Here are the top five TV moments that made me stand up and say “yeah!” in 2008. (As in: “Yeah! TV is awesome!” or “Yeah! I still don’t watch Mad Men or Damages!”)

5. When I realized during the season premiere of Degrassi: The Next Generation that Season 8 would mark a return to classic theme-song territory

OK, yeah, it’s more of a pop-punk cover of the Degrassi theme than the original gospel glee club incarnation, and I have no idea what to think of these new grade eight kids who are really more like Degrassi: Is This a New Generation Yet? I’m Still Figuring Out Whether I Belong to X or Y, but after a ridiculous hiatus that featured our favorite Canadians striking poses like the cheese-tastic recent opening credits for The City, the show’s opening once again glories to the sight of all cast members, no matter how peripheral or in some cases yet-to-be-formally-introduced, mugging for the camera while engaged in school activities. Whatever it takes indeed.

4. When Olivia Munn led an impromptu chant of “USA! USA!” on Attack of the Show

This may have happened more than once. I almost always find it funny.

3. When that one Terminator went way back in time and orchestrated a variety of historic events in order to seal himself into a new building, and wait there for like a hundred years in order to bust out and kill this one guy.

Seriously, I have to hand it to the Terminators: even when they screw up, they’re willing to wait for a hundred years inside of a wall to fix it. And to kill you.

2. When Pam and Jim Got Engaged

This little scene is everything that’s wonderful about the Pam-Jim relationship: sweet, unadorned, and completely free of Friends-style soapiness:

1. When Liz Lemon terrorized her staff by promising that “you’ll all have chins!”

Little on TV delights me as much as 30 Rock (Steve Martin lamenting “I miscounted the men!” could’ve just as easily made this list), and just about nothing on TV delighted me as much as this particular moment which, even better, is virtually impossible to explain. It’s a moment from the episode “Sandwich Day,” and it’s not available on NBC’s website. Basically, Liz Lemon, brandishing an awards statuette, threatens Kenneth the page, telling him to get her another sandwich or “I’ll cut your face up so bad you’ll have a chin.” Funny enough, but when Liz stepped back, statuette still in hand, and nonsensically opened up her threat to the rest of the room, I pretty much died.

Best Dramas: Damages, True Blood, Mad Men, Terminator

Anything I could say about the first three shows has been said a million times before by every critic. They’re just good TV. As for Terminator, come on kids give it a chance! Shirley Manson as urinal-bot mom, awkward terminator humor (see Marissa’s #4), trips to Mexico for burritos… how can you go wrong?

Best International Reality Show: Project Runway Australia

I think the contestants in this version may have out polite-d the Canadian version. The show is very similar to the first season of the American version except the Tim Gunn guy looks like the old dude from the Six Flags commercials. The contestants are all loveable, and are even nice enough to pretend they’re interested in meeting Kelly Rowland. Sadly, Kristy Hinze as host is not as funny/scary as Iman but is comparable to Heidi Klum.

Best Unaired Commercial: AFSCME
My favorite Youtube discovery of ’08, audio NSFW.

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Best Shows To Catch Up On Your iPod

Dead Set – Also on Dan’s list, it’s just fun filler and more like a zombie movie broken up into 5 parts than an actual TV show.

Breaking Bad – It’s the dad from Malcolm in the Middle as a high school chemistry teacher who brews meth and uses Mr. Wizard-esque science against drug dealers. Bryan Cranston looks and acts identical to my high school chem teacher, right down to the moustache. No wonder he won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama.

Summer Heights High – Comedian Chris Lilley plays an obnoxious rich girl, an overdramatic drama teacher, and a Polynesian break dancer who all attend the same high school. The series ends with a Hamlet 2 style musical denouncing drugs and sluttiness and lauding the drama teacher for his work keeping kids clean. The show also contains an unusually large amount of penis graffiti (always a win in my book).

The Funniest 7 Minutes of a Music Themed Episode: Haven’t you heard?

What can I say, I’m an idiot who loves juvenile stuff. Here’s 7 minutes of The Bird Is The Word jokes (ignore the rest of the episode since it’s crap).

Ooh! Ooh! My turn! My turn! My five favorite things:

5. How I Met Your Mother‘s Sly References to My Life

I realize that this may not interest anyone but me, but that’s why it’s at No. 5. And I also realize that a lot of people also say, “That show is just like my LIFE!” when, in fact, the similarities are not all that impressive. (Wow, you wear overpriced clothes and guzzle down pink drinks at horrible, sceney bars? You’re just like the people on Sex and the City.) In fact, if you’re around my age, and especially if you’re my age and you live in New York, there are probably a lot of things about How I Met Your Mother that resemble situations from your life.

But there are a couple really, really specific references to my life in How I Met Your Mother, and I love seeing them turn up. The first is that the creator went to my college, and he’s always including little nods to the alma mater. At first it was just a college tee-shirt here and there, until they finally admitted that the characters went to my school. But even better than the outright admission are the little references: For example, Marshall briefly worked at a law firm called Nicholson, Hewitt, and West—which happened to be the names of our three freshmen dorms.

But even better than that is my favorite reference of all—which, fine, happened in 2007, but like Dan I didn’t see the episode until 2008, so it counts—is the episode where they make fun of my favorite hometown amusement park: Rye Playland. In HIMYM it turns up as “Tuckahoe Funland,” probably because they make reference to a myriad of deaths that have happened there. Sadly, this is true for my park as well.

• John Stewart + Oscars = dud (I thought he did a good job, here’s a roundup of his gags)
• Here’s to Sarah Silverman
• HBO joins CBS and NBC and puts its shows online
• DC area stud/former OC actor Chris Carmack to join the cast of Desperate Housewives
• Weird guy recruits army of homeless to protest Discovery channel
• Washington Post celebrates 20 years of drunk crackheads in pit stained wife beaters
• The AV Club interviews the Terminator
• A roundup of the largest real life to fictional age differences in TV. They miss the 10 year age difference for almost every character on Kyle XY.
• 8% less love for Flavor Flav

You live in DC and blog? GTFO!

• Salon has a hot mess of Project Runway spoilers. For fans of photography more spoilers here (not enough? Check out another video here)
• Is the writer’s strike finally over?
• Sci-Fi network
• NY Mag doesn’t understand why Letterman is losing to Leno
• FYI – A streaming video is worth $1200
• Two Words – OPRAH STORE
• Barack Obama . I’m still waiting for Peaches to win a Grammy for her hit remix “Barack the Shocker”.
• Find out when your favorite show will return
• Summer lovin! Summer Glau talks Terminator
• Survivor Micronesia is a winning loser
• What’s weirder: A Sunny Day in Glasgow getting served brunch by the kid from The Facts of Life – OR – Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson – OR – Larry King and Snoop Dog getting

I need a good tweed jacket with patches.

• Here’s another article saying that the strike is almost over.
• NBC has picked up Kath and Kim without even seeing a pilot.
• Comedy Central is roasting Willie Nelson.
• HBO will stream the .
• Big Brother is turning off the air conditioning so people will wear less clothes.  I can’t say this is really surprising.  Just creative.
• Here’s a new Ask Ausiello with info on the last episodes of Scrubs.
• Thomas Dekker thinks Hayden and Milo are creepy.
• On a new Lifetime show, .  Who is apparently awesome because she can shoot lasers out of her boobs.  Or something.

Get out your upright bass.

• God willing, the strike is almost done! And Ausiello lets us know about the possible returns of some ABC shows.
• USA Today ranks the Superbowl ads.
• AfterElton isn’t pleased by the Richard Simmons commercial.
• Richard Hatch is staying in jail.
• Cracked lists the five questions the Lost writers need to answer.
• Food Network is creating a magazine.
• We’re being invaded by Canada. .
• Fans of The 4400 are doing the “don’t cancel my show, we’re sending you a lot of one thing in the mail” thing. This time, with sunflower seeds.
• The star of the Terminator show is tired of being compared to Linda Hamilton. Even though it’s completely natural to.
• Baltimore Magazine goes behind the scenes of The Wire.

What can I say? I love the robots and the fighting and the time travel. I know I haven’t seen a lot of new TV lately, so you might start to question my judgment, but I still think that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is one of the best, most promising new shows of this season.

(Up front: I’ve never been obsessed with the Terminator movies — I’ve seen them each once — but I think they’re good fun. Except for the third one, which was disappointing. You don’t have to be a superfan to like the show. But knowing about the movies — a cursory glance at wikipedia will do — may help.)

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I will rave a bit.

Last night, when I wasn’t fast-forwarding through the already abbreviated Globes (as Kyle mentioned, my goal was to never hear Billy Bush speak extemporaneously, and I succeeded), I caught the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I have to say, I thought it was tops. A solid A- pilot. The second “premiere hour” is tonight, so do take a look.

The story takes place between movies two and three. For those who have only seen each movie once (or never), that means that future Savior of All Mankind, John Connor, is about 15. He’s played by Thomas Dekker, who you may remember from the Zach-is-gay-no-he’s-not controversy of early Heroes episodes. He has a good sense of earnest whinyness, and he looks convincingly enough like a cross between young Edward Furlong (movie 2) and youngish Nick Stahl (movie 3). His mother, as played by Lena Headey, maintains the suspicious toughness of the movie Sarah — and her horrible haircut. I was relieved that they cast someone who can pull off the toughness, unlike the pasty and meek Bionic Woman.

But all of that’s just window dressing for the plot, which I won’t get into here because it genuinely surprised me last night and I don’t want to ruin it. Like any story involving time travel, this one’s convoluted and paradoxical, but it’s trying something new — and it’s different enough from the movie to be fresh and interesting. Suffice to say, there are good robots and there are bad robots, and there are people who are going to blow up the world, and it’s exciting and full of questions. (For example — don’t read this if you don’t want a mild spoiler — why would Future John Connor send Young John Connor a sexy young lady robot to protect him? Is he messing with his younger self? He is, isn’t he?)

Also, a robot said “Come with me if you want to live.” Always a great line.