For the first time since the end of his tenure on 'The Tonight Show,' Conan O'Brien had a chance to appear on camera and share his thoughts on the whole long, drawn out civil war between him and Jay Leno and NBC and GE and the late night industry at large.

For the record, Conan O'Brien's sit down with Steve Kroft on '60 Minutes' on May 2, 2010 -- the first date he was contractually allowed to discuss what happened -- clearly established that while he's disappointed about what happened, Conan O'Brien is not defeated. To paraphrase 'Evita,' "Don't cry for him, America."

The 'N' in NCIS stands for Naval. In case you didn't know that, I thought I'd tell you upfront, so that maybe the rest of this news will make sense. TV Guide has reported that Ray Mabus, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy is appearing on NCIS. Yes, that's right, the real United States Secretary of the Navy is going to guest on America's most watched drama series.

Oh, one more thing. He's not playing the Secretary of the Navy. He's playing an NCIS agent. So until we get more information, it seems that Secretary Mabus simply has a desire to act and CBS is giving him a chance to show his stuff. Or maybe he's a really big fan of NCIS (he wouldn't be alone).

Last night's Glee -- "Mash-Up" -- was one of the best of the season, but it may be that it was merely an appetizer and that next week's show is going to be the big enchilada (hmm... I must be hungry). Anyway, the show won't be back until November -- after the World Series --- and based on Fox's previews, it looks like a lot is going to happen.

In a portent of things to come, Dollhouse is being shoved aside by Fox during November sweeps. The popular rumor is that November will see a repeat of House shown on Friday nights. The upside is that December will have Dollhouse go double-long as two episodes will be shown back-to-back on Friday nights.

At least Fox is living up to its promise to show all 13 episodes of the second season. Granted, Dollhouse has not been Whedon's best effort, but Fox hasn't exactly been kind to the show what with relegating it to Friday nights.

This is just an example of how outdated the current ratings system is. I'm sure if DVRs or Internet downloads were taken into account, Dollhouse's ratings would be much better than they are on paper. Sadly, we live in an unfair world (with an unfair Nielsen Ratings system) so it's likely we're looking at the last season of the show.

Generally speaking, the CSI franchise has been a ratings juggernaut for CBS. Still, this season the original CSI has been declining a bit. It started last season when Laurence Fishburne took on the role of Dr. Ray Langston, becoming the main man on the show with William Petersen exiting.

Well, in an effort to perhaps pump up Fishburne's popularity, CBS is doing something unique. For the first time, a CSI character -- Langston -- will crossover to the other two shows in the same week, all part of the same story.

Will it work? Probably. Crossover stunts are always fun and it'll give viewers who watch one of the CSI's or two, to sample the other. That's not as weird as it sounds. I only watch CSI, not NY or Miami.

It'll be how I met Lily's dad on How I Met Your Mother. Chris Elliott has been cast as Lily's father on the CBS sitcom, a character who is supposedly something of a good-for-nothing parent. Elliott is hilarious and specializes in playing these kind of goofy roles. On Everybody Loves Raymond, for instance, his was Robert's overly familiar brother-in-law, Peter, who liked Ray just a little too much.

On HIMYM, Lily's dad will appear for the upcoming Thanksgiving episode on November 23. According to Michael Ausiello of EW.com, there will be series of flashbacks to illustrate exactly what's what with Lily and her father, why their relationship is "troubled." I'm hoping for more from this casting than Eric Braeden as Robin's dad; they never really used him right.

What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.

And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally -- Saturday Night Live's take on it all.

It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...

It's November sweeps time. When thinking of that time of year, TV fans know that this also means huge cliffhangers, major twists and a lot of guest stars. A good number of fans don't like the stress this time of year brings, especially since they know some of their favorite series will go on hiatus for December and the first weeks of January.

To help you prepare for November sweeps 2008, we compiled spoilers for the November episodes of some of the best shows on TV. We give you spoilers for series such as: Bones, Brothers & Sisters, Criminal Minds, CSI, Desperate Housewives, Fringe. Ghost Whisperer, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, Prison Break, Smallville, The Simpsons, The Unit, Without a Trace and Ugly Betty.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Straight from the BBC: the first two minutes of the Doctor Who Christmas special titled "The Next Doctor" will be shown on the BBC Children In Need special on November 14.

Obviously, this goes against the myriad of rumors about the Children In Need special, including the appearance of the seven surviving actors to play to role. Yeah, I didn't buy that one either.

Not much is known about the Christmas special at this point. It takes place in Victorian England and the Cybermen are the villains. Russell T. Davies has said in interviews that the Doctor meets a future incarnation of himself (played by David Morrissey). Frankly, I don't buy it. Why would the creative team want to pigeonhole themselves like that when they probably have no idea at this point who the next Doctor will be?

Sadly, I won't be able to watch the clip live as it will only be broadcast in England. If I'm willing to wait a day, there is always YouTube.

"Hot Mess": Ahh! Olympic fever is catching hold. The famous Torch attempted to make its epic journey through various lands pain-free, only to have protesters and crazy people totally ruin everything. In Paris, France, things got so bad that the police decided to shut it all down and just throw the torch in a car and speed off. And then Jon gave us a quick little history factoid when he shared that the Torch tradition was started under Hitler's regime. His message to France: "Way to sh*t on Hitler's legacy".

Sweeps period is not only important for networks but also for TV viewers. Sweeps periods are when some of the biggest events in a TV series happen: deaths, explosions, extra special guest stars, etc.

To prepare you for November sweeps, I've combed through the networks' sweeps press releases and official episode descriptions and extracted what seems to be the juicy information for almost all scripted series on the five major networks.

All spoilers listed after the jump are actually spoilers the networks want you to know!

As you may recall, Lost is doing a funky scheduling thing this season where we get to see six new episodes in a row (last night's was number four) and then it goes on a long break before showing the rest of the season. After episode six on November 8th, Lost's time slot will be filled by the new drama, Day Break. Lost will return February 7th and will have new episodes every week through mid-May.

In other scheduling news, a new episode of the original Extreme Makeover was on last Friday. Did anybody watch it? Apparently not, because ABC pulled the rest of the episodes in favor of reruns of Grey's Anatomy in the 8 pm time slot.

Doesn't it annoy the heck out of you that, because of baseball, FOX doesn't air the annual Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episode until after Halloween? It annoys me. There's no reason why FOX couldn't pre-empt one of those insipid baseball pre-game shows to show the episode. I mean, really; does anyone actually think that a FOX game starts at 8 PM anymore? By the time Jeannie Zelasko pulls out every tired sports cliche in the book and Kevin Kennedy gives his "a ten year old could do this" analysis, 8:20 has rolled around and we haven't even seen the first pitch...

Aaaaannyway, if you're hankering for some "Treehouse", the Chowdaheads blog has what you need; they have posted video of all sixteen "Treehouse" episodes. The video embeds are pretty small, but at least you can see them all in one place. That is, if you don't have the "Treehouse" DVDs. And I do agree with the Chowdaheads: "Treehouses" two through nine are the best ones.

[via Pop Candy]

After securing all the Star Wars films on DVD, the first thing I did was to start with The Phantom Menace and watch all of the films in story order. Of course, I had to make due with Lucas' egregious digitally "improved" versions of the original trilogy. Sure, now you can get the original theatrical versions on DVD, but back then they weren't available. Why not just attach a vacuum hose to my wallet, George?

Sorry, I'm getting off the subject, which is that in November, Cinemax will be airing all six Star Wars movies both in release order and in story order. Now you can see how how Anakin turned from a young lad on Tatooine who wasn't a very good actor into the Dark Lord of the Sith with James Earl Jones' vocal cords. You'll also see Leia help smuggle both the Death Star plans and two cinnamon buns strapped to the side of her head, thwarting the Emperor's diabolical plan to win the Intergalactic Bake Off and Craft Fair. Cinemax on Demand will also be offering all six movies starting November 2nd, plus video extras, including a deleted scene in which a group of confused Ewoks take turns pooping into R2-D2.

I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of Smokey Robinson, but whenever "The Tracks of My Tears" comes on the radio, I have to belt it out right along with Mr. Robinson. Hey, it's a great song, what can I say? If you dig Smokey and you're also a fan of Days of Our Lives, be sure to tune in to the November 14 and 15 episodes. The plot will involve Smokey playing himself and finding Marlena Black (played by Deidre Hall) lost in the woods while on vacation in his cabin. Later her love John finds her and Smokey performs a song for them. He sings "On Top of Old Smokey" to try and coerce the couple into a threesome. Okay, the song is actually "I Love Your Face," off his new album. I like my version better, though.