"Smash" (NBC)

This NBC musical drama put a bright, sexy sheen on one of filmdom's most timeless tropes: Hey, kids, let's put on a show! Which "Smash" did, embedding songs and dance into the story of how a Broadway musical comes to life. Sure, "Smash" took knocks for unbelievable plotlines, cardboard characters and trite show tunes. It gave new life to the term "hate-watch" (that act of watching something solely to delight in its awfulness). So what? With a show-must-go-on defiance emblematic of Broadway, "Smash" never flagged in its unique charm and meticulous artistry. And if anything about it seemed over-the-top, its naysayers should consider the recent cockamamie real-life fraud that sank the Broadway musical "Rebecca." As "Smash" knows and demonstrated proudly, nothing is too wacky for Broadway.

By AP TV Writer Frazier Moore.

Credit: Will Hart