Leah suggested we take that tv crush topic and turn it a post of its own.

That’s just what we’re doing.

And, as always, we fully expect/encourage/downright beg you to share your own answers in the comment section below. You’d be shocked how much enjoyment the Smart Pop team derives from your participation on this site!

My Personal Top-Five TV Crushes:

1. Pacey Witter (Dawson’s Creek). When I re-watch Dawson’s Creek now, I cringe my way through it. This is not a timeless show, not by a long shot, and all those characters I once loved just plain annoy me, but there’s one lovely exception to all that disappointment: Pacey. He is the boyfriend we all wanted in high school: adorable, smart, funny, but with just enough self-destruction and internal angst to keep him interesting. If you didn’t think much of the character before, just try not to fall for Joshua Jackson (the actor responsible for Pacey) in this hilarious spoof video of Pacey-Con.

2. Ben Covington (Felicity). He was aloof, horribly uncommunicative, and there’s that little detail of how he sort of repeatedly broke Felicity’s heart. But, there was just something about Ben that made you melt whenever he’d walk in the room. You wanted to root for Noel! (And, hell, maybe some of you did.) Noel was the smarter choice. But, no matter what made sense on paper, could anyone really fault Felicity for choosing Ben in the end?

3. Eric Taylor (Friday Night Lights). I want to say Tim Riggins, and I won’t argue with any one of you if you say Tim Riggins, but there’s just nothing sexier than a good husband and father, is there? Eric’s both and he’s not too tough to look at, either. (He’s also not in high school, even fictitiously, and that makes me feel better about having a crush on him.)

4. Damon Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries). Oh, Damon. Ooooooh, Damon. I know he does all these bad, can-hardly-believe-it things, like kill people, but it’s just so hard to remember any of that when he starts raising his eyebrows or cracking off-colored jokes or rolling his eyes. All’s forgiven!

5. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars). Our crushes don’t discriminate at Smart Pop. So many of you have said all there is to say about Veronica Mars: she’s snarky, she’s badass, she’s edgy, she’s smart.  But, come on, she’s hot, too.

Honorable (they’re-playing-themselves) mentions: Tyler Florence from the Food Network and  Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race.

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Do tell, who are your tv character crushes?

I not-so-secretly love ABC Family (which is why I’m working very hard to forgive it for The Secret Life of the American Teenager). I still miss Kyle XY. I have been known to indulge in an afternoon Gilmore Girls or two airing in syndication. And I kind of adore Huge. It has Zoe from Firefly, it’s created by the same woman who created My So-Called Life, and it’s set at summer camp. What’s not to like? (The finale’s this coming Monday but you can catch episodes 1-4 right now on Hulu.)

I watch, and enjoy, a lot of tv. But there are some shows I enjoy differently than others. Example: I go out of my way to watch Mad Men every week. It’s an intelligent, multilayered, well-executed show. But it’s also kind of depressing. A lot of my enjoyment of it comes from the fact it’s the only serialized television my boyfriend will watch with me. (He spends most evenings in an adjoining room, online, occasionally leaning in to ask things like, ”You’re watching iCarly? Again?”) Plus, I love Alan Sepinwall’s recaps. In other words, I like Mad Men because I like the context in which I experience it: the company I watch it in, and the commentary I can read on it.

But ABC Family shows just make me feel good. Where Mad Men is cold, they’re warm. Their point of view on the world is optimistic and engaged. Their characters genuinely and generously care about each other. As interesting as Mad Men‘s world may be, ABC Family’s is the one I’d rather to live in.

(A caveat: The figures below are in no way scientific. They’re the result of my very fallible note-taking, and they should be used for entertainment purposes only!)

We received almost 100 essays, in total. Just about every entry received had something great going for it: an inspiring, creative idea or great writing. And we’re going to have a hard time narrowing them down. I don’t envy Ms. Espenson her work! 

A very shoddy gender breakdown, derived solely from name-based assumptions:

• At least 54% of the entries probably came from women.
• At least 35% probably came from men.
• The other 10% or so? Came from people with names that could have gone either way.

A few other stats:

• Almost 1/5 of the essays we received were about Topher (!).
• Only 7% talked about feminism.
• 25% referenced Buffy, Angel, Firefly, or one of Joss’ other creations in a significant way. (I’d estimate three times that number included at least a brief reference to another Joss show.)
• 12% discussed, in some detail, the show as a show: its genesis, its handling by FOX, its cancellation and how that affected the storytelling.

And though I didn’t keep notes on this (I’m not sure how I could have, really), we got many more than a few international entries.

A few other things of note:

1. As a reminder, we’ll be announcing the winners April 1.
2. Once we announce the winners, we’ll also post a blog where those of you who didn’t win can comment and link to your essays, so you can share your essay easily with other Dollhouse fans!
3. If you want to make sure you’re alerted when the winners are announced (and when the book becomes available, down the road), I highly recommend signing up for our Dollhouse email list, either below or on our Dollhouse contest page, which will remain up at least through Monday.

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Oh, when I think of my favorite, I think of Dawson’s Creek. (I can admit to watching AND loving that show without you thinking less of me, right?) There was laughter and lots of tears and happy endings and…more tears. The show wasn’t always great, but the finale definitely was.

Now, your turn. What’s been your favorite series finale to date?

I anticipate this blog becoming a great place for conversation, and one thing the Smart Pop team loves to talk about is what TV shows we’re addicted to. Once a week or so, I’ll ask our readers to share what they’re watching or what they’re most looking forward to watching. I think it’s a great way to talk about our favorite shows and possibly introduce something to the team we hadn’t thought to watch. We like to publish books on properties people are passionate about, and sometimes that means hearing of those passions first-hand.

So, spill! What’s on your DVR queue this week or what is coming back from winter hiatus you’re especially excited to see.

I’ll even start: the one show that got me through that unoriginal Monday funk yesterday was “Life Unexpected.” Although the second episode was slightly cheesier than the pilot (also, why did Shiri Appleby cut her hair?), I think this show has real potential. Kudos to setting it in Portland (great location) and to the soundtrack, too.

Now, it’s your turn. I’m dying to hear.

The internet has brought us many wonderful things, but one of my favorites is easy access to an explosion of television-related merchandise. Below we’ve put together a few last-minute gifts for the TV addict in your life—none of which requires braving a mall.

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For the True Blood fan . . .
A 4-Pack of TruBlood or a Merlotte’s t-shirt

HBO is clearly at the forefront of the tv-related-merchandise game (check out the rest of their store here), but their True Blood stuff is the best. Their TruBlood is gorgeously packaged, and apparently pretty tasty. Their Merlotte’s shirt is a great, subtle bit of fanware (compare, for example, to shirts with the actors’ faces on it)—and bonus, it makes for the start of great Halloween costume for next year.

For the Glee fan . . .
“Your Resentment is Delicious” t-shirt or show sheet music

For the Gleek who’s in it for the dark humor, this Sue dialog shirt is perfect. (Glarkware’s always got great, clever TV-homage t-shirts; check the site for t-shirt take-offs of The Office, Mad Men, Veronica Mars, BSG, Gossip Girl, and more.) And for the Gleek who finds him- or herself humming the choral arrangments in the shower, we’ve still got you covered: a song book that includes sheet music for piano, guitar and voice.

For the Gossip Girl fan . . .
Serena’s Silvertone Charm Style Spike Necklace—or, if you’re feeling flush, Lily’s Necklace with Faceted Lemon Quartz by Bounkit

I admit, I’m not really a Gossip Girl viewer myself, and I still spent an embarrassing amount of time browsing the CW’s Gossip Girl store. The range of prices is huge, from  $15 to nearly two grand, so there’s something for relatively every budget. Plus, each piece also lists the episode number it appeared in, in case you want to go back and check your TiVo.

For the Lost fan . . .
Lost-Inspired Antiqued Bracelet

This bracelet is a) gorgeous and b) richly informed by Lost symbolism. And if bracelets aren’t your gift recipient’s thing, its creator has necklaces and earrings, too. 

For the Vampire Diaries fan . . .
Township of Mystic Falls t-shirt

Since The Vampire Diaries is still a young show, there’s not a whole lot out there yet in terms of official merchandise. There’s a lot of fan-created stuff, though, and this is one of my favorites: a Mystic Falls t-shirt, a classy version of the kind you might take home as a souvenir. If you managed to make it out alive, that is.

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Of course, our books also make great gifts.  Use the coupon code SHIP09 and get a free upgrade to Priority Mail shipping in the US, to make absolute sure you get your order by Christmas. (To make sure the coupon registered, check your total. It should show a discount of 1 cent.)

Happy shopping!

I’ll go ahead and reveal that I always view such “reimaginings” with a healthy dose of skepticism. The storyteller in me asks if something was done right the first time, why does a new generation need to muck it up? The businessman in me understands that intellectual property that is already widely recognized has a built-in audience. And the geek in me was going to tune in anyway.

Battlestar Galactica is certainly one example of “reimagining” done well. It took the most basic ideas of the original series and used it as the basis for some amazing storytelling. While fans of the short-lived series cried foul at some of the changes—male characters turned female, human characters turned Cylon, the absence of children or muppet-like alient dogs—most of them were won over by the dark, rich, character-driven tale of the battleworn Galactica and its journey to Earth.

I could tell that the folks on V might have paid attention to the most successful scifi remake thus far, and took it one step farther. The original characters have been completely flushed. Fans of the old don’t even have familiar names to latch onto, only the general idea of alien Visitors who come to our world wearing smiling human faces, only to be revealed as sinister lizards bent on stealing our resources and harvesting us all for food. Some of the archetypes are still around—a journalist, a priest, a troubled teen, a good-guy Visitor, etc.—but their role in the story is so obviously different there is little need for direct comparison.

Before I start to pick nits, I’ll go ahead and answer the first question. Did I enjoy the reimagined V? The answer is an unqualified yes. The one-hour pilot was compelling stuff, had the production values of a feature film, a strong cast, and left me wanting more. And any sci-fi show that reunites Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk is all right by me. But, geek that I am, I’m forced to look at the new V not only on its own merits, but in how it compares to the original story that inspired it. So let’s tackle a few of them.

Too Short. One thing that the pilot suffers from a tight timeframe to tell the story of the arrival of the Visitors (now nicknamed the V’s to my irritation, but more on that in a minute), to establish the primary characters, and to set the scene for the series to come. Everything seems a bit rushed, and moments after the Visitors arrive we flash-forward several weeks to their power and influence spreading all over the planet Earth. Minutes later we learn they are reptilian villains and that our heroes are the ones who must stop them. A two-hour pilot would have been more than justified with such a big story and allowed us build up to some of the big moments.

Reptilian Reveal. Speaking of moments, something that I was really anticipating in the new V really let me down. I’ll never forget the first time we learned the Visitors weren’t like us. Jane Badler opened up her mouth and stuffed in a live guinea pig. That was followed up by a hand-to-hand struggle between Marc Singer and one of the Vistors—whose face was ripped away to reveal green scales underneath. That was a holy crap! moment.

In the reimagined series, we’re told the V’s are reptiles before we see it. So when our FBI agent heroine bashes one upside the head and we see the reptilian flesh beneath it doesn’t carry the same impact. I would have much rather the resistance leader insist on the “test” (wherein flesh was cut away from peoples’ skulls) without explaining why.

The Red Spraypaint. If I had to the one thing that actually bothered me, it would be in how the iconic red logo is used in the story. It carried far more emotional weight in the original incarnation of the story.

The original V was a allegory of the Holocaust, with our alien Visitors standing in for the Nazis. The colors of the alien uniforms, the symbol on their flag that more-than-a-little resembled a swastika, the Visitor Youth recruitment centers, the persecution of specific groups of people (the scientific community), and hidden “processing” of human captives.

Understandably, the new incarnation of V is a post-911 story. Our heroine is an FBI agent who hunts down terrorists. We learn quickly that the Visitors have been hiding among us for years, sleeper agents slowly working on the alien agenda—making the world a less stable place full of confusion and fear so that when the face of Anna (played superbly by Morena Baccarin) the world would look to them as saviors.

As part of the V’s cult of personality, websites are encouraging “tagging” of the V-symbol to help spread their message. So far the Visitors are called V’s and the V itself is their symbol, dark and sinister as it represents deception and oppression.

Another of those iconic moments from the original V was that of the old Jewish Holocaust survivor, Abraham Bernstein chastised some houng hoodlums who were spray painting graffiti over Visitor propaganda posters. He snatched away the can of paint, and as a young boy I assumed the grownup was simply trying to stop them. But instead, the painted a red V himself. V stood for victory, a symbol of hope that evil can be pushed away. It became the symbol of the resistance and represented the struggle of our heroes against foes that seemed completely unstoppable.

We’ve only had one hour of V thus far, and I’m grateful that there is plenty of time to tell the new version of this story. We’re promised that the primary themes and some of most iconic moments of the original will be represented, and you can be sure that I’ll be tuned in to cheer our heroes on, to who else might be revealed to be an alien in disguise, and to see who lives and who gets eaten.

And to see if the good guys can get their logo back.

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See more about Jamie Chambers and what he’s written for the Smart Pop series here.

There are, of course, two correct answers: Medium and Ghost Whisperer.

It used to be that Medium was on NBC on Mondays, and Ghost Whisperer was on CBS on Fridays, and it looked like another example of two networks both trying to cash in on a good idea. Now, though, they’re both on CBS on Friday, which leads to the question: Why does CBS want both? Why grab Medium away from NBC, instead of spinning a new series off from Ghost Whisperer? I mean, they even have the obvious spin-off character ready to go, their “ghost listener” Eli. Why add Medium instead? What does it have that a spin-off wouldn’t?

Well, a built-in audience, for one, though I’d guess not everyone followed the move from NBC – I missed the season premiere myself because I’d forgotten about the change. Is that it?

Naah. The shows are different. Very different. Because where Ghost Whisperer is sentimental, Medium is dark; where Ghost Whisperer is silly, Medium is creepy. They took the same premise, but The Ghost Whisperer cleaned it up, and Medium kept it real.

On Ghost Whisperer, when Melinda first discovered she could talk to the dead, the ghost of her grandmother explained what was happening, and that made it okay.

On Medium, no one explained anything to Alison; her mother told her to shut up, and Alison wound up drinking heavily for years to shut out the voices and visions.

On Ghost Whisperer, after some initial doubts pretty much everyone comes to accept Melinda’s gifts, and to believe what the ghosts say.

On Medium, plenty of people never do believe in Alison’s abilities, and even Alison doesn’t always believe what she sees in her dreams. Even people like her husband, Detective Scanlan, and District Attorney Devalos, who know her abilities are real, are likely to respond to her more bizarre visions with doubts and reservations.

On Ghost Whisperer, there’s never been any real tension between Melinda and Jim, not even when Jim died and was reincarnated without remembering who he was. Nothing really stresses their marriage.

On Medium, Joe loves Alison, but he worries about his job, their finances, and their reputation, and he’s yelled at Alison plenty of times.

Melinda Gordon runs the cleanest antique shop I’ve ever seen in my life and drives a nice new SUV despite apparently never having any customers who aren’t haunted local residents.

Alison Dubois works for the D.A. and drives a battered old station wagon.

Melinda Gordon lives in the mythical Grandview, New York, which has a town center redolent of Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney, while Alison Dubois lives in Phoenix, Arizona, a vast expanse of urban sprawl where illegal immigrants and the Mexican drug trade are an ongoing concern.

Melinda’s son doesn’t seem to have any concerns except drawing pictures, playing with toys, and having psychic dreams that never really upset him. Finding childcare while Melinda and Jim run around dealing with ghosts never seems to be a problem.

Alison Dubois’ three daughters worry about school and homework and friends and boys, and there’s serious sibling rivalry. Their occasional displays of psychic abilities can be extremely troubling, as when Ariel relived a rape in her dreams. Making sure someone’s there to get them to school in the morning, and to make their supper every evening, is an ongoing issue.

Melinda Gordon patches up family squabbles. Alison Dubois tracks down serial killers.

In short, Ghost Whisperer is pure fantasy – Grandview isn’t any more real than the Shire – and Medium is about as realistic as a show about a psychic can be. Medium is what Ghost Whisperer would be if it grew up.

Which makes me wonder whether CBS might be making a big mistake putting them back-to-back on Friday nights – will they really appeal to the same audience?

But then, I watch both of them…

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See what Lawrence has written in the Smart Pop series here.

Which, for me at least, alters the whole whether-or-not-Hulu-should-charge conversation.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know a whole lot about business models. But I do watch a lot of tv, and I know what’s liable to drive me away from watching tv online: having to pay for the privilege.

Which is really kind of horrible of me. With the internet has come the wide availability of free things you used to have to pay for, but it’s also fueled the kind of familiarity and contact with content providers (authors, musicians, actors) that makes a substantial number of us, at least, want to pay for those things more. Still, it’s hard for me to make sense of paying for access to things I’ve always gotten for free (unless you count my time watching ads)—not just online, or in the past few years, but on my television set, for as long as television has existed (or, okay, as long as I’ve been alive, in my case).

Forget me not wanting to fork out any extra cash, though. Charging for Hulu seems like a bad call for the networks.

As a marketing tactic, Hulu is pretty brilliant. With so many shows to choose from these days—and so many shows lately that require you to watch weekly to really follow the plot—giving viewers another way to see the episodes they might have missed makes it more likely they’ll stay engaged enough to watch the next episode on air (resulting, one assumes, in higher ratings numbers and thus more advertising money down the road).

The best thing networks can do for struggling shows, in my book, is make as many previous episodes as possible available online, for free. (I’m not even convinced DVD sales, in the long run, would really suffer.) Make playing catch-up easy, and you’ll have a better chance of attracting new viewers late in the game.

By charging—depending on exactly what Hulu decides to charge for—I imagine Hulu may alienate enough of its audience that it won’t be able to have this same effect.

Hulu may, through subscription, make enough money to cover its costs, and even make a tidy little profit. But I don’t know if that’s Hulu’s real value to the networks that own it (not to mention all of the rest) in the long run.

That, I suspect, is why no one’s yet realized: Fringe and Supernatural? Secretly the same show!

Consider the evidence:

Each show has an almost preternaturally earnest main character (Olivia and Sam).

Each show co-stars a Dawson’s Creek alum whose first name begins with the letter J (Joshua Jackson and Jensen Ackles).

And the kicker? William Bell is clearly science fiction’s answer to Supernatural’s Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Both prepared children for a war. Both seem to feel a vaguely creepy attachment for their biggest success. And as it turns out, conducting drug trials on young children, just like feeding a baby demon blood, is “better than Ovaltine . . . it makes you big and strong” (Supernatural, “In the Beginning”).

Yellow-Eyed Demon: I’m looking for the best and brightest of your generation. . . . That’s why I’m here, Sam. . . . You’re tough. You’re smart. You’re well-trained, thanks to your daddy. Sam—Sammy—you’re my favorite. . . . (Supernatural, “All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One”)

William Bell: A storm is coming, perhaps the last and worst storm of all. . . . You are the one, Olivia. Of all the children that Walter and I prepared, you were the strongest. You were always the strongest. (Fringe, “Momentum Deferred”)

Find any other eerie parallels between Supernatural and Fringe? Share in the comments!