I need you to watch this show, which airs at 9 PM Fridays on NBC. I know. It is on Friday nights - when you are out. DVR it. Hulu it. Or head out at 10 and make a fashionably late appearance - whatever it takes. It is one of the five best shows on television and if it does not get good ratings this year, there is a good chance it will be canceled. If it is canceled, I will throw a brick through my TV. (It is not even my TV. It is my roommate’s TV. You can see how the cancellation of this show could get expensive for me.)

NBC and DIRECTV split the costs of producing the show and as part of the deal DIRECTV was allowed to air all 13 episodes before the NBC launch. I watched the season on DIRECTV this fall. It is fantastic. The writers close out two major story lines (Smash and Street), bring in a new character (a freshman QB with a rifle arm) and continue to follow the characters whose stories are so compelling: Tim, Lyla, Tyra, Landry, Buddy, Matt and of course Coach and Tami Taylor, who somehow manage to steal the show in a story centered around the lives of horny, drunken, smart, ambitious high school students.

The Coach-Tami relationship could go down as the best, strongest and perhaps most realistic marriage in television history. It is great to see people on television who act like people I know.  

Here is the first episode of season three, which is available on Hulu.com.

Please. Watch this show. I can’t bear to live in a world in which Desperate Housewives remains a ratings hit and this show is canceled. I will lose it. I will go hermit. I will get a little cabin in the woods, forsake civilization and you will never hear from me again. I will tape my columns to the trees for the woodland creatures to read. I will record my podcast on cassette tapes and interview ferns. I will retreat to an Obi Wan Kenobi lifestyle and when young Luke Skywalker comes and asks me for help returning a droid to its rightful princess owner, I will tell him, “No.”

A lot of people complain about television. They say things like, “There is nothing on TV,” or ”TV sucks,” or “My television is broken and I don’t have enough money to get it fixed.”

Whiners.

I am living through a personal mini-golden era of television right now. I am sharing this to counterbalance all of the bashing my good friend TV takes by snobs, media elites and other people who are idiots.

For the last few weeks I have been enjoying:

The final season of The Shield. My favorite non-Wire cop drama is racing to a spectacular conclusion. I want to know how it ends now, but I want to milk every moment of every episode before the final episode. If not for The Wire, I might call it the best cop show of all time. It might be. I think I will have to write about this after the final episode.

The Office. It is probably the best comedy on television. That is not saying much, compared to the competition, but it is consistently funny. This season has been a bit of a letdown with Pam out of the office. I hope she returns soon. I did not realize how integral she was to the show’s chemistry.

Mad Men. Go ahead. Take my Man Card. I deserve that.

Friday Night Lights. Great show. I’m probably not the target demo. Don’t care. The show’s characters have grown on me. Last year’s writers’ strike knocked the second season short and really killed its momentum. The show is finally rounding back into form. Spoiler. Seeing Smash get his scholarship was great. Same goes for the trials and tribulations of Principal Taylor.

Other reasons to watch television right now: The Soup, South Park, the baseball playoffs and World Series, college football, the NFL, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football.

Also, 30 Rock will be back soon and Lost returns in early 2009.

If the Mayor of Television existed, I would thank him.

With a writers’ strike looming, I thought I’d throw these out there and encourage everyone to watch them before we’re inundated with nothing but reality shows for the next three months:

1. South Park
The boys responded to being censored last year with a three-part epic centered around a terrorist attack against Imaginationland. The show has never been better.

2. The Office
I can’t get enough. It’s hitting a stride I’ve seen few sitcoms match. Like Arrested Development in its prime.

3. Friday Night Lights
I am shocked by how much I like this teen drama set in a Texas town surrounding the local high school football team. It is excellent.

4. 30 Rock
The most quote-able show on TV.

5. The Daily Show
The most important political show ever.