Top Tv moments of the Year, 2008

Top 20 TV Moments of The Year
Posted on December 25th, 2008 by pressplay in Television

A lot has happened this year in the marvellous world of Television. But if we had to pick the highlights, here are our Top 20 TV Moments Of The Year.

20. Bellick Dies on Prison Break

Of all the deaths that have occured on the show since its first season, this may have possibly been the most dignified death so far. As opposed to the beheading of Dr. Sara Tancredi (they later on took it back), which caused an uproar with the fans, Bellick’s demise was honorable and served a purpose greater than to shock its viewers. It felt as though he had died for the right reasons.


19. Dylan is Kelly’s Baby Daddy on 90210

Luke Perry may still be dead against appearing on this show, but that didn’t stop the writers from partially giving its fans what they wanted: Dylan to be the father of Kelly’s Steve-look-alike-baby. Not only did it bring another dimension to the renewed Kelly/Brenda friendship but it also left the doors wide open in terms of storyline if Jason Priestley or Luke Perry ever decide to return. That, and a mystery on a show like 90210? We prefer to have an answer and move on.

18. Desperate Housewives Fast Forwards 5 Years

One Tree Hill did it, now it’s Desperate Housewives. And we’re happy to say that the latter did a far better job with the concept than the CW series did. We find that the forward motion re-invigorated the series and brought it back to its first season glory.

17. Lindsay Lohan on Ugly Betty

Nevermind that her stint was cut short. The truth of the matter is, Lohan’s appearance on the acclaimed comedy show reminded us why we liked Lohan as an actress in the first place. Her appearance almost made us forgot the horrendous “I Know Who Killed Me”, and reminded us of her far better acting stints.


16. Dean Crawls Out Of Hell on Supernatural

We, like most viewers, knew Dean couldn’t be dead. Or at least that he couldn’t stay dead for very long. But even in our wildest dreams we hadn’t imagined his getting out of hell to be so satisfyingly suspenseful and epic. His crawling out of hell was one of the best season openings of the year.

15. Blair Says Those 3 Little Words on Gossip Girl

As entertaining as the cat and mouse game between Chuck and Blair is on Gossip Girl, everything that led up to Blair finally uttering those long-awaited 3 words exceeded expectations. The happiness and relief at hearing her utter those words was brief however, and coated with sadness, anger and despair. There’s no other way to do things on Gossip Girl, and we loved it.

14. Jim Dies on Ghost Whisperer

It is perhaps the most daring move the series has made thus far - and we’re not entirely sure its resolution will work - but so far so good. Even better than good. The drastic change has not only given Jennifer Love Hewitt and her tv husband far meatier material to work with but it has also moved the storyline to a more serial and mythological form. The ghost-of-the-week angle has always worked for this show, but we find that this works much better and is far more intriguing. And it its own ghostly way, the idea of a dead Jim transfering to another body just, well, works.



13. House and Cuddy Kiss on House

After years of witnessing the unmistakable chemistry between the two, the show finally gave its viewers the payoff they’d craved for so long. House planted a wet one on Cuddy. The twist, as satisfying as it was unexpected, opens up a lot of new doors for future storyline. We don’t expect these two to get together any time soon, but we do enjoy the new dimension this has added to their relationship. As far as first kisses go, this one ranked right up there.

12. Elizabeth Hasslebeck Makes An Ass Of Herself on THE VIEW

There aren’t many entries on our list this year that have to do with unscripted shows such as this one, but this is one that simply could not be overlooked. Hasslebeck’s comments, her verbal battles with her co-hosts and guests, and her often inexperienced views of all things Republican made for great television. Or, well, at the very least great comedy. We’re not sure she meant it that way, but that makes it even better.

11. Finding Earth on Battlestar Gallactica

One of the very few “FINALLY!” moments of the year. Great moment on a great show. That is all.

10. Sylar Slices Claire’s Head Open on heroes

Heroes has always had its ups and downs - and sadly we are still longing for one great season that retains its greatness from start to finish but we digress. And one of the highs this year was seeing Sylar finally getting his hands on Cheerleader Claire and slicing her head open - with her awake and senseless during the entire procedure! Her line about him eating her brain and his answer may have been one of the greatest line of dialogue this year on television. We need more moments like these, Heroes, and less of the nonsense.

9. Chase and Cameron Finally Get Something To Do On House

We will admit, we could care less about Thirteen. And for that reason, we couldn’t help but feel cheated when, last year, the show chose to focus entirely on its array of new characters (including Thirteen) as opposed to fan favorites such as Chase and Cameron. And just when we’d almost lost hope, our two beloved original members of the show were finally given something to do! It was nice to see that the show hadn’t completely dropped the idea of the Chase and Cameron relationship and that it decided to devote more than 2 seconds of time to it this year. Morrisson and Spencer are two of the finest supporting actors on television right now, and it’s always a shame to see them backburnered for no aparent reason.

8. Sarah Silverman Fucks Matt Damon on Jimmy Kimmel Live

There are just no words to express the greatness of this little skit. It was by far the greatest musical moment of the past year. An honorable mention to Kimmel’s response to the video (I’m Fucking Ben Affleck). And kudos to Damon and Affleck for their involvement in both skits.


7. Sex And The City Moves To The Big Screen

Whoever said that television series attempting to conquer the big screen were doomed for failure obviously had not anticipated the success of the Sex and the City movie. As one of the biggest grossing summer films of the year, City not only proved the myth wrong but did so while giving its fans a taste of what made the series so damn popular. Carrie and her gal pals instantly became queens of the Box Office. (May we now get a Gilmore Girls feature? Please?)

6. Cameron’s Origins Are Revealed on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

This was perhaps the best episode of the series so far. Not only did it give Summer Glau (far too underrated an actress in our opinion) juicy material to work with, but it also established Cameron as a far more complex character. The scene in which it is revealed that Alison (also played by Summer Glau) is being held and interrogated (and later killed) by our very own Cameron was as chilling as it was satisfying.

5. Sookie Kills Rene on True Blood

There’s nothing we love more than a female character who can take care of herself. As much as we love her vampire lover, Bill, and all his heroics in her favor, and her shapeshifter of a friend, Sam, and his attempts at saving her from the big bad, we were overjoyed to see that Sookie is far more than just a television damsel in distress. She not only fought Rene, but she violently finished him off - beheading him with a shovel. That was far more gratifying than if one of her boys had come to the rescue.

4. The Island Moves on LOST

The last season of Lost reminded us of why we fell in love with it in the first place. And in perhaps one of the season’s biggest twists, Ben turned his little Monkey Wheel and made the Island disappear into thin air. Jack, Kate, Sun and co. weren’t the only ones shocked and left scratching their heads. And boy did it make for good TV!

3. Chloe Becomes Brainiac On Smallville

As Chloe Sullivan, Allison Mack has always been a fan favorite who has delivered the goods. But never has she been as captivating as she has this past year while her character journeyed onto the dark side. The hospital scene in which she cold-bloodedly kills the young man who has uncovered Clark’s secret was nothing short of chilling and unexpected. Her delivery was pitch-perfect, and it gave the show one of it’s best episodic endings in a really long time. We look forward to more evil Chloe, if only for the fact that it has been one of the biggest highlights of the series so far.

2. Barney And Robin Hookup on How I Met Your Mother

From the begining of the series, Robin has been used as a red herring for the real mother. And as it turns out, her highly publicized second Robin Sparkles video was also a red herring for the real episode’s surprise. Not only do Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders have tremendous chemistry on screen (and are both extremely funny), but their characters just fit together. If we didn’t think so at the begining of the series, we sure do now. And we can’t help but root for them. They make for one of television’s most enjoyable duo this year.

1. Tina Fey Does SNL

Does it even come as a surprise that this would be our #1 pick? It was Tina Fey’s year. No ifs, ands or buts about it. She ruled at the Emmys, she shines on 30 Rock, and her hilarious appearances as Sarah Palin on SNL made for the single greatest thing on TV this past year. If you watch only one television moment this year, watch this one.

# 10 – “Desperate Housewives” Fast Forwards Five Years

It could have been a total disaster but the show’s creator, Marc Cherry, and his decision to fast forward the show five years into the future was a smart one. Now Gabrielle Solis is a harried mother of two young daughters, Bree Hodge is a successful caterer and cook book author, Edie Britt is married to a psycho, Susan Mayer is divorced from plumber Mike after a car accident and Lynnette is dealing with troubled teenage twins. It also allows them to flashback through those five years to see what had happened. Maybe Marc watched a little too much “Lost”!


# 9 – “30 Rock’s” Huge Guest Stars

This show doesn’t need stunt casting to help with the comedy, only with the ratings – and they landed two of the biggest stars around — Jennifer Aniston and Oprah Winfrey — to help kick off their second season. And the ratings spiked (finally)!


# 8 – Dylan is Kelly’s Baby Daddy

“90210,” The CW remake of “Beverly Hills, 90210” hasn’t exactly been setting the TV sets on fire. It lacks the same zing as the old series (Oh, how we miss Aaron Spelling’s genius!) but it did produce one major water cooler moment this year. When old cast member Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) — who is now West Beverly High’s guidance counselor — finally clued us in via best bud Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty, who pops in every now and again to the show) that her four-year-old son, Sammy, is the offspring of Dylan McKay and not Brandon Walsh (her two famous past loves).

# 7 – When Elizabeth Hasselbeck Attacks!

Everyone is entitled to voice their opinion and the “Survivor” star turned ‘The View” co-host took it to a new level during the McCain/Obama election season battling Whoopi, Sherri and Joy. Even Barbara had to step in and quiet her down at one point. Maybe next year she could bring on Sue Hawk from “Survivor’s” first season to rehash the whole rat/snake speech she gave at that finale. I’d love to see those two go at it!

# 6 – Britney Spears’ “How I Met Your Mother” Comeback

After a difficult 2007 and first half of 2008, Britney cleaned up her act and chose to make her first work experience a comedic one by guest starring on CBS’s brilliant ensemble comedy. A smart move on her part as it showed her looking great, sounding great and even poking fun of herself. Here’s to Britney back on top in ’09!


The water cooler TV moment of the year thanks to YouTube where most people watched Jimmy Kimmel’s girlfriend announce to him, via music video, on his late night talk show that she was leaving him for Matt Damon whom she was… well, you know. His equally funny response later on was that he was F#@!ing Ben Affleck.. Cheers to Matt and Ben for being great sports. The only sad part was when Sarah and Jimmy announced months later that they had really broken up. Fortunately, they have since reunited.

# 4 - “Lost’s” Oceanic Six

Maybe it was just a marketing scheme like “Heroes” whole ‘Save The Cheerleader Save The World’ thing in season one but I fell hook, line and sinker for season four’s genius idea to allow six survivors off the island – Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sayid, Aaron (Claire’s son), and Sun. Now we need to find out why they have to go back and where exactly the island went and basically just what the hell is this show really about! January 21 cannot come soon enough!

# 3 – The Michael Phelps Olympics

So, the USA won 110 medals in this year’s summer games. The only eight I can remember are the golds won by swimming super-sensation Michael Phelps. Ask anyone 20 years from now and they will probably say the same thing. Oh, and maybe that those Chinese gymnasts really did not look 16!

#2 – “American Idol’s” David Vs. David

The FOX behemoth roared back with a satisfying season that came down to the rocker vs. the teen heartthrob - David Cook vs. David Archuleta. 97 million votes came in on the night of the finale, the most in the show’s history and this time “America did get it right” as Simon would say.

#1 - Tina Fey As Sarah Palin

Tina’s spot on impersonation of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live” made her the hottest commodity in Hollywood this year. The irony being that most “SNL” fans didn’t even realize Tina had left the show and was just coming back as a favor to Lorne Michaels. They know she left now. Although not enough of them still are watching “30 Rock.” Why people?! It’s brilliant!

Ever notice how people on TV have to do things differently? Like they can't just have a kid or adopt one — there's always a twist. And they can't have a party without some kind of fake serial killing thrown in. Or real serial killing. And also, they have sex with their pants on. Okay, not really sex, but... read on for this week's Top Moments.

10. Wildest Birthday Party: Sylar is back to being a killing machine on Heroes, but now he has a sense of humor. It was probably wrong to laugh at a birthday girl getting offed, but we lost it when a bunch of surprise partiers catch Sylar wrist-deep in the guest of honor's blood and he offers up this reply: "Cake!" Join the party at our Online Video Guide.

9. Driest Performance: On VH1's riveting Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, former American Idol contestant Nikki McKibbin contestant performs stone-cold sober — for what she says is the first time. (When we think of people imbibing on Idol, McKibbin's name isn't the first that comes to mind.) The show's finale is next week, and with episodes this good, we'll need rehab to wean ourselves off it.

8. Best Return: Sen. John McCain returns again to the Late Show with David Letterman, this time with nothing at stake, and goes back to being the funny guy who kind of disappeared during the presidential campaign. Asked if Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of auctioning off President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, is stupid or nuts, McCain chooses "a rare combination of both."

7. Most Shocking Confessions: Meredith, The Office's resident drunk, admits an addiction... to porn. We're trying to scrub that visual from our minds. Phyllis, meanwhile, drops a bombshell that puts Angela's affair out in the open to everyone except Andy — who misses it by composing a Christmas jingle on a sitar.

6. Most Overused Child-Type: Does anyone on television have a non-love-child child? In the aftermath of Bart's death on Gossip Girl, we learned the real reason Lily had a little stay in France: She wasn't crazy, just with child. Rufus' child.

5. Best Christmas Miracle: 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy backs his car into his mother, Colleen (the legendarily excellent Elaine Stritch), then... waits... eight... minutes to call an ambulance. She nails down the timeline with an airtight presentation involving a broken watch, cell phone records, and a homemade flash card.

4. Best Handoff: Tom Brokaw, after months of capably handling Meet the Press, passes the reins to David Gregory. We don't expect him to fill Tim Russert's shoes, but who could? Watch Gregory take the chair in our Online Video Guide.

3. Killer Wedding Gift: When Dexter was abducted, we assumed he was being driven off by a serial killer operating on instructions from the scheming Miguel Prado. In fact, Dex is off to his bachelor party, complete with a rap-video tableau of leggy ladies in a strip club. The best gift of all arrives at the end: Our dubious hero gets Miguel, and just might live happily ever after.

2. Most Deserved Wish Come True: Dr. Cuddy, who must be exhausted from dealing with cranky, rude and rebellious House for five years now, finally has something to celebrate this Christmas. After she saves a dying patient's newborn daughter from a crack den, the baby's grandparents decide to let Cuddy become a foster parent, then adopt the little bundle.

1. Best Song About Premature Ejaculation: Are you sick of Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone's instant-classic Saturday Night Live digital short yet? Neither are we. We just wish it had lasted a little longer. Experience the excitement in on our Online Video Guide.