mad men

Let's say you love 'Glee' -- really, really love it. You watch it every week. Download the songs on iTunes. Snag some prime seats for the live tour. Start a 'Glee'-related Tumblr.

But do you really, really, really love it? Enough to name your kid after one of the New Directions singers?

Turns out more than a few parents have shown their dedication to the show in the ultimate way: naming their children after its characters. According to Linda Murray, editor of the parenting website BabyCenter, the names Finn and Quinn made the site's Top 100 list of baby names for 2010.

Also on the list: the names of characters from shows like 'Mad Men' (Betty), characters from movies like 'The Frog Princess' (Tiana), and real-life winter Olympics stars (Bode, Shaun and Apollo).

Narrowing down my yearly Top 10 list to only ten individual TV shows proved very difficult this year. There was just too much good TV, and thank goodness for that. None of the new shows that the broadcast networks debuted this fall made the cut, but no matter, there was still plenty of good drama and comedy to choose from.

So much, in fact, that I decided expand my list a bit. There are, as you can see below, ten entries in my Best of 2010 list, but a couple of entries mention multiple shows. I've got a new job and new editors, so why not try a new way of approaching the Top 10 list, right? All I can say is, it would have melted my brain and hurt my heart to leave any of the shows below off my list.

By the way, in the next week or so, I'll post a long list of runners up -- more than two dozen scripted shows that didn't quite make the cut here but which were nevertheless pleasing, compelling or noteworthy during the past year.

Without further ado, here's my list of the best television shows of 2010:

Apparently, Bristol Palin might not have been all that interested in competing on 'Dancing With the Stars' this season -- but her mother made her do it.

E! Online is reporting that comedian Margaret Cho, one of Bristol's 'DWTS' competitors, thinks Sarah Palin "forced" Bristol to take part in the reality show to make amends for her pregnancy during the 2008 election.

"Sarah supposedly blames Bristol harshly and openly (in the circles that I heard it from) for not winning the election, and so she told Bristol she 'owed' it to her to do 'DWTS' so that 'America would fall in love with her again' and make it possible for Sarah Palin to run in 2012 with America behind her all the way," Cho wrote on her blog.

In other TV news ...

• 'Entertainment Tonight' and 'Star Search' creator Al Masini, 80, died overnight in his adopted hometown of Honolulu. The legendary TV producer suffered a long battle with cancer. [CBS Los Angeles]

• The April 29 Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton could be broadcast in 3D. Rupert Murdoch is investigating the possibility of adding another dimension to the TV event, which could have the largest audience in history. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Oprah will announce her newest book club selection on Monday. Jonathan Franzen, author of the current pick, 'Freedom,' will also appear on the show. [TV Guide]

It's been a rough year for Conan O'Brien. First, he got his dream job hosting 'The Tonight Show.' But after giving "Coco" the job, the "suits" at NBC changed their minds. Based on lower ratings, they wanted Conan to move into a new time-slot -- to accommodate rival Jay Leno.

O'Brien refused -- the rest is history. The host either quit or was fired (depending on who you believe). After eight months, his time on 'Tonight Show' was done. But you can't keep a good comic down. Now, Coco is back ... on basic cable. And on the premiere of 'Conan' (weeknights, 11PM ET on TBS), he peered back into the tragic past.

What word does Matt Weiner, creator of 'Mad Men,' write most often? Well, "$' isn't really a word. If his main character's favorite word is any indication, then he writes "What?" most often.

A serious 'Mad Men' fan with some serious extra time put together a montage of Don Draper saying "What?" over the last four seasons. A minute and a half of Draper saying "What?" to Peggy, "What?" to Pete, "What?" to Betty "What?" to Roger and "What?" to various secretaries he's since lost.

As the video's creator says, "Don Draper uses the word "what" as Van Gogh used color or Beethoven used sound." Touche.

['Mad Men' - Season 4 Finale]

"I know who you are now." -- Megan to Don

Season 4 of 'Mad Men' began with the question "Who is Don Draper?"

And the answer is ... he's not necessarily Don Draper anymore.

How to dress up like 'Mad Men's Bert Cooper for Halloween

The Costume: Bert Cooper (played by Robert Morse), the elder statesman of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce on 'Mad Men'.

We are already missing SCDP's wisest mad man (did he really retire? Just like that?). Anyone resplendent in Bert attire at the end of the month would be a welcome Halloween presence.

It's hard to believe, but this Sunday night is the season finale of 'Mad Men.' How on earth is creator Matthew Weiner going to wrap things up? Is he going to leave us up in the air regarding the future of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce?

If you've been watching, you know that the company is teetering on the brink of disaster. Don's audacious act of repudiating all cigarette advertising via a letter in the New York Times infuriated his partners to the extent that Bert Cooper took his shoes and walked out of the firm. Only Megan and Peggy seemed to get the point of Don's 'Jerry Maguire' moment.

But what happens next? Weiner rarely tips his hand and hates spoilers, so it's a bit surprising that the title of the season finale, 'Tomorrowland,' is perhaps the biggest clue of all. Maureen's post suggested that 'Maybe we'll get the "wow" next week,' and hopefully, she's right.

It's another triple-play podcast week for 'Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan' listeners. We hope you find these audio offerings legen -- wait for it -- darily worth your time!

Podcast 1: Ryan McGee and I talk to 'How I Met Your Mother' co-creator and executive producer Carter Bays about 'HIMYM's' sixth season, the show's ongoing arcs, the personal journeys of the gang from MacLaren's, and we also got him to spill some (non-spoilery) intel about upcoming guest stars Jorge Garcia from 'Lost' and Jennifer Morrison from 'House.'

Podcast 2: Ryan and I riff on this week's 'Mad Men' episode, 'Blowing Smoke.'

Podcast 3: Ryan and I talk about the shows that have surprised us this fall (in good ways and bad ways), and we also gab about the shows that have let us down of late. We touch on the highs and lows of everything from 'Hawaii Five-0' to 'Running Wilde,' and we also discuss 'Raising Hope,' 'Modern Family,' 'Law & Order: UK,' and much, much more.

An interview with 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner (pictured here with Jon Hamm) doesn't always follow the classic question-and-answer format.

Invariably, it ends up being more of a conversation, with the interviewer bringing up points about individual episodes or storylines and letting the Emmy-winning producer and writer just go through all of his thoughts about the characters he's created. He talks about them like they're members of his own family, and in a way, they are, as he's likely lived with Don Draper and company in his head almost as long as he's lived with his wife and kids.

I had been trying to pin down an interview with Weiner since before the fourth season of the show began, and we finally were able to sit down and discuss the season earlier this week. What follows is a long, but pretty extensive, overview of season four, and while Weiner doesn't give any details about this Sunday's season finale, he does hope that "people will see the finale and understand the journey that they went on for the season."

After Sunday, fans of 'Mad Men' will have to wait until 2011 for the next season of the addictive AMC show. Fortunately there's a fabulous new book that will help Don Draper devotees get through the long wait between seasons.

No, it's not 'Sterling's Gold,' the hilariously banal memoir ad man Roger Sterling worked on during season 4 of the drama.

The delightful new book is 'Mad Men: The Illustrated World,' and it's the creation of Dyna Moe, the illustrator and designer behind the 'Mad Men Yourself' feature on AMC's Web site.

For those of you who love mash-ups but hate technology, this video is for you!

A new project on YouTube, Videos Recorded Live, produced a live, one-shot mash-up of RJD2′s 'A Beautiful Mine' (aka the 'Mad Men's' theme song) and 'Nature Boy' by Nat King Cole. There are no cuts, over-dubs, lip-syncing or auto-tuning. It is simply a big band and Brian Williams' daughter Allison Williams.

The composer of 'Mad Men's' theme RJD2 is a predominant electronica artist, a genre that Don Draper would no doubt furrow his strong brow at.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out whether the moves that Don Draper makes for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are ingenious Hail Marys designed to shift how they do business or if they're the desperate stabs of a man who's been influenced by his own ego and gallons of whiskey.

On this week's 'Mad Men,' though, he makes a move that might have elements of both. He's always been trying to nudge SCDP in a different direction away from the old-fashioned clients and ads that he used to do at Sterling Cooper. Now that half their business has disappeared due to Lucky Strike's departure, he figured it's time to do more than nudge.

['Mad Men' - 'Blowing Smoke']

Big things have often happened in the second-to-last 'Mad Men' episode of the season. And ever since Roger learned that Lucky Strike was ditching the agency, we've been expecting a cataclysm to engulf Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Things did get more serious in this episode -- the expected mass firings began and the dire financial status of the firm was made very clear. But there wasn't really a huge "holy cow" moment. What emerged was the picture of a firm putting it nose to the grindstone and trying to survive any way it could.

The results are in. It has been proven that every person alive finds 'Mad Men's' Christina Hendricks sexy. In her cover story for November's Harper's Bazaar, she tells the interviewer even women and gay men cannot resist her.

"Women hit on me. My husband thinks it's so odd that so many women hit on me," Hendricks says.

As for gay men, she says, "They say to me, 'Well, I'm not straight, but if I was ...' "

The Emmy nominee finds it "so flattering." She deserves it after fighting in Hollywood for years to bring buxom female figures back in fashion.