The vampire mania seemed to have exploded during the recent years, especially with the mega success of the Twilight Saga. Everywhere you look, there will always be something about vampires and ladies falling in love with them. The entertainment industry has been raking in a lot of profit from creating, producing and releasing books, television shows and films out of the legendary mythical creatures. If you are fond of vampires and you are a die-hard romantic, you might love this TV series entitled, “The Vampire Diaries”. This show airs Thursday nights at 8pm in the US and it is based on the books written by L.J. Smith.

Fans of the show came up with their top five reasons on loving The Vampire Diaries.

1. Good writing of the story – Viewers claim that the show is well-written and the story gets even better every week. It is an interesting blend of horror, action, suspense and romance.
2. Good story itself - It boasts of a little bit of everything to keep viewers hooked to it.
3. There’s Paul Wesley - The male lead in the show is sizzling hot, and viewers can’t help but to admire him and maybe, drool while watching him.
4. Ian Somerhalder’s presence - Another very attractive young man to watch out for in the television series aside from the male lead character.
5. The conflict - Ian Somerhalder constantly stirs up trouble for the characters Elena and Stefan (Paul Wesley) and his character Damon, attacks the townspeople and feed on their blood.

Vampire Diaries has instantly become a hot commodity in Hollywood. And although competition amongst tv series in the US is getting tighter and tighter as long as the writers keep coming up with great stories to tell people will surely keep watching the show. The success of TVD can be compared to a newly launched adt home security device since it is still hot people will rave about it. The secret to keeping the interest of viewers is a good script, interesting characters and a superb plot — which all possessed by this series.

The Battlestar Galactica was the creation of Glen Larson. The BG franchise started with a television series in 1978, and then later superseded with a short TV series in the 1980s. Original novels, comic books, board game, book adaptations and video games followed right after. In December 2003, a remake of the American series was aired. It started with a two-part and three-hour miniseries created by David Eicka nd Ronald D. Moore. This later on paved the way for a weekly TV series that was able to run for four seasons, from 2004 to 2009. Caprica, a prequel TV series to the Battlestar Galactica, was aired in 2010. The second prequel series entitled “Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome”, is currently in production and is set to air sometime this year (2012).

Storyline and Plot

All the productions of Battlestar Galactica shared the exact same premise: in a distant galaxy, human civilization dwells on a group of planets collectively known as the Twelve Colonies. The humans have migrated from Kobol, their ancestral home world. For decades, the 12 colonies battled it out with the cybernetic race, which was called as the Cylons—whose goal is to annihilate the human race.

The new Battlestar Galactica television series was co-funded by Sky Television from the United Kingdom. It premiered on Sky1 satellite channel in UK in October 2004. In January 2005, the series was aired in North America on the Sci-Fi Channel.

A Closer Look on Battlestar Galactica – The TV Series

The new series continued where the 2003 miniseries left off. The main cast returned to their roles and at the same time, a number of new characters were introduced. Richard Hatch, who was given the role of Captain Apollo in the 1970 version of the Battlestar Galactica TV series appeared in a few episodes as a former political terrorist named Tom Zarek, who becomes part of the new colonial government in the latter part.

On 9th of January in 2005, NBC aired an edited version of the first miniseries just five days before the premiere of the new series on the Sci-Fi channel. The network also aired three selected episodes from the first season to publicize the show in advance. The show ran for about 4 seasons in which the second season had to be divided into two which was screened a few months apart. The fourth season was also divided into two with a seven-month break in between because of the strike of the Writers Guild in 2007 to 2008.

Battlestar Galactica has garnered critical acclaim among mainstream publications and it was hailed as the best show on television in the year 2005.

On September 24, 2007, the pilot episode of The Big Bang Theory was aired on CBS. This is an American sitcom brought into life by Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre. Prady and Lorre are also the executive producers of the show, with the addition of Steven Molaro. The three men are also the head writers of this funny sitcom.

Setting, Cast, and Plot

The television series is set in Pasadena , California and focuses on five characters—Leonard Hofstadter (an experimental physicist), and his roommate Sheldon Cooper who is a smarty-pants, theoretical physicist. These two geniuses are roomies working at the California Institute of Technology. Leonard and Sheldon are joined by:

• Penny – an aspiring actress and a blonde waitress;
• Howard Wolowitz – an MIT aerospace engineer with no PhD; and
• Rajesh Koothrappali, an astrophysicist working at CalTech.

The four guys’ intellect and geekiness are contracted with Penny’s comical common sense and social skills. Supporting characters that  later became a part of the main cast include:

• Bernadette Rostenkowski – a doctoral candidate in microbiology and a part-time waitress together with Penny (also playing the role of Howard’s love interest);
•  Amy Farrah Fowler – a neurobiologist with a personality similar to Sheldon Cooper

Recognition

The Big Bang Theory is produced by Chuck Lorre Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The sitcom garnered the TCA best comedy series award, while Jim Parsons took home an individual performance award in August 2009. The following year, the show bagged a couple more awards including the ‘People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedy‘. Parsons, meanwhile, was highly acclaimed for his great and outstanding performance in the comedy series. He bagged numerous awards from different award giving bodies, like the prestigious Emmy Award, and another one from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Parsons popularity was boosted because of the show, mainly due to his excellent performance as Sheldon Cooper, an obsessive-compulsive smart-ass, who never fails to make the audience laugh with his silly (but smart) remarks.

Reception

The sitcom’s third season was aired on September 21, 2009 and it ranked as CBS’ highest-rated show that evening for the adults demographic (18-40 years old) and with the series-high 12.83 million viewers. CBS announced that they would be moving the show’s schedule on Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010-2011 schedule on May 19, 2010. The television network also announced on January 12, 2011 that The Big Bang Theory had been renewed and extended for another three years. This means that the show will run through the 2013-2014 season. Its fifth season was aired on September 22, 2011 in its usual time slot.