This latest TV season has been a regular demolition derby. We have seen new shows come in and flop almost before they left the gate. By gate I mean cave, and by cave I mean “Cavemen.”

“Cavemen” was one of the worst ideas for a TV show I have ever seen. And I saw most of the “Cop Rock” episodes as a kid. The only redeeming quality for “Cavemen” was that it debuted in the same season as “The Bionic Woman.”

Something that the producers and anyone involved with “Cavemen” should be eternally thankful for. Because had the two shows not debuted in the same season, poor “Cavemen” would have gone down as “Poopiest Show of 2007”! As it is, “The Bionic Woman” remains the worst thing to happen to TV in a long time. Sadly, the two shows had friends, “Samantha Who?,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Kid Nation” and so many other bags of offal clouded the fall TV season. Many shows spent their 30 minutes to an hour running around like short-bus riding garden gnomes, screaming in frustration for lack of dialogue and story.

But there were shining beacons of hope as well. Some shows owned hard as they climbed the mountain of cheese we know as TV ratings and attempted to claim the coveted “Hasselhoff Oberst!” (Hasselhoff Oberst or ‘big-time hairy supreme' is a little known state of being where you become champion of whatever you are engaged in. It is often accompanied by a coalition of Africans, ninjas and Civil War re-enactors.)

Actually, as I see it, there are only two new shows that have shown the stones it takes to claim top new show of the season, and those are “Chuck,” Monday nights on NBC and “Pushing Daisies,” Wednesday's nights on ABC.

Both of these shows have incredibly cool concepts, and both are relentless in their pursuit for seamless storytelling and oddly enough, acting.

Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski are outstanding on “Chuck.” I have not had this much fun watching sexual tension since I saw Pam and Jim bat eyes at each other in the first episodes of “The Office.”

That's mostly why this year's uber champion and “Hasselhoff Oberst!,” of the TV season is “Chuck.” Because you have to love a program that shows us that the complete and utter impossible, is possible, when the word “Weinerlicious” is stuffed somewhere in that TV show.

As for the returning veterans, I have been disappointed with a couple.
Especially “The Office.” We grew to love the chase. Once Pam and Jim hooked up, the fun was over.

“The Office” should take a cue from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” That show knows how to pull a 180 with its plot and direction and make it work. I nearly lost a nut, I laughed so hard during the finale of season six.

Larry David and Vivica A. Fox? A match made in comedy heaven.