TVSquad

What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.

And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally -- Saturday Night Live's take on it all.

It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...

This is no laughing matter. John Gilmore, executive director of Autism United, said today that CBS must apologize for an insensitive remark made on the Julie Chen-hosted reality show Big Brother during last week's episode. One of the contestants, a man named Adam, said that if he was the show's big winner, he would use the money to start a hair salon for people with developmental disabilities. Adam went on to say he wanted a beauty shop "so retards can get it together and get their hair done." When Sheila, another contestant, protested, "Don't call them that," Adam declared that, "Disabled kids. I can call them whatever I want. I work with them all day, okay?"

According to CBS's Big Brother web site, Adam is a public relations manager for an unnamed foundation. The 29-year-old is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, but is now living in Delray Beach, Florida.

We told you about David Shuster being suspended from MSNBC (he returns next week) for saying that it seems like Chelsea Clinton is being "pimped out" because she's making phone calls and appearances on her mother's behalf. Now the network's rivals are saying they're on Shuster's side.

I have to say I agree that Shuster's suspension was silly. The guy apologized (twice, at least, and so did the execs at MSNBC) so it should have stayed at that. Was the remark inappropriate? Probably, but not because it's "offensive." It was inappropriate because it didn't make any sense. Maybe if Chelsea Clinton was still 11 years old there could be a case made that she was being used by a campaign, but she's a grown woman who was just working as any grown woman works in the campaign. Would Shuster have said this about another woman in Hillary's camp? I doubt it. Check out what CNN has to say here, and what Fox News has to say after the jump.

Several weeks ago, Senator Hillary Clinton asked the public to help her come up with a theme song for her presidential campaign. And then The Sopranos ended its historic run. And it was too much of a good opportunity to pass up.

So Hillary and hubby Bill made a video for her web site discussing what song the Senator had selected. Only the video is a parody of the Sopranos' last scene in the diner, with Hillary as Carmela, Bill as Tony, Chelsea as the parallel parking Meadow, a bowl of carrot sticks substituting for onion rings (Bill's got heart problems) and an abrupt cut-to-black.

See the video after the jump. (And if you have a burning desire to find out what campaign song Clinton chose, you can go here.)

[Via Gawker.]