All the season's best, and worstBy Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
In reality, it was not the season the networks imagined.
Drunk with the success of Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the networks loaded the fall 2001 TV schedule with reality/game shows. The result was the collapse of the genre, done in by excess and by a post-9/11 embrace of community that made the genre's squabbling and back-stabbing seem unacceptably out of sync. That means, I suppose, the midseason success of NBC's loathsomely mean-spirited Fear Factor can be taken as a sign of the return to normalcy.
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[b:2f0446b6bb] Best single episode: Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Musical (UPN). While it wasn't Buffy 's best season, the show did produce the year's best single hour, a brilliantly audacious original musical, with book, music and lyrics by Joss Whedon. You want a good barometer of whether there's any hope of the academy shaking its stodgy ways?
Watch to see if Whedon gets nominated.[/b:2f0446b6bb]
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Best proof that kids can be a blessing: The young cast of Once and Again (ABC). The award goes to the young stars, who allowed the show to explore areas that would have been impossible with less gifted actors. And an honorable mention to Blue 's Austin Majors as Theo, who retains his title as the most adorable child on TV.