TVSquad

Like a lot of people, I'll be out there today spending cash and gift cards I got yesterday. There are a lot of TV-oriented books released every year, and many of them are quite good. Some of them are downright terrible (*cough* TWOP *cough*), but let's focus on the good ones. Below is a list of 10 great TV books to give the TV addict in your family.

1. Hello, Lied The Agent, by Ian Gurvitz: Excellent behind-the-scenes look at how the TV industry works, from a writer/producer of such shows as Wings, Becker, and Get A Life. He talks about the dos and don'ts for Hollywood writers, pitch meetings, cancellations, shows the journal he kept a few years ago, and even talks about the new shows that have debuted in the past couple of years. Very informative and just really, really funny.

There's a column being circulated around the globe via e-mail that was supposedly written by 60 Minutes essayist Andy Rooney. It lists a bunch of things that are pretty much anti-minority (I haven't gotten the e-mail myself, I've only read news reports about it. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I get it). The only problem? Rooney didn't write it.

This isn't the first time that this has happened. In his new book, Out of My Mind, he talks about a column about women that was being circulated via e-mail. It had his name on it but he didn't write that one either. He talks about this e-mail hoax in the book too, so this has been going on for a couple of years. The same thing happened to George Carlin (Carlin even put something on his web site telling fans he didn't write it). I guess anything can happen in this age of anonymous e-mails and web sites.

[via TV Newser]

In a scene from one of my favorite shows, Newsradio, Dave (Dave Foley) makes a comment to Bill (Phil Hartman), saying something about "you're like Andy Rooney, only without a sense of humor." And Phil retorts, "Andy Rooney is Andy Rooney without a sense of humor."

It's a lame, inaccurate joke, the only one I can think of from this great show.