TVSquad

Hopefully the gelt you received this past holiday season hasn't been all used up on paying your credit card bills for the gifts you gave this holiday season. That's because there are a number of books about television that you could be using that free money towards. There are books about TV shows, books about TV characters, books written by TV characters, and just general television history books. There are so many books about television already out or about to be released that you could easily spend countless hours reading them on the steps of your local library after the nuclear holocaust.

Just don't break your glasses.

So, here are eight titles to get you started.

I always get a little bummed out after Christmas and New Year's. The holiday buzz has died down, and the lights still up around town look a little sad and lonely. It doesn't help when the January weather is sunny and 63 degrees (that's just not right people). So forgive me if I post one more story about the holiday season.

TiVo got stats from 20,000 of their users and figured out what Christmas special was the most popular this year. It wasn't any show starring Charlie Brown or Frosty. It was that animal with the shiny nose that wasn't allowed to participate in any organized sports. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was the most watched special with TiVo users, and that includes people who watched the show live and those who recorded it.

After the jump, the top 10.

To call 2007 a stellar year of TV would be a mistake, because it was a very bleh year in many respects. Shows that had previously riveted us to our seats made missteps and mistakes. New shows were either mediocre or just unmemorable. A writers' strike made people anxious and depressed all at once. And the aspects of the TV world that have generated low expectations continued on their merry lowbrow way (I mean, who expected Tila Tequila's search for love to be anything but a skankfest)?

But in a year of abject mediocrity, some highlights and lowlights poked through. Like last year, I'm going to make up categories instead of doing traditional "Bests" and "Worsts." It hurts my brain less...

Here we are again. Another year has passed us by and what do we have to show for it? A little more gray hair, a little less money in our pockets (have you noticed how the price of, um, everything has gone up?), and a little more fear that the world in slowly unraveling. Normally, television is there to soothe our brows in these times. Alas, the current pissing match between the Studios and the Writers is stifling that ability to the point that we may all be having Chaucer parties by mid-year because there's nothing to watch on the tube.

Not sounding too bitter, am I?

Well, you're not here to read about doom and gloom (unless it's a review of 24). You're here to see what I, and many of my TV Squad colleagues, thought television's best and worst were for 2007. So, without further interruptions on how much I paid for my daughter's karate lessons (you DON'T want to know), here is my list of best and worst for the previous year.

I was going to write a long, elaborate intro about how excited I am that it's a new year, but I decided to make this image instead. Look out, Alec and Tina! There's a weeping angel behind you! And check out how Heidi is super excited to be with the not-so-excited guys from Flight of the Conchords. And it looks like David Anders enjoys speaking in big speech bubbles. No, I'm not still buzzed from New Year's Eve, I just have a little too much fun in Photoshop. However, I'm sure some of you are still somehow hungover from celebrating days and days ago, so let's jump right in...

Every week, TV Squad offers you a crop of the latest TV spoilers via the Spoilers Anonymous feature. Even if a lot of shows and fans dislike spoilers, no one can argue when I say that spoilers have a definitive impact on the TV world. When a bombshell such as the Lost fast forward gets leaked, a buzz is generated: people talk about the show and the validity of the spoiler at the watercooler, on boards or in blogs. Spoilers give you a glimpse of what's to come, allow you to come up with your own theories, get you excited about an upcoming episode or turn of events, etc. Here is a list of the best and/or most talked about spoilers released in 2007 via Spoilers Anonymous or special spoilers articles here at TV Squad.

Did you get money for Christmas? I don't get money for Christmas anymore. Gift cards have become the money substitute now, for both adults and kids. But if you did get cash for Christmas, or maybe you got a Christmas bonus or maybe you got cash back for that ugly sweater Aunt Sally bought you, here's a guide to some TV show promotional items and other collectibles you might want to buy.

Heroes stamps. Yup, these are official U.S. stamps, and they come with a pic (actually, Isaac-ish drawing) of your favorite hero. Right now they have Claire, Nathan, Hiro, Peter, and also that mysterious helix symbol. What, no Syler?

It's the day after Christmas. The mess of wrapping paper that was in my parents' family room is all cleaned up. The leftovers are sitting in Chinese food containers in the fridge. And I'm organizing all my presents! Along with the new swag, I received some Christmas cash. I'll most likely be spending mine at the outlets this week--I have my eye on a new Michael Kors wallet. However, not everyone who got money this holiday season has a plan for spending it like I do.

So, if you too are in possession of holiday money, TV Squad is putting together shopping guides to help you spend your dough. I took television-related figurines. The following page lists 15 TV figures that you might find interesting. Along with the links, I included the price, a short description and the name of the website that carries it.

It seems these days with everyone talking about the WGA strike, and then, as a result, fewer new episodes of our favorite shows airing, there's not a whole lot going on with TV these days. If you just take a quick look back through the last twelve months of the year, you'll find some things you remember fondly, others you wished to never be reminded of.

We went through some of the most talked about and interesting stories of 2007 and put them together, just as we do every year. Some of them are more personal to us than others, but in all cases they certainly kept the TV Squad desks buzzing.

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Remember that? 86 episodes and how does it end? Black. The end of an era. Clichéd, yes -- but still true. June 10th, 2007 marked the conclusion of one of the biggest cultural phenomenons we've ever seen. HBO's The Sopranos. Everyone watched it and whether or not you loved or hated the series finale doesn't really matter. Why? Because we're still talking about it.

If you're scratching your head and asking "Sanjaya Who?" then you probably don't own a TV, or a computer for that matter. For two months, Sanjaya-hysteria ruled our television airwaves (sometimes three times a week). Thanks to a little show called American Idol, Sanjaya became one of the breakout reality TV stars of 2007.

Like many breakout reality TV stars, Sanjaya Malakar was able to successfully steal the spotlight from his more worthy opponents, gliding by on personality and charisma. He's living proof that a winning grin and luscious locks can sometimes take you a lot farther than actual talent.

One of the most jaw-dropping TV moment of 2007 was, without a doubt, the reveal that the Jack-centric season finale of Lost didn't feature a flashback but a flash forward (and the death of loved-character Charlie)!

Even if Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (with some help from Disney's security) do their best to keep the ending of each season finale a secret, the top-secret ending scene always gets spoiled in one form or another on the world wide web. When Internet surfers read about the "rattlesnake" (that's the how the top-secret season 3 scene was named by Cuse and Lindelof), the reaction was almost as big as when the reveal aired on May 23, 2007.

The year 2007 was definitely one of great change for television. The award-winning The Sopranos faded to black on HBO, Rosie O'Donnell left yenta-talk show The View to the relief of many, and there was nary a mention about Joey. Well, at least no mention except from me, that is.

However, none of those events paled in comparison than to what took place June 15th on the CBS television network. That's the day when Bob Barker took his microphone, his spayed and neutered pets, and his sexual harassment suits and left the hosting job of The Price is Right after 35 years. And, as he kissed his last contestant and waved his last good-bye, fans of the show thought a replacement host would never be found.

The future is insanely hard to predict. For instance, when DARPA first created what would later be called "the internet," all they were trying to do was build a communication infrastructure that could reliably deliver porn after World War III. Had they known that a) World War III was only going to happen in 80s nuclear war movies and b) the internet would eventually bring about a disastrous television writers' strike, they might have dumped the money into some other crazy 60s idea. Weather control, maybe.

They couldn't have guessed where their research would lead, however, so here we are in 2007 with a vast interconnected network that exists pretty much so that people can argue as to the exact point The Simpsons stopped being good. As the internet evolves, though, it's beginning to realize its potential as a content delivery system.

(WARNING: Some Battlestar Galactica spoilers from past seasons here!)

For any fan of Battlestar Galactica, the shocking scene toward the end of 'Maelstrom' was a big surprise. That is unless, of course, you found out about it in spoilers. Even the talent involved with the show was in full-on doubt mode when the script passed in front of them, saying that one of their coworkers was about to be killed off. Kill Starbuck? No frakking way!