LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - - Should old television plots and characters be forgot and never brought to mind? Of course not. As we say goodbye to 2005, a look back at the best of the best:

Best Bad Boy: Sawyer on "Lost"

Best Bad Boss: Michael on "The Office"

Best People to Solve a Crime: Cast of "Without a Trace"

Best Good Detective: Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson on "The Closer"

Best Bad Cop: Vic Mackey on "The Shield"

Best Friends: Vince and the gang on "Entourage"

Best Friend: Sookie on "Gilmore Girls"

Best Reason to Still be Upset About a Show Cancellation: "Joan of Arcadia"

Best Proof that You Don’t Need to be Able to Act to be on TV: Robin Tunney on "Prison Break"

Best Creepy Character: Sheriff Tom Underlay on "Invasion"

Best Villain to Root for: Dina Araz on "24"

Best Villain to Root Against: Antwon Mitchell on "The Shield"

Best Surprise:The Vice President is Patricia Wettig on "Prison Break"; Walt’s kidnapping on "Lost"

Best Husband: Joe on "Medium"

Best Sexual Tension: Meredith and McDreamy on "Grey’s Anatomy"

Best Unrequited Love: Pam and Jim on "The Office"

Best Cast Addition to a New Show: Mark-Paul Gosselaar to "Commander In Chief"

Best Cast Addition to an Existing Show, Female: Kate Walsh to "Grey’s Anatomy"

Best Cast Addition to an Existing Show, Male: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to "Lost"

Best Planning for New Fall Season: Rockmund Dunbar who seamlessly bounced from a series regular on the quickly cancelled "Head Cases" to increasing his role on "Prison Break"

Best Proof that There’s Life After a Reality Series: Steven W. Bailey on "Grey’s Anatomy."

Best New Catch Phrase: "Have you met Ted?" from "How I Met Your Mother"

Best New Word: "Snarkastic" on Gilmore Girls.

Best Cameo: Joss Whedon on "Veronica Mars"

Best Proof that Recasting Can’t Help a Bad Series: Replacing Marguerite Moreau with Kristin Lehman as the female lead on "Killer Instinct"

Best Comic Relief: Dude, it’s so Hurley on "Lost"

Best Hurley in Training: Dave on "Invasion"

Best Guest Star: Amy Acker as the villainous Kelly Peyton on "Alias"

Best Example of a Sophomore Slump: "Desperate Housewives"

Best Example that a Sophomore Slump Doesn’t Have to Happen: "Lost"

Best Proof that There’s Life After a Jerry Springer Movie: Jamie Pressly on "My Name is Earl"

Best Boyfriend Under 25: Bright on "Everwood"

Best Boyfriend Over 25: Luke on "Gilmore Girls"

Best Crazy Girlfriend: Callie Thorne on both "Rescue Me" and "ER"

Best Burying of Past Role: Brittany Snow so earnest on "American Dreams" and so down right disturbing on "Nip/Tuck"

Best Great Work Amid a Ridiculous Season: John Hensley on "Nip/Tuck"

Best New TV Star: Wentworth Miller on "Prison Break"

Best New to TV Star: Jason Lee on "My Name is Earl"

Best Place for a Buffy Alum: "Veronica Mars"

Best Reason to Break into Prison: Michael on "Prison Break"

Best Reason to Break Out of Prison: GOB will help you escape on "Arrested Development"

Best Proof that all TV Shows Can Make a Comeback: This season of "The West Wing"

Best Proof that all Good Things Must Come to an End: This season of "Alias"

Best Shout Out to Another Show: Summer donning a "Donna Martin Graduates" t-shirt on "The O.C."

Best Use of Inside Jokes: "Boston Legal"

Best Second Chance at Romance: Luka and Abby on "ER"

Best Brothers: A tie between Sam and Dean on "Supernatural" and Charlie and Don on "Numb3rs"

Best Reason to Get Basic Cable: "Rescue Me"

Best Reason to Get HBO: "Entourage"

Best Reason to Get Showtime: "Weeds"

Best Versatile Actor: Currie Graham who in 2005 played Lt. Thomas Bale on "NYPD Blue," Stacy’s husband on "House," Lynette’s boss on "Desperate Housewives" and an assistant district attorney on "Boston Legal."

Best Good Cry: The reunion of Sun and Jin and Rose and Bernard on "Lost"

Best Proof that There’s Life After a Seminal 90’s TV Series: The notorious Brian Austin Green on "Freddie" and Jason Priestley on the upcoming "Love Monkey." Heck even the doorMatt (Daniel Cosgrove) has work on "In Justice."

Best Sound of a Phone Ringing: Once and forever, "24"

Best Proof that You Shouldn’t Mess with a Good Thing: The booooring family edition of "Amazing Race"

Best Proof Sometimes Things are What They Seem: Quentin is the Carver on "Nip/Tuck"

Best Kid: Chris on "Everybody Hates Chris"

Best Annoying Co-Worker: Dwight on "The Office"

Best Character Return: Tony on "24"

Best Older Brother: Ephram on "Everwood"

Best Younger Sister: Rose on "Invasion"

Best Son: George Michael on "Arrested Development"

Best Sidekick: Randy on "My Name is Earl"

Best Reason to Moonlight: The fabulous and underused Marin Hinkle on "Two and a Half Men" popped up on "House," "Law & Order: SVU" and "In Justice."

Best Proof that You Can’t Force a Comeback: Martha Stewart

Best Daughter: Julie on "Desperate Housewives."

Best Place to Work: Seattle’s Grace Hospital on "Grey’s Anatomy" — you’d always have someone to date.

What’s on your Best of Everything Television list? Talk about it on the TV Gal message board.

Highlights of the Week Ahead

All times listed are Eastern Standard for Jan. 2 to 8

Rejoice, rejoice. "Scrubs" returns to the schedule with back to back episodes this Tuesday at 9 p.m. on NBC. When the fifth season finally kicks off, Elliot is at a new hospital, Carla wants to have a baby and J.D. is an attending physician. Zach Braff says that the freedom of not having the episodes air while they were filming them allowed the cast and writers to be even more wacky and surreal. Keep a look out for guest stars Mandy Moore and Jason Bateman. I can’t wait.

Ellen Pompeo and Benjamin Bratt announce the nominations for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Thursday at 9:07 a.m.

Maybe it’s because when I first watched "Four Kings" (Thursday, NBC, 8:30 p.m.), I think I was on some kind of "comedies are actually funny this season" high. Maybe it’s because I watched it right after I had watched "Thick and Thin" which is so awful I’m convinced NBC will come to its senses and never air that ridiculous series. Because when I recently sat down to rewatch the pilot of "Four Kings," I thought "What was I thinking? Why did I think this show was so hilarious?" "Four Kings" has some funny moments (I loved, for instance, the conversation in Michael Jackson lyrics), the boys have a cute friendship and I adore Seth Green, but there’s really nothing that special about this comedy from the folks behind "Will & Grace." And the crass attempts at humor border on cringe-inducing (witness when the boys compare their girlfriend’s underwear.) The four leads have pizzazz. The actual script, not so much. Two and a half out of five stars.

NBC tries to reclaim some of its Must See TV glory when it moves "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" to Thursday night beginning at 9 p.m. This pits NBC’s two best comedies against "CSI."

Summer phenomenon "Dancing with the Stars" returns for a second season Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC. Tatum O’Neal, Drew Lachey, George Hamilton and Tia Carrere are among this year’s competitors vying for a big sparkly trophy. And because of all the brouhaha last year, there will be a results show on Friday night at 8 p.m.

"Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis" and "Battlestar Galactica" all return with brand new episodes beginning Friday at 8 p.m. on the Sci Fi Channel.

"The Book of Daniel" is blessed with some of my favorite actors including the fabulous Susanna Thompson, who I’ve missed ever since ABC cancelled "Once & Again." Add in Aidan Quinn, Ellen Burstyn, Dylan Baker and Christian Campbell and well you should have a divine series (okay, I’m done with the clever religious lingo, I promise). But this NBC drama (premiering Friday at 9 p.m.) about a minister with a lot of problems (missing money, drug dealing daughter, addiction to Vicodin) just didn’t do it for me. There were too many problems being thrown at us at once. Plus, it’s kind of exhausting how much the series feels the need to remind viewers that this is a stereotypical WASP family (scheduled sex once a week on Friday night, a housekeeper, ever present martinis, etc.) Three stars.

Doesn’t Kyle MacLachlan’s hair look fabulous on "In Justice" (Friday, ABC, 9 p.m.)? It occurred to me that if I was so focused on MacLachlan’s hair that perhaps the show wasn’t that compelling. I love Constance Zimmer (she even made "Good Morning Miami" bearable) but this series about a group of lawyers who help free the wrongly convicted still seems too earnest and hackneyed. Three stars.

Jordan and Woody don’t drive me as crazy as Josh and Donna but they come close. Will anything happen between them when they are snow bound on "Crossing Jordan" (Sunday, NBC, 10 p.m.).

"The L Word" returns for a third season at 10 p.m. on Showtime. The series seems off to a much better start than last season (the interesting opening scenes are back) but I can’t take how pathetic they are making Alice.

I was so shocked and sad to learn of John Spencer’s death. It’s hard to really believe that he’s no longer with us. I’ve followed his career since his days on "LA Law." He was an incomparable and irreplaceable actor who will be greatly missed. Before his death, Spencer completed several episodes of "The West Wing" (Sunday, NBC, 8 p.m.) that are still slated to air. This Sunday’s episode features the Vice President’s debate. Viewers have lost a cherished actor. Relish one of the last chances to see Spencer’s stellar work.

To the TV Gal Reader Belongs the Spoils

Don’t read if you don’t want to know.

Well I’m glad to see there was actually a point to this story line. Ray’s way too young ex-girlfriend will return to the "ER" and Ray will realize she is the victim of abuse.

Michael will find out what we all know — that Jim so has a crush on Pam on "The Office." The problem is you simply don’t want Michael knowing this type of information.

In a homage to the beloved Donna Martin Graduates episode of "90210," the gang will try to get Marissa re-enrolled at Harbor. This is a series that so knows its way into my heart. Also does anyone else think that Marissa’s mom and Summer’s dad may start a romance? Sherilyn Fenn will play the mother of Luke’s daughter on "Gilmore Girls," which is confusing since she played the girlfriend of Jess’s father back in 2003. Also Lorelai will set a date for the wedding (yay), Rory will move in with Doyle and Paris and Logan will profess his love for Rory (booo. That’s right I’ve kind of officially decided I don’t think Logan is right for our Rory).

Now you so know they didn’t bring Sela Ward on to "House" just to hang out. She and House will get stuck out of town and realize that yes, that’s right, they still have feelings for each other.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back next week with the regularly scheduled TV Gal column including reviews of "South Beach," "Crumbs," "Emily’s Reasons Why Not" (and it’s companion piece, "Amy’s Reasons Why Not to Watch") and the return of "24" (can I have a "whoo" and a "hoo"?).