I love historical fiction.  So, at Blockbuster, I saw the "Rome" series. We don't have cable, so I took the first 2 disks (Ep 1-5).  Great stuff.  The action commenses at the start of the civil war between J Ceasar and Pompei Magnus, currently co-consuls of Rome.  Essentially, the series does the major characters with historically accurate info, but fills in the spaces on the canvas with interesting minor characters.

All of us in my family are enjoying this.

The Office is the one show I will pretty much do anything not to miss.  (Well, that, and the fact that I was considering not taking a night class in school cause it conflicted with Lost.  But, just those two.)

Anyway, the Office.  My kind of humor- sarcastic, weird, mean and with a lot of uncomfortable silences.

You have to watch a new show - also on NBC - called Heroes. Hands-down, this is the best new drama I've been excited about since 24 and Alias debuted in 2001. With Alias having finished and 24 slowly declining in quality (while going up in popularity - not surprising), this is my new show.

I also watch Studio 60, but it's more for kicks than anything else. A lot of people don't like it, as it pales to Sorkin's past work with The West Wing (which I didn't watch, surprisingly enough), but it's better than the same old crime dramas that are overplayed on TV these days.

THE WIRE.

Season 4 just ended, and it is the most realistic drama on TV.

Make sure not to miss star trek marathon, on everyday on Spike, it starts in 15 minutes EST so grab the remote!

Also, recomend Entourage highly...

If you're not watching, you're missing the best political drama on TV.  Daring plotlines (name another show from the Bush era in which insurgents battling an occupying force are depicted as the heroes), always morally complex, with terrific acting.  Best show on TV, in my opinion.

"I just spent two hours trying to come up with something political to write about, and I can't do it."

If you don't have anything to say, don't talk.

Galactica is the best show on television right now.

I bought the complete 5-season DVD set of "Six Feet Under" as a gift, and opened it up on a whim.  The down side is I guess I gotta buy it again, but the up-side is it's astonishing TV.

The only shows my wife and I watch with regularity are House, the Daily Show, and Colbert.  We'll occasionally watch something on the National Geographic channel.  I watched tons of debates on Cspan in October, but I don't watch that much, otherwise.

I don't watch TV news (I'm glad Olberman is liberal and all, but I still don't find the program especially intertesting or informative). I do watch sports, especially now that we have a DVR and it takes about an hour to watch a game.

BTW, DVR is the way to go.  We watch what we want to watch when we want to and I don't have to sit through any commercials.

Studio 60. Law & Order (just about any edition, but the original circa Jill Hennessy and Chris Noth is probably my facvority era). Scrubs. Colbert Report. Daily Show. Countown. Harball. Family Guy. The occassional Seinfeld or Simpsons rerun.

Ever since I got Tivo, the amount of shows I have to watch has sky rocketed.  

But I agree with the "Heroes" poster above.  Best.  New.  Show.

But also 24, Lost, Scrubs, BSG, Family Guy, South Park.

Simpsons sucks these days, you aren't missing ANYTHING.  I'm in shock they are doing a movie NOW, after all this time!

As mentioned by nearly everyone here, "The Office."  It's tops as far as sitcoms.  "Extras" on HBO is quite funny as well if you're a Gervais fan from the original "Office" series.  The only serial drama show I really follow is "Lost."  Other than that, I enjoy "Dirty Jobs" and "Mythbusters" and a whole host of other shows on that TLC, Discovery monolith.  My secret guilty pleasure, though, is America's Funniest Home Videos.

Oof, I can't imagine surviving any kind of Voyager marathon.  Deep Space Nine, on the other hand--that's doable.

My favorite shows right now are Daily Show/Colbert, Scrubs, 24, and Lost (but I've been slipping recently).  As far as defunct shows go, "Firefly" is a sentimental favorite--and even though it only lasted 1/2 a season, the episodes that they did make really counted.

Oh yeah, and I'm always up for an old episode of Rod Serling-era Twilight Zone.

I do a lot of my tv watching via Netflix.
So, Rome and Carnivale are the best things I've seen lately.

I sit down to watch tv on Sunday nights and watch a bunch of dull shows surrounding The Family Guy.

There's a few shows on Comedy Central worth watching, but half the time its a Chapelle rerun I've seen 8 times already.

Sometimes I watch Olbermann.

I love Mythbusters.

I watch a lot of CSI reruns.  They're like Law and Order reruns.  It seems like some channel somewhere is playing CSI.

I do like the thursday night NBC lineup - Office, Earl, 30 rock.  But, I never remember to watch.

I'll be netflixing all those along with Heroes and Lost (one of these days).

That's my tv preferences.  I've been either really busy with stuff at night lately (The Illinois Dem Net Holiday party was this week - great times!), or playing Final Fantasy 12.

i don't watch tv all that much.  but when i do, it's usually law and order.  i had hopes for the 4400, but it's too slow-paced.  i don't own a tivo, so i never catch battlestar gallactica, though it's quite good.  i definitely never watch TV news.  i'll wait til i'm 80 for that heart murmur and leaky bowels.

The BEST show on Broadcast TV is a Canadian Rerun called DaVinci's Inquest.

Rather than go into what is about, I suggest you follow this link to a good rundown on the show.

http://www.teevee.org/archive/2003/11/05 /index.html

It is currently running every day on WGN at noon, and it will be cycling back to year one next week (the show run 8 years in Canada, 13 episodes a year.)

It is a little like CSI, a little like Homicide, and a lot like The Wire, in that it doesn't insult the intelligence of views.

If you are looking for something new, and excellent, I can't recommend this show enough.

Even though it has been a short time in US syndication, it has attracted a small but growing cult following.

LOVE that show!!  jaime pressley is a complete scene stealer.  i swear i LMAO every time she's onscreen.  she remind me of so many girls i grew up with in the deep south.  she's just too damned funny.

love the office, too.  just picked up the season 1 dvd last week.  

Studio 60, Friday Night Lights (my wife's fave), 30 Rock, ER, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, The Wire, some NFL football, and now and then some great old 1930s b/w movie on Turner Classics -- damn, that seems like a lot of TV -- too much.

Won't watch 24 any longer -- can't help but think that the show helped prepare our nation to accept Bush's toirture policy.

30 Rock and The Office are the best sitcoms on right now.  I feel like 30 Rock has really grown into itself after a few shaky early episodes.

I don't think it can really be emphasized enough how good The Wire is--no TV show in any genre has ever been better, or really ever come close.  To my mind it blows everything else on HBO (including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, etc) out of the water.  Rent the Season 1 DVDs and take it from the beginning.

I think my ethos here is pretty outstanding, so i'll say without qualifying that west wing, six feet under, sopranos, the shield, the wire, brotherhood (showtime), lost, heroes, weeds, boston legal, studio 60, dexter are classics and can be purchased on dvd right here at www.amazon.com!

Amazon rates number 1 in customer service by customer service raters of america.  It's one stop shopping for all your post-lapsarian gift giving needs!

"Six Feet Under" is airing on BRAVO, two episodes every Monday starting at 9. I started at the beginning, and am riveted.

As a former "Ugly Betty" myself, I'm loving that new show. It has an amazing amount of heart.

For my reality show jones, I love "The Amazing Race."

Otherwise, I like to watch "House," "Medium," "Nip/Tuck," but not with any regularity. And I'm trying to decide whether or not to commit to "24" when it gets going.

Everybody already mentioned the Office, which is the best show on TV.  Consistently awesome.  I also like 30 Rock.  I've been grossly disappointed so far by Studio 60.

Everyone needs to be watching Veronica Mars, though it's not quite as steady as it was the first season.  They've also had to resort to embarrassing amounts of product placement and integration because of their ratings.

Star Trek... Voyager caused me to become violently physically ill.  I've looked back on Star Trek recently, and wonder how I sat through most of TNG too (I'm too young to ever have enjoyed TOS).  I tried really hard to give Enterprise a chance, but I couldn't make it more than a season and a half.  DS9 was clearly the best, but it really went through some irritating stretches.

Simple proof of the non-existance of God:

1. Firefly lasted 11 episodes
   
2. Voyager lasted 400 fucking years
   

Battlestar was really cool at first, but with the exception of maybe one episode this season, and the last two or three of the last half season, it's been really horrible.  The writing is terrible, and you can't end up caring about any of the themes or characters because it's so disorganized and unplanned.  Like last week they bring back some character that you haven't seen for a year and kill her off and you're supposed to get all weepy.  She was introduced out of the blue the first time around, and she was so annoying to begin with, so you never cared anyway.  And every time the crew starts applauding I want to start whipping Wiimotes at the TV.  My only guess is that they're trying to banish evil spirits that appear every time a crew member makes a groan-inducing speech.

The sad part is how the show is so uneven.  When it's good, its really, really fucking good.  Like when the Admiral orders the attack on the Pegasus, or when Kallee forgives the Chief or when the Galactica hot-drops into the atmosphere of New Caprica, I'm jumping and cheering and crapping my pants.  But most of the time, the show is just lost in the woods.

I'm a TVaholic.

That said, the only thing new I've added this year is:
Heroes - snuck up on me. Thought the premise was too wierd, and wound up falling completely for the show.

Friday Night Lights -I love intelligent sports programming, and this is well written and well acted.

30 Rock - I wish Alec Baldwin had let us know five years ago that he was this funny. I SOOOO want this show to make it. I  think it's finally coming into its own groove, but just needs time to work out the kinks.

Shark - James Woods. Prepared to hate it, because he can grate on the nerves, but haven't missed a show.

Have you tried Hu$tle on AMC? Very smart show.

Just as an aside - Joss Whedon needs to get a lead pipe and go into every writing room of every show and beat the hell out of everyone.  That's the only long-term fix for a lot of the crap on TV, and even most of the good stuff.

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is by far the first live action sitcom that I've enjoyed since Seinfeld. It's freaking hilarious - check it out.

In terms of drama, "The Wire" is probably my favorite tv show of all time. It's an incredible story and Bawlmer rocks.

OK, here's what I do.
First, TV for me is part of multi-tasking: I listen to it while working on my computer, and if something sounds interesting, I look.

What do I watch?
1. If I haven't been watching TV much, like NPR's ATC has just finished, and I've been listening to ATC since coming home from work, I'll flip to CNN Headline News to catch the latest.

2. Then its time for the Lehrer report on PBS.

3. After that, I check out C-SPAN. If I find something decent there, I may just let it run for hours.

4. Otherwise I may check out Anderson Cooper 360, which is CNN's version of in-depth reporting.

5. If the 4 above come up dry, I may just channel surf. Last night, this led me to a great POV rebroadcast on PBS on Hula beyond Hawaii. I actually WATCHED a bunch of it.

6. But then I also look for Women's collegiate-level Volleyball (the NCAA Finals are this weekend!!! Our Hawaii team made it to the Elite 8!!!), Women's Collegiate or Pro Basketball, Men's college football (University of Michigan-- Go Blue!!!), Men's pro Football (teams of interest, such as the New England Patriots or Denver Broncos), or baseball (St. Louis Cardinals-- unfortunately, most of the World Series was on during my work hours, so I didn't see much of it.)

Most of the time is actually on 1-5, except on weekends. Mostly, I can't stand to watch Republicans, except in Senate hearings.

Bob in HI

i don't watch too many shows - usually end up recording them during the week when i'm in class and catching up on the weekend.

it's a short list: heroes, the office, my name is earl, drawn together (it's so wrong, i love it!), reno 911, countdown, abfab (i have all the dvds - god i wanna be patsy), lost, daily show, colbert, and gilmore girls.  

and i really have to put in major props for gilmore girls.  yea yea, i know all you guys won't get it, but it's one of the best shows on tv.  the creator and head writer (well, up till this season) is super liberal.  the dialogue is always witty and brassy and they manage to get a lot of digs in at republicans.  one of my all time favorite episodes was when one of the characters was running for town selectman. the episode originally aired on october 12, 2004, right before the election and was titled "Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too!". this great bit is my favorite scene:

CUT TO LUKE'S DINER - THE NEXT MORNING
[Sookie walks around the diner and shakes hands with the other customers, while she hands out buttons.]

SOOKIE: So good to meet you. And see you at the polls! [pauses at another table] Hey, aren't you two handy with a knife and fork. [ Squeals to the parents while handing out buttons] Cute kids. Yeah! There you go. Hi. Good morning. Go, Jackson. [she joins Lorelai at a decorated dining table. Lorelai is talking on her cell phone.]

LORELAI: Well, when it comes to noise pollution, Jackson Belleville hears you loud and clear. That's right. Thank you so much for your time, and we'll see you at the polls. [clicks off the phone] Okay, I think I can make it through the G's before my phone gives out.

SOOKIE: [holds up her phone] I got mine right here.

LORELAI: Great.

[Kirk enter Luke's Diner and approaches them. He is dressed in a suit and clipboard looking like a typical pollster]

KIRK: Ladies, I offer myself up to you and your cause.

LORELAI: What's this?

KIRK: I took it upon myself to poll the town, and I think you're gonna be pretty happy with the results. SOOKIE: We are?

KIRK: Jackson is solidly in the lead.

LORELAI: Already? We just started bugging people.

KIRK: Well, I modeled my poll after the Gallup poll. The Gallup poll uses a sample of 1,005 voters to represent the 280 million people of the United States. Using that logic, the correct sampling size of the town of Stars Hollow would be 0.002. Rounding that up means one person needs to be polled, so I picked me.

LORELAI: You polled yourself?

KIRK: I was right there. Seemed like a perfect opportunity.

LORELAI: Okay. Well, first of all, thank you for dressing up to talk to yourself. And secondly, I think you're gonna need to poll more people to get a better sense of where we really are.

KIRK: Oh. Okay, I'll see what I can do.

LORELAI: Thanks, Kirk. [Kirk exit the diner]

Weeds. Showtime is worth the fee just for this show. Plus they have Dexter, with the most sympathetic serial killer you'll ever see anywhere.

Can't live without Battlestar Galactica (very incisive politically actually, as well as a damn fine drama... not just for the average scifi fan), Heroes (although they should really just call it X-men!), The Wire, and the New Doctor Who...
I watch a bunch of stuff on DVD too... Deadwood is a favorite.

The American office is great! (as was the BBC one, but no more being made of course)

BSG should be a must watch by anybody in the political blogosphere for the New Caprica occupation /Iraq similarities alone.

SUICIDE BOMBERS!

-C.

I love The Office too!  I'm one of the few people that liked both the UK and the US versions.  Great characters and premise.

The only other show I watch on a regular basis is actually a kids show... Avatar:  The Last Airbender.  I doubt I'd be able to convince any of you to watch it, but its a great show regardless.

A must-watch show.

Also "24" -- besides the action, it's interesting to see how conservative ideas are well-written into this show -- a far cry from "The Path to 9/11" -- and therefore much more persuasive to the general public.

HBO and SHowtime shows are awesome... Weeds may be one of the best things I have seen.

24, Lost, Prison Break, Heroes, Simpsons, South Park, Adult Swim, History Channel items, Family Guy, American Dad, The Office, My Name is Earl, Studio 60...

Been rewatching Arrested Development on DVD... boy I miss that show...  WORST. CANCELLATION. EVER.

Well, we have to watch The Office and Scrubs.  Can't miss 'em.  If you're looking for comedy that's smart, this is it.  And that seems to be where TV comedy is trending, as you mention with 30 Rock, Chris.  We caught it last night, and may well give it a go.  

I'm sorry to hear you don't watch The Simpson's anymore -- after all these years, it's still totally worth it.    

Both my wife and I watch Prison Break religiously.  You'd think it'd get stale after awhile, but they really have managed to keep it fresh and as realistic as a show like that can be.

We only have basic cable, so whenever I go to my in-law's place, they have us hooked on Showtime's Weeds and now we're getting in to Dexter, both of which are worth your time.  

In the news department, I find myself at sea in terms of which nightly news anchor to follow.  I was a Tom Brokaw guy for forever.  I tried to give Katie Couric every chance, I really did.  But I... just can't do it.  I swear to God,it's not a she's-a-woman thing.  Right now about the best I can do is Brian Williams.

I always watch Countdown with Keith whenever it doesn't conflict with anything else.  I constantly worry that he's going to get to formulaic, or rely too heavily on the recycled crap from The Today show, which my wife forces us to watch (I'd indulge my naughty Imus fetish if I could...)  

If reality TV were a person, I'd probably kill them.  And whatever "game shows" are on now require so little of the contestants, it takes more skill to pick up the remote and change the channel than to do whatever it is they're doing ("I'll take case number two, Howie!")  

How about discussing Rumsfeld's absurd comment that Bush is a victim of his success.  Rumsfeld essentially said that, because there had been no terrorist attacks on our soil, all Bush's productive work at defending us had been worth it, yet had gone unrecognized.  WTF, there have been no terrorist attacks because Bush has done more damage to the U.S. than Osama could have hoped for.  Osama has not had to do any further prompting. If things begin to go well here and around the world, Osama may have to strike again.  Until then Bush is doing an admirable job of doing Osama's distructive work for him.

I know Studio 60 isn't for all tastes.  But I love Sorkin's dialog and the cultural subrefrences.  My wife throws up her hands at a lot of them (WTF are they talking about!?!?) and she insists on having the subtitles on because sometimes it's so rapid fire.  I had no idea how good Mathew Perry was.  He and Bradley Whitford have a great rapport.  It's the only network/cable TV I watch other than Olberman, C-Span and some History Channel.

Then there is Dexter.  Wow.  A serial killer that only kills serial killers.  What a concept!  Great show and for avante garde tastes if you can take it.

Glad to see Adult Swim is already in the mix.  Family Guy and American Dad are huge fun.

I always try to catch the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and whenever they trot one out, Courage the Cowardly Dog, both on the Cartoon Network.  

My adult daughter caught me watching Grim Adventures on my kitchen TV one evening and started teasing me about being too old for toons.  Now she's hooked too!

If I need drama, I just stay at the office.

In an elaborate ceremony carried live on all the cable news networks, President Bush and Vice President Cheney feted the disgraced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with glowing words, military pomp and even a 19 gun salute. "This man knows how to lead and he did," Bush declared, "and the country is better off for it."

Rumsfeld, it seems, will not be held to the GOP's "Les Aspin Standard." That is, decisions that needlessly cost American lives in battle cost defense secretaries their jobs, but apparently only if Bill Clinton is president.

For the details, see:
"Flashback: Rumsfeld Celebrated, Aspin Slandered."

The only show I make sure I watch.

But why is Loralie is now with Luke is beyond me.

Daily Show, Colbert Report, Scrubs, Arrested Development.

Many people have already said this but it's worth repeating.  The Wire is the best/most important show on TV.  It tackles social issues and challenges its audience.  I don't want to ruin to for anyone, but one death in season one still pains me.  Everyone should watch The Wire.

I love 30 Rock.  Alec Baldwin is hilarious in that show.  This has been the first season in a LONG time where I have found more than one new show that I like.  Studio 60 (I miss The West Wing so much) & Heroes (guilty pleasure) are quite good.  

As for shows already on the air, I never miss The Office, Scrubs, Medium, Nip/Tuck, Reno 911, Grey's Anatomy & Desperate Housewives (the guiltiest pleasure).  Thank god for DVR's.

But before I watch any of these on my DVR, I watch Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann for my political fix.  I'll even scan through Hardball & Joe Scarborough (what's with that Michael Crowley guy being on virtually every single night?) for semi-interesting stuff.

Studio 60 is my current obsession.  Pretty much anything Sorkin's involved with, I'll watch though.

Prison Break is my favorite in the "serial drama" genre.

College football and basketball.  Pro football.  Pro basktball and baseball only when I can catch my hometown team (which isn't that often, since I don't actually live in my hometown any more).

When I have access to cable, I watch a lot of Sportcenter and the Food Channel (especially Alton Brown, Mario Battali and Giada de Laurentis - I'm pretty sure I butchered the spelling of at least two of those).

Shows you should plan to watch:

Heroes
Lost
The Office
My Name is Earl
Scrubs
30 Rock

Other Stuff that's good if you're bored:

Smallville
Veronica Mars
The Amazing Race
CSI: Miami

Objectively terrible shows that people inexplicably love:

Grey's Anatomy
Studio 60
Desperate Housewives

The Show to watch after The Daily Show and The Colbert Report:

The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson

And Finally,

The Only Traditional Fixed-Camera Sitcom Worth Watching:

How I Met Your Mother

Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy, reruns of the West Wing, Rome, reruns of Six Feet Under and Sopranos, Grey's Anatomy, Jericho, Lost, and reruns of ST: TNG.  

Where is this Voyager marathon?????????  I'll watch that.

Little People/Big World  I love the interaction of dwarf parents and mostly normal size kids.
It's on various of the Discovery channels at different times.

The Sopranos I live in the area where it is supposed to be happening so local diners, restaurants, and stores serve as props.

Sports Center Who watches the whole show?  Ten minutes of highlights here and there gives me my sports fix.

HBO Comedy shows (standup)  Wanda Sykes!  Louis Black.  Whoever else wanders in that turns out to be good.  George Carlin is still funny, what about 40 years after he started.

Surgery Saved My Life  A new short run show (six episodes).  I've seen the first two shows.  In episode one a doctor took this 15 year old African kid whose spine had about 4 huge hairpin curves like over 100 degrees) and straightened the kid up.  Amazing.  Like a 10 hour surgery.  
Show 2 featured an American Indian kid who was having three grand mal epileptic seizures a day (40 minutes per) and was reduced to a zombie.  The doctor literally opened the kids brain and inserted this plastic sheet with electrodes in it so he could locate the problem and then removed it.  Hmm.  Do you know where the problem is in the Wite House?  Don't need surgery to find it.

Current shows:

Scrubs (my #1), Earl, Family Guy and American Dad.  Lost, Numbers.  Survivor.  Not sure if I will watch 24 anymore, I am getting a little tired of that show.

On DVD I have been hooked on HBO shows: Sopranos (picked up HBO just for the last season) and now Deadwood and Six Feet Under.  Deadwood has just been fantastic, I just started that one about a month ago and am eagerly awaiting the release of Season 3.  Just getting started on Six Feet Under, but I am impressed.

I also watch Frasier repeats regularly and Futurama at times.  I am really looking forward to new episodes of Futurama on Comedy Central next year.  Also the last episodes of the Sopranos (have to get HBO again...so worth it).

I think Top Chef on Bravo is the only show I'm making a point of watching, though when So You Think You Can Dance is on, I watch that.  

I float around the HGTV offerings and Food Network "Challenges."  

Flip from CNN to MSNBC to FOX to Headline News and REALLY wish I could figure out how to NOT hear about kids dying.  

Daily Show and Colbert.  (And how can I not have Girls Gone Wild commercials on Comedy Central when my kids are watching tv, which on the westcoast means a later eastcoast broadcast?)

Avatar.

Some Dr. Who, but its bedtime for kids.

Used to love ensemble sit-coms.  My favorite Star Trek was Deep Space Nine.  The Buffy musical episode was amazing.    

I don't watch the TV machine. Don't pay for cable. I play videos. I wait for the end of the season for House, M.D., for example, then rent it. For the Golden Globes, I just joined Netflicks and ordered all the past seasons for the GG nominees, including miniseries, like Elizabeth I. I want to see Rock - love Alec Baldwin - so I'll make the effort to watch one program at least on a friend's TV. All my news I find here. I don't buy local papers anymore - let them rot in hell.

Dont watch TV programming. I do have a film collection, and I enjoy it greatly, have a couple hundred probably.

Okay, I forgot to support Project Runway and 4400.

Plus, another plug for Avatar, which I see you've all missed.  I'm not really a cartoon person, but Avatar is really good.  It combines the best of American and anime.

One show that I have not seen on anyone's list that I happen to enjoy is Jericho. Another one of my long-running favorites is King of Queens.

Speaking of 30 Rock, I now wish there really was a "Black Frasier." That scene had me laughing really hard this week.

I just have to say that "The Office" is now, in its current form anyway, over-rated. It was somewhat groundbreaking in its style and its content was great, until the Jim & Pam relationship narrative got out of control. NBC already used that formula: it was called "Ed". Now, like "Ed", since Pam turned down Jim, Jim is now with someone else, and Pam wants him back, but of course Jim really wants Pam, but can they ever get together? Oh, the drama.

"The Office" wastes much of its time on this hackneyed and not-at-all-funny plotline. Hey, here's a suggestion, use Dwight more, as well as some of the other, funny minor characters. If they did, "The Office" would be worth its high rating. As it is now, "The Office" is only "above average" IMO.

Also, "Gilmore Girls". hoose was absolutely correct in that this show has "jumped the shark." Even my 12-year-old daughter who loved this show for many years (and I liked it too) has given up on it and will no longer watch it, much less videotape every episode and buy the DVDs. Yeah, "GG" blew it when they fumbled the Lorelei-Luke relationship (and introduced Luke's daughter -- WTF?). "Gilmore Girls" used to be a great show, but I don't even think Lauren Graham or Alexis Bledel try in their acting efforts anymore (see Jason Alexander in last season of "Seinfeld" on the "effort question".

For me, the best show on TV is MythBusters. Watching TV is kind of a guilty pleasure, so I love it when you feel like you're learning at least a little, which is why I love Discovery, National Geographic, and Food Network (love Alton Brown). And MythBusters is the greatest - science in an accessible way, tons of 'wow' moments, and those guys are absolutely hilarious.

I also try not to miss either the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, and I do like Real Time, even if the token Repub each episode invariably pissed the hell out of me.

As far as pure entertainment goes, I love Lost, Gilmore Girls, House, and How I Met Your Mother. And I love Sorkin too much to miss Studio 60; it's okay, but unfortunately, I don't think anything will match WW.

The other day I was describing the old show, "The Monkeys," to my kids. I said it was in the style of "Scrubs," with basically every aside, fantasy or weird little turn, shown for a few seconds -- then back to the main story.

I'm 41 and loved "The Monkeys" when I was a little kid. In addition to a great kids' show, now having seen "Scrubs" cash in on the same presentation style, I also think it was 35 years ahead of its time.

BTW, I think that "Scrubs" was very good and interesting in its first two or three seasons, but by now, it's hardly innovative anymore, and most if not all of the good storylines have likely been covered.

I've ripped a few shows, and defended none so far, except maybe "The Monkeys" (which I would love to see again, BTW) so here are my favorites, so others (such as fans of "The Office", "Gilmore Girls" and "Scrubs") can criticize them:

News or "fake news" -
The News Hour
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report

HBO series -
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Sopranos (tho' last season sucked)
Entourage
Big Love (a very original show IMO)

Sports -
College basketball (but never pro)
Pro football (but rarely college)
Baseball (a St. Louis Cardinals fan in Ohio)
Golf (I play, so I watch)

But the best TV I watched this year was on election night, when I stayed up till 3 am Eastern, waiting to see if Tester would hang on and flip the Senate. Man, that was exciting, watching Webb come back and take down Macaca; wondering WTF was wrong while McCaskill trailed Talent for so long, only to surge ahead when the Kansas City vote came in; and of course Tester holding off Burns.

That was the best TV I have watched in a long time, and probably will be for the next 2 years. Till November, 2008 then...

Eureka is my favorite new-ish show, bar none.  It's on break right now, but the first 12 episodes were amazing.

Also, watching Stargate: Atlantis (which is airing its second half-season in Canada right now, though it doesn't start up with new episodes until April on SciFi).

Cartoon-wise, I'm a real big fan of The Life And Times of Juniper Lee, on the Cartoon Network.  It's done by Judd Winnick, who, if you read comics, you know is awesome (among other things, he's done Outsiders, Batman, Green Arrow and Barry Ween: Boy Genius).

Oh, and TDS/TCR.  And Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is on, like, 5 hours a day, of which I inevitably catch only half an hour if at all.  But that still rocks.

Everyone here should watch Sleeper Cell.  It makes "24" look like a freeper cartoon.

Make that: "It confirms that '24' is a freeper cartoon".

BTW, Here's the start of a '24' drinking game:

• Drink if they show Fox News
  
• Drink if a right-wing think tank is mentioned, like the Heritage Foundation
  
• Drink if Jack Bauer tortures someone

Michael Ealy and Oded Fehr both deserve every accolade they get.  It would be hysterical to have a Darwyn/Bauer crossover:  Bauer would prattle on to Darwyn at a mile a minute about how they needed to do some ridiculous thing, and Darwyn would just listen, look at Bauer with those pale blue eyes, and quietly say: "Here's what we're actually going to do...".

Even the smaller roles are cast extremely well.  Darwyn's new handler is great as the smug FBI asshole (who got the job through nepotism, a nice touch), who doesn't know his ass from his elbow, but gets to call the shots.  One of the terrorists is Iraqi by way of England, and has acquired the accent and temperment of a hooligan.  There's a great monologue about how he got roughed up back in England for being a "Paki", and just as you start feeling a little sorry for him, he talks about how he got one of them down, and thought about how best to make him suffer, eventually deciding to kick him in the mouth because "teef don' grow back".

Like said, Sleeper Cell.  Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday are the last 3 episodes, so catch it if you can.

Wow, Chris is like my TV watching soul-mate! I too love 30 rock ( and am also pissed Chapelle wigged out), and very little else on TV, TV is mostly bland, stupid, boring, and similar.

And yes, the TV news is getting worse and worse.

I haven't watched a TV show since '86, except for binges of news watching during Iraq invasion I, and 9/11/01, as well as a few NCAA basketball games my friend was playing in.  And yes, I'm very smug about it.

Not coincidentally, the revolution in computing over the past 20 years that has kept me pretty well occupied, and the allure of the monitor with a keyboard has been greater than the remote.

Nowadays, it's mostly Wikipedia surfing that I do when I'm feeling brainless.  There's some amazing information in there now, some of it useful, and you can bridge to your heart's content.

Shows I watch routinely in no particular order (some are now off season, sadly):

Heroes
House
The Daily Show
Colbert Report
Battlestar Galactica
Countdown
Practically anything on the History Channel
Practically anything on the Science Channel
Real Time with Bill Maher
Mythbusters, if I catch it right (I sometimes forget it)
Iniside the Actor's Studio (like Mythbusters, if I remember it)
Eureka
And recently I got into Scrubs.

I'm also a voracious downloader of the British show QI. As well, I'll download any episode of Blackadder, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

I've also got tenatively into The West Wing, but that was only one episode and I keep forgetting to watch more of it. Another show along the same lines as that is Rome; the few episodes I saw were great, but then I lost track of it.

Am I the only Spongebob aficianado here? Ok, mostly I'm not watching by choice but it still rocks. Also:

Austin City Limits
Simpsons
South Park
Family Guy
Colbert
Daily Show
The Wire (heartbroken about you know who dying)
The Mets
The various science, history channels are excellent fallback surfing options

Whatever Aaron Sorkin started with the seven season run of The West Wing is better than anything else I've ever seen on TV, and I started watching TV long before "Leave it to..Mr. Ed" or whatever that show was called. "In Excelsis Deo" (West Wing, season 1) is one of my favorite Christmas shows.