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4. Freaks and Geeks
Okay, this one may be close to cheating, as "Freaks and Geeks" premiered in the fall of 1999. However, the series did end in 2000, which means that it counts as being part of this decade (at least going by the standard of me producing this list in 2009). If you've not seen "Freaks and Geeks", what are you waiting for? This 18-episode, one-season cult classic took place in 1980 in Michigan, following the lives of Lindsay and Sam Weir, as they try to survive the war zone that is high school. Although part of the fun of the show, created by Paul Feig (though Judd Apatow also worked heavily on the program), is the constant hilarity that is 1980s pop culture, what made "Freaks and Geeks" so truly special was how real it felt, whether you were a freak like Daniel Desario, into smoking weed by the cafeteria; or a geek like Neal Schweiber, a little too into "The Jerk" and "Star Trek". Yes, some of the joy of the show is firmly planted in 1980s nostalgia, it's hard not to relate to these kids' foibles.

Of course, what makes the disappointing failure of "Freaks and Geeks", which didn't even get to have all of its episodes air on NBC, much sweeter is how successful a majority of the show's actors and producers have now become. Apatow is wildly famous, even if some people are a bit tired of his humor; Feig is a frequent director of "The Office" episodes, among other shows; Linda Cardellini found success on "ER"; Seth Rogen is about as famous as Apatow, and a frequent leading man; Jason Segel got his start here, as the pathetic Nick, lovelorn to the very end; James Franco would go on to star in the Spider-Man series. The list goes on. "Freaks and Geeks" was a uniquely painful show sometimes, mostly because of how accurate it was. The pain of having a crush on a girl who's not only out of your league but completely uninterested in you as anything but a dorky friend; the awkwardness of having to be friendly with people you don't want to know; the excruciation of finding out your family's not as perfect as it should be: "Freaks and Geeks" was and still remains a perfect picture of American life.

3. Lost
By this time next year, who knows? "Lost" may not be so high on the list. I say this only because the show is only weeks away from premiering its sixth and final season. What happens if, God forbid, the show's writers screw the pooch here? Don't get me wrong: for the last couple of years, "Lost", the buzz-worthy ABC sci-fi series about a group of plane crash survivors on a very mysterious island, has been the best show on television. Just before it introduced, at the end of Season 3, the very idea that some of the castaways managed to get off the island and into the real world, the series was running full throttle. Seasons 4 and 5 kept the streak going, with the last season's finale leaving everyone hanging. Still, I remain only cautiously optimistic. Why? I still remember episodes such as "Stranger in a Strange Land", which is still the worst episode of "Lost", and one of the worst episodes of a TV show I've seen in a long time. Just like "Battlestar Galactica", this show has the potential of being very awesome or very, very bad.

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