Top TV stories of 2005: The debut of TV Squad

(Part 5 of 5)

We have no shame in capping our list off with one of our favorite happenings in TV being the launch of our beloved site. Hey, put it this way -- at least you won't have to hear us boast about it again until our birthday.

In case you're not familiar with who TV Squad is, we are one weblog of many within what is known as Weblogs, Inc. As happens with some of the sites within what we call WIN, writing for TV Squad began a bit earlier than the official launch to the public. The first post dates back to a review for an episode of Battlester Galactica, written by original lead editor, Dave Thomas. Not a bad show to start off with, if I do say so myself. Dave has since moved onto bigger and better things in the writing world.
 
As for TV Squad's actual opening to the public, we place that on the morning of March 10, just a day before sister site Cinematical opened its doors. You can see how few categories we used to carry back then via archive.org. Our first big story came from Karina Longworth on her bright idea to cancel Arrested Development. Too bad the networks took too long to respond.

Then, just a couple of months ago, WIN essentially became part of AOL, and us with it. As you may have read elsewhere, we are all very excited by this recent development. It's already opened up new doors for us that may have otherwise taken much longer to get through, and we've barely even started.

Speaking for myself, I'm amazed at the community that's evolved from just eight months of TV Squad being online. We see all of your comments to our respective posts, and not only do we try to respond to as many as we can, but we like doing it. Some things you can look forward to this year:

• More interviews -- We've given you some great ones so far: Jay R. Ferguson of Surface, American Idol's Bo Bice's Sugarmoney bandmates and previous The Apprentice winner, Kendra Todd. We've got many more planned for this year, ones you will all love to see.
• TV Squad All Podcast Bulletin -- Along with the Lost podcast we've been cranking out after each new show, we'll have a general TV podcast debuting (hopefully) next week, called TV Squad APB. This new podcast won't be much longer than 30 minutes, where Bob Sassone and I will talk about the stories of the week, debate what we like and don't like about TV, and answer questions from readers. We're going for a sort-of Diggnation-like feel, laid back and having fun. Hell, our first pordcast will be recorded from a bar in Boston! Just don't mind our slurring, New England accents.
• T-Shirts -- We've gotten requests for them, and they're coming this year, hopefully sooner than later. We'll give some out as prizes, definitely.
• The star system -- No, not what's up in the sky -- the stars we assign to commenters. They're currently in limbo, though we hope to see them ressurected sometime soon. "But what do the stars mean, anyway," you ask? They will definitely mean something soon. How's not having to get an email to approve your comments sound?
• "The script project" -- I can't really tell you more about it, but this should be a lot of fun. We're working internally to get something going in a month or so. If it works out right, it could be amazing.
• Too much more to list -- Some of the other ideas we're tossing around may work, others may fall flat. But there certainly won't be a lack of variety around here this year.

I was lucky enough to get in on the ground level of this monster, merely starting out reviewing episodes of The Shield. Seeing where things have come since then has been amazing, and we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. Thanks again for understanding the growing pains we've gone through in the past couple of weeks, and for sticking around and continuing to comment to our posts. If it wasn't for all of you, our passion for bringing you this content may have subsided some. From all 35 regular and contributing writers for TV Squad, we wish you an incredible and Happy New Year.