Now in its third season on Hulu, “The LXD” dance series is an original, telling the story of good vs. evil in an usual way: through dance. It’s the brainchild of Jon M. Chu, the same guy who brought us “Step Up 2: The Streets,” “Step Up 3D,” and Justin Bieber’s movie, “Never Say Never.” (He’s also reportedly working on a sequel to the G.I. Joe movie.) The dance troupe has been making the rounds lately—they’ve toured with the cast of “Glee” for two summers now, and have performed at the Emmys and at the TED conference. Most recently, they made their second appearance on “So You Think You Can Dance,” where the LXD’s Christopher Scott also served as a guest choreographer for several weeks this season. We spoke to Scott about the new season of The LXD a day before the group’s “SYTYCD” performance.

Don’t miss our interviews with The LXD’s Jon Chu and Harry Shum, Jr. (“Glee”), in our archives.

Hulu: So, Chris, tell us about the “So You Think You Can Dance” performance.
Christopher Scott: The performance on “So You Think You Can Dance” is kind of, in a way, a continuation of the last piece that we did on the show. We start off with Galen and I on stage. We choreographed it together. We brought in an element of snow to set the season and tone. We like to engage with a place when we dance, to provide a place for the audience to experience a cinematic feel. We kind of add on routines until we have everyone on stage this time — last time we had people come and go throughout the routing. This time, we added a couple elements like flexers, who we showcase. And we have Pandora with her cutting. There are two ballerinas on pointe. It was contemporary the first time; this performance is more contemporary ballet.

We really wanted to show individual styles. That’s always a mission for The LXD: that street styles are as beautiful as your typical ballet. This one was very much an LXD ballet. Their story is more in the relationship that people have. It’s very subtle in the way that it represents society and where people belong, and where do you fit in. People get pulled into different molds … at the end, we all come together. Ultimately there shouldn’t be any rules.

I think you really got everyone’s attention when you choreographed “Misty Blue” for “SYTYCD” finalist Sasha and Season 4 All-Star Twitch. What’s the story behind that routine?
Originally, the only thing I knew going into the week was that I was going to get Twitch. Twitch has so much power, soul, and passion when he dances. When I listened to the song, it just sounded like Twitch would make this special. Then I found out it was going to be with Sasha, and I knew she’d be great. She’s not a hip-hop dancer, but rather a contemporary dancer. She has so much soul and passion, too. I knew the song was going to be perfect.

Listening to this song, it’s about a woman who was torn. She shouldn’t be with this guy. She misses him, but she shouldn’t be with him. It has this whole blues thing. I did a routine earlier in the season, “Ain’t No Sushine,” and in that one, I had it so that the girl was gone, away most of the routine.

One line in that song, “It’s been such a long, long time,” made me think about any couple who had been together such a long time. You know, they’ve been with each other for so long, but one night, they get the babysitter and go back to how it was. They go have fun, have a glass of wine, get freaky. I decided to just go with it from there. It’s a ’70s song, so I wanted to set it at the time the song came out. I pictured “The Wonder Years” and how they always had dinner on that show. I had it at dinner at first. But for some reason, it was so much more fun if it was breakfast. You know, it’s like she’s so much more important than work. Everyone wants that in a relationship, that feeling of being special. “Forget work, forget reading my newspaper, my relationship is more.”

Who’s your pick to win this season?
I haven’t gotten a chance to work with everyone on the show, so I’m a little biased. Sasha is just amazing. She is so easy to work with. She puts everything she has into it.

All of these dancers are good kids. They’re so hungry, so talented. Any one of them can win the show. When you work with them, it’s different than watching at home. You can’t pick your favorites.

Now, The LXD. What can we expect from Season 3?
Epic-ness for sure. We like epic, always. Season 1 was contained. It focused on meeting the characters. Season 2 introduced the bad guys and setting up the idea of good vs. evil. In Season 3, we’re going to see the impact of the fight. It will be good versus evil. You’ll get a taste of where this all began.

You’ve obviously been busy lately. How do you juggle the series and side projects — after all, you guys toured with “Glee” this summer?
This season was a little tougher. There has been so much opportunity from The LXD, where I started as a choreographer. Now I’m getting recognition and opportunity. It’s getting harder to be available. The same is happening for Harry [Shum, Jr.]. His role on “Glee” has gotten bigger since we started the show. But we’ve been able to build a bigger team and expand. We brought on more choreographers Galen Hooks and Mike Song, a great up-and-coming choreographer.

We got to see some of the series regulars get involved behind the scenes, too. Luigi and David had asked before about bringing some choreography to the series, and this season has been a great opportunity for these B-boys. Madd Chadd — the robot — wanted to jump into the choreography, and it was amazing to see what he could bring.

What’s next for you?
I’ve been hired to be a choreographer on “Step Up 4,” in fact I’m on the set right now. I met Jon on “Step Up,” I came on in “Step Up 3D.” I went to Hollywood High School for performing arts. I started in theater, even though I was a hip-hop kid. My CD case was full of Tupac, “Ragtime,” and “Les Mis.” From there, I attended the Theater Academy and then Second City for improv school. I studied dance, but I never found myself dancing. I always thought “I like to dance, but I love acting,” but as I let it all happen, it just took over. I’d just be in an elevator with my mom and sister, tap-dancing the whole time.

What have been some of your all-time favorite performances?
The first time we did “So You Think You Can Dance.” This was the first time we established what we were gonna do in live shows. Harry and I had no idea what we were gonna do. We had all this crazy stuff. But then we just looked at each other and said we should do a B-boy ballet. We see hip-hop as beautiful like ballet. That’s when it all started.

TEDTalks was pretty amazing: just to be invited, to have 18 minutes on that stage. We had original music. Live musicians were coming to rehearsals and we’d freestyle.

But “Robot Lovestory” is definitely my favorite of the series, for the style of Madd Chadd and to work with him. He’s so precise, and the concept is so cool. I don’t know if anyone out there really got the concept, but we had extensions of Madd Chadd — we called them his energies, these dancers — these extensions were coming off his body and going all over the room. It was fun. It felt like choreographing a superhero.

“Mark of the Ox” was another. Just being there. It was freestyle. We had Frantick there with the powder. It was so music. He’d never done it before, but he just came out of his hood. It was silent, even the music was in a quiet section. Everyone was just laughing at him, because the stuff he was doing with this powder was off the top of his head. It brought his mom to tears. For a lot of these guys, they’re street dancers, and to be filmed like this, this is why we do this.

Catch new episodes of “The LXD” every Thursday on Hulu.

Will it be Melanie or Sasha? That’s the question on everyone’s lips leading into the finals of “So You Think You Can Dance” tonight. Sure, Marko and Tadd are still in the competition, but even the judges are comfortable saying it will likely come down to two female contemporary dancers. (Sorry, fellas!) While we won’t know who will take top honors until Thursday night, here’s a look back at the most notable performances from last week’s Top 6, where we bid adieu to dancers Caitlynn and Ricky. With lead judge Nigel Lythgoe waffling between which girl is his favorite — one minute, it’s Sasha; the next, it’s Melanie — it’s sure to be one of the best finals yet.

Sasha and Kent
Sasha literally hit the wall in her routine, but fortunately we mean that in a good way. The onstage prop for their Tyce Diorio routine was simple: a plain wall, which played a significant role in their his story about two people who have hit a wall in their relationship. Sasha poured herself into the routine, putting her technique and her emotion into the routine in a way that made it clear that early frontrunner Melanie wasn’t a shoo-in to win this season. “You put your finger against a wall and you break my heart,” guest judge Christina Applegate said. “And that’s dance. … Something has hurt you and I thank you for sharing that with us.”

Tadd and Melanie
Melanie showed off her acting skills with Tadd last week as they performed a story about a choreographer and his star dancer. As Tadd took the role of the choreographer, Melanie portrayed a young dancer who was falling in love with her teacher. As she showed off her technical, sensitive side, her B-boy partner showed how far he’s come this season. “Tadd, to think you are in this routine with one of the best dancers we’ve ever had on this show,” Nigel said. “… To say that you did not suck is a compliment.

Melanie’s Solo
Since the judges referred to Melanie’s solo repeatedly in their critique of her pairing with Tadd, here’s a look at the “beefy” performance. (Description courtesy of judge Lil C.) No wonder the judges call her a “beast.”

Marko and Caitlynn
It may have been Caitlynn’s swan song, but it was still worthy of a Lil C-ism: her final dance with Marko last Wednesday earned the title of “double hash tag buck.” Marko’s performance was top-notch, for sure, but that’s expected of the Guam native. And so the judges focused on Caitlynn, whose breakthrough routine was one of her best numbers in the series.

Melanie and Twitch
Week after week, Melanie has conquered whatever dance “SYTYCD” has thrown at her, getting to the point where it seemed there was no style she couldn’t master. Last week, however, we almost — almost — saw her falter as she paired up with All-Star Twitch for a hip-hop routine. The music was difficult, and the choreography was fast, but, as judge Lil C pointed out, she got through the routine, letting go of her precision and athleticism, and finally showing us that she has teeth and claws. That’s right, this Little Red Riding Hood has bite, too.

Tell us what you think: Which “SYTYCD” star gets your vote for America’s top dancer?

Just when we were starting to get really attached to the couples on this eighth season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” the show threw us for a loop by splitting up the seemingly unbeatable duo of Marko and Melody. But it wasn’t all sad news: “SYTYCD” paired up the Top 10 dancers with some of our favorite All-Stars from seasons past, including Pasha, Twitch, and Comfort. Perhaps even better, the show treated us to two nights with Neil Patrick Harris (no stranger to Broadway, he’s also a fan of the show). Even though we eventually had to say goodbye to Mitchell and Clarice, several acts soared last week. Here’s a look back at some of our faves.

Sasha
In what was one of the week’s most highly praised dances, Sasha teamed up with All-Star Twitch (Season 4) for a hip-hop routine styled by Christopher Scott (a dancer himself on “The LXD” web series). But this wasn’t your traditional pop-and-lock number. The choreographer opted for some soul, instead, and it worked. Lead judge Nigel Lythgoe was left speechless at first, and noted that this was the first time he’d really seen chemistry between Sasha and her partner. We’d have to agree!

Marko
All season long, Marko and Melanie have been the two dancers to watch. Now that we’ve reached the top 10, though, we had to ask how well this charismatic duo would do once they were split up. We got to find out last Wednesday, though, when Marko paired up with “SYTYCD” all-star turned “Dancing With the Stars” pro Chelsie Hightower (Season 4) for a samba full of scissor kicks, fancy footwork, and of course, Latin rhythm. Rehearsals left Marko banged up and bruised, but he persevered and came out strong, leaving Chelsie breathless at the end of their routine. Neil Patrick Harris singled him out as the guy to beat this season, while his fellow judges were equally enthusiastic.

Melanie
Call it the night of Pasha, if you will: he paired up first with Caitlynn for the Argentinean tango, then returned to the stage for a sexy-sweet Viennese waltz with judges’ favorite Melanie. It was so fluid and natural, she looked like she’d been waltzing for years. The end result was a romantic confection that made us want seconds.

Tell us: which routine was your favorite this week?

Tonight on “So You Think You Can Dance,” the remaining 10 dancers will say adieu to their partners and pair up with a crew of “SYTYCD” All-Stars: Melody (Season 1), Allison (2), Pasha (3), Twitch (4), Comfort (4), Chelsie (4), Brandon (5), Kathryn (5), Robert (7). The big revelation, however, was that world-class ballerina Alex Wong, who left the show (prematurely) last season when he ruptured his Achilles, wouldn’t be returning as an All-Star. Turns out the dancer suffered from the same injury on his other foot. We’ll find out which dances stand out tonight, but first, let’s revisit our top three dances from last week.

Clarice and Jess
Christopher Scott (from “The LXD“) presented Clarice and Jess with a lyrical interpretation of hip-hop. The simple routine played to the dancer’s strengths and left the judges feeling all sorts of warm-and-fuzzy. Even typically critical judge Sonya Tayeh ate it up, saying that the pair “just slayed it.”

Jordan and Tadd
So you think “Black Swan” was creepy? Choreographer Travis Wall’s contemporary routine for Jordan and a shirtless Tadd took it to the next level, inspiring judge Mary Murphy to exclaim, “Beautiful. Dark. Magnificent.” And while it made us think of Natalie Portman’s eerie turn as a ballerina, guest judge Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family“) may have been right when he called it the classic “vulture stalks boy” story. (Note to the “SYTYCD” producers: can we have more Jesse, please?)

Melanie and Marko
“Dancing With the Stars” pro Louis Van Amstel crossed over to “SYTYCD” last week to coach the season’s superstars, Melanie and Marko, through a sultry tango that finished with one heck of a lift. It was one of the toughest routines they’ve faced this season. So did they rise to the occasion? You better believe it. While Mary noted a few missteps, she and Nigel both acknowledged that their performance was leaps and bounds over what they saw in the dress rehearsals.

Tell us: which of the Top 12′s dances were your favorites this week?

Today marks the debut of the third of Hulu’s three exclusive series released this summer. Both “Misfits” and “The Booth at the End” have delighted our audiences and I couldn’t be more excited to launch “Whites” on Hulu today. (New episodes will be posted each Wednesday over the next several weeks.) I sincerely hope you love the show as much as I do.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I love both food and shows about food. But when I saw “Whites” for the first time, it was unlike any show I’ve seen before. It’s as funny as some of my favorite British comedies (“The Office UK,” “Peep Show“), but doesn’t skirt the complexity of running a (questionably) high-end kitchen. The great Alan Davies plays Roland White, a chef who at some point earlier in his career deserved a Michelin star or two. That point was a long time ago and he’s well past it. Darren Boyd (who may be my favorite British comedy discovery) plays his long-suffering sous chef, Bib, who’s eager to learn from the (formerly) best, but spends most of his days as seemingly the only one in the kitchen who cares.

In the first episode, Roland hires an apprentice named Skoose. Turns out Skoose is more of a pain than he is a help. In future episodes, we’ll see them deal with celebrity chefs, sperm donations, peculiar dating, marriage, safety inspections, and reality television, just to name a few. I couldn’t stop laughing, but I won’t say any more. Enjoy “Whites.”

My wife and I (embarrassingly) think of ourselves as “foodies.” We (well, she) love to cook, discover new restaurants, and of course … eat! Not long ago, whenever we’d eat out, we’d envision what it looks like behind the scenes in the kitchen, and the pressure, energy, and passion that goes into each dish gracefully presented before eager (and hungry) customers.

Then I watched Gordon Ramsay on “Hell’s Kitchen,” and my notion of what happens behind the kitchen doors was turned upside down. The pressure, energy, and passion were there, but they were coupled with fiery explosions, excruciating stress, fierce competition, and an insane head chef shouting a tirade of colorful words I’d never repeat in public.

Not every kitchen has a Gordon Ramsay at the helm, but that’s what makes “Hell’s Kitchen” stand out among all the food-centric shows out there. No other show knows how to bring out the best and worst of every contestant quite like “Hell’s Kitchen.” But while it’s an understatement to say that Ramsay can be harsh, it’s his fire that refines each contestant’s skills. Whether you love him or hate him, the contentious dynamic between head chef Ramsay and his motley crew of cooks has me (and many others) hooked on the show.

Today, I’m excited to announce that “Hell’s Kitchen” has come to Hulu.com and Hulu Plus, just in time for the premiere of Season 9. In addition to current-season episodes, which will be posted for all Hulu users the day after air, Hulu Plus subscribers can watch the entire back library — seasons 1-8 — which are available exclusively on Hulu Plus, thanks to Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury. (You may not see every episode today, but we’re working hard to make sure the complete library is up as quickly as possible.) This means you can follow the new season and catch up on past seasons when and where you want: from your smartphone to the biggest screen in your house. Users of the free Hulu service can watch clips from current and past seasons as well as a rotating selection of seasons hand-picked by the Hulu editorial team.

Enjoy “Hell’s Kitchen.” Now stop reading this [bleeping] blog post and go watch it, yes?

Blame it on the salsa: the challenging Latin dance proved too much for “So You Think You Can Dance” contestants Ashley and Chris, who found themselves packing following last week’s Top 14 performances. And while ballroom has generally fallen flat this season, three numbers did stand out last week, from a romantic turn of leaps and lifts to a Moulin Rouge-like jazz number. Here’s a look at three of our favorites.

Caitlynn and Mitchell
Caitlynn and Mitchell put aside their playful personalities to get oh-so-dreamy for choreographer Mandy Moore’s piece, set to a Celine Dion power ballad. No matter that Mitchell was nursing an injury: he executed each lift and vault with precision, never once letting his brunette partner fall. In the end, the judges were on their feet and ‐ no surprise here — Mary Murphy was all choked up with pride and emotion.

Melanie and Marko
Last week “SYTYCD” power couple Melanie and Marko wowed the audience with a staged kiss that set off a series of surprise kisses among the judges. This week, their fiery routine, set to Lady Gaga’s “Americano,” turned our notion of jazz dance upside down. The ballroom-inspired number had the audience on its feet by the end, with series alum-turned-choreographer-turned-judge Travis Wall called them the two to beat this season. Mary Murphy was a little more restrained in this round, commending the duo for their passion and commitment to character. Still, never one to shy away from theatrics, she granted Marko with a new nickname: “Domination Man.”

Ryan and Ricky
As the dancers shared past stories about themselves, Ryan’s story stood out for her “SYTYCD” connection: she trained with former judge Mia Michaels and even got an appearance on “House” thanks to her ex-coach. Conspiracies aside, Ryan and her partner Ricky took on jazz with a zombie dance — not the first we’ve seen this season, but much more fun than Ashley and Chris’ primitive undead dance from a few weeks ago, thanks to David Bowie’s “Fashion” as the soundtrack.

Tell us what you think: which of last week’s dancers made an impression on you?

The big story from last week’s “So You Think You Can Dance” wasn’t about the dancing or the two contestants (Miranda and Robert) who were eliminated. No, it was about the kissing. It all started with this season’s power couple, Melanie and Marko, as they performed a routine about a jilted groom who realized the love of his life was beside him the whole time. And while we’ve seen that story play out in dozens of rom-coms, we couldn’t help but squeal when we saw Marko fully commit to his role and plant a big one on his partner’s lips. We’re pretty sure the judges fell for it, too — but more on that below. Before the Top 14 dancers reveal what’s in store this week, here’s a look at some of the highlights from the Top 16.

Melanie and Marko
Once again, power couple Melanie and Marko won accolades from the judges for their story of best friends falling in love. Nigel had big praise for the pair, calling them the “couple to beat” at this stage in the competition. But the dancers’ connection wasn’t what stuck with us. Actually, it was the love fest taking place at the judges’ table. Responding to the big smooch that Marko placed on Melanie’s lips, first Nigel planted one on Mary (much to host Cat Deeley’s horror), then guest judge Kristin Chenoweth gave a big old kiss to Lil’ C before Nigel came over to give Lil’ C yet another kiss. (Big props to Marko for trying to get a kiss from Cat at the end of it all, too!)

Caitlynn and Mitchell
OK, so maybe America didn’t respond to Caitlynn and Mitchell’s sexy Samba this week — they ended up in the bottom three couples this week, after all — but perhaps they’re just not responding the ballroom in this contemporary-heavy season. As Cat said, though, “I think even Beyonce would have been proud of those two. You were bootylicious!” Ballroom expert Mary Murphy called the routine spectacular, calling out Caitlynn’s leg and foot action as well as Mitchell’s strength. As for Chenoweth, all she could say was “shut the front door” (several times over, in fact).

Jordan and Tadd
Was it the best dance of the night? Absolutely not, but it was a fun opportunity to see the normally sexy dancer Jordan squirm at the concept behind their storyline, which was centered around two college kids waking up in bed together. (Jordan pointed out that she shares her bed with pillow pets, not strangers.) Her facial expressions matched the “OMG, how did I end up here?” moment perfectly, even though her dance moves may not have been as crisp as some of us — including Lil’ C — would have liked. No matter, though: we forgot all about it when her partner Tadd took his shirt off. With that, we knew this duo was safe from elimination.

With last week’s quadruple elimination behind us we’re calling the shots on the best performers going into tonight’s “So You Think You Can Dance” Top 16 performances. And no, we’re not talking about the appearance of a batty Debbie Reynolds last week. We may have said goodbye to sexy girl Missy and her B-boy partner Mitchell — as well as ballroom champ Ivetka and tap dancer Nick — but six contenders really stand out as the dance-off continues. Let’s take a look at the performances that brought on the blood, sweat, and tears (literally).

Sasha and Alexander
With their story of a soldier returning home from Afghanistan, choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha, aka NappyTabs, crafted a performance that moved the judges — Mary Murphy, in particular — to tears. But dancers Sasha and Alexander deserved the real credit for their passionate, emotional interpretation. In the end, the judges had little to critique, knowing that the dancers were safe with voters this week.

Caitlynn and Mitchell
These new friends/partners had to summon plenty of emotion for choreographer Stacey Tookey’s contemporary routine for Adele’s “Turning Tables.” Nice guy Mitchell (who was injured the week before) really got into his character, however, when he “punched” Caitlynn in the nose. Her bleeding nose may have been a distraction, but their performance was strong enough to inspire judge Nigel Lythgoe to say, “Dance is the language of the soul, and that’s what came through tonight.”

Melanie and Marco
Already Top 20 favorites after the first round of couples, Melanie and Marco also got a Stacey Tookey routine this week. Their jazzy performance played up Marco’s acrobatics and Melanie’s high kicks. Some props work put things in jeopardy, though, when Marco dropped his hat just before Melanie jumped into his arms. No need to worry: Marco got the hat back and caught his partner, much to the delight of Debbie Reynolds.

I watch a lot of TV. Yes, it’s my job, but I genuinely love the medium that draws us in week after week, delighting fans with unexpected story twists, character growth, and laughter. But every once in a while a show comes along that’s like nothing people had seen before. It happened when I first watched The X-Files all those years ago. And again with South Park. And again with 30 Rock. There’s lots of great TV, but these series are so unexpected, so different, so groundbreaking, that audiences just can’t help but get addicted.

When I watched the first two episodes of Misfits, I knew it is one of those shows. I jumped out of my seat and ran around the office like a crazy person asking everyone I saw to watch it. They all agreed. A huge hit in the UK and the winner of the 2010 BAFTA award for best drama, it’s not similar to anything that came before it. So I’m thrilled to announce that Misfits premieres today exclusively on Hulu and the Hulu Plus subscription service. The first two episodes are available now and new ones will be added each Monday.

Fans of shows like Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly will love Misfits, a show about five unruly teenagers forced to do community service as payback for their crimes. But when a freak electrical storm hits their town, strange things begin to happen to them. In fact, they have no idea that they’ve actually turned into superheroes, each with a power, a power they didn’t choose or want — a power that reveals each of their deepest, darkest insecurities. When I say “superheroes,” I don’t mean the do-gooder types. Indeed, our five heroes remain the same, messed-up Misfits they have always been, but the insanity of their day-to-day lives has become super-charged.

I truly hope you enjoy the new addition to our service as much as we all do. Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks!

With Hulu’s second annual Best in Show winner announced, we spoke to “Chuck” co-creator Chris Fedak to see if he’d share some thoughts on his show winning the competition and talk to us about the series and the growth of its characters over the last four years.

Hi Chris, we were hoping to talk to you about “Chuck” and how it won Hulu’s Best in Show. I have to admit I was surprised a little bit, because it won by a landslide, over “Dexter.”
Chris Fedak, co-creator, “Chuck”: Well, first of all, thank you so much. It’s great to win, and we’re always in awe of our fans. They’re an amazing group. They’ve been fantastic to the show in years past and we’ve always relied upon then. I guess it’s kind of a testament to how much they really did the show, and we really like making the show for them, so it’s really cool.

“Chuck” beat out three other critically acclaimed shows — “Modern Family,” “Community,” and “Dexter.” We asked this of Josh Gomez [who plays Chuck's sidekick, Morgan, on the show]: Do you think this indicates that “Chuck” belongs in the pantheon of all-time greatest TV shows?

Wow. I think it when it comes to the greatest of all time TV pantheon, I’ll let the critical historians 100 years from now make that decision. We’re just excited to be on the air, making our show, and being the absolute best action-spy comedy set inside a big box store that we could possibly be. We’re of course huge fans of all of those shows. It’s great, but I think I’ll leave the absolute pantheon to the experts.

Speaking of big box stores, I have to ask how that came about. “Chuck” came out at about the same time as “Reaper,” both taking place inside megastores. What is it about that kind of environment that inspired you?

Essentially, you have to go back to 2007. Imagine the fact there was actually two shows with a strong big box component that also had a strong genre component. At the time, Josh [Schwartz, co-creator of "Chuck"] and I were just amazed that there was going to be two shows. We thought obviously we would be the only show doing this. It didn’t turn out to be the case. The show is a mash-up. It’s a combination of one part “The Office,” one part “24,” one part “Alias.” When you mash those shows together, what happens? What we were really excited about is if you built the show like something like “The Office,” where you essentially met all these characters and you loved them, and then how terrifying it would be if Sydney Bristow or Jack Bauer came into the office, because you knew, when those people showed up, that someone was going to get shot, and someone was going to get tortured, and someone was going to get killed. That’s where the initial germ of the “Chuck” show came from. So the big box store was always there at the beginning. That was the basis for the idea: what happens when people from another genre, from an action show, walk into that world. It’s made for a really fun show that’s always been about bending genres. It’s been a lot of fun for us to be working with something so unique.

We asked our guest critic, HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall, what he thought was the secret formula to “Chuck.” And he said it was made with a lot of love directed at its characters and pop culture. What do you think of that?
I think it’s spot-on. I think this is a show designed for people who 1) love pop culture, 2) love TV, and 3) love movies and music. And in some ways, it’s also a love letter to spy shows from the past. When you take all those things together, we don’t have the largest audience in the world, but we do have an audience that just adores the show and really digs what we do. It’s made for that kind of passionate fan base that we talked about earlier. For us, it’s exciting to make as how that can be that specific and have fun with that.

Much has been made of the Subway campaign from 2009. Are you guys still seeing some sort of residual impact of this?
Well my father tells me he still goes to Subway every night we have an episode air, so I think there is some residual. You’d have to ask the experts at Subway if they see an uptick on Monday nights from “Chuck” viewing parties. It’s one of those things where it was very exciting in Season 2 when it was a toss up if we were going to come back or not, and the Subway campaign was a really clever idea by our fans to show how they could influence the show — and of course, looking at our integration partner Subway was a great way to kind of show their support for the show. It was a very clever and savvy campaign by our fans. I think that also speaks to our fans: it’s a very bright crowd. Our fans know about every campaign associated with our show. It’s kind of amazing. We’ve had two seasons since then.

I think that’s a true testament — people typically hate product integration.
The one benefit we have with product integration with our show is that we did set our story inside a store. So that helps a little bit.

Let’s talk about Season 4. I’d say the characters have grown a bit; you’ve shown that they can progress beyond that post-college world where they don’t know where their future lies. What have been some of your favorite moments this season?
I think this season has really been about change, especially for our characters. The show started off as a show about a quarter-life crisis, with Chuck not sure what he wanted to do with his life. But it’s now four years later, so he’s much more of a man than he used to be. Just from Chuck’s perspective, we’ve had some great moments this season where he’s coming to realize that he needs to take the next step with Sarah Walker. Just looking at this season, I immediately think about episode 13 when he finally asked Sarah to marry him. It’s really bookended by episode 11, where he starts to ask her to marry him, and in episode 13 after the birth of his niece, in the hallway with the someone vacuuming at the far end of the hall, he decides to ask Sarah to marry him. I think for us, just working on the show, that was just an epic moment that we’ve been building to for four years. Much like, in the same episode, Ellie and Awesome giving birth to their child. It’s so interesting to take these characters who in the pilot only had a couple of lines and progress them through the show this season.

I think that Chuck seeing his mom for the first time and beginning to understand her backstory and why she left so many years ago was also a very important component to his journey this year. We’re working on our season finale now where, for him to have a happy ending and for him to survive, he’s going to have to become the hero he has to be. If he can do it, this is his greatest test. The finale will very much be a giant moment for Chuck Bartowski moving forward.

You’ve had an incredible run of guest stars through the years. Who have been your favorites, and who can we look forward to seeing in the rest of the season?
Back in the day, we’d say we were the “Love Boat” of spy shows. We found it really fun to write for guest stars. Just off the top of my head, I’d say there’s people like Chevy Chase who, in Season 2, was amazing to work with and actually write that character, Chevy Chase as a villain. I think we were the first show to kill off Chevy Chase, which is kind of a shocking thing to do. I’m kind of amazed my that. We’ve also had John Larroquette. I was a huge “Night Court” fan for many years. It was great to not only introduce him as Roan Montgomery but also to bring him back this season. That’s the kind of fun thing about our show. We’ve built this spy world, much like “Alias,” which is one of my favorite shows and helped to rejuvenate the genre. In Season 4, we revisit this spy world with guest stars like Dolph Lundgren. But I really enjoyed the character of Alexei Volkoff [played by former James Bond Timothy Dalton, and named after the Russian wrestler Nikolai Volkoff, a nod to Chris' days as a WWF fan]. We’ll get to see him again in our next episode.

Now what about the season finale? Since the fate of “Chuck” hasn’t been decided yet, will you leave things hanging?
We’ve always been inclined to do really crazy season finale episodes. This one is called “Chuck vs. the Cliffhanger,” so you know it’s going to be a big one.

While R&B star Chris Brown came to ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning, ready to move on from his past — he pled guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna two years ago; the restraining order was just “relaxed,” as his interviewer Robin Roberts put it — it was clear that the world hasn’t quite forgiven all his sins. The 22-year-old was on GMA to promote his new album, “F.A.M.E.” (Forgiving All My Enemies), but Roberts kicked off the interview (below) by asking Brown about the easement on the restraining order, claiming it was in response to the Tweets flooding in.

Although Brown managed to keep his cool during this segment, things took a surprising turn after his first scheduled musical performance. According to insiders, once the song finished, he “stormed into his dressing room and started screaming and tearing the room apart.” By the time security arrived, a window in Brown’s dressing room was smashed, and Brown stormed out of the building — with no shirt on.

Following the incident, Brown reportedly posted the following on Twitter: “I’m so over people bringing this past s**t up!!! Yet we praise Charlie Sheen and other celebs for there [sic] bulls**t.” The post was later removed from Twitter, replaced with a message for his Team Breezy fans: “… This album is for you and only you!!! I’m tired of everyone else!! …”

Brown is still scheduled to perform in the elimination round of “Dancing with the Stars” next week — for now — but it’s more than likely DWTS host Tom Bergeron will skip the probing questions for the live show. Still, Brown’s behavior today left us wondering: has Brown truly moved on from the past? And are we ready to, as well?

If you’re wondering why Dana Carvey is hosting Saturday Night Live this week, it may be because he’s the best ambassador to great comedy that the show has ever had.

Nope, this isn’t because he’s doing SNL this weekend in a Love of the Game sort of situation. (Even though he is—he has nothing specifically to plug.) It’s because his forgotten-about self-titled show in 1996 may have been a better breeding ground for today’s most influential comedians than Saturday Night Live was in that entire decade.

And The Dana Carvey Show didn’t even last a whole season.

It was, at the time, critically panned. That’s probably a mild way to put it. It was critically devastated. It was ridden off television for, mostly, being in the wrong timeslot.

Yes, in an era of TGIF and Full House in primetime, The Dana Carvey show was premiered at 9:30 p.m. on ABC right after Home Improvement, and it opened with a skit in which President Clinton had milkable udders that could breastfeed babies, puppies and kitties. The President also had implanted a ducktail onto his lower-back for the purpose of nesting eggs to help save money for school lunch programs.

This didn’t go over well. ABC had ordered ten episodes. They cancelled it after seven.

But Dana Carvey helped launch four of the most pivotal comedy careers for today’s culture in those seven episodes.

The idea of the opening sketch came to the show’s head writer, a then-absurdist comedian and recent SNL reject, on the way to work one morning. He thought it would be funny to see “Bill Clinton breastfeeding a baby on national TV.” Then it aired. He got letters about how this deeply offended some viewers. He said it helped him grow into the comedian he is today.

That writer was Louis C.K., one of today’s best and most famous standups.

You can hear more about his time at the doomed show at the 11:00 mark of the WTF Podcast with comedian Marc Maron, which aired on KCRW.

But Louis C.K. didn’t even wind up being the most distinguished writer involved with the show. Robert Smigel was just one of the faceless writers at SNL and Conan before he got a chance to whip out The Ambiguously Gay Duo on The Dana Carvey Show.

This eventually spawned TV Funhouse, some comic shorts that aired on SNL for years after the Dana Carvey Show and eventually won itself its own timeslot on NBC for a year. And a year after becoming a castmember on Dana Carvey’s experiment, he invented a dog puppet that smoked a cigar and made fun of humans: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Oh, and if Ace and Gary from The Ambiguously Gay Duo sound familiar, it’s because they’re two of the best, most famous comic actors alive. Gary was Steve Carell. Ace was Stephen Colbert. They were both castmembers on The Dana Carvey Show.

Here they are attempting not to throw up on television, before Carell dresses up as Fabio and shaves his chest. Yep, this kind of thing happened all the time on this show.

In the last three episodes, Carvey’s writers had written some sketches for a young Stephen Colbert to deliver some satirical news as a deadpan pundit.

Thank God they cancelled the show before that. That sort of thing would’ve been a real disaster.

Ben Collins is an Assistant Editor at Hulu. You can find him on Twitter @globesoundtrack or email him here.

Ricky Gervais may never be invited back to the Golden Globes after telling some jokes in his monologue Sunday night.

This is too bad, of course. Because if Ricky Gervais’ jokes set the bar for getting banned from some buildings, most of the things said about Charlie Sheen in this country would prohibit any American from going within 200 yards of a school zone ever again.

Yes, Ricky Gervais just told some very coherent, very structured, very PG versions of the jokes we’ve all been telling our friends and muttering to our cats while watching awards ceremonies for years now.

And now a bunch of people with nice suits but no real problems are angry at Ricky Gervais.

Figures.

But that’s not the bad part. The bad part is that those well-dressed folks got some reporters and average Globes-watchers to feel bad for Angelina Jolie because her bad movie was called bad.

It’s a little dumbfounding, really.

This is the equivalent of Brett Favre walking into a bar, stealing your girlfriend immediately, then you yelling “Hey, Brett Favre, nice jorts!” very sarcastically in retribution, only to have the whole bar turn on you for the rest of the night, even while knowing the whole story.

The media is yelping out one loud, “You really shouldn’t have said that mean thing about Brett Favre’s jorts!” right now. And they’re getting a lot of people to regurgitate it as their own opinion under the tempestuous allure of mock outrage.

“Ricky blew it big time,” a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which puts on the Globes) told Popeater. “It’s one thing to make fun of celebrities but it’s another to make them totally uncomfortable.”

You’re right! The best way to make fun of celebrities is to make them comfortable. Who can forget Billy Crystal’s classic one-liner from the 2004 Oscars: “Mr. Kingsley, you have a very nice face and your voice is brusque and warm. Let me massage you gently with this nice, hot towel.”

Wait, that didn’t happen. Why? Because discomfort, to a large extent, is comedy. It’s taking people out of their comfort zone so they have a better, less serious view of reality.

Problem is, the people Ricky was offending had no grasp on reality to begin with. That’s why it was so funny to the rest of us.

“He certainly was rough,” said one Huffington Post recap.

Certainly was he?

There were some very hands-off topics last night that Gervais could’ve tackled last night with a controversial joke or opinion. But Gervais — even if it’s weird saying this today — has lots of tact. He didn’t touch them.

He’s not an idiot or unconscious to the repercussions of calling out movie stars who have it coming. He wanted to do exactly what he did last night.

“I don’t think I went far enough (in 2010),” he told Conan last week. “Obviously not, because they invited me back.”

Of course, there is always the Hugh Jackman option, where the host plays out the Hollywood fantasies he dreamed up in a pillow fort when he was 9 years old. It leaves the audience clapping out of politeness. Mind you, this option is also called the Just Put On The Discovery Channel Until Best Actress Comes Up Option. And it’s also now called The Only Option From Now On.

Thanks a lot for being so damn funny, Ricky. You made our night and ruined awards shows for all of us.

Ben Collins
Assistant Editor, Hulu

Well, it’s time to start clutching your World’s Greatest Boss mugs and begin crying loudly in a corner. Not only is Michael Scott leaving The Office, but he’s leaving the show about a month before the end of its season.

Deep breaths. It’s going to be okay.

Remember, as Michael once said, “Don’t ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone, for any reason, ever, no matter what, no matter where or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you’ve been ever. For any reason whatsoever.”

Sure, that doesn’t make any sense. But feel free to construe it as something positive about his departure. We’re sure he’s going to leave in a dignified and respectable manner.

Yep, that was a joke.

But his exit will be a calculated one, Office head writer Daniel Chun told E! Friday.

“He will earn the ending he gets. I think there are multiple plausible endings for him. He could get fired, he could get promoted, he could decide to quit it all and go to Hollywood. He could find love or he could crash and burn romantically. He’s poised for a number of things but the thing that’s a promise is that he will deserve what he gets.”

With that said, here are our guesses for how he’ll leave Dunder-Mifflin. — Ben Collins, Assistant Editor

Holly breaks up with her fiancé to be with Michael. They move back to Nashua, marry in a MacGruber-themed wedding, and raise three infinitely quirky, gaffe-prone children.
Odds – 10,000,000:1

Glad we got that out of the way. Admit it: You’re rooting against this while simultaneously hoping it happens with every fiber of your being.

It would be perfect: Holly is the only woman who makes sense of Michael’s impossible demeanor. It allows him the opportunity to have kids, which he’s wanted since he welcomed cameras into his Scranton office. And it would give hope to all of humanity that even the Michael Jordan of relationship failures will eventually find his long-lost, sexy Scottie Pippen.

It would also make too much sense. Even if we hope it doesn’t.

One of Ryan’s ridiculous startup concepts proves relatively profitable; Michael’s secret share in the company lets him retire.
Odds – 112:1

A social networking site that pumps disgusting liquids into your waterbed. Jet skis for dogs. How-to books for how-to books. All of these ideas are awful. All of these ideas are slightly better than temp-turned-sales guy Ryan’s WUPHF.com.

Something involving Creed, loose cattle, a hand dryer, and a debilitating injury.

Odds – 40:1

Is it possible that they’d kill off Michael? Would we cry if this took place? Better question: Would everyone in the world cry if this took place? This would be the national equivalent of drinking a tub of hot sauce while watching the end of The Notebook and Field of Dreams simultaneously.

Maybe that Friday would be a national holiday.

Parkour accident.

Odds – 275:2

Self-explanatory when you see the Dunder-Mifflin team in action.

Michael gives a long, involved speech that he’s certain will unite a nation and dramatically announces his departure. To everyone but Michael, the speech means nothing at all.

Odds – N/A

Wait, this has already taken place?

Ousted by David Brent (Ricky Gervais) in international Sabre merger and subsequent shakeup.

Odds – 150:1

A man can dream.

Befriends crime-fighting dog; saves Scranton from Gabe’s underground narcotics and terror organization; disappears mystically, a beautiful crusader of the night, into the vast nothingness. No one asks questions.

Odds – 2:1

The Top Dog ending is the leader in the clubhouse.

The team at Exercise TV shares their workout tips in this guest blog post for Hulu. As always, check with your physician before beginning any new exercise routine.

While your New Year’s resolutions may have already come and gone, Exercise TV is here to remind you that it only takes 10 minutes a day to jumpstart your workout (and those resolutions). This four-week program maximizes both time and variety, so you can have the body you want all year long.

Week 1
Need a jumpstart this year? Easy! Start moving. Contrary to popular belief, sweating will actually give you even MORE energy in the end. Thankfully, you don’t need to work out to exhaustion in order to benefit from the energy burst and fat burn. Just 10 minutes counts! This week, we’re going to focus on the glutes.

1. Try Bootylicious Buns with trainer Stephanie Vitorino. Bottoms up!
2. Dance Jam Calorie Burn is sure to get you sweating and feeling the burn in your legs, abs and obliques long after you’ve finished. Not to mention … it’s fun!
3. Daily 100: Sit down, stand up 100 times (or just make sure to do it 100 times through the entire day)! Just before your bottom touches the chair, stand up and then sit back down again and again!
4. No time to work out? Squeeze your glutes together to get a little extra burn at work, in the car, cooking dinner, or even at the movie theater.

Week 2
For the second week of your jumpstart, the goal is to get moving. Even if you “don’t have time to work out,” you can probably find 10 minutes for exercise in your busy day. This week, we’re adding strength training exercises to your routine.

1. Sexy Legs will strengthen and sexify your gams, glutes and core.
2. Take it to the next step with 10 Minute Buns and Thighs, sculpting your booty and legs with that good pain that makes you want to come back for more.
3. Daily 100: Jumping jacks for 100 reps. It’s a great, back-to-basics leg toner that gets you burning calories and your metabolism pumping.
4. No time to work out? Vacuum! The push and pull motion targets the chest. Really get into the movement and you’ll feel the difference.

Week 3
Don’t give up on your Jumpstart to fitness! On your third week, focus on your arms while making sure to do a total-body burn too. And have fun with it. Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore.

1. Pilates Core Sculpt workout will help you get that slim pilates shape with sexy cut muscles that make you stand out in a crowd
2. The ABC’s of Hip Hop is a fun and sassy way to get fit while learning a few moves for the dance floor!
3. Daily 100: Plank. It’s the top of a push-up, but then you just hold it there — for 100 seconds.
4. No time to work out? Shovel snow. The weight against the shovel forces your arm muscles to really engage. No snow? Scrub the shower! Get into it, make it sparkly clean, and tone your arms while you’re at it!

Week 4
The final week of 10-minute workouts are the beginning of a fit mindset and healthy habits that will keep your body in check all year long! This week, you’ve gotta get into those abs. Of course, sexy abs aren’t just about crunches; you’ve got to get in some cardio to burn the fat off, too.

1. Check out Standing Abs, a no-crunch way to define your core without ever laying on the floor!
2. For a dynamic eight-move circuit that will burn serious fat fast, the Espresso Workout is a must.
3. Daily 100: Skip. Yes, just like when you were in grade school. Skipping is a great cardio workout. Swing your arms, engage your core and skip!
4. No time to work out? Seated Ab Squeezes. Big fast exhale through your nose and squeeze your stomach. Yes, you’re engaging your abs and slowly but surely toning… at the office, in the car, anywhere.

2010 was a busy year. Like every other year, you had to deal with the family, work, fantasy football … oh, and you really should get that noise your car is making checked out. But despite all that, you still manage to find time to watch your favorite TV dramas. It used to be that when you missed a show, you had catch up on it around the water cooler, but nowadays, time spent at the water cooler is time better spent catching up on “your stories” on Hulu (it’s OK, we won’t tell). So, as you furiously try to catch up on the projects you didn’t manage to get done before the New Year, why not take one last break and look back at the top dramatic moments of the year? You know you want to. (Warning: spoilers follow.) — Martin Moakler, Hulu

Lost: “The End”
For six seasons, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 captivated us as they tried to figure out why they were brought to that mysterious island somewhere in the Pacific … and then somewhere else … and then to 1977. The multifaceted characters and rich mythology of Lost found an end to their odyssey in May, and although the true meaning of the finale remains unclear, it brought definite closure to a nation of Lost-ies who religiously followed the story from the plane crash to the beach to the hatch to the States and back to the Island again … and in a blink of an eye, it was all gone.

Grey’s Anatomy: “Death and All His Friends”
After a season of behind-the-scenes cast squabbling, even die-hard fans of Grey’s began to wonder how much longer they would be able to follow their favorite sexy doctors through the halls of Seattle Grace. Then the season finale came, thrusting us all to the edge of our seats. When a lone gunman showed up to avenge the death of his wife, no one was safe, and the doctors were left feeling something with which they had become unfamiliar: powerlessness. And when the gunfire finally ceased, a reinvigorated audience couldn’t wait for Season 7 to see how the survivors would recover.

Law & Order Canceled
After 20 years, NBC banged the gavel and canceled television stalwart Law & Order. The series’ compelling “ripped from the headlines” story lines riveted viewers for its entire run and spawned successful spin-offs, both domestic and international. The show will, no doubt, live an even longer life in syndication, and even though the it was renowned for tying up loose ends by the closing credits, we can’t help but be plagued by some nagging questions: What will New York City character actors do now? Who will avenge the deaths of hundreds of Hudson University students now? And why do we still so very much want Sam Waterston’s approval? If only the late Jerry Orbach were still around to pithily let us know.

24 Series Finale
Although not the intentions of 24‘s creators, Jack Bauer came around at a time when the United States turned much of its focus toward hunting terrorists. And for eight seasons, he protected the U.S. from Balkan terrorists, Russian terrorists, Middle Eastern terrorists … if you were planning on harming America, Jack was going to take you down. When the new administration in the White House came around and our national agenda changed, even in TV land, Jack Bauer became a relic of a different era. Despite all the good he did for the country, this year he was disavowed by the American government and forced to go into hiding for the rest of his life.

Private Practice: “Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?”
Just when it seemed the Halloween episode was over, we were left with a terrifying cliffhanger in which St. Ambrose Chief of Staff Charlotte King was beaten and dragged into her office by an unseen assailant. Viewers would have to wait a week to see the brutal aftermath of Charlotte’s rape and assault, her decision not to get a rape kit, and Addison’s stoic resolve to respect Charlotte’s wishes.

Mad Men: “The Suitcase”
In the first three seasons of Mad Men, Don Draper embodied the role of the Sixties Superman: smart, handsome, rich; but the superman faĉade was just as strong and empty as the Samsonite suitcase Don was trying to market in this episode. In a year when Don lost Betty and the kids in the divorce, and then Anna — his only link to his previous life as Dick Whitman — to cancer, he realized that booze, women and secrets weren’t a panacea, and we learned that he was ultimately just a man.

The Walking Dead Premieres on AMC
Even in a television landscape overrun with sexy vampires, The Walking Dead could set itself up to be the heir apparent to Lost, albeit a Lost for more desperate times. Whereas the Oceanic survivors were frequently motivated by hope in beautiful, unfamiliar surroundings, the characters in The Walking Dead warily march through a post-apocalyptic Atlanta that vaguely resembles the world they once knew with not much more than a simple desire to survive.

Dexter: “The Big One”
After tragically losing his wife last year, serial killer Dexter (Michael C. Hall) finally found in Lumen (Julia Stiles) someone who “gets” him: his peccadilloes, quirks and monstrous desire to kill … a bad habit he even got her to dabble in, which is something most serial killers can’t even get on their birthdays. Unfortunately, after sticking it to her own tormentor, it turned out that Lumen was just in it for the justice, and she wouldn’t be able to change her bloodthirsty beau. When she had to let Dexter down easy (because how else do you break up with a serial killer?), he shed himself of any feeling he had learned to emulate, and resigned himself to the fact that he could never be human.

Lone Star‘s Short Run
A summer of heavy promotion for the new series Lone Star seemed to guarantee its surefire success: a charming, Clooney-esque grifter caught between his con life in a Texas oil family and his real life 400 miles away, both of which had women he loved. It boasted talented actors and a compelling plot, but dismal ratings led Fox to cancel the series after just two episodes. When the similarly hyped My Generation was cancelled shortly thereafter, a new quandary was discovered in this era of instant gratification: Why should we commit to a show when we’re not sure it’s going to stick around (fool us once, Flash Forward!)? And how do you get a show to last when people are too apprehensive to become invested in it? And we wonder why there are so many reality shows …

Reality TV has come a long way. In the past 10 years, it’s gone from just being a cheaper alternative to scripted shows to a powerhouse phenomenon that has infiltrated all facets of media and politics, and is also a cheaper alternative to scripted shows. Even if you never watch the shows … well, you’re a liar, but you know who Speidi, The Situation and the Kardashians are, although you might not be able to explain why they’re famous. This year, the influence of the genre was felt far and wide … even in the White House! Let’s take a look back at the top moments of what may be the wildest year of reality TV to date. — Martin Moakler for Hulu

President Obama Enjoys ‘The View’
In July, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to appear on a daytime talk show, and the ladies of The View grilled him on everything from war and the economy to what is on his iPod. The Commander in Chief even got tested on his pop culture IQ, wherein he confessed that he had no idea who Snooki was, despite using her as a punch line for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in May. Perhaps he was just flustered trying to get a word in edgewise with the notoriously fast-talking quintet.

Mr. Colbert Goes to Washington
With the President’s visits to The View and The Daily Show, Washington certainly went to the talk shows, but the talk shows also went to Washington when Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report testified before Congress on behalf of migrant farm workers. After slipping into his on-air persona during his testimony — despite having submitted a report that he would address the lawmakers as himself — he received fewer laughs than he was used to and was even asked to leave … by a Democrat!

Oprah OWNs Up
Media mega-titan Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be shutting the doors on her successful, eponymous talk show in 2011 after 25 years to focus her attention on her new television network, The Oprah Winfrey Network (or “OWN,” for short). Even though OWN will be open for business on New Year’s Day, Oprah made sure her last season will be her most notable, with huge publicity stunts including flying her audience to Australia in a plane piloted by John Travolta, expanding her popular “Favorite Things” episode to two days, and, most recently, nearly gouging out Hugh Jackman’s eye by accident.

‘Dancing’ with the Tea Party
The midterm elections spilled over to reality shows when Bristol Palin outlasted Brandy on Dancing With the Stars, stirring up quite the scandal. Despite consistently being on the bottom of the leader board throughout the season, teen activist Palin made it all the way to third place. Conspiracy theorists postulated that Tea Party activists rigged the voting after message boards instructing Tea Partiers to vote for the daughter of the former Vice Presidential candidate multiple times were discovered. Host Tom Bergeron shot down the scandal, noting that those complaining probably didn’t even vote at all, but a nation learned that politics can rear its ugly head onto the most unlikely of dance floors.

A Rose for Any Other Name
The bitter breakup between Bachelor Jake Pavelka and his fiancé Vienna Girardi played out in the tabloids mere months after he gave her a rose and ring on the popular ABC show in March. More shocking than the end of a Bachelor relationship, however, was when Chris Harrison interviewed the former couple on a special episode in July. The cold, calculated Pavelka accused Girardi of cheating, while the frazzled Girardi accused Pavelka of only playing out their romance when the cameras were rolling. The truth may one day come to light in another reality show, but legions of stay-at-home romantics were forced to grapple with the possibility that people go on reality shows for their own personal gains instead of love.

Weave Got the Beat
The kids from Jersey Shore went to Miami this year, but there was still plenty of drama to be had in the Garden State. The Jersey girls of The Real Housewives of New Jersey made last year’s table-flipping incident seem subdued when what started as a civil (by Real Housewives standards, anyway) conversation between Teresa and Danielle erupted into the North Jersey equivalent of the last two minutes of The Blair Witch Project. And after Danielle’s hair extensions were ripped out, she made young Ashley out to be the most feared Jersey resident since Tony Soprano.

‘Idol’ Hands
The popular karaoke contest received more attention for its judges this year than its contestants. In January, Simon Cowell announced it was his last season. Ellen DeGeneres followed suit, citing that the show was not a “right fit.” Kara DioGuardi left because the other judges didn’t know she was even on the show. Jennifer Lopez signed on as a new judge, as did Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. Randy Jackson is staying right where he is, dawg, and Paula Abdul is still off the show but remains forever our girl. (Her new show, Live to Dance, premieres on CBS January 4.) Oh, and some kids sang some songs.

Housewife in the White House
With all of the energy exerted to keep terrorists out of the United States, Homeland Security let under their radar a more imminent threat: reality stars. Last year, DC socialites Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed a State dinner at the White House, where they mingled with various Heads of State, including President Obama. When it was revealed that they were participants in another edition of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise, The Real Housewives of DC, and the events leading up to the dinner had been filmed as a plot line, a nation wondered to what ends hopeful reality subjects would go to get attention.

XXI Olympic Winter Games
One could say that The Olympics is the original reality show: the heightened drama, the fierce competition, and athletes who go there to win, not to make friends, and the Vancouver Winter Games lived up to that tradition. The International Olympic Committee praised the Canadian city for having a “great atmosphere for these games,” a fact with which the Americans can no doubt disagree, as we brought home the most medals. In fact, the general consensus throughout the world was that the Olympiad was a success, although there were a few negative reactions to the cold.

Aisle Be Seeing You
Scores of reality shows over the years have well documented the stunts and sociopathic behavior in which people are willing to engage in order to win a reality competition, but this year marked a new level of outrageousness with the premiere of Bridalplasty. On the E! show, brides not only competed to get a dream wedding, but also their dream plastic surgeries before their big day. Of course, this isn’t the first reality show to offer plastic surgery as a prize; The Swan did it six years ago. But, whereas The Swan at least made the pretense of rewarding hard work and inspiring behavior, Bridalplasty unleashed twelve bridezillas on a wild free -for-all chase of Who Wants a New Nose!

The Death of Fox Reality Channel
This year, the Fox Reality Channel went off the air. At first glance, one might assume it was taken down because America ran out of reality subjects to film, but many wondered if it marked the beginning of the end for the genre. Probably not, but it could well be an indication that the viewing public reached a saturation point for reality shows about former reality stars who compete to get another reality show (yeah, that’s a thing).

It’s been a tough year for TV comedy. We lost a Golden Girl, a Designing Woman, and Gary Coleman. Party Down was canceled because the cast was just too successful on other shows. And, worst of all, Ke$ha was on $aturday…er, Saturday Night Live. But no matter to what depths our hearts plunged this year, our desire to laugh allowed us to persevere. And laugh we did, at this year’s outstanding funny television moments that made us feel totally double-rainbow. — Martin Moakler, Video Publisher

Glee Theme Episodes
The musical phenomenon had already proven itself more popular than The Beatles, but this year the kids from McKinley High’s New Directions became event television with theme episodes that utilized the collections of Madonna, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the story’s narrative. Certainly some of the most talked-about television of the year, these Glee episodes revered these musical icons and whetted Gleeks’ appetites for the next target of the show’s adulation.

Katy Perry and Elmo-gate
Katy’s décolletage proved a bit too scandalous for parents who protested her appearance alongside Elmo on Sesame Street this fall, prompting the PBS children’s series to pull the clip altogether from the show. It would seem that Katy got the last laugh as she made a provocative cameo on The Simpsons’ Christmas special, in which America’s favorite yellow family was re-imagined as puppets in honor of her arrival.

Betty White Hosts Saturday Night Live
The power of the Internet was never so apparent as when a random Facebook campaign convinced NBC to invite comedy legend Betty White to host Saturday Night Live … and Betty had never even heard of Facebook! The episode, which honored SNL’s funny ladies past and present, was just one jewel in the resurgent crown of popularity she experienced this year, proving that funny (not to mention muffins) has no expiration date.

Modern Family Wins the Emmy
In their second season, The Pritchett-Dunphy clan proved that they were no sophomore slumps when Modern Family snagged the Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Eric Stonestreet’s performance as the hilarious Cameron.

John Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
In the midst of the mid-term election, political pundits who preach rather than report and government officials telling us the latest thing we need to fear, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report banded together to host the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Created as a means to hold up a mirror to the three-ring circus that our news and politics has become, the D.C. rally boasted an attendance estimated at 215,000, with an Internet and television viewership of close to 2.5 million. Of course, the rally didn’t solve our current societal woes, but perhaps it did as their motto instructed: “Take it down a notch for America.”

The Office’s In/Out Tray
Less than nine months (ahem) after their wedding, Dunder-Mifflin power couple Jam (Jim and Pam) gave birth to Cecilia Marie Halpert. This joyful arrival was quickly obscured, however, by Steve Carell’s summer “WUPHF” that the 2010 season would be his last, leading to wide speculation as to who in the office will fill Michael’s void. (That’s what she said!)

Late Night Wars
After handing over the reins of The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien last year, NBC gave them back to Jay Leno in January after his ten o’clock talk show failed to gain any momentum. Outrage from O’Brien’s minions passionately rang in the form of organized protests and Facebook groups, and a Che Guevara-esque icon as your avatar instantly demonstrated that you were “with Coco.” After months of gag orders, high-profile interviews, and a summer-long touring show, Conan is back on the air, albeit basic cable. The hullabaloo has almost totally died down, but it was sure a heck of a ride.

30 Rock Live Episode
There was more frenzy than usual in the halls of 30 Rockefeller Plaza when the madcap comedy did not one, but two shows in front of live studio audiences in Tina Fey’s old SNL stomping grounds, Studio 8H. With the help of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as “Past Liz” to smooth over the sitcom’s trademark jump cuts, the live 30 Rock event was a wild success, and even managed to include jabs at more timely events like the Chilean miners and Brett Favre’s … um, photographic largesse.

Actor Mark Duplass is a familiar face to fans of the FX fantasy football-centric guy show, The League, playing the charming troublemaker, Pete, but he actually got his start working onscreen and off with his brother, Jay, on short films and, in 2005, The Puffy Chair, which is now streaming on Hulu. Mark stars in the movie with his now-wife, Katie Aselton — also one of his co-stars on The League — as a young couple who embarks on a road trip unlike any other. In the first segment of our two-part interview series about The Puffy Chair, we asked Mark about the film, his relationship with his brother, and how the more subtle humor of The Puffy Chair is different than the raunchier jokes of The League. Coming soon: an interview with Katie Aselton. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: The first thing I noticed about The Puffy Chair was the music. There’s lots of indie favorites in there. How did you choose the music and go about getting it in the movie?
Mark Duplass: We were very naïve when we were making The Puffy Chair. We had about $15,000 of our parents’ money to make that movie. I used to play in bands a lot and I was on this label called Polyvinyl Records that had some cool bands like Of Montreal that are on the soundtrack. And so was really easy, because those guys were really friendly and willing to hook us up; I had toured with them. When it came to Spoon and Death Cab, what it really came down to was the bands were just tremendously generous and nice to us. I learned a lot about making indie movies, just lucky. The last thing you want to do when you go to bigger, cool bands like that is say, “Man, I’ve got this awesome indie movie. You totally want to be part of this because it’s going to help out your band.” I really just went to them and just said, “You have no reason to be in this movie, other than the fact that I will die if I can’t have these songs in the movie, and I need them because I am addicted to them. Please try to remember seven to 10 years ago, when you were scrapping, trying to put your stuff together and how great it was then to have one of your heroes to help you out. This is what I’m asking you to do.” And they did it, and that is very, very cool.

Let’s talk about the casting a little bit. You’re in the movie, obviously, and so is Katie Aselton. [They were dating at the time; now they are married.] Did you write the movie with yourself in mind?
Yeah, we designed the movie with something we call the “Available Materials School of Filmmaking.” We knew that we had $15,000 available, so we didn’t write anything that wasn’t readily available to us. We didn’t have money for a casting director or anything like that. Often when you’re casting indie movies, you just don’t get the talent you want. So what we decided to do was write a movie for myself, for Katie, and for Rhett. We knew that we were good and we knew that it would work, and so we designed the roles kind of around our strengths and avoided our weaknesses as actors, and likewise, that was my touring van from my band. Katie grew up in this little town in Maine, where her dad was the doctor and everybody loved him, and we knew we could get them to support for free. That was my apartment in Brooklyn. We did have to buy two chairs — two twin, matching chairs because one of them was going to get hurt. Otherwise, it was really us saying, let’s try to build this around what we have and not try to dream too big so we know we can make it.

What inspired the story?
It was a desire on the part of myself and my brother to make a feature along the lines of how we made our shorts, which were big, long scenes, cheap production value, focused on acting, story, faces, human emotions. We figured if we did that and set it in an apartment, it was basically going to be a Woody Allen movie. So we wanted to try to do something a different, so in order to give it a little momentum, we said “Let’s stick it in a genre.” The road movie seemed pretty obvious to us. And it was just this kind of conversation where we said we’re going to be dealing with some serious issues in this movie, with relationships, and it’s going to be a little sad in places. We want this movie to be fun and to have that silliness to it. So we were like, what if he’s just delivering a piece of furniture to his dad, something stupid like that? Then we just batted it around, like is it a table, is it an armoire? It was almost like it hit us at the same time: “Oh no, massive recliner!” It was more of a feel-based thing, rather than an intellectual decision.

Were any of scenes that depicted you interacting with Rhett Wilkins, who played your brother, based on any of your experiences with your brother, Jay?
You know, at the time it didn’t feel like that at all. When I look at it now… Jay and I basically share the same brain. We share the same taste, and we share a love of the same things in the world, but our modes of operation have grown vastly different as we’ve gotten older. So there is a little bit now, I would say, be being the Type A maniac, and Jay being a bit more sensitive, careful and wary. We call each other jokingly — but very seriously — I’m the bull and he’s the brakes. The way we talk about it I think is, I think we’re a perfect complement for each other. If it was just me, I’d probably be making 10 bad movies a year. If it was just Jay, he would make one half a movie over the course of the next 60 years. Somewhere in there, we kind of curve the edges a bit.

I was drawn to the relationship between you and Katie in this film. There are some dark and twisted moments between your character, Josh, and her character, Emily. Did she have any influence on the development of Emily?
Katie had a ton of influence on the character. Just to be point blank, perfectly honest. Jay and his wife were going through a lot of those things, and Katie and myself were going through a lot of those things, and a lot of our best friends were going through a lot of those issues. We were all in our 20s, dating for a bit, and we were all scared shitless about getting married. We were doing irrational things to each other on all kinds of fronts. You know, Jay and I wrote the script, but there were moments, like the big fight in the hotel room between us, and the breakfast scene the next morning when Katie’s character really rips into Rhett about marriage and what that means, where Katie would say “Guys, can I just go off here? Will you just let me say what I want to say?” And every time she did that, it was always right. I wouldn’t say they were necessarily Katie’s beliefs, because Emily is an extreme character, but they were certainly fueled by things we were all going through. There’s this quote that says anybody under 30 who tries to make a good movie better try to make it about themselves. We believed that at the time, so there’s a lot of us in there.

Your style of filmmaking is known as “mumblecore.” Can you shed some light on that movement — and is it a badge of honor to be considered mumblecore?
In my opinion, it was a cool time and place in 2005, when someone in the press made up the term “mumblecore.” None of the filmmakers ever called themselves that; it was a press item. There wasn’t a dogma movement where we all decided “Hey, we’re mumblecore!” It was really cool at the time, because we were making tiny movies and the New York Times was writing about them, selling our movies. It was giving a name and a face to something that was completely indecipherable to the public. That was nice. But now, it’s become a bit limiting, I think. Quite frankly, it came out because a certain camera came out. It allowed us to shoot good-looking stuff for cheap. That’s literally why that happened, and that’s why things look kind of similar. But now we’ve grown and we’ve branched out, and our movies have become much different. Mumblecore has become a bit limiting now, because when a movie like Cyrus comes out, and someone in the middle of the country hears it’s mumblecore, they think “What’s that? I don’t know what that is, but it’s not me,” I tend to think our movies have changed a bit and they’re not like that. Mumblecore used to be about completely anonymous people and long, drawn-out conversations. That’s kind of not what Cyrus was. So it was great for a certain amount of time, but now, like anything, you sort of want to distance yourself from it.

You star in The League, which has a totally different sense of humor compared to The Puffy Chair.
The truth of the matter is, Jeff and Jackie Schaffer run The League. We are a creative arm in that insofar as we inhabit those characters, but at the end of the day, we the vessels of Jeff and Jackie’s and their vision for this show. Those characters are basically nothing like us, I would say. Pete is overly confident and calm and secure, and I’m totally neurotic. Katie might be a little closer to her character, because Katie is a total guy’s girl. She’s very good with boys and stuff like that. I think that element kind of rings true for her. Katie didn’t a thing about football going into the show, so she had to do a shit-ton of research. I knew a bit, I’d say a lot from the ’80s and ’90s, but I wasn’t up on the current players. So she and I both went through a massive research period.