TVSquad

Television has a long standing tradition of making its stars feel more popular than they really are. As somebody who used to be on TV, five nights a a week, I know what that feeling is like. Generally when that person leaves television, they go on to do movies or change professions and they often become even more popular. However, there is always that TV celebrity who overestimates how much people want to see them and when they leave their hit TV show, it ends up being the biggest mistake of their career.

David Caruso
Before Caruso became the star of the weakest part of the CSI franchise, he was the star of NYPD Blue. After playing numerous bit parts on TV and in film, he finally hit the big time. The critics and the public both agreed that he was a breath of fresh air in what had become a stale world of TV dramas. He was sexy and tough, just like his show and he fit in perfectly with his supporting characters. Then suddenly, Caruso decided he was too talented for the small screen and bailed on the show. His much talked-about departure allowed him to make unwatchable films like Jade and the remake of Kiss of Death that nobody asked for. Luckily, the ginger-haired tough guy was able to revive his career, but one can't help but wonder how different things would have been had he continued to be Detective John Kelly.

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

• Boyd Coddington: He was a custom car designer and star of TLC's American Hot Rod. A former machinist at Disneyland, he opened up Boyd's Wheels in 1988 and won several awards for his car designs. He died of complications from surgery at age 63 in Whittier, CA.

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

• Dennis Letts: He was a teacher who taught at universities for 30 years and then decided to get into acting. He appeared in several TV shows, including Walker, Texas Ranger, Once and Again, and The CBS Summer Playhouse, as well as the TV movies Dallas: The Early Years, Challenger, and The Last Prostitute. On the big screen he was in Cast Away, Infamous, Passenger 57, A Perfect World, and many others. He died of cancer at age 73.

Everybody loves lists, even MENSA members.

Jim Werdell, the chairman of the brainy group, has picked what he considers the ten smartest TV shows of all-time. While some of the shows are no-brainers (ha!), I'm not quite sure why he picks some of the shows he does. The full list is after the jump, along with my suggestions for other shows that should be there.

I mean, seriously...Mad About You?!

My roommate is incredibly upset about what happened to The New England Patriots on Sunday night. He now has to get his "19-0" tattoo removed via laser, and that's going to be painful.

But I'm not here to rehash the game and what happened and what should have been done, I'm here to talk about the ratings for the game. The FOX broadcast actually garnered the highest rating for the Super Bowl ever. 97.5 million watched the game (a 37.6 rating), according to Nielsen. This makes it not only the most-watched Super Bowl game, but also the second most watched show in TV ever, just behind the M*A*S*H finale in 1983.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Not too many people like Viva Laughlin.
• Download a DVD box screen saver similar to the one seen on The Office.
• Bill Cosby? Stephen Colbert? Some are asking what the heck is going on at Meet The Press.
• Are there more cast members leaving CSI besides Jorja Fox?
• EW's PopWatch blog agrees with me about those Bee Movie ads on NBC.
• The behind the scenes story on how Charles Emerson Winchester came to be on M*A*S*H.
• Tim Goodman is not a fan of Tuesday night TV.

• Remember the classic M*A*S*H episode told entirely from the point of view of a wounded soldier? Ken Levin co-wrote that episode, and writes about it on his addictive blog.
• TV Barn's Aaron Barnhart talks to Harry Shearer about Dan Rather, the media, and more.
• This is what's great about the web: every day, you learn someone you didn't know had a blog actuallyone. Like Time TV critic James Poniewozik.
• Remember when MTV used to show music videos all day long? EW's PopWatch blog talks about Pitchfork Media's list of 100 Awesome Music Videos.

• Ken Levine has a great post about the killing off of popular TV characters, and talks about how the unexpected death of Henry Blake on M*A*S*H really stunned people.
• Aaron Barnhart has the press release NBC sent out, announcing that DirecTV had picked up the Sleuth Channel and its 15 million subscribers. That's the same amount of subscribers that TRIO had when DirecTV dropped that channel.
• Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog recounts what must have been an odd episode of Live with Regis and Kelly, with Vince Vaughn (subbing for Reege) talking about a childhood car accident, Kelly talking about her son breaking his arm earlier this week, and guest Denis Leary talking about how his dog died by eating 27 pounds of deer meat.
• Reality Blurred blog is reporting that the cast for Surreal Life 8 will include Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Phil Hellmuth, Playmate Tina Jordan, and Type O Negative's Peter Steele.
• Geek Entertainment TV has a video interview with comedian Tom Green.