As much as there have been movies about the theater and movies about movies, the films that have been made about television are some of the best ever. This year alone, there are two movies nominated for Best Picture of the year by the Academy Awards that are all about television -- Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon. Without TV, neither of these films would exist. Looking back, here are the films about TV that set the standards by which Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon are measured.

I've been a nut about game shows ever since I was a kid (the good ones - I don't want to be bothered with something like Deal Or No Deal or Moment of Truth), and I've specifically been intrigued by the game show scandals of the 1950s. Game shows were really hot then - the reality shows of the 50s, really; several of them were on the air, they talked about and written about a lot, etc. - and several got caught in a cheating scandal, including Twenty-One, Dotto, and The $64,000 Question. The Twenty-One scandal was made into the Robert Redford movie Quiz Show, but I've always wanted to hear an in-depth explanation of what happened from Charles Van Doren, the teacher-turned-game show winner at the heart of the scandal (that's him on the right in the pic, with challenger Vivienne Nearing and host Jack Barry). Now Van Doren has opened up to The New Yorker in a piece that's long but well worth reading.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader kicks off its second season next month with four one-hour episodes and a two-hour season premiere.

The premiere airs Thursday, September 6 at 8:00 p.m., followed by a new episode every Thursday, save for one episode airing on Friday, October 5.

I've only watched a few episodes of this series, but I can only take so many minutes of a yammering jackass behaving in a manner that proves he's not only less smart than a fifth grader, he's also vastly more immature.

Fox has fast-tracked the production of a new game show from Mark Burnett (pictured) and Mike Darnell. The show, called Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, will take its quiz show questions directly from the textbooks of first through fifth graders. The show could premiere as early as this coming January or February.

The show's set will resemble a classroom with one contestant betting cash on whether or not he or she can answer a series of general knowledge questions. There will be five fifth graders of average intelligence on stage with the contestant to act as lifelines and, this is my favorite part, to "gently mock" the adult.