2008 was a little rough for the tube. I’m hoping for good things in 2009 — the return of many favorites, and maybe even some new shows to get behind!

My Favorite Thing of the Year, and Also The Only Good New Thing

The writers’ strike was a depressing time for everyone: no work for writers, no TV for us. And it had long-term repercussions, including the current dearth of high-quality new programming. But the writers’ strike did bring us one amazing thing: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. With Neil Patrick Harris as a geeky singing evil-do-er, Nathan Fillion as a smarmy strongman, Felicia Day charming us all, and the funniest script of the year, Joss Whedon & Family have made the internet work the way it’s supposed to.

Let’s do the math: The entire musical (42 minutes, the length of your average one-hour TV show) is available online for free. I watch it repeatedly (free for me, indeterminate ad revenue for them). I buy it on iTunes to carry around on my iPhone ($5.99). I (maybe someday) buy the soundtrack on iTunes ($9.99). I get the DVD — featuring a WHOLE NEW musical commentary track, Commentary! The Musical — for Christmas ($14.99). One day I hope to buy Commentary! The Musical on iTunes, in which case they’ll get another $9.99 out of me. Basically, they hooked me with their awesome free entertainment, and subsequently I will buy whatever they want me to. Creatively and business-wise, excellent job all-around.

Also thank you for NPH’s delivery of the line “Emails!” which is how I say that word now.

Best Episode That Everyone Else Likes, Too

There’s not a lot of “event” TV any more; we’re all off in our little corners, watching TV on our laptops and twittering about facebook videos or something. So it was a rare feeling, watching Lost’s “The Constant,” and knowing in your gut that lots of other people saw it and liked it all at the same time. (You can watch it via ABC’s extremely annoying propriety video player here.) I like Lost episodes that play with the form (I admit to being a fan of the Nikki and Paolo episode), and this one played it up while finding an emotionally resonant story that built tension in the best possible way. It’s the only time this year that I was literally on the edge of my seat.

Best TV Show to Help You Deal With Your Crazy Family

The BBC America import Gavin and Stacey follows the courtship and marriage of geographically diverse Gavin and Stacey, but it’s really about their bizarre collection of relatives and friends. There’s the sincere to the point of madness Uncle Brin, the sensitive and emotional best friend Smithy, the panicked mother Pam, the dry and shock-proof best friend Nessa — this is a group of people that should not get along. They have absolutely nothing in common. And yet, for the sake of Gav and Stace, they willingly place themselves in the same room over and over again. And they end up having a pretty good time.

Diamond in the Rough Award

I’ve already talked a lot about how under-appreciated Greek is, but it’s worth saying again. This year, it was a show that I never felt hesitant about switching on — it was always going to be a treat. I don’t know if their writers aren’t in the union (it is on ABC Family, after all) or if it’s a quirk of scheduling, but they managed to put out great shows in even this year’s darkest strike-dimmed months. Yes, it is an hour-long dramedy about the running of fraternities and sororities at a fake college. But it’s also surprisingly funny and sweet. This is a show about young people that doesn’t take itself too seriously (cough-GOSSIP GIRL!-cough) and so manages to make us actually care about what happens to the characters.

Runner up: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I don’t think we need to apologize for this show. But I’ll do it anyway: sure, it’s sometimes a little on the nose, and I wish there weren’t such a steady stream of time-travelers (otherwise why not just overwhelm us with them?), but overall it’s weird and dramatic and I like it. So there.

The Wish-for-More-Wishes Award: Five Amazing Performances

And five words to sum them up.

Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother: Scheming sleaze hides sensitive heart.

Kristin Chenowith in Pushing Daisies: Itty Bitty has big voice.

Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock: Every line delivery absolutely perfect.

Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report: Crazy person bends truth, reality.

Jennifer Carpenter in Dexter: Duped foul-mouth best sister ever.

• Eric Stoltz talks about his story arc on Grey’s Anatomy
• Listen to other people’s secrets at Big Love billboards
• Here’s your Cookie Monster 9/11 graphic of the day
• Joss Whedon continues to lower expectations for Dollhouse
• NY Mag talks to Rob Corddry over his new online web series Childrens’ Hospital
• TV Guide has gossip on Grey’s, Pushing Daisies, and more
• NBC to air world’s first 3D commercial during the Superbowl
• Sanjaya has an album coming out on the 20th
• This day in lists: The top 10 actors from the 90s who came back in 2008

2008 saw a lot of great performances by whole bodies. Tina Fey couldn’t have told a lot of funny jokes if she hadn’t been able to say them with her mouth. And learned the lines by reading them with her eyes. And walked to the studio with her legs.

But there are some body parts that worked overtime this year, picking up the slack where other body parts just took up room (I’m looking at you Ellen Pompeo’s forehead!).

As such, let’s take a quick vote — which TV body part deserves recognition for its Outstanding Achievement in Being a TV Star Body Part? Let me know in the comments if I’ve left off a deserving part. Otherwise, going clockwise from the left…

My turn! I’m inadvertently piggybacking off Marisa’s bonus item, because these are the top 5 moments of 2008 that made me scream at my TV. Most of this is happy screaming; the vice-presidential debate would have landed around #6 just for the number of times my roommate hissed at me to stop leaping off the couch and shrieking at the box in the corner.

5. Justin Timberlake recaps a future, fictional SNL.

You know, there are a few things I love (actually, there are a lot of things I love: cheese, tiny blonde detectives, Olympic swimmers, my pajamas, Friday Night Lights, dark chocolate, romance novels, red wine…) and two of them are Justin Timberlake and Weekend Update. Oh, and Seth Meyers. And The Barry Gibb Talk Show. Okay, let’s just say I love a lot, a lot of things.

4. The Kevin Garnett puppet at the ESPYs.

Hey, it’s Justin Timberlake again! He hosted ESPN’s fake awards show this year. And he did a giant musical number that recapped the year in sports, including a reggae number featuring the Celtics’ big three, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. My favorite moment is when Garnett, in the audience, makes the exact same face as the puppet. (Garnett is the puppet on Timberlake’s left.) This is the only time in recent memory when I could stomach listening to reggae.

3. Galactica gets to Earth.

Hey, remember back on New Caprica when we were getting high and rolling around naked? Yeah, that was so much more awesome than this.

There are a lot of my-mind-is-blown moments across the four seasons of Battlestar Galactica, starting with “Holy shit, Boomer is a Cylon!” all the way up through “Holy shit, soylent earth is people!” last June with a little detour on the way for “Holy shit, Apollo married Dualla!” and “Holy shit, Admiral Cain is batshit crazy!” Personally, I often find it to be a slack-jawed in awe and/or horror kind of show, like when one of the Cylons ripped out Tigh’s eye and when the latter four Cylons all got together to the tune of “All Along the Watchtower,” but this final, silent, grim vision of the future, following so closely on the heels of the scenes of wild, joyful celebration all over the ship when they find Earth (it kind of looked like #1, below), caused me to make some sort of stunned, keening noise I can only describe as agony.

2. Jason Lezak wins the Olympic men’s 4×100 free relay.

MANLY HUGGING!

Even though we were watching it a couple of hours later, Roommate and I were on our feet, hollering like they could hear us on the other side of the world. The monster? Out of the cage!

1. Obama wins. WE ALL WIN.

Crying. Screaming. Weeping. Hugging everyone. Gesturing madly with cups of champagne. Crying and screaming some more. I only remember very vividly where I was, what I was doing, what I was wearing, a few moments of my life. Even having had quite a quantity of wine that night, I hope I’ll remember this one as long as I live.

FX @ 10pm, catch the repeat of Top Chef at 11.

• Top Chef has a Twitter feed
• 71 new shows will debut in the next 4 weeks
• Jon Hamm’s 30 Rock appearance is scheduled to air February 5th
• TV critics agree: Mad Men is TV’s best show, and Do Not Disturb is the worst
• Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting SNL this weekend
• Nip/Tuck has lost its cutting edge
• Oakland Mayor pushes filming of HBO pimp show out of his city
• Craig Ferguson got married
• This day in lists: Top cartoon show intros of the 90s

Don’t you love it when you completely forget about a band you love and then, suddenly and dramatically, they’re back in your life?

Case in point — Noisettes’ new single “Wild Young Hearts”  from their forthcoming album of the same name. It’s blends the band’s distinct noisy energy (that I love) with an old timey-jazz vibe. And singer Shingai Shoniwa is beautiful and charming as always — her presence is absolutely magnetic and I still don’t understand why she’s not a huge superstar.

Watch the video here and tell your friends.

Dan, would I lie to you?

Ooh! Ooh! My turn! My turn! My five favorite things:

5. How I Met Your Mother‘s Sly References to My Life

I realize that this may not interest anyone but me, but that’s why it’s at No. 5. And I also realize that a lot of people also say, “That show is just like my LIFE!” when, in fact, the similarities are not all that impressive. (Wow, you wear overpriced clothes and guzzle down pink drinks at horrible, sceney bars? You’re just like the people on Sex and the City.) In fact, if you’re around my age, and especially if you’re my age and you live in New York, there are probably a lot of things about How I Met Your Mother that resemble situations from your life.

But there are a couple really, really specific references to my life in How I Met Your Mother, and I love seeing them turn up. The first is that the creator went to my college, and he’s always including little nods to the alma mater. At first it was just a college tee-shirt here and there, until they finally admitted that the characters went to my school. But even better than the outright admission are the little references: For example, Marshall briefly worked at a law firm called Nicholson, Hewitt, and West—which happened to be the names of our three freshmen dorms.

But even better than that is my favorite reference of all—which, fine, happened in 2007, but like Dan I didn’t see the episode until 2008, so it counts—is the episode where they make fun of my favorite hometown amusement park: Rye Playland. In HIMYM it turns up as “Tuckahoe Funland,” probably because they make reference to a myriad of deaths that have happened there. Sadly, this is true for my park as well.

Welcome back! The only good thing about Monday and being back at work is that we get more Gossip Girl. And this week we got a whole lot: Chuck’s hot uncle Jack, a ton of Dorota, Serena broke up with Aaron (WOOOOOO SERENA!), and Jenny realizing that she is, in fact, a fifteen-year-old. Oh! And the Rufus-Lily love child lives!

Hey there, fresh meat.

I was never a huge nighttime soap–watcher (no Melrose Place for me, thanks Mom, way to cripple my blogging career), but there was a brief dalliance with As the World Turns in college, and if there’s one thing sudsy serials taught me, it’s that 1) characters use each other’s names way more than real people ever do, and 2) Gossip Girl kind of needs to step up its game. The show is obviously kind of beyond Kelly Taylor choosing herself levels of plotting, but it would be nice to see some mad wig-ripping. Like, the Lilfus love child needs to show up mid-affair with someone. Or! Ooh, it could be Georgina! That would be awesome.

Did I mention Chuck’s hot uncle Jack? Kind of half Lance Armstrong, half Rob Estes. I wouldn’t have figured that would work, but raaaar. I think we should keep him around and he should shag…someone. Lily? Serena? Nate? I don’t really care. Just someone, anyone, take your pants off. There’s way too much standing around and talking intensely at each other lately. Although it seems Uncle Jack may have nailed Blair. Which would be pretty wig-ripping, I gotta say.

Related: Rufus is horrible. His anger at Lily for giving up their baby has turned him into a blandly vicious prude (it appears Matthew Settle had an unpleasant Method acting–ectomy over Christmas) who won’t let Dan and Serena get it on in the giant Brooklyn loft. That is not the kind of high-quality parenting we’ve come to expect on Gossip Girl. Or does Rufus just think that Serena might be the baby? Mathematically it’s impossible, but when has this show ever paid attention to math? They asked us to believe Lily was rocking Doc Martens and lunchbox purses (and also shagging Trent Reznor) during Lincoln Hawk’s ’80s heyday. Uh-huh. I suppose it would be too much to ask them to make a timeline and watch a little I [Heart] the ’80s?

God, I love Blair and Chuck. I love her hat and her lipstick. I love when he crumples into a sweaty, tragic mess. I love them together. On that score, well played, Gossip writers.