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2007 in TV: Verne Gay's top 10

BY VERNE GAY | verne.gay@newsday.com

December 30, 2007

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1. THE "DEATH" OF TONY. Is he dead or isn't he? Did my TV break? Is David Chase being cute? How did my favorite show end? Did it end? Questions, questions - all bizarre non sequiturs to someone who doesn't have the foggiest clue what I'm talking about. Everyone else does, though, which is just about ... everyone. But still, the TV event of the year was something of an anti-event even if it was one we'll never forget. The finale gave whole new meanings to onion rings, and parallel parking and Members Only jackets. The singular fact remains: The best drama in TV history did come to an end, and there's no disputing that.

2. THE WRITERS' STRIKE. This may well be one of those rare occasions when one of the Top 10 TV events of a given year also becomes one of the Top 10 TV events of the succeeding year and (who knows at this moment, given the morose state of negotiations) of the year after that, too. The strike has halted scripted production and supercharged unscripted. By January, maybe everyone will go back to reading newspapers (which is what they should be doing, anyway).

3. OPRAH ... OBAMA ... OBAMA ... OPRAH. Imagine: Oprah - OPRAH! - helps elect a president? It's absolutely possible, and to watch her freewheeling, stem-winding, house-raising speeches in early December in favor of that other "O," some might even wonder whether the queen of talk should run one of these years. (Hmmm ... let's see: "President Winfrey, your secretary of education Hillary Clinton's on the line.")

4. "HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2." "HSM 1" was big enough, but "HSM 2" blew the doors off the dang barn. Seventeen million people - all right, 17 million kiddies, teenyboppers and teenage guys who wanted a closer look at Vanessa Hudgens - tuned in to make this the most watched cable entertainment program in TV history. And not too much longer after this, about 11 million of same tuned in for a special "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode featuring the unrecognizable voice of David Bowie. Kids' TV rules!

5. "THE WAR." Ken Burns' magisterial treatment of the Big One was easily the best extended doc on World War II since the Laurence Olivier-narrated/Jeremy Isaacs-produced "The World at War" in 1973-74. Meanwhile, WNET/13 and WLIW/21, under the aegis of new boss Neal Shapiro, produced two first-rate companion broadcasts on New York-area contributions to the war.

6. THE ASCENDANCE OF CHARLIE. What's most amazing about the remarkable re-emergence of one Charles Gibson is the simple fact that this wasn't supposed to happen! Pundits - OK, me - thought that Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas were Team of the Future at ABC's "World News." Katie Couric got the royal press treatment, and the minute viewers decided they liked and trusted older guys like Charlie, the all-knowing press forgot all about her. Charlie simply chugged along and just like that, Peter Jennings - who was irreplaceable - had been replaced.

7. "THE SIMPSONS" 400TH EPISODE AND MOVIE. Imagine a show sticking around for 400 episodes? "The Simpsons" has, and the 400th - "You Kent Always Say What You Want" - was a characteristically hilarious spoof on Fox, free speech, Kent Brockman (who got fired and rehired) and a whole bunch of other stuff. "The Simpsons Movie" came out a couple of months later and - in my humble opinion - 'twas merely OK.

8. BOB, MEET DREW. Bob Barker leaves, Drew Carey enters, and the wacky world of morning game shows changes forever. The Silver-Haired Guy was replaced by the Orotund Guy on "The Price Is Right," and I'm told by people who understand these sorts of things, the Orotund Guy has done a pretty good job. This can thus come under the heading "successful transition." (But I wonder if Barker ever went to one of Drew's stand-up comedy shows?)

9. BRITNEY FLOPS. Perhaps - no, definitely the singular belly flop of the TV season had to occur during the 2007 "MTV Video Music Awards" in September when an out-of-shape Britney Spears provided an out-of-body experience for a few million viewers. She sang (term loosely applied) "Gimme More," and, just like that, K-Fed looked talented by comparison.

10. "KID NATION" NATION. Yes, TV still has the power to pull us out of our comfy chairs in righteous indignation. Witness the shrewd (or at least shrewd in hindsight) launch of "Kid Nation" by CBS: Before you could say "Charles Dickens," some had decided this reality show was violating child-labor laws; states looked at statutes, the network brass convened, and ... the show went on. Few watched, however. In other words, "never mind."