A lot of us here at TV Squad have been listing that for which we are thankful. Like many of the others, I feel I have to start with my wife and family, and my friends. And I'd also add the comedy community in Boston, where I work, and beyond, for giving me something worth writing about and following day after day, year after year.

But this is a TV site, so the big part of this list is the things I am thankful I can see on the rundown TV in my office that makes a horrible cranking sound when I try to play DVDs, ot downstairs when I'm not bothering anyone by trying to catch up on thirteen discs of the Steve Coogan Collection.

My Local Library

Don't laugh. I have a rule that I won't watch an episodic TV series unless I've started it from the beginning, which means I wind up missing a lot of shows everyone else is screaming praises for.

Paul Mooney is well known to stand-up comedians for his own work and for writing for his longtime friend, Richard Pryor. Outside of that, though, his name recognition gets a little fuzzier. So for TV comedy fans, Mooney's new memoir, Black Is the New White, provides some great behind-the-scenes moments they should probably know.

There are a lot of heartfelt stories about Richard Pryor and Mooney's own personal life, but there is a lot of fun TV trivia, as well. Mooney talks about getting forced onstage by a couple of friends to do his first solo stand-up spot in the early 60s in San Francisco. Mooney is drunk and nervous, and winds up doing the act of a comic named Ronnie Schell, who would later co-star with Jim Nabors on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Mooney admits whenever he catches the show in reruns, he feels a little guilty.

Mad TV came along at a time in American television history when America had an excuse to get out of the house and live healthy and productive lives on Saturday night.

But eventually, the show evolved into a 60-minute scream fest of recurring characters spouting catchphrases over and over and celebrity satire that taught lessons about the proliferation of pop culture and ignorance. Important lessons, such as "Boy is Anna Nicole Smith dumb and fat!" and "Hey, is that Paris Hilton a whore or what?" Every episode felt like a hand was reaching out of the TV and rubbing a cheese grater across my face. Now 14 years after its inception, Fox has finally decided to pull the plug on Mad TV and let it die a slow horrible death instead of taking it out Old Yeller-style, the way God intended.

(S05E01 / S05E02) First, let me apologize that this is being posted so late. There was a little mix-up behind the scenes here at the TV Squad Office Plaza and Community Fun Center that left both Paul Goebel and myself thinking that the other would be reviewing this episode. Our lead blogger asked "What happened to the review?" and all we could do was point at each other and make monkey noises. It's all sorted out, now, and you can expect new Last Comic Standing reviews with the same timely freshness that TV Squad reviews all its other shows.

Richard Pryor, like the Marx Brothers, is one of those rare forces in comedy whose contributions to the form seem to transcend time and space. His work is just as hilarious and scathing now as it was when he first shocked audiences with frank talk about his own tumultuous life. These days, Pryor is in his mid-sixties and struggling with MS, but he claims that the disease didn't ruin his life, it saved him from what could have been an inevitable end fueled by drugs and alcohol. I hate to admit that part of me wonders how anyone would consider being near paralyzed by disease as a blessing from God, but Pryor's optimism is uplifting to say the very least.