for two more "Spins" seasons, and Fox had a brief return in the final year.

Sons of Anarchy Creator on Season 2: Family Comes First

Don't call Sons of Anarchy gritty.

It's not that the word doesn't accurately describe the show's bloody violence and testosterone-fueled moral darkness. Rather, Sons creator and executive producer Kurt Sutter just thinks the word has been used to death. And, Sutter says, all the gun-running and motor-revving is really just background noise to the show's family drama.

That was never clearer than in the show's 90-minute Season 2 finale, in which a son loses his father, a father loses his daughter and two fathers have their sons taken from them. The most emotionally gripping of those losses: Jax (Charlie Hunnam) crumples into the arms of his former nemesis/stepfather Clay (Ron Perlman), as they watch kidnappers speed away in a boat with Jax's son.

"There was something fascinating about finding some organic way to put the family in a crisis that they've never been in before," Sutter tells TVGuide.com. "You can see the look on Jax's face, the look on Clay's face, that what has happened to Abel is not in any of their handbooks. This season has been about trust and loyalty and testing those loyalties and ultimately bringing that all to a head.

"Ultimately, when a brother says, 'I need you,' everything else takes a back seat. Whether it's vengeance, whether it's money...everything else falls away," Sutter says. "The wounds right now between Jax and Clay are put aside to deal with the crisis at hand, but those wounds will always be present, and there will be times in the series when those scabs will be ripped open. But brotherhood and family is more important than that vengeance."

Sutter is fond of making sure viewers understand that "nothing happens in a vacuum," and he says that Abel's kidnapping reinforces that notion. The great irony, however, is that Gemma (Katey Sagal), who carried the painful secret of being gang-raped for most of the season, set off that chain of events by killing the woman who helped set up the attack.

"Had Gemma not decided to go after Polly [Sarah Jones], she wouldn't have potentially created that circumstance that allowed Stahl [Ally Walker] to put out the lie that then triggered Cameron [Jamie McShane] on his quest of revenge," Sutter says. "Although Gemma isn't directly responsible for what happened to Edmond [Callard Harris], her need for vengeance is what set it all in motion. Violence begets violence. You can't seek out vengeance with one hand and then expect the other hand not to get bloody."

With Gemma now on the lam, she's unaware of her grandson's kidnapping, which Sutter says will provide great drama in Season 3. But he also says it was important for Gemma to get a sense of healing, even if it was through a misguided faith.

"Even though she's got these circumstances at hand, emotionally she feels like she's taken back that part of her," Sutter says. "Only a Machiavellian personality and a megalomaniac like Gemma would be on a journey of faith that would bring them to redemption and remorse. Gemma tends to manipulate it, and now thinks she's got, essentially, God on her side to do whatever the f--- she wants. She's even more dangerous than she was.... [But] it was important to me to see that satisfaction with her at the end. Ultimately there's emotional relief for Gemma."

Gemma's actions also brought into sharp focus where exactly Tara (Maggie Siff) stands in her journey. After decking a hospital administrator in Episode 12, it seemed Tara had begun to accept the club's way of life. Tara's reaction to witnessing Gemma's revenge mission and the kidnapping of Abel, however, changes that, Sutter says.

"By the end of the episode, she's in absolute distress by the circumstances, and it was important for me that we show that she hadn't evolved yet to that point where she could roll with it," Sutter says. "She doesn't know how to deal with that. Even though she was a perpetrator of some violence the week before, she doesn't know what to do really with that violence, when someone puts a gun to her head, when someone's killed in front of her. These guys see it every day, but it's not who she is yet."

Sons of Anarchy DVD Box Set

To be sure, there were plenty of casualties. Sutter says Half Sack's exit was born of actor Johnny Lewis' behind-the-scenes desire to move on to other things. The death of A.J. Weston (Henry Rollins), however, was a no-brainer. "I think if Weston didn't take a bullet, I may have," Sutter says with a laugh. "I think that price had to be paid."

So why let SAMCRO's archnemesis Ethan Zobelle (Adam Arkin) get away (mostly) unscathed? "The sadness is that guys like Zobelle get away," Sutter says. "As frustrating at it is, guys like him are simply out of the reach of guys like Clay and Jax. I think you see the blow about his daughter's death in the deli, and it does strike him. I do think he's hurting... but he's also not the kind of guy who's going to stick around and try to figure it out at this point. He's going to flee."

Zobelle may still have his day with Clay & Co., though. "I don't think we've seen the last of Zobelle," Sutter says. "I don't know if it will happen next season, but I do think it's an interesting character and guys like him can potentially show up in almost any scenario because of the associations they make and the worlds that they navigate in. These guys will continue to thrive at the business they thrive in. There's a strong possibility of him showing up again."

Even though nothing is official, Sutter is confident the show, which hit record ratings and has an ever-increasing, obsessive fan base, will return for a third season. He says the resolution to the Jax-Abel cliff-hanger could lead the charter on a chase to Ireland, and he'd love to bring back guest stars Titus Welliver and Kenneth Johnson.

But more important than the chase, Sutter wants to explore family and the background of the club. "Next season we will perhaps learn some more history of the Teller family," Sutter says. "I'm fascinated by the mythology of the club, and when I have an opportunity to organically reveal those bits and pieces, it's fun for me. And I think the fans really enjoy being able to get that information and put those pieces together."

Christmas in Rockefeller Center Special May Go Dark Over NBC Union Dispute

It may not be a very merry Christmas for NBC.

Roughly 3,000 of NBC's producers, writers and technicians threatened to pull the plug on the network's annual holiday special, Christmas in Rockefeller Center, by striking during the live broadcast.

Battlestar Galactica

The employees, all members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, say NBC has stalled contract negotiations. The union, also known as NABET-CWA, says since the most recent contract expired in March, little progress has been made toward a new deal. In a statement, NABET-CWA accused network management of "ignoring the concerns" of union members.

"We can't let the Grinch at NBC steal another Christmas from thousands of honest working people," said NABET-CWA Local 11 President Ed McEwan. "This charade must stop. Christmas is supposed to be a time of goodwill, but the network's management is trying to hide behind their fancy lights while leaving their employees in the dark."

NBC released a statement blaming the NABET-CWA for the lack of a new contract. The network said the union canceled three days scheduled for negotiations in mid-November. "Since that time, despite the company's availability for meetings, the union has failed to offer alternative dates, as promised, and is apparently unwilling to meet with NBC Universal," the statement read. "Progress can only be made in labor negotiations when the parties are negotiating. It is unfortunate that the union is resorting to threats as opposed to meeting its obligation to engage in collective bargaining."

Battlestar Galactica Seasons 1-4 DVD Boxset

NABET-CWA also launched the website NBCStoleChristmas.com Tuesday in hopes of pressuring the network into a deal before the special's scheduled airtime of 8/7c on Wednesday.

The union wants contract negotiations expanded to include NBC employees who primarily perform technical duties. "This would protect NBC's flexibility by letting non-union employees do technical work, provided it doesn't become their primary job," McEwan said. "This is an enlightened way forward for both the company and the union. It provides job security for our members and flexibility for NBC as the TV industry continues to rapidly change."

30 Rock's Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi of Chuck are set to co-host Christmas in Rockefeller Center, featuring performances from Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Michael Bublé and more.