Our Thanksgiving List: TV We're Thankful for This Year

From TGIT to a major comeback, here's the 15 items our TV Scoop Team is acknowledging on Turkey Day

By TV Scoop Team Nov 26, 2014 2:00 PMTags
Comeback, Dancing with the Stars, How to get away with murder, The vampire diaries)CW; ABC; Showtime

Thanksgiving is time for reflection. OK, eating, too, but mostly reflection. Which is exactly what we're doing today!

In honor of Turkey Day, the TV Scoop Team decided to take a moment to express our gratitude for the TV shows, stars and producers who gift us with so much awesomeness throughout the year, always providing us with a much-needed laugh, a good cry or a mindblowing reveal. 

Below, each member of our team revealed three TV-related items they are thankful for this season, from ABC's TGIT to the return of an old friend...

Colleen Hayes/HBO

Kristin's list

ALL THE FEELS. You can't make me pick just one (too much goodness this year!), but I want to give some sincere gratitude and Valerie Cherish yoga hands to three things that make me choke up to even think about them:

 Valerie Cherish: The Comeback's return not only met but exceeded my expectations, and I honesty can't even believe we got to experience this gem again, nearly a decade later. It's everything we dreamed of, and more! Honorary mention: Seth Rogen.

Pete Nowalk and Viola Davis: Thank you for boldly challenging viewers' ideas of what is "normal" on mainstream TV. That taking-off-the-wig moment did more to eradicate Hollywood's obsession with perfection and single-minded beauty than anything else all year long. Bra-freaking-vo.

E! Online's Team TV Scoop: Tierney Bricker, Chris Harnick, Sydney Bucksbaum and Lauren Piester have consistently churned out amazing, brilliant, passionate and sometimes LOL-worthy content in our E! Online section this year, and I could not be more grateful, nor more proud, to call you my colleagues and friends. 2015 is OURS, bitches! Thank you for your continued awesomeness.

CW

Tierney's list

Dancing With the Stars: Yes, really. I am thankful for the ABC reality hit for always giving me a fallback topic of conversation with my mother. We get into a fight? "So…can you believe Mark's choreography this season?!" Or "I cannot get over Lea's legs!" always does the trick. No bother that my friend who once watched with me said, "You actually turn into a Midwest soccer mom while watching this show." No bother.

Kai on The Vampire Diaries: Yes, my favorite character on The Vampire Diaries is a witch and no one is more surprised than me. The witchy woo woo on TVD has never been its strongest point, but that's all changed this season, thanks to new baddie Kai, who is all charm and menace, and the Gemini coven, who have completely reinvigorated the series. Let's keep Christopher Wood and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe around, yeah? Seriously, we wouldn't say no to another spinoff to join The Originals. Get on it, Julie Plec!

Showtime Sundays: Am I thankful for the weekly anxiety attack that the one-two punch of Homeland and The Affair gives me? No. But am I already going through withdrawals knowing they both will soon be ending their ridiculously impressive seasons, fourth and first respectively, soon? F--k yeah. (Add in Revenge, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead and Once Upon a Time and it's clear that Sunday is a TV fan's nirvana...and scheduling nightmare.)

YouTube

Chris' list

The Quiet Moments on The Good Wife: The Good Wife has made a name for itself as perhaps TV's best one-hour drama. It's known for shocking twists, long-planned character arcs and some of the best casting ever. Sure, my world was rocked when Will Gardner was gunned down and Alicia was fired and left the firm in a blaze of glory, but the events that really made me pause were the quiet moments. Diane's subtle exit from her own firm was a silent and confident march capped with a simple "Goodbye" as the elevator doors closed. When she and Alicia reclaimed their former office home several episodes later, the two had one of the most poignant moments in the show's history as Alicia sat at Will's old desk with tears in her eyes and a teary Diane looked on, I sat on my couch, tearing up with them.

Valerie Cherish: The Comeback is a true TV gem that is made all the more special by Valerie Cherish. When Lisa Kudrow slips on that red feathered wig, all bets are off. She disappears into the character and is BEYOND entertaining. I laugh with her, cringe with her and just love Valerie Cherish.

Law & Order: SVU: Sixteen years later and Law & Order: SVU is still appointment TV. Under Warren Leight's watch, the show has reached new heights. Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson has never been better. She's a fleshed out character with feelings, hopes, conflict, love—it's just great, comforting (yes, even though the subject matter is anything but) TV.

ABC/Kelsey McNeal

Sydney's list

CW's Wednesday Night Lineup: I used to look forward to Thursday nights all week long as the best night of TV, but now, that honor goes to Wednesday nights...if only because of what the CW brings to the table. Arrow, I've always loved you but this season you've given me something I never thought I'd see: actually Olicity scenes! With kisses! And "I love you's" being thrown around! Pinch me, I must be in a mirakuru-dream. And then after my heart is left pounding by all the twists and turns Oliver and Team Arrow had to face, 9 p.m. rolls around my No. 1 favorite show The 100 begins, and for the next hour I'm screaming like Lucille Bluth anytime Gene Parmesan reveals his identity. After a slow start in season one, this sci-fi action/adventure drama quickly became one of the most exciting, brilliant and compelling shows on TV. 

The Originals Casting Department: Bless you, The Originals casting department, for picking Teen Wolf alum Daniel Sharman to play Kol Mikaelson in a new body this season. That face, that accent, that mischievous perma-smirk...it's clear Sharman was born to play this role. Hey, if I can't have Nathaniel Buzolic back full-time as the witch-loving Original brother, this is definitely the next best thing (and maybe even a better thing).

Adrianne Palicki on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Sing it with me: Mock! Yeah! Ing! Yeah! Bird! Yeah! Mockingbird! This Friday Night Lights alum is everything I wanted and more from the popular Marvel comic book character Mockingbird/Bobbi Morse. She kicks major ass, both in the field and in the interrogation room. There's seriously nothing she can't do. Please tell me we get to keep her forever and ever?

Cate Cameron/The CW

Lauren's list

Thursday Night TV: From The Vampire Diaries to Parenthood to TGIT, I go to bed every Thursday night thinking my heart's going to jump out of my chest. The Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder winter finales nearly killed me. I mean, can we talk about Viola Davis sitting at her desk in the dark? Better yet, can we talk about Olivia Pope deciding to choose herself and also dancing?! I'm still not over it. I may never be over it.

Revenge: I've loved this show from the moment they showed Emily poisoning Conrad's soup in the pilot, but I've never loved it more than I do right now. I had thought David being alive was going to be totally hokey, but instead, I can't get enough. Emily and David's relationship is probably the most interesting one on TV right now, and one hour of it per week will never be enough.

The CW: A couple of years ago, I scoffed at the thought of the CW, and now I watch and love almost every single show it has to offer. It's good—really, really good—and doing things that no other network is daring to do. Where else can you get demons, ghosts, superheroes, vampires, werewolves, fan fiction musicals, accidental artificial inseminations, and Felicity Smoak all in one place? That's right—nowhere.

What TV items are you thankful for this season? Let us know in the comments below!