Shiny.

• Rainn Wilson is one of People’s sexiest men.
• Letterman is footing the bill for his staff.
• Supermanny will be a spin-off of Supernanny, except with male child care workers. Get it?
• The NY Times tracks the rise of racial humor.
• Stars speak out on the strike.
• News on ER, including the return of Luca.
• Meredith Grey got married.
• Brian Williams got a ratings bump from SNL.
• Jack McBrayer talks to Pop Matters.
• Could Friday Night Lights move to ESPN? Meanwhile, Logan from Gilmore Girls will be joining the cast.
• Tonight’s Back To You recalls an episode of This American Life.
• Buy a painting at the Heroes auction.
• And also, Most Serene Republic has a new video. You should watch it.

Halloween’s tomorrow, as you know.

What am I doing to celebrate? Well, not much — thanks for asking. Probably just going to sit around at home, watch Pushing Daisies and wonder what would happen on the off-chance I got a trick-or-treater. If I do get a munchkin, chances are I’ll probably tell them to wait while I dig up the miniature jar of cherry preserves I’ve had for the better part of the ’00s.

If, however, you’re an ambitious mid-week partygoer, and you still haven’t come up with a costume idea, here are some ideas for you to try out.

For couples:

Ned and Chuck (Pushing Daisies):

He wears:

• Long sleeved tee/sweater
• Holds a pie.

She wears:

• A vibrantly colored sun dress.

Both wear:

• Gloves on one hand. You must hold hands all night with the gloved hand.

For the ladies:

Lucille Bluth:

• A martini glass
• Pearls
• Shawl affixed with a brooch.

Meredith Grey:

• Scrubs
• A scowl

For the gentlemen:

Nathan Petrelli:

• Fake beard
• Business suit
• Harness
• Some sort of crane on wheels so you can attach the harness and hover all night (you’ll need a patient friend to wheel you around and hand you drinks)

Chuck:

• White, button-down short-sleeved shirt
• Nametag
• Uncontrollable nervous energy

Eric Taylor (Friday Night Lights):

• Track jacket
• Stubble
• Arrange it so that most people remain oblivious to you at the party, except for two or three people who are obsessed with you.

Anybody else have any ideas? I wanted to go further with this but I’m sleepy.

Sox win!

• Harvey Keitel to portray Jerry Springer in the thea-tuh.
• James Kyson Lee (Ando from Heroes) talks to TV Guide. And Adrian Pasdar talks to USA Today.
• Here’s ticket info to see Battlestar Galactica: Razor.
• John Cho talks about being on How I Met Your Mother.
• Meredith from The Office sends word from the Office convention in Scranton.
• A contestant on America’s Most Smartest Model is a creepazoid.
• Ellen is going to go forfeit some dignity by being a suitcase-holder on Deal or No Deal.
• Lessons learned from Viva Laughlin.
• Here’s a preview of the new Court TV — called TruTV.
• Jesse Plemons from Friday Night Lights discusses his murder plotline.
• The Bionic Woman’s ratings are sinking.

Listen. We’re friends, right? Maybe not Hold Your Hair and Rub Your Back As You Puke friends, but at least Think Twice Before I Make Out With Your Boyfriend friends, I would hope. I know I haven’t forced my opinions on you since waaay back with episode 4 of The Hills, and I’m hoping that this lapse in time will actually serve to make my opinion more valuable than it was before, because you need to be watching this show:

Full disclosure time: I don’t really like football. I can occasionally get it up for college football, but that’s generally only once a year when Navy plays beats Army. (I’ve never used the intentional strikethrough gag before. I somehow feel like less of a person now). I have some deep seeded issues with high school football in particular, since I worry that inflating 16 year olds to such a regal status at such a young age sets them up for intense disappointment for the rest of their lives, big fish small pond style. Also, I was in marching band in high school, and I never got over it.

But I still think Friday Night Lights is the best show on television (best drama, anyway. 30 Rock, holla). I just recently finished the DVDs of season one (which you can get for $20 on Amazon. Seriously, that is the cost of like 3 beers, and it will love you a lot longer than they will) and after 3 episodes I was already at the point where just hearing the theme music was enough to make me cry and feel like my heart was going to explode out of my chest.

I know there are concerns, and I’m about to address all of them. #1) “I feel creepy watching a show about high school kids.” This one comes to us courtesy of my older brother, but don’t let him fool you, he burned through two seasons of Veronica Mars in about a week and never thought twice about the creepiness factor, so I’m dismissing this one. #2) “But we’re already three epsiodes into season 2, and I have no idea what’s going on.” Bitch, please. Like I would leave you hanging. Ready? Okay!

Here’s Jason. He used to be starting quarterback before he went and got himself paralyzed. Now he plays quad rugby, explores shady Mexican surgery options, and deals with the fact that his bangin’ girlfriend (see: Lyla) banged his BFF (see: Tim).

Speak of the devil! Here’s Lyla. And okay, fine, maybe she cheated on her paralyzed boyfriend, but he wasn’t being particularly nice to her at the time. Also, and this goes without saying, anyone who gets the chance to sleep with Tim should take it. Anyhoo, now Lyla has found Jesus, and leads school Bible groups with a hilarious string of Dr Seuss sounding prayers that go something like “Christ above me, Christ beside me, Christ within me…” and will leave you shouting “Christ behind me! SAY IT!” at the tv.

And here’s Matt and Julie. Matt became QB1 following Jason’s accident, and then put the moves on Julie, the coach’s daughter, who has bangs. This is really all you need to know here, except that Julie somehow became an idiot this season when her parents had another baby and her dad took a job far away and she dumped Matt so that she could run around being and idiot and because she wanted to give me a good reason to hate her. Mission accomplished.

And Tyra, my favorite, filling the role of hardened-slutty-chick-with-a-heart-of-gold-and-a-shot-at-a-better-future-if-she-just-applies-herself. Tyra also used to make out with Tim. Last season she was almost sexually assaulted by Some Random Dude but she beat the hell out of him and I loved her for it. Then he showed up again to finish the job this season, and it would have been a problem except…

Landry went and killed the dude because he’s in love with Tyra, and then the two of them dumped the body in a river.

And here’s Coach Taylor, who left the Dillon Panthers for a job coaching a college team but is obviously going to come back because having him gone is like those first 600 pages of book 7 where harry isn’t at Hogwarts that made me want to kill myself. And his ridiculously hot and completely awesome wife.

And here’s Tim, or, as my cousin erin likes to call him, “why weren’t the football players that hot when we were in high school?” Tim’s got a bit of a drinking problem and some daddy issues and a tendency to sleep with the single mothers in his neighborhood and a small obsession with Lyla even though she now has a big obsession with Jesus, but it’s cool because they’re constantly showing him in the rain:

NBC, Fridays, 9pm. On the off chance that you don’t feel totally caught up to speed, complete episodes here.

Before common era.

• AfterElton profiles gay reality TV winners.
• A blogger writes an open letter to the cast of The Office.
• A profile on the two dudes who are defining VH1’s personality.
• Lou Pearlman is a perv — not necessarily that surprising.
• The stage is set for Rock of Love 2.
• TV Guide talks to Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck.
• Forest Whitaker will be making a new show for FX.
• Friday Night Lights is doing what any fledgling series would do to boost ratings: add nudity.
• The former heads of UPN and the WB talk to TV Guide.
• Alton Brown talks up the Next Iron Chef.
• Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell are going to be in a scary, scary global warming miniseries.
• Ally Sheedy is joining Kyle XY.
• Jon Stewart will get as close to the White House as he’ll ever get when he interviews the vice president’s wife.
• Look at the Pushing Daisies comic book.
• The Jericho folks are covering all their bases in case it gets canceled again.
• Stupid Hung talks to New York magazine.
• Some babe got a job on Grey’s Anatomy.

In the interest of All Things Formerly Veronica Mars, I watched the pilot of Moonlight last week. Now, I’m no Matt Parkman, but is probably worse than you thought it would be. Poor Jason Dohring was the best thing about it, but that’s not exactly saying much. It felt like the writers had never really heard of vampires until five minutes before the script was due, let alone watched a single episode of Buffy or Angel. However, I’m sure it will do very well sandwiched between The Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs (oooh! burn!).

Nervous tension is palpable.

Friday Night Lights premieres its second season tonight. I haven’t caught up yet, but it’s obviously a deserving show that many people love.

Seth Rogen hosts and Spoon plays music on Saturday Night Live. Promising.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: I was innocently scrolling around the listings and stumbled upon possibly the best Lifetime movie (based on casting only) ever: Katee Sackhoff stars in How I Married My High School Crush, which apparently first aired this summer and airs again Friday night. Check it out, in the interest of All Things Vaguely Battlestar Galactica Related!

Leave Applebee’s alone.

• Chris Crocker, the gay dude who did that hideous “Leave Britney alone” video, might get a reality TV show.
• Is Kathy Griffin engaged to the Apple guy?
• Watch the second season premiere of Friday Night Lights online.
•  Sherri Shepherd talks about her new deal with The View.
• Slate examines the history of the laugh track.
• The top two from Big Brother talk to TV Guide.
• Someone’s coming back from the dead on 24.
• NBC Direct is coming — kind of cool, but kind of not.

News is here now. Rejoice.

• Kathy Griffin actually got to go on Ellen. Click here to watch her appearance on YouTube (it’s in two parts). Plus, set your TiFauxs to tape Larry King tonight — Kathy will be on to talk about her Emmy speech, etc. (Listen to the Emmy speech here)
• Speaking of Ellen, Neil Patrick Harris went on her show and talked about not having to hide his boyfriend at the Emmys.
• Watch the Chuck premiere online.
• Psych got renewed.
• Sally Field’s okay with her speech getting bleeped.
• iTunes is making enemies. Now, Fox is thinking about pulling out.
• Salon gives the Buffy Award to Friday Night Lights, deeming it the year’s most under appreciated show.
• Television Without Pity interviews Pete from 30 Rock.
• And then there’s this:
  

So I’ve finally started watching the most critically-acclaimed new show of last year, Friday Night Lights. I’m only seven episodes in, but I have to say I’m charmed. I’m not crazed with joy or anything (those type of obsessive thoughts don’t usually show up until episode 10 or 12 of a new series), but I can certainly see why everyone’s so gosh-darned excited about this one. It’s good.

They’ve pulled together a really sympathetic and well-cast group of characters, especially the alarmingly adorable last-minute quarterback, Matt Saracen. Everyone’s excellent, and I only single out Matt because of the way I want to give him a big hug and cook him some chicken soup and tell him how great he is every time he’s on screen. He’s that painfully in need of mothering. Trust me, your ovaries will explode.

I have concerns, of course. I’m concerned that the whole thing is a giant sports movie, with mini-sports-movies peppered throughout. They’re very well-done and extremely exciting, but we know sports movies. I’m also concerned about the occasionally irritating camera work. I like the way it’s loose and can focus on fun little details we might not have seen otherwise, but sometimes I get the sense it’s jerky and weird just to be jerky and weird. And I’m concerned they’re cycling through hugely dramatic story arcs too fast. So much has happened in these seven short episodes. This might be a result of watching them all in a row (and interspersing episodes of the much slower-paced [and much better than everyone says it is] John from Cincinnati), but I think that slowing down and dealing with the stories already on the table might be good instead of constantly adding new ones.

Long-time fans, you’re probably laughing and shaking your heads at my newbie naivete. I’m sure in a couple episodes I’ll be embarrassed to have complained at all. In the meantime, GO MATT!

Wednesday’s a bit of a dead zone until Lost comes back next week.

This is us without Lost.

Again, there’s the bad singing, and the people laughing at the bad singers. I don’t know if you can tell, but I don’t watch.

Apparently Friday Night Lights is really good. There’s a new episode tonight. This sounds like a future summer project for me.

I don’t watch Top Chef, but I support those who do. Have a fun finale. And check out Top Design for me, while you’re at it — it premieres tonight, if you’ve managed to avoid their relentless advertising.

I can’t really tell if Mythbusters is new, but it sounds new to me — whirlpool myths. Sure to be fun as always. And educational.