TVSquad

If you believe in such things, Johnny Carson is likely spinning in his grave right now. The great star of The Tonight Show is about to be revealed, the good, the bad and especially the ugly and unsavory, in a memoir.

Johnny Carson's attorney Henry Bushkin is writing a book about the star, spilling all the secrets that he kept confidential while Johnny was alive, and it's all legal. Bushkin is looking for one more way to cash in on his client, one he soaked plenty when Johnny was alive.

Carson is a beloved TV icon, maybe the most beloved after Lucille Ball, but nobody believes that the affable, funny man who came into our bedrooms every night was a sweetheart. He was known to hold a grudge, to be snippy and cranky on occasion, and to have a temper.

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.

This past weekend (May 24) marked the fourth anniversary of the death of comic and writer Drake Sather. No one knows what goes on in the mind of someone who takes their own life, but this guy was brilliant and quite funny. Besides his great standup work, he was a writer and producer on NewsRadio (he also played Jimmy James' attorney in two different episodes of the show), and also wrote for such shows as Saturday Night Live, Ed, The Dennis Miller Show, Sammy,The Naked Truth, Empty Nest, and The Larry Sanders Show. He also wrote the movie Zoolander.

After the jump is a standup routine from Sather, filmed at the San Diego Improv in 1992 (split up into three different videos). It's actually rather amazing that a lot of funny bits and lines that I've used over the past 10 years came from Sather.

So sad, but his work does live on.

How many people in the audience do you think actually knew who Robert Loggia was when his Giant Head popped up on the screen? Because the polite applause seemed to suggest that crowd returned home after the show and had to IMDb Loggia. And yes, "IMDb" is totally a verb now.

"Extreme Makeover: Baghdad Edition": A new wall for the folks in Baghdad... and they don't seem to be too happy about it. The timing of "That wall is totally impenetrable -- oh, boy" made me laugh a little too hard. However, the Dennis Al-Menace joke caused me to feel a little foolish because there was a five second delay before I understood it.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• America's Funniest Home Videos - Motherhood Madness
• George Lopez - Season 1 and Season 2
• Ghostbusters - Complete Series
• Happy Days - Season 2
• Highlander - Best of the Best
• Larry King Live - Greatest Interviews
• The Larry Sanders Show - Not Just The Best of The Larry Sanders Show
• Laverne & Shirley - Season 2
• Masters of Horror - Family
• Mork & Mindy - Season 2
• Murder, She Wrote - Season 6
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Friend or Foe
• The Venture Bros. - Season 2