Everyone’s sick of end of year lists but how can I not do one on my favorite TV shows of 2007? I always find these lists hard to do because 12 months is a really long time and we watch a LOT of TV. I wish I could prepare enough ahead of time to write up some great “moments” that stand out but let’s be honest… I don’t get paid to do this so that’s not gonna happen.

Regardless, the end of the 2006-2007 season provided lots of thrills and even a few tears. The 2007-2008 season started off so promising but as we all know, many shows just didn’t live up to the hype and the WGA Strike has kind of killed any hope of making this a banner year for television. So what did I choose? Did I pick a previous favorite that ended last May? Did I give a sophmore series about superheroes another nod? Did those Housewives make a showing after being off the list for so many years? Here goes.

Ducky’s Favorite TV of 2007:

30 ROCK I was late jumping on the 30 Rock train but once I gave it a chance late last winter, I instantly fell in love. 30 Rock is the successor to Arrested Development and I actually may love it even more. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin together are impossibly brilliant and the supporting cast only add to the mayhem and madness. Highlights: Season 1’s “I love NY in springtime” moment, Season 2’s return of Will Arnett, “Me Want Food” and “Gay for Jamie“.

CHUCK Chuck Bartowski, how I love you! The funniest thing about Chuck is that GMMR and I had seen the pilot probably 10 times before we hit Comic-Con where Zac Levi and crew got a superheroes reception from the geek gala. I don’t know that the show has lived up to my expectations but I can’t say that I don’t love watching it every week. There’s an inherent sweetness to this action-comedy that makes me squee. Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski are magnificent together and anytime Adam Baldwin gets to be a smartass, I’m on board. So sad that the WGA Strike put an end to our enjoyment of the Nerd Herd! Highlights: The Pilot, Chuck and Lou, Captain Awesome’s many skin shots, and the return of Bryce Larkin.

DAMAGES Week after week this intense drama built to a shockingly graphic climax and it kept me guessing every step of the way. Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson delivered crazy intense performances for 13 weeks, proving that summer is not for the lazy brainless reality shows any longer. It was great interviewing most of the cast this summer, it really made me realize how brilliant the writing of the show really is. Kudos to FX for sticking with Damages and granting us 2 more seasons. Highlights: The endless time shifting and the seemless togetheness of it all, Glenn Close’s reaction to Ray Fiske blowing his brains out, the closing moments on the dock.

DOCTOR WHO/TORCHWOOD The one-two punch of Doctor Who and Torchwood coupled with my going to Comic-Con made 2007 my geekiest year to date. Season 3 of Doctor Who was probably the best of the new series. While I loved and miss Rose, Martha was a great companion. Capt. Jack may have ended up on Who at the end of Season 3 but more importantly he kicked some demon ass all season on his own show, Torchwood. Harkness, Gwen, Ianto, Owen, and Tosh made their show so much more than a spin-off. Torchwood delivered thrills, chills, and tears and I cannot wait for it’s return early in 2008. Highlights: Who’s Donna the Runaway Bride, “Human Nature” and the scary intense weeping angels of “Blink”. Torchwood’s gayness, “Random Shoes” with Eugene, Billis the scariest wrinkled creepy since the Preacher Kane from Poltergeist.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS The Dillon Panthers won State, the audience won another season and all seemed great down there in Texas. Then poor Tyra and Landry had to dump a body in a river leading to the most interesting coupling the show could ever have concocted. Some balked at the stunt plotline but I welcomed it once I saw how unbelievable both Adrianne Palicki and Jessie Plemons would make their roles. The Taylors continued to bring one of the most realistic and beautiful families to television not to mention Connie Britton’s acting her ass off. Highlights: Winning State, Plemons acting, Santiago’s first moment in the game during “The Confession”… breathtaking.

LOST Say what you will about Season 3 of LOST but the addition of Juliet and the jump forward solidified the show as greatness in my book. While it took a bit to flesh out Ben’s backstory, Juliet’s arrival on the island, Mr. Friendly’s allegiance, and the involvement of the Whidmore’s it was all worth the wait. We got some great answers this season, some scary twists and turns, some great revelations, some wonderful death’s, and HELLO, the chaos surrounding who’s coming to the island in Season 4? Matthew Fox continued to bring anxiety and sadness to the role of Jack and it’s a damn shame he wasn’t nominated for something this year. I’m psyched for it’s return on January 31st! Highlights: The story of how Juliet came to the island, the death of Charlie, the flash-forward, and Patch!

MAD MEN Seriously, do I even need to explain why Mad Men is on the list? The acting, the writing, the art direction, the costuming, the genius? Another summer sleeper that rocked my socks! Highlights: Jon Hamm as Don Draper, any scene with Joan, the sadness of the era, Don Draper’s carousel pitch.

PUSHING DAISIES The facts are these: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride are my favorite finds of 2007. Bryan Fuller created a vivid, magical world I didn’t realize was missing from making my life complete until it slapped me in the face. My favorite pilot of 2007 led to stalking Fuller and Co. at Comic-Con, creating a fansite called ThePieMaker.com, and landed me on the Red Carpet interviewing these great talents. What a summer and fall leading up to the premiere of Pushing Daisies. This show makes me beyond happy and I cannot wait for its return in 2008. Highlights: The pilot, Ellen Greene, the musical numbers, Ned & Chuck, Bryan Fuller and Lee Pace recognizing me on the red carpet with hugs all around. Swoon…

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE I have to include SYTYCD because seriously could there have been a bigger obsession all summer long? Sure I loved Damages and Mad Men but sweet lord did it not compare to my lunacy over Neil Haskell and the rest of the dancers on SYTYCD. Highlights: Neil and Sabra’s boardroom brawl, Cat Deeley’s flawless hosting, Mary Murphy’s continued screaming, Wade Robson’s increased involvement, Debbi Allen and Shankman, backstage on tour.

SUPERNATURAL Love those Winchester’s. In a year that saw Sammy go real dark, the demise of YED, and a soul searching Dean, how can I not love Supernatural? The end of Season 2 was a wild wild ride but the beginning of Season 3 proved that this show is not and will not be stereotyped. Broadening the horizons of the demon world has suited the show nicely. Sure the addition of Ruby and Bela has been problematic for some but I can overlook that because the suspense and the gore has increased! Highlights: Visiting the set last May, blood and more blood, Supernatural:Origins comics, the return of Gordon.

The rest of the best: Battlestar Galactica, Big Bang Theory, Brothers & Sisters, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Project Runway, Psych, The Closer, The Office, Top Chef and the end of Veronica Mars.

Should be on the list but isn’t for one reason or another: Dexter (never finished Season 2 because we got rid of Showtime but I’m dying to see the rest), Bones (just got addicted so I felt it couldn’t be added just yet – though let it be known that I’m obsessed), Dirty Sexy Money (something just isn’t right just yet, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it).

Have a safe and Happy New Year! Looking forward to a wonderful and hopefully television filled 2008.

Wow, we’ve been waiting weeks to hear if FX was going to renew their amazing thriller DAMAGES and word just came out that they have… for 2 more seasons!

Per Ausiello:

FX has ordered not one more but two new seasons of the critically acclaimed Damages, for a total of 26 episodes. “To be able to tell 26 more hours of mind-blowing stories with Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman and Glenn Kessler is an incredible position to be in,” says Jamie Erlicht, Co-President of Programming and Production, Sony Pictures Television. “FX has continually shown enormous support for both this show and for Sony, and it’s evident in this extended renewal.”

I’m psyched! As you know, DAMAGES was one of my favorite shows this summer and over the past television year. I cannot wait to see Ellen work Patty over and bury her. If you missed any of my INTERVIEWS WITH THE DAMAGES CAST head on over to the Interview page.

FX’s incredibly intricate and deliciously diabolical first season of DAMAGES just finished and I’m still trying to piece it all together and catch my breath from all the twisty-turny awesomeness.

Quickly I think this is how it goes in one big long paragraph so get ready…

Patty hired Ellen to get to Katie who’s David’s sister and soon to be sister-in-law of Ellen in order to bring down Arthur Frobisher for screwing his employees out of their retirement funds somewhere in the ballpark of $500,000,000. Katie took money from Frobisher to open a restaurant but it was all because she was with Gregory Malina on that fateful night in Florida. Patty had Katie’s dog killed, blackmailed Frobisher’s lawyer Ray Fiske which led to his blowing his brains out in her office because she threatened to go public with the fact that he gave stock to and told to sell it to Gregory whom he was secretly in love with. George Moore worked for the SEC and leaked to Frobisher that they were investigating him which led to the selling of the stock which led to the lawsuit which was the catalyst for the show. Moore was working with Ellen to set up Frobisher until he was murdered by Frobisher’s hairy faced silent man who also killed Gregory after making a tape of all his secrets and leaving it with Katie who gave it to David the night he was murdered by the same hairy faced silent man and some jamoke. We all thought hairy faced silent man and some jamoke were also behind trying to kill Ellen in Patty’s apartment while Patty was at her beach house resting after witnessing Ray killing himself but in the end it wasn’t hairy faced Frobisher guy and some jamoke, it was Uncle Pete letting some other jamoke into the apartment to kill Ellen on Patty’s orders. Did I mention that hairy faced silent guy went back to Ellen’s apartment to get the flashlight left behind by the jamoke and turns out that not only is he Frobisher’s guy, he’s a police officer. What?!! Patty got Frobisher for 2 billion dollars, promised to seal all evidence against him but gave the confession tape of Gregory Malina to the DA whom she instructed to use come re-election time and hopefully sending Frobisher away for good. Probably don’t need to worry about that though because Frobisher was shot by Lawrence the ex-employee/mole who the rest of the employees cut out of the fortunes after discovering he was the leak in the case. Hollis Nye, the guy that warned Ellen in the premiere to not go work for Patty Hewes seemed all sorts of shady and pulled Ellen into a black car to find Mario Van Peebles and some other guy who are FBI agents trying to convince Ellen to help them investigate and nail Patty for Fraud, obstruction of justice and a couple other nasty little charges. Patty summons Ellen to the beach house where she tells her that yes, in fact she is regretful of what they did about Ray and that she wants her back at work. Ellen agrees and then we realize that she agreed because she now works as an informant for the FBI and was just given access to all of Hewes Associates resources to “prove Frobisher killed David” and obviously to screw Patty for trying to kill her in the process.

Phew… I think that about covers the mystery. Maybe?

I need to watch the whole season again because honestly, the timeline for this show is one of the most complex and impressive works of writing I’ve ever seen. The storylines were so deep and embeded within each other that I know I’ve missed a ton of things. The whole Florida business is still a little vague for me. I lost track of what happened there and why it was important anymore because of the twists and turns. Like I said, another viewing is in order!

So fingers crossed it gets picked up for a second season because there are a whole slew of things out there just floating about unanswered.

Obviously there’s the whole Patty/Ellen face off. Patty had a kid named Julia 35 years ago that was born DOA. Patty’s son came back to the apartment the night Ellen was attacked for a reason but it was never answered. Who is his Father? We know that Michael Nouri is his step-father but do we know that story at all? What else has Patty done in the past that led the FBI to her way before the Frobisher case? Why is hairy faced silent man a cop and what the frak is that all about? And lastly, what happened to Lyla and crazy ass?

I need a break after all this. Damages was amazing and I hope you all get the chance to marvel in its glory at some point.

Don’t forget to read all the interviews I did with the cast of DAMAGES.

Tate Donovan is an actor that has been around for over 20 years. That’s long enough for me to have had a little boy crush on Tate back in the day… the SPACE CAMP day! Loved him more than words and it’s been fun to follow his career since. A few years back he nailed the role of Jimmy Cooper on The OC and currently he’s doing some of his best work on FX’s dramatic thriller DAMAGES.

Here is the interview from earlier in the week with Tate, and it saddens me that I didn’t get to ask about SPACE CAMP, working with super hot Kelly Preston, young Joaquin Phoenix, and Mrs. Steven Spielberg. Alas, he was fun and I hope you enjoy the interview.

Question: How has starring in a high-profile series with super popular Glenn Close rubbed off on you? Has it affected your life and/or career in unexpected ways?

T. Donovan: Working with Glenn Close is a fantastic experience. You have to bring your A game when you work with Ms. Close. She’s really well prepared. It’s actually really a joy, because she asks the director and the producers the best questions. Every time, she’s sort of like, “Well, hold on a second. Why is this?” She was asking about the plot, because it’s very confusing to everybody, exactly what’s going on in the case, since we’re not really lawyers. She’s very inspiring in terms of just the questions she asks, and you’re always going, “Geez, I wish I had asked that question,” like “Why does Frobisher do da, da, da, da, da?” Yes, she’s wonderful, a total inspiration.

Question: The writing, the characters are so nuanced in Damages. There is no clear-cut bad or good, just all sorts of shades of gray and in between. Your character, Tom, is for the most part, an on-the-level guy, but are you hopeful that the character will veer into the dark side more or stay more above the fray and above all the machinations that Patty has up her sleeve?

T. Donovan: What’s kind of exciting about Tom is that he, like all of us, we’re just trying to do the best we can and we’re trying to succeed and trying to do well. I think he lacks that killer instinct. Patty has it in state. She’s a genius. She knows exactly how to go in for the kill. Tom, I think he wants people to like him more. Patty doesn’t care; she just wants to win.

Somebody who wants everyone to like him generally gets into trouble, so I imagine Tom, like everyone else, like every other character, he has his moments of selfishness and his moments of greed. It’s funny; a lot of people are like, “I can’t believe, you’re the worst kind of evil. Your character is the worst, because he’s a nice guy and he’s evil.” I don’t particularly see him as evil. I see him as just a guy who is trying to survive in a pretty cut-throat environment.
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I didn’t get the chance to see last night’s DAMAGES so I don’t have any thoughts for you, instead I bring you an interview with Anastasia Griffith (Katie Connor) that I participated in.

It’s an interview heavy day (Kyle XY’s Matt Dallas) folks, hope you enjoy.

Question: With growing up as the youngest child with a lot of older brothers, I was wondering growing up were they very over-protective of you or maybe too much so?

A. Griffith: Surprisingly, not so, actually. For people who don’t know, I’ve got six older brothers and I am the only girl and the youngest. I think secretly they were a lot more protective than they ever let on to me. You know, people have told me since, being an adult, that my brothers are fiercely protective of me, but they’ve never kind of let me know that, which I think is probably a good thing.

Question: In one of the interviews with your brother Jamie a few years ago he mentioned that your father was kind of very reluctant for him to go into acting. I was wondering if you met that same kind of issue?

A. Griffith: Dad has always been a businessman himself and he’s always just been a little bit cynical about the world of acting and I think for Jamie, Jamie is an incredibly bright guy and he had so many opportunities when he was younger and acting kind of grabbed his attention, as it did mine.

I think Dad is old school and he kind of, I think, thinks it’s more fitting for a daughter to go into acting than it is a for a son, but having said that, he’s done everything he can to encourage me to do other things. He’s got huge confidence in my intelligence and my ability to do things and also to act. But he just has no trust, I think, in the world of acting.

But, having said that, since Damages has taken off for me and it’s doing so well he’s actually written me a note recently saying congratulations and you, obviously, did the right thing.
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Last week I was on a press call with actor Noah Bean who plays David Connor on FX’s DAMAGES and it was a good time. Sometimes press conference calls can be tricky to navigate because each one has their own set of rules but this one was really laid back allowing Noah to hopefully feel more comfortable talking into a phone with faceless reporters on the other end. The key was that they didn’t mute the person asking the question so it allowed them to laugh or interact in a way that some conferences do not. There is a downside where someone coughs or types or sometimes has another phone conversation going but that didn’t happen this time. Regardless, thanks to FX and Noah Bean for allowing this call to happen.

If you’re not watching DAMAGES over on FX you need to stop reading this blog and get thee to a TV because it’s one of the most incredibly written and intensly acted shows on television. If you don’t get FX, try MyNetwork as they’ve begun airing reruns of the show.

I’ve eliminated which questions were asked by which reporters/bloggers to make for an easier read, it’s long so I’ll start with a question or two and then the rest will continue after the jump.

Question: What were your thoughts on A) joining the show where you know your character end is dead and B) that then potentially resulting in you not having as long as a run as other characters and I say potentially because we have no idea what’s going to happen?

N. Bean: I don’t really have any idea what’s going to happen either, which is amazing. But yes, it was kind of at first, when I first got the job, obviously in the pilot, we see what happens to David and it didn’t look so good. But at first, I was kind of thrilled because I thought this was just great. I get one season on this great show.
And then once we started shooting it, I was like, “Darn it, this stinks because,” it’s so great. It’s just gotten better and better and better, the show as we’ve continued shooting.

So it’s a little bit of a bummer, but I think it’s going to be sort of fascinating. I think the guys, our writers and our creators, have got some really cool story lines that are going to kind of build up to the end of the season and then like you said, I think that we’ve all kind of got no idea where this may go. So who knows? It may not be the complete end of David Conner.

Question: How did the Damages pilot script cross your path? What was the clincher for you to sign on to this project?

N. Bean: Basically, I just lucked out. I was the lucky one. They said yes to me, so I got it just in a typical way that my agent gave me the script. And I remember though when my agent gave it to me, he said, “This is really special and really good.” And I’ve been in New York since 2000, so it’s sort of rare that you get so few shows that shoot in New York.

So that to me was the first thing that it was something that I was really looking forward to try to find a show that keeps me in New York and not have to go to Montreal or L.A. And it just so happened that it was this fantastic script and so I was really lucky enough to get the part. I was finished as soon as I shot in New York, Glenn Close and probably one of the best pilot scripts, I bet.

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Friday afternoon, I’ll be attending a conference call with actor Noah Bean from FX’s incredibly tense drama DAMAGES. Noah plays David Connor, legal pawn Ellen Parsons’ fiancee. I know we’ve only seen two episodes of Damages so far but FX has quite the track record and I’m thinking this show has the power to take over that other legal drama The Closer. Did you miss my pilot review of Damages? Read it!

If you have any questions for David or about Damages, please leave them in the comments field.