The good news is that NBC's Thursday night line-up has increased in the ratings, particularly for the Amy Poehler vehicle 'Parks and Recreation' which has just hit a season high. The bad news is that they're still in fourth place for that night.

Remember the good old days when NBC on Thursday nights was "Must See TV"? NBC is probably yearning for those days, or possibly any day that isn't right now. There are still regulatory hurdles to jump through before the sale to Comcast is truly finalized; what are the network executives telling their future potential bosses? "Yes, we suck but we're doing better."

Back to 'Parks and Recreation': Amy Poehler is one talented lady (which is evident even from way back in her 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Upright Citizens Brigade' days)and it is a good thing that she is getting the recognition that she deserves.

(S02E15) I have no idea why, out of all the controversies in the world right now, that the folks at 'Parks and Recreation' decided to tackle corn syrup, but I loved it. This was actually a well-done episode about something that many people consider to be a problem: companies taking over vending machines in places like schools and other public places. Even though it actually had a bit of a message, it still managed to be hilarious.

Leslie is kind of everybody's mom: whether it's not letting Ron drink and drive (drinking and harp assembly is another matter entirely), or helping Anne educate Pawnee about the dangers of kids becoming fat, happy and docile by shoving high-fructose corn syrup bars into their gaping maws.She's just trying to make her little part of the world a better place, and it's endearing.

There hasn't been much to cheer about coming from NBC of late, unless you consider the upcoming Winter Olympics worth jumping up and down about, or you've been happy about Chuck's return. The Leno-Conan business has just been nasty, the resolution bungled and the prospects for new product unexciting.

But late Friday night something happened at the Peacock that is worth getting psyched about. NBC gave Parks and Recreation a season three renewal.

Like CBS's vote of confidence renewal for How I Met Your Mother earlier this week, this was a great move by NBC and a sign that somebody at 30 Rock -- the real NBC, not the Alec Baldwin/Tina Fey version -- sees quality and has rewarded it.

(S02E15) So, Leslie's still a little bit crazy, huh? Have we really never seen the inside of her house before? That seems kind of weird to me, but I don't think the writers would have randomly made her a hoarder if we had been in a previously clean place. Anyway, I love how they used her messy house to set up the procession of rec center teachers coming into her house to help with the dinner party. I love it when Leslie's personal life is at odds with her professional one. She wants to do the right thing all of the time, but she is only human after all, and Justin is really hot.

I've always found Aziz Ansari funny. He was great on the offbeat sketch show Human Giant. I've come to enjoy him on the sitcom Parks and Recreation. But funny in sketch comedy and on a sitcom doesn't always translate to funny stand-up comedy. And since I'm admittedly more familiar with Ansari's other work than his stand-up, his one-hour stand-up special, Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, was far from a sure thing. I am happy to report, though, that Intimate Moments completes the comedy trifecta.

The special, which premieres on Comedy Central Sunday at 10 PM and hits stores in DVD and CD form Tuesday, is laugh out loud funny in several places. From the opening bit, where Ansari challenges an activist to kill for gay rights, to his stories about his cousin Darwish and Kanye West, there is a lot of smart, original material here. Fans of Human Giant won't be disappointed.

(S02E13) "I don't wanna date a twin ... because I've been tricked before."

I guess Leslie decided not to have that long-distance relationship with Dave. As much as I liked him, he's not around, and I'm glad Leslie is moving on. It may not have gone very well for her, but I love how Leslie is confident enough to not disguise her disgust for Chris. Seeing the real-life husband and wife on a terrible blind date was fun, but I'd like to see Will Arnett on the show again, and the way things ended didn't leave a whole lot of room for that possibility.

Speaking of possibilities, Justin Theroux is going to be back next week as Justin, so we get to see how that first date went. By the way, great casting call on that one. I can totally understand why Leslie and Anne are into him; I got all swoony just sitting at home and watching him on screen.

It's probably just a matter of time before Will Arnett gets his own show on NBC, right? He has a recurring role on 30 Rock and he's loved from his Arrested Development days. And next week he guest stars on Parks and Recreation, playing a doctor involved with Leslie (Amy Poehler, his real-life wife). This is the oddest romantic banter scene I've seen in a while, but well done.

[via Zap2it]

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 don't think I did one of these lists last year, and I have no idea why. The election all by itself would have generated a pretty fun best/worst list. Maybe we were all suffering from information overload, and were just exhausted. Not sure.

But 2009 had a lot of interesting TV, too, just not all in one category. As I've done in the past, I'll dispense with the usual "best show" and "worst show" lists and just make up categories:

GOODNESS

Best comeback from a shaky first season: Parks and Recreation. As I mentioned in my "return of the sitcom" story, Parks and Rec has made the biggest improvement from first season to second since... well, since The Office. It's no coincidence; Greg Daniels and Mike Schur's Office experience taught them that patience would be rewarded, both on the part of the writers and the viewers.

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.

On the sixth day of Festivus, TV gave to me ... six shows you should be watching.

Every fall TV season brings out a new crop of fresh shows and despite the fact that some of them are ridiculously good, they slip through the cracks and not many people watch them. Not all of these are new and not all of them are suffering in the ratings, but some could still use your eyeballs. So take this list as a gentle nudge to start tuning in if you haven't already, because all six of these shows really are appointment television right now.

Modern Family (ABC; Wednesdays 8:30) -- Easily the best new comedy of the Fall '09 season, Modern Family has very quickly risen up most critics' lists and even nabbed a Golden Globe nomination earlier this week. The show features a spectacular ensemble cast that tackles just about any family related issue from dating to divorce by putting one of the most unique spins on the genre in recent memory. With the show on hiatus until January, now would be a great time to catch up on the first half of the season and if you don't, Fizbo the ass kicking clown, will, you know, kick your ass.

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.

(S02E12) This week's episode of Parks and Recreation was bittersweet-- but mostly sweet. After being MIA for several episodes, Louis C.K. returned, only to say goodbye. However, sweet scenes between April and Andy, Mark and Ann, and the entire office finally realizing how much they need Leslie, made up for the sadness.

It wasn't all sappy, though. When you have a councilman who gets a babysitter pregnant and then proceeds to have sex with four delivery-room nurses and a woman who's husband is getting a liver transplant, there is bound to be some funny-- and apparently an ass shot or two.

Writer Alan Yang has been a busy little boy.

He's not only been writing for the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation, but he's got two movies in the can and a third he helped rewrite. I thought I was the only human being on Earth who got no sleep because of his writing career.

Now he can add another reason to not go to bed early. Fox has picked up his pitch for a sitcom called Jackpot about a group of high school kids who win the lottery. Sounds like someone already has.

(S02E11) Since it's December and it's time for all of those end of the year lists, can I just say that Aziz Ansari is one of my favorite people on television right now? Everything that he does as Tom Haverford is completely amazing, and every time he speaks, I just want more of him on the screen.

Even though I was dismayed to find out that Tom and Wendy have a Green Card marriage (I kind of wanted the creepy little dude to win just once and get the hot wife), I like how they've stretched out the storyline and have really made it into something interesting. It's been slow, but each time we see something about it, it's a nice little payoff. First we had the Halloween episode in which we saw, once again how adorable Tom and Wendy actually are together, along with first being introduced to the horrifying potential of a Wendy/Ron Swanson relationship.