Bask in TV's warm glowing, warming glow. Until it fades and leaves you frozen out in a hedge maze.

All the good shows on TV seem to get canceled. I know why, of course. It's not a whiskey induced sense of grandeur. It's your fault. Well, not you specifically, because if you are reading this your IQ is probably above room temperature. But "you," as the general TV viewing public, are morons. It's a sad state, for sure, but I think it's getting better.

Good TV is better than any movie could ever be, but bad TV is worse than Ben Affleck in...well, anything.

I fancy myself a man of decent intelligence, even though I misspelled that word (whiskey's fault, I swear) and spell-check saved my ass, and I appreciate a good TV show.

I think The Sopranos changed a good deal of viewer perception of television serieseses. It was a drama, a serious character piece that showed multiple flawed characters in their true states and then moved them forward, into different shapes of themselves or the bottom of a body of water.

Unfortunately, The Sopranos didn't come out soon enough to save one of my favorite shows; Sports Night. They overlapped but I don't think HBO had enough influence in series programming at the time to save my show.

Sports Night was a comedramy, comedy-drama, or what-have-you. It was clever and that, I believe, was it's main downfall. That and ABC didn't promote the award winning series at all. But I can't say I don't understand the problem. How do you promote a show that is serious and funny to people that watch Jerry Springer? You can't because those people are worthless sacks that sit on their couches and lower the overall rating of human beings in the eyes of the aliens that watch us for entertainment.

Arrested Development is another show cut down because dumb people didn't watch it and the dumb network didn't advertise it. In all honesty, I didn't watch the show while it was on the air, because I didn't know about it. It's a show that requires memory and intelligence; two things most viewers do not possess. Shows like Life According to Jim and Friends don't have much for continuity that fans most pay attention to. Plus it is one of the most quotable shows of all time. But quoting it usually only makes a few people laugh. Arrested Development had so many long running jokes that almost every episode either referenced a previous or set up a future one, often both.

I think that required devotion is what kills some of these shows, if I like a show if I miss an episode I don't want to watch a new one, until I'm caught up. But until recently there were no options for this. Now the internet and On Demand make it possible for me to watch a show, usually before the next episodes comes on. Some channels are TERRIBLE at posting their shows though. FX is pretty slow. I'm get so interested in the worlds and characters of these shows that I will scour the internets to find somewhere to catch up. So FYI networks, put your crap up on the internet and you will likely get more viewers hook if they can actually watch your show.

But what also happens is just as bad is a show that runs WAY too long, like The Simpsons. The first ten seasons of The Simpsons are some of the best works of comedy in television history. The problem is it has run 10 years long than it should have. Originality left that show quite a long time ago, I gave up watching it several years ago when every show had a celebrity guest that played themselves and the family went somewhere like China or New York.

Good television shows should end when the story arch naturally runs itself out. FX is a good channel to watch, because they take chances but they also trust the creativity of their shows. The Shield ran for seven seasons and ended when Shawn Ryan wanted it to end. FX supported the show when most would have canceled it and allowed it to finish when most would have made it drag out until people just stopped watching.

Okay, now that my post is running over in length I will cut it with a proper ending, like good shows do.

Here's a list of others shows I like that aren't on TV anymore...I like cop shows, so there are a few of them, but I didn't mention most of them previously.

Touching Evil - A noir-ish detective show starring Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice). Very gritty and original...for a rip-off of a British show. The cinematography was very nice and the stories were good. NOT ON DVD, which is lame.

Firefly - a space-western that, despite being by the creator of Buffy was really good. On DVD with a movie that prequels and sequels the show.

Life - A cop show staring Damien Lewis (Band of Brothers) that was one of the more interesting cop shows. 2 seasons on DVD.

Life on Mars - Also a cop show that was a rip-off of a British show but it had a very unique premise that was done very well. On DVD

Ed - Was a pretty clever show. It starred Tom Cavanagh, who is a clever actor, that was not viewed by clever people. Not on DVD.

Dead Like Me - Funny/serious/gruesome show about a girl who becomes a grim reaper. Very well done. 2 seasons on DVD and a movie that isn't nearly as good as the show.

Jekyll - A BBC drama about a modern day Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Don't actually know if it was canceled or just wrapped up (as the Brits like to do) but it was damn clever and I wanted more of it. PLUS, you get to see Zach from Saved by the Bell get decapitated! Worth the price of admission.On DVD.

Over There - An Iraq war drama on FX that ran one season as was capital "A" Awesome. Good characters and serious drama that contained multiple story arcs at the same time. On DVD

Briscoe County Jr. - A western starring Bruce Fucking Campbell. Nuff said! On DVD.

The Critic - A cartoon starring Jon Lovitz. Clever...thus canceled. On DVD.