18 TV Gifts Fanatics Wish For You This Holiday Season

My eternal wish in life is that everyone watches Sports Night. So I would give that show to the world and let us experience its awesomeness over again. Because it's still the best show I've ever seen, and yet apparently a bunch of people think Aaron Sorkin started in TV with The West Wing.

I would go back in time and fix the timeline so everyone could be hap-oh, scratch that.

I wish everyone could feel the joy I felt from watching The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits as a kid. Everyone has seen them a gazillion times, but seeing them for the 1st time as a kid opened my mind to science and a whole new way of thinking.

I wish everyone could experience the weird cocktail of emotions induced by the greatest Doctor Who Christmas special of all time: Voyage of the Damned, also known as The One with Kylie Minogue on the Space Titanic. Most of the episode is a giddy, goofy disaster adventure against the backdrop of the holidays; think the sheer ridiculousness of The Poseidon Adventure, but with David Tennant and Kylie flirting their pants off the whole time. But, the episode then surprises you – as the best episodes of Doctor Who usually do – with an ending that serves an emotional sucker-punch straight to the heart. The only show that ever makes me cry is Doctor Who, and this episode is one of the saddest, while somehow also one of the most fun!

I would love for the Jack Benny Program to be available for everyone to watch. It's my absolute favorite classic series and not enough people have any idea what it was like.

I would give everyone Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek, two shows that hooked me on the idea of watching TV with a critical eye instead of just for enjoyment.

I would gift everyone the pure joy of watching Leverage. TV Fanatic aside, there are only a handful of shows that I can watch over and over again and love every bit as much as I did the first time I watched it. Leverage is at the top of that list. When I'm having a bad day or I just need to smile, enter this merry band of non-law-abiding misfits making this cold, cruel, awful world a better place. Not only do the world's greatest mastermind, grifter, hitter, hacker, and thief become a family, but they sort of become part of yours too. The world could use more Leverage.

I would give everyone M*A*S*H, the original dramedy, before that term even existed. Side-splitting humor smoothly co-existed side by side with the horrors of war. And it was populated with a stellar while ever-changing cast.

My Christmas wish is to share the epic awesomeness that is Babylon 5. An intricately-planned years-long story, villains both petty and terrifying, well-developed characters, comedies, tragedies, and triumphs – Babylon 5 had them all. Created by J. Michael Straczynski (who has also written for both DC and Marvel), this 90s sci-fi series was overshadowed during its initial airing by the more mainstream Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; even today, however, it's well worth it to watch and enjoy how fantastic Babylon 5 is.

I would gift everyone with the entire seven seasons of Shameless. It's a thrilling comedy-drama that features the ups and downs of a family trying to make ends meet in the Southside of Chicago. U.K. to U.S. adaptations generally don't go down very well with audiences, but the casting, writing and directing are just some of the things that have made the American iteration a superior version to the original.

I would give the world the ability to watch their favorite show again for the first time. As fun as it is to watch our beloved shows over and over, nothing ever compares to the experience you get when watching something truly great for the first time. We all know the excitement of anxiously awaiting a brand new episode of a series, but once it's over all you have are the repeats,at least until the next great show comes along.

I wish I could give Castle fans back the show they loved. Not the horrid debacle that was season 8, but the magic of the earlier seasons. Castle started out about as light and fun as a show about murder could be. It had smart humor and intelligent characters who had integrity and heart. It was meant to be a love story wrapped up in a crime procedural. The show lost its way in the final season, turning dark and depressing, while relying on slapstick comedy that didn’t work, but in its hey day, fans called them #HappyCastleMondays for a reason, and I’d love to give them back that joy for the holiday.

I would give everyone the gift of Gilmore Girls. If you've never watched it, you'll cozy up with it like a warm blanket, and feel all nice and toasty as you fall in love with Lorelai and Rory, and especially with the magic of Stars Hollow. If you're already a fan, re-watching only makes the series better – you find new jokes with each repeat! Plus, who wouldn't want to find one of those boyfriends under their tree? Dean, Jess, Logan, Luke... they're all pretty fabulous.

My wish is from the world of animation, and three TV shows: Animaniacs, Young Justice, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. So often animation is dismissed as a kids' medium, but it is such a rich and flexible medium, telling stories with a humour and flair that we can't get with live action. Even outside of the primetime animated shows like Archer and The Simpsons, the so-called "kids' shows" often have themes, homages and jokes that are clearly for an adult audience. With these three shows: Animaniacs, the ultimate variety show; Young Justice, the superhero action show, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a story of friendship, destiny, struggle and redemption, I would show the world the range and beauty of animation.

I would give the world the opportunity to watch Bunheads on DVD, along with perhaps the additional season the show should have gotten in the first place. Everyone deserves to see such a different side of Kelly Bishop, the perfection that is Sutton Foster, and the kind of dialogue that only Amy Sherman-Palladino can give us. It's bizarre in the most fun way possible. For now, at least you can watch it online.

I would give the world a season of Firefly for every season of Simpsons that there is... We need more of Captain Tightpants and his misfit crew showing us that you don't always have to be the good guy to be the hero. Firefly was a show ahead of its time. Joss Whedon was an amazing visionary, and to this day Firefly is still considered one of the biggest "one that got away" at FOX!

My Christmas gift would be to introduce people to the first seasons of UnReal and Scream Queens. Both are incredible shows with fun characters and hilarious one-liners. They're such guilty pleasures once you get into them and if you're a horror or reality TV fan, they're great shows to re-watch again. Even though their second seasons both had a sophomore slump, their first seasons make up for everything.

My gift would be a package of spooky television including the Scooby Doo, Where Are You original cartoon series. The X-Files, Millennium, and the early seasons of Supernatural. My love for dark television started on Saturday mornings with Scooby Doo. It was love at first sight which remains to this day. Not only for Scooby and the Gang, but for Mulder and Scully, Frank Black, and Sam and Dean, too. Once these characters and their stories get their hooks in you, they don’t let go. And neither do the thrills and chills.

My love ot television goes back forEVER. I remember watching The Courtship of Eddie's Father and that love corresponding into a major crush on a kid in my kindergarten class, Burt Perrin. He looked just like Eddie, in my mind. Onto Charlie's Angels and The Bionic Woman and I thought I could do ANYthing. I could be beautiful and fight bad guys, no question. At Christmas, on Saturday mornings, in my teens, in my 20s and every decade since...TV has been there. For every stage in my life, there has been television to get me through, and my hope is that you, too, have that kind of long lasting relationship with a medium that changes and grows with the times.