The 50 Biggest Disappointments of the 00's

1. Bud Selig letting baseball become unwatchable (Big Head Barry becoming the home run king, A-Roid getting a ring, letting the Red Sox roid themselves up to break The Curse, the All-Star Game tie, etc.)

2. The death of Napster

3. The CW thinking shows like Farmer Takes a Wife, 90210, Melrose Place, Life Is Wild, The Pussycat Dolls, High Society, and Fly Girls were better alternatives that Veronica Mars

4. The football team formerly known as the Browns winning a Super Bowl in the second year of The real Browns expansion, who only won three games that year

5. Kanye West going emo

6. The rise of Ringtone Rappers and auto-tune

7. Here is something I could not understand: how Landry Clarke could just kill a man

8. The Writer’s Strike

9. Dave Chappelle going crazy; ending Chappelle's Show after only two seasons

10. Bill Belichicken cheating his way to multiple Super Bowls wins

11. Fox canceling The Lone Gunmen, Undeclared, Firefly, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Keen Eddie, The Jury, The Inside, Point Pleasant, and Reunion after (and sometime before) just one season

12. Having to constantly hear about American Karaoke

13. The entire Heroes series, and having Kristen Bell slum it on such a horribly written / acted show

14. The Steelers winning two ref assisted Super Bowl

15. TV Guide going bigger

16. Basically everything after the season one finale of Lost

17. 50 Cent deciding to make music for suburban white teenage girls

18. The Jay Leno Hour

19. Fergie joining the Black Eyed Peas

20. Having to wait fifteen years for the mediocre Chinese Democracy (and Dr. Pepper not delivering on their promise of a free can)

21. MTV deciding to cater to teenage girls who were too busy texting to care about their crappy shows

22. The Democrats unable to nominate someone competent enough to even beat George Bush

23. Superman Return

24. X & Y - Coldplay

25. The shrinking Rolling Stone

26. The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels

27. Y2K

28. Hollywood ruining my childhood (Transformers, Dukes of Hazard, etc.)

29. Trapped in the Closet; Chapters 13-22

30. Kate Bosworth Going Skelator

31. No Detox from Dr. Dre

32. U.S. Basketball Nightmare teams

33. Sam's Town - The Killers

34. Christina Aguilera starting to look like drag queen version of her Genie in a Bottle self

35. Bionic Woman reboot

36. Jay-Z’s Un-retirement song

37. Survivor All Stars

38. Smashing Pumpkins reunion

39. The Hockey lock out

40. The Shins not changing my life like Natalie Portman promised

41. Janet Jackson’s nipple

42. Working On a Dream - Bruce Springsteen

43. Joe Rogan version of The Man Show

44. Any celebrity documentary style reality show after The Osbornes first season

45. The XFL

46. Brett Favre in a Jets Vikings uniform

47. Jerry Springer banning fighting

48. Lindsay Lohan

49. Austin Powers in Goldmember

50. Tara Reid somehow being able to ruin Wild On

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXIX

How I Met Your Mother: If Ted wrote himself a not as to why not to get back with Robin, why didn’t he read it when he got back with her a couple seasons ago? But anyway. I am completely for the whole separate beds for sleeping. I have enough trouble getting to sleep by myself and that is only exacerbated when there are knees in my back. And why stop there, how about separate rooms? You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: As painful as the post breakup interaction of Leonard and Penny were, at least Sheldon trying to play both sides was one of his funniest bits of the season. You can download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Castle: Holy Veronica Mars reunion! Okay so Parker and Deputy Leo didn’t share any screen time here or on Veronica Mars, but I will take what I can. And I wouldn’t mind if Parker sticks around because Beckett could us a female friend or just someone to fight over for Castle. But this begs the question whatever happened to Day On that Julie Gonzalo was starring in for NBC? Last I hear it got trimmed down to a two hour movie. You know it is not good when as hard up for programming NBC was, they still haven’t found time to air the show. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.

Lost: Seriously, Jin is going to down himself and let his daughter that he never met grow up an orphan? Hurmph. I am really beginning to think I was on the button when I said that the “Real” timeline will end with everyone dying but everyone lives happily ever after in the Flashsideways like in that one Buffy episode. At least there are four and a half hours left before I can stop thinking about this show. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Justified: Holy Dan Doherty sighting! And of course it was Seth Bullock to talk him down. Here’s hoping that this is only a precursor for the show to bring in Al Swearengen. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Parenthood: Wait, was that really the host of Tool Academy that I just saw on the show? And as one of the “cool” parents? Alrighty. And if Joel was so upset about the soccer quitting, why didn’t he step up and coach when schuedual must be open. C’mon, if the dude from Survivor can coach girls soccer, how hard can it be? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Modern Family: I am not sure who laughed harder, Alex, when talking about her sister flirting with a middle schooler, or me laughing at Alex laughing at her sister. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Happy Town: And we have our first “seriously” moment of the series when it turns out Kubiac (yes, I just made a Parker Lewis reference) turned out to be the one who nailed a rail road spike threw the dude’s head. Alrighty. The second would be the sherriff letting the Kube off the hook for the murder. Sure, why not. And if the dead dude said where the bodies were, why not at least take a look? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Happy Town on iTunes.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains: Hopefully this is the last stand of Russell. Despite the previews, I cannot see Rupert, after his tirade against him this week, teaming up with him. I am really ready to get Russell off my television and if he is ever asked back to another All-Star season everyone is smart enough to get rid of him first. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Community: I loved all the not so thinly veiled pot shots at the college’s glee club: “I’m all for winning but let’s not resort to cheap ploys,” “That is so uninspired,” “Write some original songs,” Couldn’t have said it better myself. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Friday Night Lights: The season three finale just happened to air as the say day as Opening Day in Cleveland when a rai delay pushed the game into the evening pre-empted FNL and I ended up having to watch it on Hulu the next day. Then almost a year later the season four premiere just happened to coincide with a tornado warning preemption making miss the show because of weather two epidsodes in a row. Huruph. Here’s hoping the episode shows up On Demand so I am not stuck watching it on my computer again. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00’s

Before you read this post, check out The 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00’s if you have not already.

When I decided I was going to lists to commemorate the greatest of the decade, I knew it was going to be hard as I already put way too much thought into my end of the year ones. But The 100 Greatest Television Shows was relatively harmless as the top ten was pretty obvious for the most part and I didn’t even quibble very much with the other ninety. Then I started trying to rank the greatest characters from the decade. Really anyone I listed in the top ten could have been a worthy number one. And of the five different trial runs I made, I had some characters move sixty different places from list to list. And some of the lists from here on out will be just as hard if not harder. So look out for a new Greatest of the 00’s list coming sometime next month (especially for all the dudes out there). Until then, here is a breakdown of The 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00’s.

Shows with Multiple Characters
Friday Night Lights – 8
Lost – 7
Chuck – 7
Arrested Development – 6
Rescue Me – 6
Veronica Mars – 6
Ed – 5
Greek – 4
Knights of Prosperity – 4
Angel – 3
Everwood – 3
Everybody Hates Chris – 3
Firefly – 3
My Name Is Earl – 3
Pushing Daisies – 3
The Big Bang Theory – 3
Castle – 2
Dead Like Me – 2
Deadwood – 2
Rome – 2
Smallville – 2

Characters by Main Occupation
Student - 24
Fire Fighter – 6
Sales Clerk – 4
Scientist - 4
Doctor – 3
Manager – 3
Mercenary – 3
Owner – 3
Soldier - 3
Crime Fighter – 2
Detective – 2
Grim Reaper – 2
Janitor – 2
Lawyer – 2
Private Investigator – 2
Salesman – 2
Sherriff – 2
Special Agent – 2
Homemaker – 2
Waitress - 2
Cab Driver – 1
Captain – 1
Car Dealer – 1
CEO – 1
Coronel – 1
Cook – 1
Crime Scene Investigator – 1
Executive – 1
King – 1
Leader – 1
Magician - 1
Mechanic – 1
Medium – 1
Principal – 1
Prisoner – 1
Security – 1
Singer – 1
Socialite – 1
Delivery Man – 1
Watcher – 1
Unemployed – 1
Writer - 1


Characters by Original Network
NBC – 27
ABC – 18
FOX – 12
UPN – 10
WB – 8
CBS – 6
FX – 6
ABC Family – 5
HBO – 4
Showtime – 3
TNT – 1

Actors Who Appear Multiple Times
Adam Baldwin (John Casey, Jayne Cobb)
Nathan Fillion (Mal Reynolds, Rick Castle)
Ian McShane (Al Swearengen, Benjamin Silas)

Character without a Last Name – 5

Title Characters – 6

Characters Who Died - 6

Characters not in the orginal Cast - 14

Youngest Character – Louise Brooks

Oldest Character – Harvey Lipschultz

The 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00’s

1. Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D - The Big Bang Theory

2. Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars

3. Jaye Tyler - Wonderfalls

4. Landry Clarke - Friday Night lights

5. Coach Eric Taylor - Friday Night Lights

6. Barney Stinson - How I Met Your Mother

7. Georgia "George" Lass - Dead Like Me

8. Emerson Cod - Pushing Daisies

9. Tammy Taylor - Friday Night Lights

10. Benjamin "Ben" Linus aka Henry Gale - Lost

11. Colonel John Casey - Chuck

12. Michael Bluth - Arrested Development

13. Edward "Ed" Stevens - Ed

14. Albert "Al" Swearengen - Deadwood

15. Richard "Dick" Casablancas - Veronica Mars

16. Thomas Michael "Tommy" Gavin - Rescue Me

17. Dr. Harold Abbott Jr. - Everwood

18. Jayne Cobb - Firefly

19. Earl Jehosophat Hickey - My Name Is Earl

20. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes - Lost

21. Rockefeller Butts - The Knights of Prosperity

22. Lucius Vorenus - Rome

23. Penny - The Big Bang Theory

24. Olive Snook - Pushing Daisies

25. Sean Leslie Garrity - Rescue Me

26. Julius - Everybody Hates Chris

27. Eugene Gurkin - The Knights of Prosperity

28. Dexter Morgan - Dexter

29. Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds - Firefly

30. Buddy Garrity - Friday Night Lights

31. Franco Rivera - Rescue Me

32. Bill Haverchuck - Freaks and Geeks

33. Charles "Chuck" Bartowski - Chuck

34. Special Agent Sarah Walker - Chuck

35. Lieutenant Kenneth "Lou" Shea - Rescue Me

36. Keith Mars - Veronica Mars

37. Joy Farrah (Hickey) Turner (née Darville) - My Name Is Earl

38. Andrew Wells - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

39. Chloe Sullivan - Smallville

40. Sheriff Don Lamb - Veronica Mars

41. Krevlornswath "Lorne" of the Deathwok Clan - Angel

42. Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye - Firefly

43. Sherriff Seth Bullock - Deadwood

44. George Bluth Sr. - Arrested Development

45. Winifred "Fred" Burkle - Angel

46. Daisy Adair - Dead Like Me

47. Mike Silletti - Rescue Me

48. Chris - Everybody Hates Chris

49. Carol Vessey - Ed

50. Brian "Smash" Williams - Friday Night Lights

51. Frannie Morgan - Greek

52. Lester Patel - Chuck

53. Dr. Daniel Faraday - Lost

54. Lucille Bluth - Arrested Development

55. Darnell "Crabman" Turner aka Harry Monroe - My Name Is Earl

56. Joan Girardi - Joan of Arcadia

57. King Silas Benjamin - Kings

58. Tyra Collette - Friday Night Lights

59. Dwight Kurt Shrute III - The Office

60. Jonathan "Jack" Donahue Bristow - Alias

61. Eli Cartwright Goggins - Ed

62. Sayid Jarrah - Lost

63. Warren P. Cheswick - Ed

64. Richard "Rick" Castle - Castle

65. Tobias Fünke - Arrested Development

66. Bart "Black Shawn" Johnston - Rescue Me

67. Louise Brooks - Gary Unmarried

68. Detective Katherine "Kate" Beckett - Castle

69. Gourishankar "Gary" Subramaniam - The Knights of Prosperity

70. Titus Pullo - Rome

71. Dale Kettlewell - Greek

72. Margaret "Meg" Pryor - American Dreams

73. Maggie Dekker - Eli Stone

74. Jeffery "Jeff" Barnes - Chuck

75. Ned "The Piemaker" - Pushing Daisies

76. Devin "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb, M.D. - Chuck

77. Lyla Garrity - Friday Night Lights

78. James "Sawyer" Ford - Lost

79. Rebecca Logan - Greek

80. Johnathan "John" Locke aka Jeremy Bentham - Lost

81. George Oscar "Gob" Bluth Jr. - Arrested Development

82. Matt Saresen - Friday Night Lights

83. Miles Straume - Lost

84. Eli "Weevil" Narvarro - Veronica Mars

85. Alec Hardison - Leverage

86. Wendy Watson - The Middleman

87. Casey Cartwright - Greek

88. Charles Gunn - Angel

89. Hannah Rogers - Everwood

90. Francis "Squatch" Squacieri - The Knights of Prosperity

91. "Big" Mike Tucker - Chuck

92. Shirley Pifko - Ed

93. Cindy "Mac" McKenzie - Veronica Mars

94. Maeby Fünke - Arrested Development

95. Rochelle - Everybody Hates Chris

96. Harvey Lipschultz - Boston Public

97. Lana Lang - Smallville

98. Detective Eddie Arlette - Keen Eddie

99. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D - The Big Bang Theory

100. Harold Brighton "Bright" Abbott - Everwood

(Scooter’s Note: Only characters that were introduced and featured for at least one full season between September 1999 and August 2009 were eligible for this list. For a complete breakdown on the list, check out Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00's.)