Coming, Fall 2014: The All-Television All-Stars

Hello readers,

My name is Rob, and I am a self-proclaimed television expert. This is not because I'm part of the process (I don't act, direct, produce, adjust lights, or otherwise have any role in the television industry). In fact, my claim stakes solely on the fact that I watch a shit-ton of television. While I am sure there are people out there who watch more television than I do, I'm easily in the top 1%, worldwide. Drama, comedy, reality...I watch it all, and I love it all.

I'm an avid follower of Grantland, and as such I obsessively read both the Mad Men Power Rankings and the stellar Grantland Reality TV Fantasy League, both of which represent a unique niche within the world of television reporting: harnessing our very human desire to turn everything into a competition and applying it to a situation in which no one is competing and of which we have no control. The characters on Mad Men are complex, nuanced individuals, with complicated, often conflicting motivations. While some people enjoy reflecting and analyzing what said motivations mean in the overall scheme of things, some, like myself, find themselves compelled to decide from week to week which is 'better:' Donald Drapers' propensity for finger banging or our innate hatred of Lou Avery.

While the before-mentioned rankings are certainly fun, I realized a desire in myself to not be limited to one show or genre. I wanted to be able to say, "Tyrion Lannister was the best thing on television this week, narrowly beating out Andy for Parks and Recreation and that one girl from Top Chef." That may be a strange example (as if Top Chef and Game of Thrones are on the air at the same time), but you get my point.

There are all sorts of fantastic characters (real or otherwise) on television, any given the nature of awards-shows, not all of them can get recognized. But why not? In college football, there are thousands and thousands of kids playing different positions across the country in areas of variable competition and tactics, yet we still manage to have a method to recognize the standouts in the form of the designation of "All-American."

With that in mind, welcome to the All-Television All-Stars, a website that will work to recognize the best and brightest from across the television landscape. As only one voice in the landscape of TV watchers, I can promise this will be intensely biased (my great hates: procedurals, all shows about medicine) and occasionally limited by the fact that I can't watch everything, either due to lack of desire (try as I might, I never could get into Sleepy Hollow), access (I refuse to pay for Showtime), or time (I regret never watching The Good Wife, but with that title, can you blame me for not realizing how good it would end up being?).

I'll be starting up this fall, as the fall season (a term that seems more and more archaic) begins. It'll be amazing and ridiculous.