Some Splainin' is Due

The list of "The 50 Greatest TV Icons", a joint venture between Entertainment Weekly and TV Land, has been revealed, and the results are (like Vitameata- vegamin) a bit hard to swallow. Sure, such certified television greats as Carol Burnett, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore made the cut. However, so did Heather Locklear, Jimmy Smitts and Simon Cowell. Not that these people aren't talented (OK, maybe not that last one), but are they really worthy of being granted a title as lofty as "TV Icon"? Especially when you notice that such true legends and TV pioneers as Sid Caesar, Rod Serling and Walt Disney are nowhere to be found on the list.

My biggest gripe with this list is the placement of the top two: Johnny Carson at #1 and Lucille Ball at #2. How could any list of TV greats not be topped by Lucy? She created a whole TV genre, while Carson wasn't even the first host of The Tonight Show. Sure, he's still the best Oscar host I ever saw, and I would be fine with him in second place, but who else is still being watched by millions of people worldwide every single day, more then fifty years after her show originally aired? I think you know the answer to that one.

A two-hour special profiling each of the fifty greats will air tomorrow night on TV Land. Plus, in addition to a photo gallery of the top 50, EW.com has also posted the picks for numbers 51 to 100. Here's where their choices get even more flabbergasting: still no Caesar, yet they have Tony Danza and Pamela Anderson? Time to turn the channel ...

Links via MSNB.com, TVLand.com and EW.com.