Dennis Haysbert recently claimed that his role as President Palmer on 24 may have helped pave the way for a viable African American presidential candidate. He went on to claim that his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the movie Goodbye Bafana ended apartheid and that his role as Jonas Blane in The Unit cured polio. Haysbert was then wrestled to the ground by his handlers and is now "recuperating" at the Clay Aiken Home for Delusional Celebrities.

My first thought upon hearing this news was that Dennis Haysbert is obviously insane. Since I've been criticized in this space for not having an open mind about insane things, I decided to take Mr. Haysbert at his word. I then went even further and went to work putting together a list of other politicians who exist mainly due to the hard work done for them by TV actors. After researching Wikipedia for almost a full fifteen minutes, this is the list I've managed to put together...

When you sit down to watch an episode of Scrubs do you compare the zany antics of Turk and J.D. to those of Hawkeye and Trapper John? Do you equate the tough love of Carla to that of Major Margaret Houlihan? Does Bob Kelso remind you of Frank Burns?

I ask because over the last few weeks we've seen a few comments on our Scrubs reviews stating that the show can be considered the new M*A*S*H, that other medical comedy from a generation ago (for those of us who remember first-run episodes of that show you can now feel old.). It does have its similarities: both are shows that mix comedy with serious topics; both have their wacky characters; and both are workplace comedies (even though M*A*S*H's workplace location was the Korean War). But, is Scrubs really the new M*A*S*H? Kind of, but not quite.