Let us not forget that we owe some of the best movies ever made to... television. Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Dekalog," (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) surely one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema, (OOOOOOOOOOO) was made for Polish television. Same goes for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz." (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

Some of Ingmar Bergman's most acclaimed works (OOOOOOOO) -- like "Scenes from a Marriage," (OOOO) "Face to Face," (OO) "After the Rehearsal" (OOOOOOOOOOO) and the recent "Saraband" (OOOOOOOOOO) -- were made for television, as was Lars von Trier's magnum opus, "The Kingdom" (OOOOOO) and the 366-minute Italian TV epic "The Best of Youth," (OOOOO) hailed as one of the best films of 2005. (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) Peter Weir's second-best movie (OOOOOOOO) (after "Picnic at Hanging Rock") is "The Plumber," a TV film that's available as an "extra" on the DVD of his low-budget horror pic, "Cars That Ate Paris." :(

One of my all-time favorite films, Krzysztof Zannusi's "Ways in the Night," was a television production

So, I was happy to see Alessandra Stanley, the TV critic for the New York Times and one of the few television reviewers I really enjoy reading, stick up for the overall quality of American television recently:

the disgustingly LIEberal JEW!!!!! York SLIMES!!!!!!!!!!! wrote:

The world hates us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and even Americans deplore the sorry state of political discourse in their country. But only the uninformed or disingenuous complain about the quality of American television. It has a variety and breadth that no other nation can match. For every offensive reality series or inane daytime talk show, there are comedies and dramas that reach far higher in a single episode than most movies or Broadway shows.

a guy who blogs on Ebert's website just because he can wrote:

On the downside, there's Fox, but that's not American television; it's Australian tabloid television.

But few full-length movie comedies offer as much quick wit, sophisticated multi-layered political and pop-culture satire, or hilariously nuanced characterizations as a half-hour of "Arrested Development" or "The Simpsons" or "South Park" or "My Name is Earl" -- or "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report."