Jesse Tyler Ferguson Shares 5 Facts About Himself Including His Crush on Glee's Darren Criss

People Magazine has a fun “5 Facts About Me” feature about Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson in its current issue.

What he can’t get enough of: “Coffee. I could have seven or eight cups in a day.”

What he’s addicted to: “[The iPhone app] Angry Birds. There was a point when I was playing it at red lights. Oprah said not to text and drive, but she didn’t say not to do that!”

Who he would love to be: “Michelle Obama for a day. I don’t want the pressure of being the president, but I want to see inside The White House and put the girls to sleep.”

His bad habit: “I bite my nails. It’s boredom, it’s nerves, it’s when I’m happy, when I’m hungry. I work through the bitter nail polish. It’s really bad.”

His celebrity crush: “Glee’s Darren Criss [pictured below with Jesse and Neil Patrick Harris]. I got to meet him the other day. He’s the nicest guy, so sweet, so talented. It was wonderful.”

Nathan Lane Will Return to “Modern Family”

Nathan Lane was truly hilarious as Cameron and Mitchell’s party throwing pal Pepper during the earthquake episode on ABC’s Modern Family last fall.

So it is such great news that he will returning for an encore guest spot this spring, according to TV Guide’s William Keck.

This time, “Mitch [Jesse Tyler Ferguson] and Cam [Eric Stonestreet] go out for a boys night with Pepper and a bunch of their other gay friends,” Modern Family executive producer Steve Levitan told Keck at Saturday’s Producers Guild Awards, just before going on stage to accept the award for Best Comedy Series.

The plot twist: “Jay [Ed O'Neil] stumbles in to the party,” teased Levitan. “We’re having a lot of fun playing with Nathan and this will be a very funny use of him.”

ABC Renews Grey's Anatomy, Castle and Four More – But Not Desperate Housewives?

ABC kicked off its portion of the Television Critics Association midseason press tour by breaking a little news: The network has officially renewed six series — Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Castle, Modern Family, The Middle and Cougar Town — through next season.

Conspicuously missing from the pickup list are Sunday staples Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. Although Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has a deal in place for two more seasons, the show’s core quartet — Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria — will see their contracts expire at the end of the current season. As Entertainment Weekly reported earlier this month, negotiations are already underway on new pacts that would keep them on Wisteria Lane for another season or two.

Brothers & Sisters, meanwhile, remains firmly on the bubble. Encouraging ratings this fall led ABC to increase the drama’s episode order from 18 to 22, but insiders say there’s a 50/50 chance the Walkers will bow out in May.

Cougar Town‘s pickup comes as the Courtney Cox comedy is about to relinquish its time slot to Matthew Perry’s Mr. Sunshine. ABC president Paul Lee told reporters at the press tour that he’s pleased with the show’s creative direction and ratings performance, but added that the cushy post-Modern Family perch serves as a “great launch pad for [new shows]… But we’re very pleased with [Cougar Town]. It’s really found its voice.”

“Modern Family” Guest Star James Marsden in a Hot Tub with Cam and Mitchell!

Just what any gay couple needs: an incredibly gorgeous guy moving in nearby, stripping down, and climbing into your hot tub without asking permission.

This is how Cam and Mitchell (Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) first encounter their new neighbor in next week’s episode of Modern Family.

The neighbor is played by the smokin’ hot James Marsden of Enchanted, 27 Dresses and Hairspray fame. Marsden's character is straight, but we can let Cam and Mitchell enjoy themselves, can't they?

Anyway, here’s a funny preview of what is to come on Modern Family:

James Marsden Stars as a Shirtless Neighbor Who Distracts Cam and Mitchell on Modern Family

James Marden wearing clothes would be distracting enough!

The handsome star of such films as Enchantment, 27 Dresses, Hairspray, The Box and this year’s Death at a Funeral has been cast in a guest spot on Modern Family as a hunky neighbor of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Fergerson).

According to TV Guide’s William Keck, Marsden’s “presence causes the boys’ temperatures to rise every time he whips off his shirt (think Matthew McConaughey in every paparazzi photo.) Wouldn’t it be fun if this eye candy role ended up being recurring?”

Marsden is a terrific actor who happens to be straight and is very appreciative of his gay fan base.

He played gay in the indie flicks Heights as a guy engaged to a women but having an affair with a gay man played by Jesse Bradford; and in the very intense The 24th Day opposite Scott Speedman. He played a guy who infected Speedman with the HIV virus during a one-night stand.

Modern Family Honored for It's Diversity by GLSEN

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, honored the Emmy Award-winning ABC comedy Modern Family at the Respect Awards in Los Angeles on Friday, October 8. The event was hosted by Rob Reiner.

The series, which recently began its second season, focuses on a diverse suburban family, including a gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter. It won the 2010 Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series. Many of the series stars attended the event.

"I do have the same sort of mixed feeling, in the light of everything that's happened," noted Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family, who is openly gay. "However, I think an event like this echoes the sentiment that we need to change. This cannot continue happening."

The Emmy-nominated Ferguson, 34, said he was "very bullied" in school.

"I actually had to leave eighth grade and go to another school because it got so bad, so I certainly sympathize with these kids," Fergueson noted, adding that bullied students should keep reminding themselves that school won't last forever. "Honestly, back at my 10-year reunion, I didn't even remember any of those bullies' names. Frankly, they weren't doing nearly as good as me. So, it was very vindicating."

Sofia Vergara, said acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Latin community "is very hard, because it's very taboo," she explained.

"The Latin community is a very Catholic community," continued Vergara, 38. "So, it's always a problem for people to accept it, and they live in denial for many years, the parents, and prefer not to address the problem. And that's when tragedies and things happen. And, you know, it's hard. You're not going to change things in one day."

GLAAD Bosses Applaud 'Gay-friendly' Shows

Gay rights campaigners have applauded the TV bosses behind hit shows including True Blood and Glee for bringing more homosexual characters to the small screen.

A report by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has found the number of gay, lesbian or bisexual characters appearing on TV has risen over the last year.

The study claims homosexual characters now make up 3.9 per cent of all those seen on U.S. TV.

Hit vampire show True Blood, which stars bisexual Anna Paquin and has featured six gay characters, was singled out for praise, along with musical show Glee and Modern Family.

GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios says, "The increase in lesbian, gay and bisexual characters on primetime television not only reflects the shift in American culture toward greater awareness and understanding of our community but also a new industry standard that a growing number of creators and networks are adopting.

"The recent critical and commercial success of shows like Modern Family and Glee clearly indicate that mainstream audiences embrace gay characters and want to see well-crafted stories about our lives."

Fall TV Premieres: Wednesday, September 22nd

This "hump day" we have the pleasure to welcome the third day of the new 2010/2011 Fall TV season premiere week with the return the Emmy award winning "Modern Family" to ABC and the new NBC series "Undercovers".

Today's Spotlight: Modern Family

In the second-season premiere, Phil relunctantly agrees to get rid of the Dunphy station wagon, which prompts a wave of nostalgia for the old car. Meanwhile, Cameron enlights Jay's help when Mitchell tries to build a princess castle for Lily,and Manny asks a girl over to study.

Here's the schedule for tonight's premieres:

8:00 pm

ABC - The Middle

FOX - Hell's Kitchen

NBC - Undercovers (new)

8:30 pm

ABC - Better with You (new)

9:00 pm

ABC - Modern Family

CBS - Criminal Minds

NBC - Law & Order: SVU

9:30 pm

ABC - Cougar Town

10:00 pm

ABC - The Whole Truth (new)

CBS - The Defenders (new)

All times are shown based on Eastern Time zone.

(new) = New series premiere

Modern Family's Gay Kiss Has Been Filmed

After much fan pressure to have "Modern Family's" adorable gay couple share a kiss, one-half of the hilarious twosome confirms it's in the can.

"Yes, we filmed the kiss episode," Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell, told E!Online's Marc Malkin. "It's a very organic kiss. People are going to be very surprised when they see it."

More than 13,000 fans took to Facebook asking the show's producers to let Cam and Mitchell share a kissing scene. In response to the movement, producers issued a statement.

It read: "Cameron and Mitchell are a loving, grounded, committed, and demonstrably affectionate couple and have been from the beginning of the series. It happens that we have an episode in the works that addresses Mitchell's slight discomfort with public displays of affection. It will air in the fall and until then, as Phil Dunphy would say, everyone please chillax."

Now that the scene has been shot, Ferguson says he's also pretty sure he delivered Eric Stonestreet's (the straight but convincingly gay Cam on the show) first man-on-man smacker saying, "I'll be shocked and offended if I wasn't."

Either way, we're sure it'll be one scene Eric and the show's fans will never forget.

Did Modern Family's Sofia Vergara Fulfill Emmy Pledge to Run Nude in Hollywood?

Forget red. Modern Family is so thrilled with their Emmy win, they may have painted the town nude.

"Listen, I'm not afraid of anything. I'm Colombian," Sofia Vergara, 38, told Access Hollywood about streaking on one of the busiest streets in Hollywood.

The team behind the hit ABC comedy publicly – through an ad in the trade papers – stated in July that Vergara would "run naked down Sunset Blvd." if the show won outstanding comedy at Sunday's Emmys.

The ad did, however, in tiny print, have a disclaimer that the "cast member may change without notice," but Vergara says she's one to make good on an offer – and even claimed she'd already done the run.

"Yes, I mean, I'm fast. I run fast," she told a skeptical Billy Bush after the show won the award. "They zipped me and they sent me to do press."

Backing up her story: Vergara's Modern Family costar Julie Bowen. "When we went back to the press room, she had made a left turn and we all made a right turn," Bowen said. "So for about 20 minutes, she was missing."

When she returned, Bowen says Vergara replied that she "went to run nude down Sunset Boulevard. No one was there. So I did it. It's over … 'No one said I had to do it at a certain time.' "

Bowen also promised she'd do the deed if she won for best supporting actress. "Luckily that did not happen," she says. "I've never been so happy to lose in my life!"

Emmys Have a Mad, Modern Night

One old favorite and one new kid on the block took top Emmy honors.

Mad Men won the outstanding drama series for the third consecutive year on Sunday night, while Modern Family was named outstanding comedy series.

A 14-time nominee, ABC's ensemble comedy netted an early win for supporting actor Eric Stonestreet, who plays the loveable Cameron Tucker.

"All I wanted to be was a clown in the circus when I was a kid growing up," the first-time winner, who called the gig "the most amazing job ever," said onstage.

Another freshman series, Glee, collected an award for director Ryan Murphy and Jane Lynch, who won outstanding supporting actress in a comedy for her role as the scheming Sue Sylvester.

In a shout-out to the ensemble cast, she joked, "I love you. You're young and you're wonderful. You're fresh-faced, and when I'm not seething with jealousy, I'm so proud of you."

First-Time Winners

It was a recurring theme during the three-hour telecast from L.A.'s Nokia Theatre: Many first-time nominees were rewarded with Emmys, especially on the dramatic front, where a fleet of new faces won.

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul nabbed outstanding supporting actor in a drama, while The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi picked up outstanding supporting actress in a drama. And The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick won outstanding leading actress in a drama after four previous nominations.

One exception: Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston, who took home the outstanding actor in a drama trophy for the third consecutive year. Noting his esteemed fellow nominees, he expressed his gratitude, saying, "I'm so humbled and amazed to be in your company."

Edie Falco claimed outstanding actress in a comedy for Nurse Jackie and Jim Parsons won outstanding actor in a comedy for The Big Bang Theory.

Kate Dances ... Again

Emmy host Jimmy Fallon kicked things off with little help from Glee and Kate Gosselin, who laced up her dancing shoes once again after a less-than-lauded turn on Dancing with the Stars.

In addition, the host recruited an A-list team – including Tina Fey, Kate Gosselin, Jane Lynch, Randy Jackson, Jon Hamm and Betty White – for a zippy musical number. The group performed Bruce Springsteen's propulsive hit "Born to Run" after a short skit in which the Glee kids said they couldn't afford tickets to the awards show.

Gosselin, who famously earned low marks on Dancing with the Stars, poked fun at herself, teasing with Fallon and his crew, "I can help [with the performance]; I'm a great dancer."

Here's a list of all the winners from last night's telecast:

Outstanding Comedy Series: Modern Family
Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men
Lead Actress in a Comedy: Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Lead Actor in a Comedy: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Jane Lynch, Glee
Supporting Actor in a Comedy: Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Lead Actress in a Drama: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Lead Actor in a Drama: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Supporting Actor in a Drama: Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
Supporting Actress in a Drama: Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Reality-Competition Program: Top Chef
Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program: Jeff Probst, Survivor

Modern Family's Gay Couple Cam and Mitchell to Kiss After All

Television's most prominent homosexual couple are set to share an on-screen kiss.

Modern Family's co-creator and writer Steve Levitan has revealed that producers are preparing a 'public display of affection' episode for the program's married gay couple, Cam and Mitchell.

In fact, Levitan insists the scene was going to happen all along even before fans started to lobby for the kiss publicly, notably on a Facebook campaign.

'We've had an episode planned for a long time that dealt with that subject,' he told E! news.

'So it almost bothers us that there was a little bit of controversy about it. Because we don't want to appear that we're answering the criticism.'

In the show's breakout first season, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) did everything from adopt an adorable daughter to travel on the extended family's Hawaiian vacation.

But they've never expressed obvious affection for each other on camera.

The controversy came to a light-hearted boil when Cam and Mitch had a dramatic airport reunion in the Hawaiian episode. While the show's straight couple smooched at the airport, Cam and Mitchell gave each other a tepid hug.

The floodgates opened as fans assumed the show's producers were blocking a kiss. Facebook campaigners set up a special page: 'Let Cam & Mitchell kiss on Modern Family.'

While the campaign never reached the giddy heights of the Facebook campaign to recruit Betty White to host Saturday Night Live, the Cam and Mitchell kiss page did make a splash with 13,465 supporters.

'Sure enough, we're dealing with public displays of affection and the power of the kiss,' said Levitan.

The actors preparing for the public display of affection didn't give details about the upcoming scene. 'But we're all proceeding and progressing and moving forward,' said Ferguson. 'There'll be lots of everything.'

Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson Fights for Gay Marriage in New York

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson is fighting for gay rights in New York - the actor has filmed an internet promo calling for same-sex marriage to be made legal in his adopted home state.

The openly gay actor, who moved to the Big Apple in the 1990s to attend drama school, is backing the Fight Back New York campaign, a drive to remove from office all the state senators who voted against marriage equality.

In the web film, Ferguson admits to a crush on actor Alec Baldwin, but states that even if his idol returned his feelings they would be unable to wed because 38 politicians voted against the legalisation of gay marriage.

He says, "We can't get married in New York. And you want to know why? Because a bunch of stupid senators last year voted against my rights and the rights of hundreds of thousands of others who just want to marry the person that they love! Yeah... it's ridiculous."

Nathan Lane to Guest Star on “Modern Family”

Eric Stonestreet shared with reporters at TV Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills that Tony winner Nathan Lane is set to guest star on Modern Family.

Nathan will play the role of Pepper who is a flamboyant friend of the show’s gay couple Mitch and Cam [Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson].

Apparently it was Lane who approached producers about wanting to guest and the episode will air early in the new season.

He is currently starring on Broadway with Bebe Neuwirth in The Addams Family. He is a Tony winner for The Producers and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

OUT Interview: Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson Reveals Crush on Evan Lysacek

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is on the cover of the new issue of OUT magazine.

The gifted out star plays one-half of a gay couple raising a child on the hit ABC comedy Modern Family.

Here are some portions of his interview with OUT:

Each week Ferguson feels the pressures of playing a gay character, and although he has always been out in his privates life, until recently he remained hesitant about opening up about his sexuality publicly. “I just didn’t feel like it was doing [The Class] character any service, so I lived my life the way I had been living,” Ferguson says. “I just wasn’t doing it in the pages of Out or The New York Times. But with this show, it was never a question about quote unquote staying in the closet—which I’ve never been in.”.”

Although he has never been “in” in his personal life, Ferguson knows the responsibility he, and the show, has in introducing a gay family to Middle America. “We’re introducing this gay couple in a very safe way, and maybe that’s why right off the bat we’re not showing full-on make-out scenes, and we’re not showing them in bed together [initially]. But a lot of the people who are a little leery of ‘that gay couple,’ especially a gay couple raising a baby, are seeing this very normal grounding, loving pair. So we’re sneaking into so many Middle American living rooms, maybe more than any gay couple ever has before.”

Off the screen Ferguson has obsessions of his own, includin

g Ellen DeGeneres and American Idol, and the Winter Olympics catalyzed a not-so-secret crush on ice skater Evan Lysacek. Ferguson declares, “I’m not hiding it. I hear he lives in L.A. too, so it’s just a matter of time before we meet. Although I don’t know if he’s gay.… He’s a brilliant skater, and he’s also really handsome, and he seems like a really sweet guy, so I swoon when I see him.… I need to get out of the 20-year-old age bracket. Like, I have crushes on all of the Jonas Brothers. I assume that’s OK?"

You can read the entire story on the new OUT magazine available at newstands or by clicking here.

Cynthia Nixon to Receive Special GLAAD Prize

Recognizing the entertainment industry's impact on same-sex equality issues, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has announced its nominees for the group's 21st annual Media Awards, to be held March 13th in New York, April 17th in Los Angeles and June 5th in San Francisco.

AMC's acclaimed period drama Mad Men HBO's hit vampire show True Blood and ABC's new generational comedy Modern Family, along with singers Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert, are among the top contenders.

GLAAD also announced that Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, who made headlines by publicly discussing her long-term relationship with a woman, will be honored with the Vito Russo Award at the New York ceremony. The award, named after founding GLAAD member and author of The Celluloid Closet, is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who has helped promote equal rights.

All told, GLAAD announced 116 nominees in 24 English-language categories and 36 Spanish-language nominees in eight categories. In the competitive categories, cable networks earned 23 nominations, while broadcast networks pulled in 17.

For a complete list of the nominees, click on this link: http://www.glaad.org/mediaawards.

Fall Season Spawned Some Winners

Though cable TV has been grabbing the spotlight in recent months, holiday cheer is spreading at the big broadcast networks.

The good news: More new shows are sticking than in recent years; just a few have been yanked because of low ratings. The bad: Another fall has come and gone without producing a blockbuster cultural phenomenon.

"There's a lot of good, not a lot of great," says CBS program planning chief Kelly Kahl. "But given where we've been, a lot of good is a good thing," he says. With last fall plagued by the lingering effects of a writers' strike, "there was a void of quality shows coming out of last season."

Overall TV usage is down slightly from last fall, when the election heightened interest and drew crowds to cable news. But the overall picture for the big broadcast networks has brightened: Combined, the five are up 3% from last fall, slowing years of steady erosion. Big growth for NFL games and the World Series also helped.

CBS' NCIS: Los Angelesand The Good Wife, paired on Tuesdays, are the top newcomers this season. Fox's Glee and ABC's Modern Family, FlashForward and V opened strongly, though ratings for the two fantasy dramas have trailed off in recent airings.

Fox won its first November sweeps race among younger viewers and is up 18% this fall.

"It's generally a stronger season," says John Rash of Minneapolis ad firm Campbell Mithun.

Only ABC's Hank, CBS' Three Rivers and CW's The Beautiful Life were canceled after a handful of airings, though ABC's Eastwick and Fox's Brothers are on their way out. "You're looking at fewer cancellations than you've seen year-to-year," says Brent Poer of ad firm MediaVest in Los Angeles, but few shows "are reaching the cultural zeitgeist" on network TV.

The new ratings math is that shows considered modest successes would have been canceled a few years ago. "It's far riskier to replace them than to stick with something you know," Poer says. Networks need "to put time and investment into some of these shows to build an audience, because there's not a lot in the pipeline to replace them," a function of cost-cutting at CW and NBC, where The Jay Leno Showis faring poorly compared with the dramas it replaced.

In past years, serialized shows such as Lost and Heroes suffered from long breaks designed to avoid excessive repeats. But the networks will again test viewer loyalty by stalling the returns of FlashForward, Lie to Me, V – and after tonight, Glee – until March or later. "It's a problem when you lose momentum," says Shari Anne Brill of ad firm Carat USA. "It's quite a bit of a wait for a show to come back."

Top 10 TV Series of the Decade

Every decade has its landmark TV shows, and there will or should never be complete agreement on which 10 series belong at the top of the list.

For purposes of this list, a TV show is eligible only if it premiered in or after 1999. In addition, TV shows were judged on their artistic merit and overall contribution to the medium, not on their ratings or profit margins.

10. MODERN FAMILY (ABC, 2009-present)
It's a little risky to pick a new show as one of the best of the decade, even after seeing about a dozen episodes. In the case of "Modern Family," the risk is minimized by the track record of its creators, Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. At a time when most new shows are just finding themselves, this one has been so consistently funny, smartly produced and crisply written that it has all the earmarks of a classic in the making.

9. LOST (ABC, 2004-present)
Part adventure, part mystery and part sci-fi, "Lost" defies convenient characterization. Supposedly conceived as a blend of "Lord of the Flies," "Survivor," "Gilligan's Island" and "Cast Away," the series developed a unique mythology and an unconventional rhythm that mixed stories of the present with those from the past and future. Creators Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof created one of TV's biggest casts, then made each character utterly fascinating.

8. 24 (Fox, 2001-present)
Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow conceived this series when the idea of a terrorist attack that would bring down the World Trade Center towers seemed inconceivable. But when the unthinkable happened, America rallied around indefatigable agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and some super-suspenseful, action-packed, provocative stories. Even the real CIA took notes. With an uncanny knack for selecting guest stars and a real-time format, "24" injected shots of excitement to the small screen.

7. 30 ROCK (NBC, 2006-present)
Maybe it's because Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels know TV from both sides of the camera. More than that, they understand the nutty things that happen when the surf of corporate culture pounds the shore of creative anarchy. "30 Rock," a TV show within a TV show, is occasionally guilty of biting the hand that schedules it, but never runs out of business and showbiz targets ripe for being lampooned.

6. MAD MEN (AMC, 2007-present)
Matthew Weiner rewound the clock nearly a half-century to create a drama that provides a fresh look at relationships and business and gender through vintage glasses. Set in the early 1960s in a prominent ad firm, "Mad Men" is beautifully written and blessed with a strong cast, starting with Jon Hamm as flawed executive Don Draper. You've come a long way, baby, but it sure is fun to look back.

5. DAMAGES (FX, 2007-present)
Few if any creators have ever spun more intricate and surprising yarns than Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman in "Damages," a high-stakes legal drama in which almost nothing is exactly as it seems. A superb cast, starting with Glenn Close, brings to life some of the most ambitious plots ever conceived for TV. This may be as intriguing and addictive as TV gets.

4. THE SHIELD (FX, 2002-2008)
Just as David Chase found a new and powerful direction for crime drama, Shawn Ryan shattered the mold for police drama. "The Shield" was everything no police series had ever been, starting with antihero Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), a sympathetic but impossibly corrupt Los Angeles cop who made up his own rules of law enforcement as he went along. Moral ambiguity provided a gateway to stories that were stark, real and absolutely incredible.

3. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (HBO, 2000-present)
From his earnings as creator of "Seinfeld," Larry David could have bought one of the Virgin Islands and retired to a life of leisure and luxury. Instead, he trumped himself with a comedy series that poked fun at political correctness and poked even more fun at a curmudgeonly version of himself. Plotted but not scripted, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" raised mortification and tactlessness to art forms.

2. THE WEST WING (NBC, 1999-2006)
Creator Aaron Sorkin swore this show wasn't his way of making civics palatable to a mass audience, but it did just that. Neo-cons ran the real White House during most of the show's run. On TV, though, a team of highly principled progressives operated the levers of TV government. Quite possibly, this unfailingly witty and intelligent series, packed with powerful performances, whetted the country's appetite for change it can believe in.

1. THE SOPRANOS (HBO, 1999-2007)
From its opening musings about ducks in Tony Soprano's swimming pool to its ambiguous and much-discussed ending, "The Sopranos" pioneered a new form of drama. Creator David Chase brilliantly melded the dark, violent world of organized crime boss Soprano (James Gandolfini) with the conventions of middle-class suburbia. It dominated water cooler conversation even though, as an HBO program, it was available in only a small fraction of the nation's households.

ABC Orders Full Seasons of Three New Comedies

ABC on Thursday handed full-season pickups to three of its four new fall comedies: the single-camera half-hours "Modern Family," "Cougar Town" and "The Middle."

"Modern Family," one of the best received new series, and the Courteney Cox-starring "Cougar Town" have been early ratings standouts.

They dipped in their third airings this week, but the two shows continue to be solid anchors of ABC's all-new two-hour Wednesday comedy block in the 9-10 p.m. hour.

"The Middle," which stars Patricia Heaton, has been less impressive at 8:30 p.m., but has built on its "Hank" lead-in in both airings so far.

As for "Hank," the fourth piece of ABC's comedy block, there is no word on its future. Starring veteran Kelsey Grammer, "Hank" is the only multi-camera comedy among the foursome and has fared much worse than the others in critical response and in ratings. ABC is yet to make a decision on the fifth new Wednesday series, low-performing comedy-drama "Eastwick."

Gay Characters on the Rise in TV Land!

The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters on broadcast TV is again on the rise, according to a new report from The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). The group’s 14th annual TV study found that 18 LGBT characters will account for 3% of primetime scripted series regulars in the 2009-2010 broadcast TV season. That’s up from 1.3% in 2006, 1.1% in 2007 and 2.6% in 2008.

New LGBT characters include bisexual Ella on Melrose Place, Southland’s gay police officer John Cooper, Modern Family’s gay couple Mitchell and Cameron, and coming-out high schooler Kurt on Glee.

ABC continues to lead the networks with eight LGBT characters, or 5% of its 168 total series regulars. Fox, which had no regular LGBT characters two years ago, now has 4 characters (4%). NBC has 3 characters (3%), The CW has two (3%), but CBS had no LGBT characters out of its 132 regulars.