They Call Me Mr. Pitiful

Since TV writers are going all Norma Rae on us, its likely that many of our favorite scripted shows will be falling off the radar for a while. While I'm definitely behind the WGA on this one, that doesn't mean I'm not silently freaking out that The Office might not finish their season or Lost might not come back until February...2009 (gasp!).

So, while the powers that be are shoving their collective middle fingers in the faces of studio executives, I thought I'd write about something that will help quench your TV needs in the meantime: the website Television Without Pity (or the puppy-cute abbreviation "TWoP").

For those of you that don't know, TWoP is basically great writing about television on the internet. There are kind of two facets to the website: recaps and forums. Recaps are written by "recappers" (shock!) about many, many TV shows. You can read recaps each week for shows that are currently airing, like Pushing Daisies, or scan the archives and read recaps of canceled shows like The O.C.. The forums are basically what they sound like. They're divided up based on show and it's really where fans can duke it out and analyze till they go cross-eyed.

I know you guys are sitting there all "What the hell, I don't want to read about TV. I just want to watch TV and eat cheese puffs in peace," but no. No! You will like!

The recaps are sarcastic, funny, witty, mocking, laden with pop culture references and nicknames, and well, deliciously snarky. The site is even hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “the industry standard” for obsessive TV fanatics. What's really cool is that it actually has a pretty big influence on the shows. Writers and producers read the site all the time and really seem to care about the opinions people have. It's like insta-focus group and interactivity--it can help gauge which story lines and characters are working, and which are not (Michael on Lost, I'm looking at you and your "Waaaaaallllltt" yells. For more on this click here).

Oh, and also they have a rockstar of a mascot. Tubey. It's a TV set with horns. And a tail. Hee! Mascots are very important.