TVSquad

Television has often been a benchmark of current popular culture. Whether it's clothes, cars or furniture, people have always looked to TV to help them decide how to look and how to live. Here are ten great examples of how TV characters have "helped" us look our best.

Daisy Duke's Daisy Dukes (The Dukes of Hazzard)
No one knew it at the time, but when Catherine Bach slipped on those ultra-short denims, she was making an impression on more than the teenage boys who were watching. Years later, a brand new and very different generation embraced the Daisy Dukes, much to the delight of those teenage boys who were now old enough to know better.

Gallery: TV Characters who made a Fashion Statement

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with their Top 10, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1996 to 2006 that made it to the big time. This week, we get a bit more serious.

There are those in the industry who say that it is easier to go from acting in a drama to acting in a comedy than it is the other way around. Yet, as you will see from the list we've compiled after the jump, there are plenty of comedic actors who have jumped from the world of comedy films, stand-up comedy, and television sitcoms into the more serious world of drama. In many cases they have had even greater success than they did on the other side of the tracks. There have even been instances where they stayed in the drama genre and never went back to being funny.

Gallery: Comedians who became dramatic actors

(S02E04) Originally aired on January 6, 1994

It's been named one of the top 100 shows of all time by Time. You can't have a conversation about cop shows without mentioning it. Stacked up against other classics such as Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, the Law & Order franchise, The Shield, and The Wire, it often meets and sometimes exceeds. It's arguably one of the top three police dramas ever made. And this was the episode where people really started to talk about Homicide: Life on the Street.

I'm hoping this story is some horrible mistake. Maybe they mean British singer Robbie Williams?

But it looks like it's true. The comedian will open The Late Show with David Letterman when the CBS show comes back from its strike hiatus this Wednesday night. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Williams will talk really fast and make a lot of funny noises with his mouth, and maybe even do some impressions of foreign people. He's a genius!

It must have been hard to put a set together for a show like The Tonight Show. It's not the type of show you can do by season (way too many episodes), and Johnny Carson was host for 30 years (1962-92). A set like this is bound to disappoint some fans. But you know what? The set is just individual DVDs that have already been released in another form, and now they're packaging them under the Definitive DVD Collection title. That might tick off some fans who already bought the discs, but the set is well-done and has a variety of material to recommend it.

• Charlie Rose: Sam Nunn and Steven Bach
• The Daily Show: Steve Carell
• The Colbert Report: Toby Keith
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Mike Myers and America Ferrera (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Robin Williams, Chelsea Handler, and Big & Rich
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Evangeline Lilly and Joe Rogan (repeat)
• Tavis Smiley: Senator Chris Dodd and Mandy Moore
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Tea Leoni, Tyrese Gibson, and The White Stripes
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Avril Lavigne and Ioan Gruffudd
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Eric Roberts and Jill Cunniff (repeat)

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Bud Molin: He was a film editor who worked on several TV shows, including the Sheldon Leonard-produced The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and I Spy, as well as projects with Carl Reiner, including the movies The Jerk, Oh, God, The Man With Two Brains, and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. He also worked on I Love Lucy. Molin died in Rancho Mirage, CA at age 81. (That's him on the left, with Desi Arnaz and Dann Cahn.)

As most of you already know, Late Night with Conan O'Brien will be coming at ya from San Francisco for a full week starting this Monday, April 30.

There's a pretty cool list of guests lined up for the week, including Dana Carvey, Chris Isaak and Will Arnett. Of course, we'll also have to tolerate Robin Williams on May 2 (and he's listed as the only guest for that night, which is even more disturbing). Unless Williams miraculously figures out the difference between comedic improv and annoying self-indulgence before he appears on the show I'll be telling my Tivo to skip that episode.

• At 8, ABC has college football, California at USC.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 8.
• FOX has a new Cops at 8, a repeat episode, then a new America's Most Wanted.
• There are two new eps of Little People, Big World on TLC at 8, followed by a new Flip That House.
• Cartoon Network has a new episode of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes at 8.
• At 9, HBO has Comic Relief 2006, with Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Maher, George Lopez, and more.
• Cartoon Network has four new episodes of Naruto, starting at 9.
• At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• TLC has a new Trading Spaces at 10.
• Discovery has a new Dirty Jobs at 10.
• Also at 10: HGTV has a new Design on a Dime.