TVSquad

The late eighties and early-to-mid nineties brought out some of the filthiest, bottom-feeding talk shows our country has ever seen. From Morton Downey Jr. and Sally Jesse Raphael to Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, it was the era when "trash TV" became a symbol of a country's swift spiral down one giant cultural toilet in opposition to people like Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, who effortlessly made interviews with, like, Fran Drescher come off looking like Masterpiece Theater.

Around the latter half of the "boom" came Ricki Lake, the formerly obese star of Hairspray (no, seriously, that was basically her résumé), with a show that combined the usual elements of trashy talk (read: "freaks") with something impossibly dumber yet: catchphrases. Unlike today, when it takes weeks to months for squawk-boxes to latch onto cultural buzzwords like "metrosexual" and "baby daddy," Ricki Lake was trotting out episode "subjects" like "You're not all that!" and "Dump that zero and get yourself a hero!"

Naturally, she was a smash.

It was a nice idea. Oprah does a promotion for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) involving their new grilled chicken offering. She mentions on her talk show that the chain is offering a free grilled chicken meal if you hand in a downloadable coupon available at Oprah.com. Sadly, it didn't turn out so well for the franchise.

Oprah's insane popularity caused about a bazillion people to download the free meal coupon. So many, in fact, that KFC wasn't ready to give out so much free grilled chicken and has now offered rainchecks for the existing coupons.

Being Oprah's buddy is never bad for one's career. And like former frequent guest stars Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil, now actress, author and former Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy is poised to be the next "Big O" thing. She has inked a multiplatform deal with Harpo Productions to develop projects of all different kinds, including a talk show of her very own.

While her career may have started in nudity and comedy, she's more recently become known for her books, and her activism in the fight against autism, which her son has.

It seems that Oprah Winfrey is involved in everything these days, doesn't it? Books, dieting, world hunger, education, last year's election, makeovers, Twitter, Facebook, you name it. Now she's involved in a legal fight with an insurance company.

Mutual of Omaha, which TV fans might remember from their sponsorship of Wild Kingdom oh so many years ago, is suing the talk show giant because she is using the "A-ha moment" phase. Or maybe it's just "Aha." Anyway, the company says that it has been using the "Aha Moment" phrase since February and they want Oprah to stop using it too. To be honest, I wasn't aware that Mutual of Omaha was using it at all, and I only have a vague recollection that Oprah Winfrey was using it. Hasn't she been using it for a lot longer than the past couple of months?

The band A-ha could not be reached for comment.

Bless Oprah Winfrey's soul for all the good work she does in the name of bettering humanity. She gets people to read, she gives poor kids scholarships, she reaches out to victims of environmental disaster, and, of course, there was that time she gave a new car to everyone in her audience. She's a money fairy out to save the world, and we applaud her for it.

But then there are times when Oprah's weird side comes out, when that unique connection she so strongly maintains with her audience - both in the studio and viewers at home - is broken in favor of reminders that, oh yeah, Planet Oprah might not be such a crazy notion. The lady probably uses $100 bills to clean her teeth. And, in case you'd forgotten, she and buddies Gayle King and Tyler Perry will remind you, as they did while palling around on Friday's show, on which Oprah retold a super-nauseating story about Perry giving her the most incredibly unnecessary gift a media mogul could ever not hope for.

Jay Leno is officially America's BFF.

The late night (soon to be 10pm) talk show host has come in first place in the annual Harris Poll to determine who is America's favorite TV personality. Here is the rest of the top 10 to give you an idea of who he's up against:

2. Hugh Laurie
3. Ellen DeGeneres
4. Oprah Winfrey
5. David Letterman
6. Jon Stewart
7. Charlie Sheen
8. Steve Carell
9. Stephen Colbert
10. Mark Harmon

Governor Blagojevich is nuts. Blame it on his flimsy grasp of reality or his hard-hat like haircut, the current (for how long, who knows) governor of Illinois is not quite there. How do we know this? Well, rather than appearing at his own impeachment trial he's decided to let the good citizens of the U.S. know that he's being railroaded by his own government via various media outlets.

The other determining factor on his nuttiness...he was considering naming Oprah Winfrey as Barack Obama's replacement to the U.S. Senate. Now, while Oprah is a respectable personality who has done much good for people around the globe, she is in no way qualified to become a U.S. Senator. I know that some of you Oprahites would heartily disagree with this, but even you know, deep down inside, that giving Oprah a Senate seat would not be a good idea.

And, frankly, I think Oprah would agree with you.

A year ago at this time, who would have guessed that Jay Leno would be leaving late night and NBC would be handing him five hours of prime time instead? Who would have predicted CBS continuing to dominate in the ratings or that ABC's sophomore series like Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies would stumble and fall so completely after being off the air all last spring? Predictors from last January were on target about there being a writers' strike; that did happen and it was definitely not a good thing.

Fortunately, I don't see a SAG strike in the future. However, here are ten things I'm betting will happen by the time the ball drops on December 31st.

1. Martin Scorsese will be the next big thing on HBO. He's producing a drama based on the book Boardwalk Empire. HBO is overdue to launch another big series in The Sopranos tradition. Boardwalk Empire seems to have all the right elements: violence, sex, gambling, and Oscar-winning, iconic director Martin Scorsese.

I haven't watched Oprah for years, but I'll be tuning in this week and maybe even recording the shows to watch again later. Why? Because she's got a bunch of shows I can really use!

After admitting to the world that her weight has crept back up to 200 lbs. (although if a celebrity says they weigh 200 lbs., really they weigh at least 220 lbs. - trust me on this), she's getting back on that wagon and taking that fat bull by the horns.

Here's the rundown for her "Best Life Week," day by day:

Monday, Jan. 5: Your Weight. To get back on track, Oprah talks about her diet, workout plan, and ways to put yourself back on the priority list. Her workout guy Bob Greene stops by to help us all out of a rut. I just joined a gym, so I'm completely on-board with this one.

... one great TV moment.

2008 was filled with great TV moments, more than most years. So when I asked the TV Squad crew what they thought the greatest moment this year was, I got a lot of responses: the Fey / Palin "summit" on SNL, Letterman going off an an absent John McCain, any of Michael Phelps' Olympic victories, the spectacular opening ceremonies in Beijing, the finale of The Shield, any of the Presidential / VP debates, the Giants' upset of the Pats in the Super Bowl, and probably more that I can't even think of right now.

But they all seemed small in comparison to what happened in the late-night hours of Election Day, when Barack Obama got up in front of a crowd in Chicago's Grant Park and gave his acceptance speech. No matter what you think of Obama or his politics, it was a historic moment, and not just because Obama had just been elected the first African-American president. But the reason why it's the best TV moment of 2008 is because... well, moments like this don't happen that much anymore, do they?

All it takes is 40 pounds to bring an icon down to our level. About a week ago, Oprah appeared on the front of her eponymous magazine talking about her recent weight gain. Media outlets picked up on the story with an acute fervor and more than a little bit of schadenfreude. Watching a celebrity, however generous and beloved, balloon to 200 pounds and drape themselves in purple sweats is just too good a story to pass up.

For regular viewers of her show and celebrity gossip hounds (I fall into the later category) Oprah's weight gain isn't shocking news. In fact, it has been gradual enough to escape too much notice. It's only on a slow news day that a story of her slowly expanding waist line seems to pop up. Oprah's weight has never been a private issue, but even with her love of full disclosure, appearing on the cover of O to address the fat issue is a bold move.

At least in terms of geography. Oprah has recently been named the most powerful woman in entertainment. And now, she's going to prove it by heading to Washington D.C. to be near President-elect Obama when he takes the oath of office on January 20th. She'll be taping a live episode of her show on January 19th, the day before.

I can never prove this, but I'm fairly certain that it was the Oprah endorsement that drove Democratic primary voters away from Hillary Clinton and towards Obama (and if that isn't a display of power, I don't know what is). I don't know how difficult the choice was for her, considering her audience is a female majority. It does beg the question of whether society would benefit more from a victory of race or one of gender.

Mind you, I don't think there was a wrong decision in this instance, but she made her choice and backed a particular horse and is now reaping the benefits. Good for her.

First, take note that it's in television and not on, because this list from Entertainment Weekly has a lot of people behind the scenes along with people in front of the camera.

Who do you think is the smartest person in television? It's someone who created a show a lot of us watch every single Sunday night. I'll let you click on the link above to see who the smartest person is.

There's a famous scene in The Godfather: Part III -- the only really memorable one -- where Michael Corleone says, "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in." I thought of that when I read that Oprah Winfrey may not be ending her talk show in 2011 after all. What? I thought it was a done deal, but no. Every time I think she's done, she's back again.

When asked by Access Hollywood about The Oprah Winfrey Show ending in 2011, Ms. W said, "I'm not done." Well, you sure could have knocked me over with a feather. I mean, really, I understand that it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, but I really thought Oprah had other worlds to conquer, other fish to fry.

We've all seen the picture of Oprah Winfrey leaning on the shoulder of a man while watching Barack Obama's speech in Grant Park after being elected President on Tuesday night.

If you're like me, you just assumed that he was a friend of hers and she was leaning on him for support, but Oprah said on her show the day after the election that he was actually a stranger. They were just standing next to each other, and she decided to lean on him (as Jon Stewart noted the other night, couldn't Oprah get a better place to stand, considering that she's, you know, Oprah?).

Now the guy has been invited on her show. His name is Sam Perry, and he's a consultant. Oprah is going to have him as a guest on her show later today (in some markets, the show has already aired).

I think he is now officially one of Oprah's Favorite Things.