Few superheroes have had as many animated incarnations as Spider-Man. Since his first solo series -- appropriately titled Spider-Man -- in 1967, he's headlined seven TV cartoons, some good (the mid '90s Spider-Man, the recently concluded, wildly underrated The Spectacular Spider-Man), some mediocre (the cheesy but fun '80s team-up Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends) and some terrible (MTV's unwatchable CGI version).

Disney Channel's new animated series Gravity Falls introduces us to a bizarre town where instead of freaking out about pimples on date night, teens worry about their dates suddenly turning into cats. Twins Dipper and Mabel Pines get shipped off to live with their Uncle Stan for the summer in (wonderfully named) Gravity Falls, Oregon, where zombies, ghosts, and chainsaw-wielding beavers run amuck.

With ABC Family's summer lineup of teen dramas under way, the romances on shows like Pretty Little Liars get me all nostalgic for some of my past favorite young couples. If one thing hasn't changed since the mid-'90s and early '00s, it's that these soap operas starring teenagers are always filled with intense, over-the-top relationships. So maybe Hanna and Caleb or Spencer and Toby can learn something from these other pairings that fans used to obsess over. (Though when half of the duo is a grown adult who used to be his underage girlfriend's teacher, it might be a bit more tricky... Sorry, Aria and Ezra.)

In a time when the perfectly unhip twentysomething descendants of Daria saturate our TV screens -- c'mon, you just know Girls' Hannah was a fan -- I think it's worth taking a look back at the animated teens and preteens from a decade ago who rarely, if ever, get any recognition for the huge impact they had on a generation of young women. Speaking as a girl who has always been just a little bit too dorky to actually ever be considered "adorkable," and who was actually lucky enough to have had an uncomplicated happy childhood, I found myself gravitating towards the awkward spazzes who just wanted to hang out with their friends and be accepted by the cool kids without giving up everything about themselves. For that reason, these mostly forgotten characters may have been even more influential than Ms. Morgendorffer.

While there are many already-canned shows from the 2011-2012 TV season that we won't miss, Best Friends Forever is decidedly not one of them. The NBC series only seemed to improve from the fairly strong pilot and I think it wrongly got clumped together with the season's gender-obsessed failures like Are You There, Chelsea? and Man Up!, just because it featured two adult female friends and a slightly overwhelmed dude. In reality, BFF was a fun and promising series that deserved a bit more room to breathe. NBC will be burning the last few episodes off next month, so before the network officially puts a pin in it, here's what I'll miss about the show.

As has been repeated ad nauseam at this point, the release of The Avengers this Friday marks the first time that a batch of individual superheroes who aren't already part of an ensemble (like, say, the X-Men) have teamed up on the big screen in a live-action feature. It's a momentous occasion and all, but it's worth pointing out that television has already beaten them to the punch. Within the past few decades, both DC and Marvel have staged small screen crossover events that united some of their biggest heroes. So why aren't these special one-shots as celebrated as The Avengers? Easy... they're all pretty terrible. For the completest and the curious, though, here are the TV team-ups that pre-date Joss Whedon's new blockbuster. (Note: this list covers live-action TV shows only; these crossovers are a far more common event on the many, many Marvel and DC-related animated series out there, which are a revolving door for special guest stars.)

We should probably point out off the top that The Thick of It, the terrific British political satire created by Armando Iannucci -- the mind behind the new HBO comedy Veep -- is not technically cancelled. (It's definitely brilliant, though.) Since airing its first two series of three episodes apiece back in 2005, The Thick of It has returned to the BBC for a series of specials that aired in 2007 and an expanded eight-episode third series which ran in 2009. (BBC America aired the first two seasons stateside in 2006 and will start running the third season on April 28.) Additionally, a fourth season is currently being filmed and will air in the U.K. sometime in the fall.

It's the 25th anniversary of the Fox broadcasting network, a fact they are celebrating this weekend with a big retrospective special. But what are the odds that it will acknowledge one of the biggest mistakes in Fox history: the cancellation of Firefly after eleven episodes (which aired in the wrong order, to boot)? And while the Serenity movie and all of the related books and comics have since helped soften the blow, we still can't help but point out all of the sci-fi/supernatural series that Fox programmers chose to keep on longer than Mal and his crew. Sure some of them were worthy of the support -- but not most of them...

How in the world could anyone make a good movie out of the campy '80s cop series 21 Jump Street? Well, if you're the film's creative brain trust -- a team that includes stars/producers Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller -- your keep the basic premise of the show (undercover cops go back to high school) and change almost anything else. So instead of an earnest procedural where both the cops and teens learn Important Life Lessons, you've got a rollicking buddy action comedy about two guys who get the chance to relive their school days only to discover high school isn't quite how they remember it. The success of 21 Jump Street got us thinking about the best ways to reboot other fondly (and not so fondly) remembered '80s TV shows for the big screen. You're welcome, Hollywood.

I like Smash. I like its energy, I like the ensemble, I like the musical numbers and I like the way the show's writers have concocted a version of Broadway that feels rooted in a recognizable reality, while also allowing for the dramatic conveniences (and contrivances) that come with the territory of primetime network soaps. I also like that the show seems to have found a modest, but decent-sized audience. The premiere attracted 11.8 million viewers and if that number holds or increases in subsequent weeks (and here's hoping it does increase, because the show improves greatly in the coming episodes we've screened), Smash should be with us for a while and could turn on a whole new audience to the pleasure of an evening out at the theater, be it the Great White Way or your local repertory company. If you were one of the 12 million folks that tuned in and liked what you saw, I'd encourage you to check out an even better show about all the blood, sweat and tears (and laughs... don't forget laughs) that go into mounting a theatrical production: Slings & Arrows.