The 13 Best TV Moments of 2013

Ah, mid-December. That means that it’s time for a few things: Settling your plans for New Year’s Eve, picking out a decent calendar for 2014 (should you go for 12 months of kittens in baskets, or the Bichon Frise model?), and re-organizing your TiVo. Sure, you still have a few months of your favorite sitcoms left – but news about brand new shows are starting to brew. John Mulaney sitcom, I’m talkin’ about you. That rhyme was unintentional, but I’m leaving it in.

While we say goodbye to 2013, let’s recap the best 13 moments in television this year.

1. GOB Returns to TV – As well as Michael Bluth, George Michael, Tobias, Lindsay, Maeby and the rest of them. While the long-awaited fourth season was revealed in its entirety on Netflix earlier this year, the GOB episode was the most compelling.

While he starts out working with bees, he soon becomes “Getaway” in a teen boy band entourage after ditching his wife-to-be. Yeah, her. And of course, he still has plenty of illusions up his sleeve. Or are those dead doves?

2. Miley Cyrus Gets Racy On The VMAs – Sure, it wasn’t a moment a young lady should necessarily be proud of, but Miley succeeded in her plan to have the world talk about her scandalous performance with Robin Thicke for weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZrHTUD7AVM?rel=0

For some reason, everyone seemed to want to voice their opinion on this child-actress-turned-sexy-twerk-kitten. In fact, who remembers anything else about the VMAs this year?

3. The Season Finale of Breaking Bad – Just the whole thing. It’s rare for a strong show to have an equally strong finale, but the folks over at Breaking Bad proved it could be done. Who thought the eccentric father from Malcolm In The Middle could seriously dominate a serious role?

4. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Host The Golden Globes – And they did such a good job that they were invited back! Tina and Amy proved that not only can girls be funny, but they can totally turn a dull awards show into a clever, must-see event. Can these two just host everything from now on?

5. Stephen Colbert Rocks Out To Daft Punk – While Colbert was excited about booking Daft Punk to play the StePhest Colbchella, ‘013: The Song of the Summer of the Century: It Ain’t the Heat, It’s the Rock-midity!” he later realized that his dream wouldn’t become a reality after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs6r6Ud0GGU?rel=0

After the band pulled out from playing “Get Lucky”, Colbert realized that he could take the song and create his own entertainment for his audience. Dare I say, it’s a billion times better.

6. The Red Wedding On Game of Thrones – When the doors closed and the audience became aware that the episode would end in cuttings that didn’t involve cake, it got real.

(Warning: Gruesome)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnxvUuSzbMI?rel=0

Even people who knew what to expect by reading the book series felt the pain and sadness during Catelynn and Robb’s untimely demise. And don’t get me started on that dire wolf.

7. Liz Lemon Finally Becomes A Mom – I’m not over the fact that 30 Rock is no more. In fact, I’m sure Netflix is screaming at me for my lack of adventure in my viewing habits. “This episode, again?”

By the end of the final season, Liz finally becomes a mom when she adopts two children, who just happen to have the tendencies of Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney. Since Liz handled the two TGS actors flawlessly throughout the run of the show, it’s obvious that she’ll be the best mother those kids could have gotten.

8. Family Guy Kills Off Brian – Don’t worry. He came back during the Christmas episode thanks to some creative writing. The death hit fans so hard that twitter nearly exploded after the “Life of Brian” episode aired, which showed our favorite intellectual cartoon dog getting tragically hit by a car.

While the show subbed in new dog “Vinnie”, he just wasn’t funny. He wasn’t Brian. One must give kudos to the creative team behind Family Guy for making us realize how emotional we can get over a cartoon character. Extreme kudos for realizing the show just couldn’t function without the guy.

9. Sally Draper Realizes Her Father Is Kind Of A Jerk – Mad Men got real this season, after Sally accidentally stumbled across her father cheating on his wife. The scene was beautifully played by Kiernan Shipka, whose facial expression is stronger than words – obviously, nothing will be the same after that single moment. (Also, it’s great because Don Draper has been hiding his tomcat ways for way too long. Seriously. The audience didn’t love Megan, but she seemed like a nice enough girl, Don.) (Jon Hamm – If you’re reading this, please note that I separate you from your television counterpart entirely, and think you’re dreamy.)

10. Glee Gives Cory Monteith A Beautiful Goodbye – News of Cory’s death took everyone by surprise. While Glee chose to vaguely address the loss of one of their leads with an episode, what was truly heartbreaking was the true emotion the cast expressed towards one of their friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwpjPfm9xw?rel=0

It was painfully obvious that Cory was loved on set, and seeing his friends celebrate his life through song was quite moving.

11. How I Met Your Mother FINALLY Revealed The Mother – And she’s played by the fabulous Cristin Milioti! It’s just a shame that the show dragged it out for this long.

Ted Mosby isn’t really likable anymore. I almost feel sorry for the mother, for having the privilege of knowing about every other woman Ted had romantic feelings for prior to them meeting up. I mean, if he’s so open with his kids, he probably blabbed it all to her too, right?

12. Nick and Jess Finally Kiss On New Girl – And boy, it’s a great kiss.

While fans were kind of expecting these two to hook up since the series started, Nick advancing on Jess after a heated game of True American was super unexpected and insanely romantic. Despite the fact that she was dating someone else. And he was just a room away from the two. Oh well.

13. Steve Carell Makes A Surprise Appearance On The Final Episode of The Office – While he swore he was done with the show, Steve decided to play Michael Scott one last time – at Dwight and Angela’s wedding.

While he didn’t steal the episode with embarrassing antics, his presence made the entire finale perfect . (I guess being married to Holly calmed him down a bit.) Let’s face it – Michael Scott made the show, and the show couldn’t have ended as amazingly without him.

What were some of your favorite 2013 TV moments?

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