Top 10 moments in TV: 2009

We asked Jacob Clifton, who blogs about TV for televisionwithoutpity.com, for his top 10 TV moments of the year.

10. "DOLLHOUSE" The show's brilliant, unaired episode, "Epitaph One," should have served as its pilot. Suspenseful and surprisingly moving, the fact that it wasn't broadcast hasn't kept its twists and turns from influencing this year's shortened, canceled offering for the better.

9. "GREY'S ANATOMY" Amid major cast changes and character twists, it's the quiet insertion of Jessica Capshaw as plucky/hardcore pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins that made us forgive the show for all its mistakes.

8. "THE OFFICE" It took a Niagara-swept elopement and magical cast-inclusive wedding dance to do what years of tedious, dual-action camera-smirking had made impossible: "The Office" wedding made us care about Jim and Pam again.

7. "PROJECT RUNWAY" Tim Gunn's momentary breakdown into spitting madness at Bryant Park was the perfect description - and antidote - to a lackluster, frustrating season.

6. "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" While we love nothing more than Coach Eric and Tami Taylor snuggling happily at work or home, it's Eric's firing and move to new underdog high school East Dillon that could power the series for years to come.

5. "LOST" While there are surprises and twists galore to be found in each of the show's jam-packed episodes, it was the infinite potential consequences of Juliet's last-minute detonation of Jughead the Nuke that has us dying for the final season's premiere next month.

4. "HOUSE" A two-hour season opener that managed to realistically sew together the shattered parts of the show's grumpy protagonist was as satisfying, and perhaps more shocking, than the game-changing moment in which Chase makes the fateful decision to murder an evil patient.

3. "GLEE" It was an unheard-of strategy, airing the pilot after the "American Idol" finale in May and keeping it online all the way through to the fall premieres. Even more surprising? It worked. Excitement was at a fever pitch when the show bowed to great acclaim.

2. "MAD MEN" While the indelibly shocking lawn mower incident hooked us, it was the season's finale - in which Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce opened up shop, Betty left Don and Joan got her groove back - that moved us with its unexpected optimism.

1. MTV VMA'S Say what you will about the unbalanced genius, but Kayne's trampling, bizarre fit at the VMA's put spark to Taylor Swift's best year ever, introducing her to a wider audience and a million opportunities to shine.