TVSquad

I know what you're thinking. Joss Whedon already did that with Firefly. But you see, Firefly was quite different than the western Chuck producer Scott Rosenbaum is developing. See, Firefly was a space-based science fiction with western elements. This project is a western with sci-fi elements.

I know what you're thinking. Michael Garrison already did that with The Wild Wild West. But you see-- I'm not going to do all that again. Actually, the description leaves things a little vague, so I've taken the liberty of filling in the blanks with only my sleep-deprived mind and a healthy dosage of Diet Dr. Pepper to guide me.

Rosenbaum's official descriptions include "a gunslinger caught between worlds" and a nod to Planet of the Apes. Post-apocalyptic? They're adapting Stephen Kings' The Dark Tower?! Hardly. I do suspect a future time when we've reverted back to the trappings of the Old West. Either that, or a parallel world. I don't really care, I've been itching for a good western since Deadwood had to go.

Question: Is The Sopranos the best drama in the history of television, or is it one of the best dramas in the history of television that often gets the top spot because it's fairly recent?

That's one of the questions to ponder as you read AOL's Top 50 Dramas Of All-Time list. The Sopranos comes in at number one.

It's not a bad list, actually. When you narrow down a TV show to a specific genre and go all the way up to 50, most of the shows we would all pick will show up on the list: The X-Files, Deadwood, The Rockford Files, Mad Men, St. Elsewhere, Columbo, The Wire. Those are all classic dramas (and good ones) that you would expect to see.

One thing I didn't expect to see? Friday Night Lights in the number 10 spot, ahead of all the shows I just mentioned above.

My television has missed Ian McShane since Deadwood went buh-bye. His cunning and devious but seemingly moralistic portrayal of Al Swearengen made for a great complex character who could be a villian or an angel, depending on the situation and how evil you are.

He's born to play gruff badasses with gravely voices and icy cold stares that could land a bruise without him lifting a finger. That complex character has returned in McShane's new utopian morality drama Kings, much more toned down, of course.

After all, this is NBC, network television. They have enough money troubles without having the FCC breathing down their neck.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Hmmm...I thought A Colbert Christmas was released last week?

We also have Swingtown - Season 1, which can probably also be titled Swingtown - The Complete Series, much to the dismay of devoted fans. This is a good week for fans of Deadwood and The Wire, as they both get complete series releases that would make fantastic Christmas gifts for the fan in your family

• A Colbert Christmas
• The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Deadwood - The Complete Series
• Gunsmoke - Season 3, Vol. 1
• Happy Days - Season 4 and Seasons 1-4
  
• Lost - Season 4
  
• Rawhide - Season 3, Vol. 2
• Shelly Duvall's Bedtime Stories - Complete Series
• Swingtown - Season 1
• The Wire - Complete Series

Jonathan told you earlier this summer that there would be a Deadwood DVD set coming at the end of the year. I bet you didn't know it was going to be 19 discs.

The Deadwood complete series set will house all three seasons on those 19 discs, and it will come with a rather large booklet guide to the show as well. But that isn't the big news. The big news is that the set will include among its two hours of extras a feature titled "The Meaning of Endings," which will be a detailed explanation of what would have happened to the characters had HBO not canceled the show.

August has been a slow month for these "Best XXXX of All-Time" and "Worst XXXX Sitcoms of the Decade" lists, but here's an interesting one: the 20 best seasons of the last 20 years.

It's an interesting subject for a list because TV fans can often agree on what shows are generally good or bad, and we can generally agree that even the best shows have bad seasons if they run long enough. But if you think about the shows that you've watched over the past 20 years (and watched all of the seasons, not just episodes here and there), what seasons stand out to you? Off the top of my head, before I even read the article, I thought of either season 2 or season 3 of The West Wing (the list writer picks season 2) and I would obviously pick a season of The X-Files or The Simpsons, though it would be hard to pick one season (he picks season 4 of the former and season 4 of the latter). Also on the list: season 2 of Buffy and season 1 of Deadwood. The first seasons of Friday Night Lights and Firefly? Really?

The list is for the past 20 years, but it leans heavily towards shows of the mid-90s and the 2000s. How about season 2 or 3 of NewsRadio? Or how about shows like Lost, The Sopranos, Mad Men, 30 Rock, Friends, or Seinfeld? They explain their methodology but it seems a little lame to me.

Tell you one thing about Ian McShane: he doesn't take any guff from anyone. Say something that he thinks is a load of crap and he'll tell you in no uncertain terms.

So, you can imagine what happens when you combine McShane's orneriness with a group of cranky critics who've been put through a long day by the folks at NBC on the last day of the press tour (there will be a day of set visits on Tueday, but no ballroom press conferences). The last panel is for McShane's new mid-season show, Kings, and the critics have been made extra cranky by the fact that, like all of NBC's new shows, they haven't seen the pilot for it yet. Mix in a somewhat hard-to-grasp premise. Stir liberally, and you get some momentary fireworks that woke up the collected critics at the very end of a long day.

There's such a thing as beating a dead horse and then there's beating a dead horse, chopping it up into tiny bits, and flinging it around like a monkey flings poo. The fact that we're still reading news items about Deadwood nearly two years after it aired its final episode just goes to show you how much it's missed. Well get this - as if we didn't already know - those two final "wrap-up the series with a neat little bow" movies are as dead as Wild Bill Hickok.

As if we didn't need more proof that those two Deadwood movies are never, ever, ever, ever going to happen, HBO announced this week that a complete series DVD set is in the works for a late 2008 release.

TVShowsOnDVD picked up on the news while attending the 2008 Entertainment Merchant Association show. Above is the proposed box art for the collection - sort of like a big book that'll hold all 36 episodes plus what's sure to be plenty of bonus features.

Early last month I posted a casting call sheet for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel show, Caprica. In that list was a call for Amanda Graystone, a "surgeon with a volatile streak to her" who is "something of a double agent." Well, you can scratch that one off the list of openings, as Paula Malcomson (Trixie of Deadwood and Jerri of John From Cincinnati) has been cast in the role.

My interest in Caprica hinges on how Battlestar Galactica concludes; will I really want to know more about how it all began? I could see them putting us in a place that has us craving for more, though it's likely Caprica is meant to stand on its own and without having to follow too many rules set by the BSG events. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Quick, what do the following TV shows have in common: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, M*A*S*H, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson?

Answer: they're not on Empire Magazine's list of the 50 best greatest TV shows of all-time. Let the arguments begin!

Chances are the NBC censor will not have to worry about Ian McShane's mouth this time around; he won't be playing Frank in Deadwood. No, the new role he's tackling is a much more majestic kind of guy. What am I talking about? Ian McShane has been cast as one of the title characters in NBC's new drama Kings.

McShane, who was a memorable, dirty-mouthed proprietor of a seedy saloon on HBO's Deadwood, will be King Silas on Kings. The Universal project is said to be set in modern times, although its based on a story from the Old Testament, King David (remember Richard Gere in the movie of the same name?)

HBO is rolling out a new broadband video service that will let TV subscribers access about 400 hours of movies and TV shows. HBO Broadband will be available to selected Wisconsin customers this week, with a phased rollout scheduled for the rest of the country.

First it was Deadwood, then it was John From Cincinnati. Now, it seems, David Milch has decided to get back to his cop roots with Last of the Ninth.

Last of the Ninth is a cop drama that focuses on the rampant corruption of the NYPD in the 1970's

It's that festive time of year when children put tinsel on the television antennas and hang mistletoe over their favorite DVDs. Where celebrities check into rehab to spend the holidays with all their celebrity friends. And where the rest of America is invited to corporate non-specific, non-religious, non-alcoholic generic winter holiday luncheons where they can mingle with their co-workers and say things like "Remember when this company used to have real Christmas parties?"

But while political correctness may have ruined most holiday functions, nothing can ruin Festivus! That magical season in which TV Squadders hope and pray for televisions dreams come true. And I know just what I want...