What a year! Once we got over the WGA strike, the networks kicked it into high gear and got busy making TV. Except for NBC. Even Jeff Zucker has admitted that NBCU has failed to respond to the need for new programming.

Fortunately, the other channels have been busy and there's been a lot of great television... and some that's just plain awful. But I'm a half-glass full kind of person and I have good feelings about 2009. However, since I don't want to repeat my list from last year, I'll just mention that I could put these 2008 best choices -- Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, NCIS, The Big Bang Theory and Mad Men -- on my list again. But I'm going to go for an all new list and, thankfully, I had plenty of 'bests' to choose from.

Best
1. Glee. If there was ever a show that was made just for my personal taste, this is probably it. I love the singing and dancing. I get the characters. It even tickles me that I had just as much angst with bullies in high school as these kids. Every episode hasn't been perfect, but it's perfectly fine that they keep striving.

I'm always amazed at how people haven't learned from TV history. Back in the early eighties, everyone and his mother was saying that comedy was dead, mainly because of then-cutting-edge dramas like Hill Street Blues were dominating the air, while the best in comedy that the networks could come up was crap like Pink Lady and Jeff. Then The Cosby Show, Cheers, Family Ties, and Night Court came around, and all of a sudden comedy was back.

So it's not a big surprise that comedy is making a big comeback a quarter-century later. Times are tough, and people want to laugh. It also helps that on a few networks (NBC, of course), low ratings and little inventory have given shows like The Office and 30 Rock a chance to find and grow an audience. The seeds sewn by those shows have grown in a major way, as three of the four networks now have successful comedy lineups.

Every day it seems that we have nominations to announce. Yes, we are in award season and today it's the Screen Actors Guild's turn. On Saturday, January 23, 2010, at 8 p.m. on TNT and TBS, the winners of the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will air live from Los Angeles. Here's the nominees in the main categories and some thoughts on each:

Drama Ensemble: The Closer; Dexter; The Good Wife; Mad Men; True Blood

Interesting that CBS's The Good Wife made the cut, especially over Lost or House or Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy or Damages or Friday Night Lights. And I love The Closer, but the inclusion here is a surprise. I guess NCIS would be too big a surprise to get recognized.

Comedy Ensemble: 30 Rock; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Glee; Modern Family; The Office

Glee and Modern Family are freshmen, but clearly excellent ensemble comedies. And for Curb Your Enthusiasm, are they honoring the Seinfeld team all over again? Also, where's The Big Bang Theory?

Round up the usual suspects. That would seem to be the appropriate line when you look at the nominees for the 2010 Writers Guild Awards. That doesn't mean that all these nominees are not worthy; they are some of the best 2009 television for sure. It's just that inevitably some shows are left out in favor of the tried old faves.

For instance, in the comedy category, can you really put Modern Family in and completely diss The Big Bang Theory? I can't. I'm not even happy about the annual goopfest for 30 Rock, a sitcom that I've grown tired of -- but that's just me. I'd prefer How I Met Your Mother to get some time, or United States of Tara or Nurse Jackie or The Middle. All four of those show have been superior to 30 Rock -- to me.

Fans of 30 Rock may have noticed that Grizzwald Chapman, who plays Tracy Jordan's co-hort Grizz, had lost some weight this season. That's because he has severe hypertension and needs to lose 75 pounds before doctors will consider him for a kidney transplant, which he desperately needs (he's 6 feet 11 but weighs 378 pounds). He has ignored his high blood pressure for many years and now goes through dialysis three times a week. He might even have to wait as long as five years to get a new kidney.

On tomorrow's Dr. Oz Show, Chapman appears (along with Kevin Brown, who plays DotCom on 30 Rock) to talk about his trouble. He has use of only 5% of his kidney right now. Oz is going to help Chapman stay healthy until a kidney becomes available.

Here's hoping he gets on the right track and everything turns out OK.

I know not much time has passed, but let's review the Christmas memories from some of TV's sitcom this past season because if you ask me, they were sort of all over the map. Someday maybe I'll hold one of these in my heart like the On a scale from one to ten, with ten being classic, there were none that will live on in the annals of TV history, but there were a couple worth writing about.

The Office
I found this entire episode a downer. The economy is in the toilet and we all know it. Heck, I don't know anyone who isn't worried about having a job in 2010. So we can feel for the fact that Dunder-Mifflin is hanging by a thread. But it's hardly hilarious fodder for a holiday half-hour.

I finally, and with great difficulty got the tree up, I've somehow gotten roped into holding a cookie exchange at my house this weekend, and I have glitter in places where glitter should not be. What's that smell? It smells like Festivus to me. While the main thing I want this year is to just lie very, very still in a dark room for a week or so, this is a TV blog, so let's talk about what TV could do to make me happy!

• Stop with the long hiatuses already! I don't get to see a new episode of V until March, and I'm being forced into leading a Glee-less existence until April. Give it up already! If you have 3 months between new episodes, it's a new season, why not call it that? You know what I have been doing for the past 11 weeks? Watching the first 11 episodes of Dexter. This week, I will be watching episode 12, and then the season will be over. It's efficient and satisfying. The networks need to get on board.

(S04E08) "Those sites are for horny married chicks with kids who want to exchange pervy e-mails with their old high school boyfriends." - Liz, about YouFace

I'm glad to see Danny back on the show. He hasn't been on that much (if at all) since being hired as the new cast member, and I thought it was going to be another one of those things where we don't see him again even though he's supposed to be on TGS still. But didn't you want to hear him sing normally during the TGS Christmas show? I didn't back Pete's plan to try to make Jenna angry (really, who wants that?) and it would have been a nice, Christmas-y ending for Danny and Jenna to sing well at the end and Jenna be OK with it. Instead, we got Jenna placated yet again and Pete going crazy. Eh.

Still, it was great that they got Cheyenne Jackson's singing in the show in a couple of scenes. Maybe in a later episode fans will find out that he's actually good.

I'm a sucker for Christmas episodes of TV shows and I love 30 Rock, which means that I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's episode of the show, "Secret Santa." But even beyond the Xmas aspect it looks funny, as Jack tries a new social networking site.

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]

One of the funnier moments from last night's 30 Rock was Pete trying to help Liz create an opening for Dealbreakers. We see her trying to look sexy, trying to look sassy, and trying to wave like a normal human being. Also note what happens when she (along with Kenneth and Jack) gets it front of the HD cameras. (I love that the director on the board is "Alan Smithee" - even Pete doesn't want to take credit for this disaster.)

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]

(S04E07) "It still counts!" - Whoopi Goldberg, on her Daytime Emmy

I wonder how 30 Rock will handle today's deal with Comcast. I'm sure Tina Fey and the rest of the writers are already working on an episode or two about the takeover. They've already had a plot this season about budget cuts and other network moves, and I think this could be one of those weird times where a real-life event is closely tied into a fictional TV show and can actually re-energize the show in some way. That's going to be an interesting plot to watch.

Of course, the real question is, how will all of this affect the Sheinhardt Wig Company?

"Hello, my name is Alec and I'm a retirement-holic. ...I don't know why, but I have this insatiable need to announce to the world again and again that I'm quitting the acting business. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Okay, that's not a real scene from the life of Alec Baldwin, but it might as well be. About a year and a half ago, Alec was kvetching about turning 50 years old and how he only cared about the Emmys honoring 30 Rock, and his plans to quit the business.

And now he's done it again. In an interview with Men's Journal, promoting his new movie with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin called It's Complicated, Alec Baldwin says he will quit acting in 2012 when his 30 Rock contract comes to an end.

It's Thanksgiving morning as I'm writing this. I've got five pounds of potatoes boiling for our mashed potatoes, the turkey is in the oven, and the butternut squash is cut up for the risotto I'm making. My baby is playing ball with his dad, and the dog is on the couch trying to sleep and just remaining thankful that said baby isn't trying to pet her eyeball right now. I have a lot of things to be thankful for, but as others have said before, me, this is a TV blog, so let's talk about television-related things I'm thankful for.

As we're getting close to the mid-season point, I feel more and more that this is an exceptionally strong season of television-- even with the whole Leno debacle. There are several new shows that I'm quickly falling in love with, and some returning shows that are better than ever. In no particular order, here are things that I am thankful for.

To paraphrase Dexter's Trinity Killer, traditions matter because they give us a sense of history. They also teach us who we are and what's expected of us.

So in celebration of that fiendish character's warped but delightfully old-fashioned worldview, I'm happy to take part in this little Thanksgiving Day tradition we have here at TV Squad. Here are a few things I'm thankful for this TV season ...

Year four of Dexter – Well, duh ... Sure, the Batista-Laguerta relationship is a little dull, and Quinn is a poor stand-in for Dokes, but Dexter's dealings with Trinty and his Dark Passenger are fascinating to watch. John Lithgow's complex and unnerving portrayal of suburban serial killer Arthur Mitchell is sure to earn him an Emmy nod, if not the win.

Community - Here's the thing: It's just so damn funny. And it has the best and weirdest cast of characters on TV. I can't get enough of Señor Chang and Abed.

Every week we can be guaranteed that Tina Fey and the people at 30 Rock will make fun of NBC in some way, whether it's product placement or The Jay Leno Show or last night's line about the green NBC peacock in the corner of the screen. Fey also isn't shy about dumping on NBC when she's away from the show either.

The other night she gave a speech at an Ad Council meeting at the Waldorf in New York. Her barbs were mostly about NBC's ratings, including pointing out that "NBC is sadly the fourth-place network. Actually we're in ninth place if you count the radio stations ahead of us right now." She also suggested that if the 1200 people in the audience watched NBC for just one night there would be a huge jump in the ratings.

I've been wondering what will happen if and when Comcast takes over NBC. Will they still have the HQ at 30 Rock? Will the show still be called 30 Rock? Fey suggested a new title: Industrial Park on the Schuyikill River.