TVSquad

I don't know if this is a real holiday or not, but if it isn't let's start one.

Today is October 13, a very important date in the world of The X-Files. It's the birthday of the show's creator, Chris Carter, but it's also...

• the name of Carter's production company, Ten Thirteen Productions ("I made this!")
• Fox Mulder's birthday
• the day The X-Files movie was released on video in 1999
• the names of various files on the show and the dates that various events occurred, including the day Cigarette Smoking Man offered his wife to the aliens
• and many other things

Fringe isn't exactly the most original show on TV. Critics and audiences have been comparing it to The X-Files since it premiered last season. Like The X-Files, Fringe offers up creepy cases of the week and an overarching sci-fi conspiracy/mystery plot that helps build the show's rich mythology. In The X-Files, the conspiracy thread had something to do with shady government officials working with aliens and black tar – or something like that. In Fringe, it's called "The Pattern," a series of unexplainable events all seemingly connected to one William Bell and his company, Massive Dynamic.

Show creators Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams have acknowledged the influence of The X-Files on their show, but do Fringe and The X-Files actually take place in the same fictional universe?

On July 16th when the Primetime Emmy nominations are announced, one name that is likely to appear in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series is Aaron Paul. As Jesse Pinkman on AMC's Breaking Bad, Aaron has done amazing work, revealing a character as fascinating as he is flawed.

His performance this past season on Breaking Bad has generated lots of talk about an Emmy nomination, but not to be overlooked is the fact that Paul is also doing great work on HBO's Big Love. On that drama, his character, Scott, is the antithesis of Jesse. It's a testament to Aaron's skill as an actor that I didn't recognize him at first from Big Love when I watched Breaking Bad. A search of his IMDB listing was one of those 'ah-ha' moments. Recently, I had to chance to speak with Aaron, and we started with the jaw-dropping season finale of Breaking Bad.

When Fringe premiered last September, critics around the country distilled the new sci-fi drama down to one simple sentence: it's like a cross between Alias and The X-Files. At the time, that's what pretty much guaranteed I'd tune in. I still found that assessment a little odd since I always thought Alias had a healthy dose of influence from Mulder and Scully to begin with.

Regardless, Fringe clearly took a few cues from both shows in many ways. However, after this past Tuesday's episode ("Bad Dreams", S01E17), I stared to get a little annoyed. I've seen this before.

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.

Everybody loves lists, right? That's why I was attracted to this AOL Television list of the best TV shows of the 1990s. Lots of good entries, some head-scratchers, and two incredibly glaring omissions.

You can immediately guess which shows are on the list: Seinfeld, The X-Files, Sports Night, Oz, The Sopranos, The Larry Sanders Show. There are some shows that I certainly would never put on such a list, but I can understand why they were chosen, such as Party of Five, Dawson's Creek, and Ally McBeal. I think this is probably yet another example of "best" being confused with "popular" or "buzzworthy." Actually, I would never include Ally McBeal on any sort of best of list.

But what really confuses me? There are two major shows, two shows that are often mentioned in a "best of" list (not just the 90s, but all-time) that aren't on the list! Can you guess what they are? Both appeared on NBC, and one of them was created by someone who created one of the above shows.

Wow, I really like this show! But darn, I'll have to wait to see what happens next, because FOX only sent us the pilot episode. I hope the continuing episodes are just as good. I expect nothing less from writer/producer J.J. Abrams, who already has a slew of hits on his IMDB page, including Lost and Alias (and I have high hopes for the upcoming Star Trek feature film, which he's directing and producing). Also on board for Fringe are the writers of Transformers: Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Good combo there.

Let's see ... what can I tell you about Fringe without giving away any spoilers? The first scene hooked me and wouldn't let go until ... well, it still hasn't let go, because I can't wait to see what happens next. The show is equal parts Lost, Heroes, CSI, and The X-Files, and the pilot episode covers a lot of ground in the set-up, but also ends with lots of questions.

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.

Welcome to Subtle Subtitles. For those of you who are uninitiated to the purpose of this feature, we're asking you to come up with your funniest quote or description for what's going on in the screen grab we choose for the week. Winners are announced in the following Friday's contest.

Last contest's winner: Brent Todd

"Honey you were right about this mirror being slightly off"

This week, a scene from last night's Burn Notice ...

Welcome to Subtle Subtitles. For those of you who are uninitiated to the purpose of this feature, we're asking you to come up with your funniest quote or description for what's going on in the screen grab we choose for the week. Winners are announced in the following Friday's contest.

Last contest's winner: miller980

"Let's see how much beer we can suck out of Norm!"

This week, in honor of The X-Files week here at TV Squad, a scene from the episode titled 'Dreamland' ...

Oh, I'll be there, probably on opening weekend, but something about the new X-Files flick makes me nervous as hell.

Maybe it's the fact that it has been ten years since the last movie, and I wonder if people are still interested in it enough to make it a hit (and push another movie into production). I also worry about the plot, since nothing much has been leaked about what the film is about, other than it involves snow, mysterious happenings, and Billy Connolly bleeding from the eyes.

No, the real reason I'm worried is that the movie has a "standalone" plot and is not part of the mythology arc from the show and the first movie. I think this could be a mistake.

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. Mad Men season two premiere. More smoking, more drinking, more advertising. (Sunday at 10pm on AMC.)

2. Comic-Con. We'll be there this week, handing out DVDs and trying not to look geeky. Follow us again on twitter for what's happening and where to meet up with us.

3. It's X-Files Week here. Just in time for the new big screen movie that opens Friday. The truth is in here, if you want to believe.

4. Jingles. A new reality competition show where ordinary people try to come up with commercial jingles. Find out who's bologna has a first name Sunday at 8pm on CBS. (Update: looks like this has been delayed until at least late summer. Stay tuned...)

5. The 2008 World Series of Poker. People still watch poker on television, right? (Starts Tuesday at 8pm on ESPN.)

6. High School Musical: Get In The Picture. High School Musical + a reality competition = ratings. (Started last night; another new episode airs tonight at 8pm on ABC.)

Looks like a Dead Zone movie is possible. Anthony Michael Hall, who starred in the USA network sci-fi show, told SCI-FI wire that he'd be interested in doing a Dead Zone movie. Hall, who played psychic Johnny Smith for the show's six-season run, reminds everyone that he's not optimistic a Dead Zone movie will be made. "I don't think we had the size of a cult following that, let's say, The X-Files did. You look at Sex and the City or The X-Files, these movies were done long after the shows pumped out their last episodes," says the actor. Also, The Dead Zone having a previous incarnation as a feature film might preclude any new attempts. (In the film, which was released in 1983, Christopher Walken starred as Johnny Smith.)

Whatever the case may be with the possible movie, Anthony Michael Hall remains grateful about the opportunity to star in The Dead Zone. "I would certainly be open to the potential for [a reunion feature]. I would never turn my back on what [the show's late producer] Michael Piller did for me. He gave me this incredible opportunity. When I look back at [my] career, I view him and John Hughes as almost guardian angels of my career," Hall says.

[via PopCandy]

Another week, another list issue of Entertainment Weekly.

I'm not sure what to make of all of these lists. We do them here too, but it seems to me the more giant lists that are done the more meaningless they become. This EW issue is "The New Classics," the 1000 best TV shows, movies, books, and music of the past 25 years. Since this is a television blog, I won't get into their book, movie, and music picks (but if I can just say as a side note, they pick both Clueless and The Naked Gun before L.A. Confidential?!), but let's talk about their TV choices.

And argue about those choices in the comments, of course.

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

• Bob Anderson: He was probably best known as playing the young George Bailey in the classic movie It's A Wonderful Life, with the famous scene of Bailey getting boxed in the ear by a drunk pharmacist (the actor really did bloody his ear during rehearsals). Anderson had roles in other movies, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Place in the Sun, and The Bishop's Wife, and had a role in the 50s TV series The Adventures of Spin and Marty. After leaving acting he went on to be a production manager for several movies, including Passenger 57, The Omen IV, Demolition Man, Bonfire of the Vanities, and the TV show The Time Tunnel. Anderson died of cancer at age 75.