I’m officially on vacation until tomorrow. But I’m limbering up my fingers with a little low-impact blogging. And lo and behold, the late-night hosts have obligingly provided me with my material for my first day back by returning to the air tonight. But not, thanks to Worldwide Pants’ interim agreement with the striking writers, on equal …

What does a TV critic watch when he’s on vacation? For this TV critic, the answers are (1) the upcoming Backyardigans movie Tale of the Mighty Knights, which was in heavy rotation on the portable DVD player during a roundtrip car journey to Michigan, and which, in the estimation of Tuned In Jr. Jr., is the greatest movie of all time, and …

Tuned In will shortly be returning to the air, having reached a tentative agreement with its writing staff of one. (My Internet residual rate will be increased to three dry food pellets per 1,000 pageviews. Yay!) So too will TV be returning from its holiday slumber, sort of, with a couples’ edition of The Biggest Loser premiering tonight …

What do I, a professional TV critic, watch on New Year’s Eve? The inside of my eyelids. I pride myself on passing out well before the stroke of midnight these days, partly from parental exhaustion, partly because Mrs. Tuned In and I throw a New Year’s Day Open House and I need to wake up and cook, and partly because I hate New Year’s Eve …

How well do we really know each other? I mean sure, you know what I watch on TV and I know what you watch on TV. But heretical as it is to say it, there are other things in life besides TV. You’re all people of strong opinions and distinct tastes: What’s on your iPod, on your bookshelf, in your kitchen?

I’ll start. Here are a few non-TV …

I’ve said this before, but any top-10 list is really a top 9 list, plus about a 20-way tie for 10th. When I put together my lists of the top 10 new and returning shows, there were numerous shows that might have made the lists, had they been a touch better, had I been in a different mood that day or, frankly, for no good reason at all. …

You didn’t think I’d let the year end without doing this list, did you? To hell with the holiday spirit!

1. The Writers’ Strike. You need not have a side in this confict to hate it, so long as your side happens to be opposite a TV screen filled with reruns and game shows. Pay the freakin’ writers and end it already!

2. On the Lot. This …

Isn’t there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?

Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please.

Christmas is about shaking it like a Polaroid picture.

Happy hols, all.

I decided not to robo-post a daily Morning After thread over break, there being so little original TV on during the holiday weeks. But I’ll leave this up as a general hangout / do-it-yourself discussion area for the week. Have fun! Use the coasters!

In the TIME landing with a papery thump on a newsstand near you, I wrap things up with a closing essay dedicated to a certain Person of the Year from the recent past…

Hey there, You! It’s been, what, a year? I don’t think I’ve seen You since we named You Person of the Year 2006. What did we praise You for again? Oh, right: “for

…

The same caveat applies here as to my ten-best episodes list yesterday–I didn’t keep a list through the year, this is largely off the top of my head and impressionistic–only more so. In fact, for fairness’ sake I’m not going to bother to number it. Here we go:

Flight of the Conchords, Foux de Fa Fa. Why did I leave FOTC off my best …

Mario Perez / ABC

I promised you a list of the 10 best TV episodes of the year, and here it is. But first a caveat. Because I didn’t really plan ahead well, I didn’t do what I do for my top 10 shows list, which is to keep a running tab throughout the year. So this is really more like The 10 Best TV Episodes That Came to Mind When I …

Photo by Greefus Groinks.

It’s December rerun season, the Person of the Year issue has been put to bed, and even as you read this, I am slipping daintily into a hot tub filled with creamy, high-proof egg nog.

Yes, the holidays are here, and between TIME’s offices closing down (“special double issue”–the three sweetest words in the …