TVSquad

The Golden Globes has always been my favorite awards show. the stripped-down presentation and the giant bottles of champagne on the tables make for a decidedly non-tedious and drunken affair. Plus, the Hollywood Foreign Press can only be taken so seriously, which makes for some delightful acceptance speeches. My favorite from last night was probably Tina Fey's speech for her Best Actress in a Comedy win.

It was short, sweet, to the point, and most importantly, it was funny. When Fey called out the internet commenters who have given her grief over the past year, I, like most people assumed she was making up screennames for effect. Well, it turns out that "Dianefan" and "BabsonLacrosse" are actually real people who had not-too-nice things to say about the erstwhile 30 Rock star and Sarah Palin impersonator.

... one great TV moment.

2008 was filled with great TV moments, more than most years. So when I asked the TV Squad crew what they thought the greatest moment this year was, I got a lot of responses: the Fey / Palin "summit" on SNL, Letterman going off an an absent John McCain, any of Michael Phelps' Olympic victories, the spectacular opening ceremonies in Beijing, the finale of The Shield, any of the Presidential / VP debates, the Giants' upset of the Pats in the Super Bowl, and probably more that I can't even think of right now.

But they all seemed small in comparison to what happened in the late-night hours of Election Day, when Barack Obama got up in front of a crowd in Chicago's Grant Park and gave his acceptance speech. No matter what you think of Obama or his politics, it was a historic moment, and not just because Obama had just been elected the first African-American president. But the reason why it's the best TV moment of 2008 is because... well, moments like this don't happen that much anymore, do they?