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Over the past decade, being part of a TV show hasn't been a black mark on most actors' records. Ever since shows like NBC's "The West Wing" were filmed and shown in widescreen format, featuring movie stars, and dealing with complex issues sometimes rarely seen in arthouse movies, it became clear that television isn't the boondocks for failing careers. Certainly, there have been some actors whose careers were revived by the boob tube (David Caruso and his sunglasses say hello), but there have been some major strides in the televisual format in the last decade. Luckily, there are plenty of choices for the ten best television shows of the 2000s.

As mentioned in the past two weeks, when I covered my choices of the best movies of the past decade, this list is of my creation, no one else's. Some of the selections on my list may disappoint not only you, dear reader, but some of my fellow writers here at Box Office Prophets. The site itself will have a Best Of list next year around this time, so don't use up all of your rotten vegetables on me right now; share the wealth, please. Before I get to the first part of this list, running down the bottom half of my top ten TV shows, I wanted to mention a few shows that will go on my honorable mention, and two particular shows that won't appear at all. First, the latter: two very highly-regarded HBO programs are not on my list for the unfortunate reason that I've not seen them in their entirety: "The Wire" and "The Sopranos".

I've seen the first two seasons of "The Wire" and I would certainly place it high on my list assuming that the final three seasons are as awesome; however, I don't feel it's fair to put a show on my list that has aired all of its episodes, even though I haven't seen all of them. The same goes for "The Sopranos", of which I've only seen the pilot. One day, I'm sure to amend my list, but for now, these shows don't make the cut. Some shows on my honorable mention include "Firefly", "Undeclared", "24", "Scrubs", "South Park", "The Soup", "Extras", "The Venture Bros.", "Futurama", and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe". Now that you're all riled up that I'm not putting, say, "Futurama" in the top 10, let's get to the list.

10. Friday Night Lights

There's a mixture of awe and befuddlement that I have regarding the surprising success of "Friday Night Lights", the NBC drama that began airing in 2006, and is currently in its fourth season (if you get DirecTV; if you don't, like me, you have to wait for Season 4 until next summer, when NBC airs it). The show has already been renewed for its fifth and most likely final season. Though only one of those five seasons has the common-for-network-television 22 episodes, the fact that this low-rated drama that is ostensibly about the trials and tribulations of a high school football team in Texas has made it to a fifth season is damned impressive. One of the reasons so few people watch the show is because they assume it's all about football, which is a major myth. "Friday Night Lights" is about many things, football being only one of them. The show, developed by Peter Berg from his 2004 adaptation of Buzz Bissinger's book, is mostly about family, biological or otherwise.

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