I’m a fan of Biden’s, more or less. (Here’s my unsolicited advice on 2016, Joe: Don’t do it!) But that may have been the only time anyone ever described “Will & Grace” as educational, and Biden is engaging in a classic Democratic Party, pro-Hollywood fence-straddle here on the effects of culture. A popular and vaguely liberal sitcom gets credit for driving social change in a positive direction, but violent media bears no responsibility for real-life violent crime. (Conservatives are at least more consistent, if also more consistently wrongheaded: Pop culture has pernicious effects all the way around, and is turning us all into slutty divorced gay mass murderers.) No, the two things are not parallel, and the general point the veep was struggling to make is valid. But “Will & Grace” marks only one minor milestone in TV’s 30-odd-year struggle with representations of sexual identity, during which the box has served both as an agent and a mirror of social change.

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1. He originally wanted to be a pediatrician:

" 'I love babies and children and would fake ailments so my mother would take me to the doctor,' he said to laughter, later revealing that his woes in math and science led him to rethink his early game plan. That later evolved to a love of musicals in high school, where he had roles in multiple productions -- prompting him to explore attending film school. When that didn't work out -- he said he was accepted but that his parents' income was more than would have allowed him to secure a scholarship and yet not enough to afford the tuition -- he turned to journalism."

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And now that dreaded night has arrived: The last episode airs tonight, and before it does, we'd like to share the hilarious fantasies of how our favorite TV sitcom wraps up:

Patton Oswalt, stand-up comedian, actor and author of "Zombie Spaceship Wasteland." 

What happens in the last episode of "30 Rock"?  Easy.  Jack and Liz get together.  That’s what it says here in the script they sent me.  I play the minister who marries them in the final scene.  Wait, am I not supposed to be revealing this?

Rachel Shukert, author of the forthcoming novel "Starstruck":

My fantasy is that Tina Fey will break the fourth wall during the "30 Rock" series finale and tell us that the last year has been a total fake-out and the show isn’t ending at all. But this seems unlikely. Still, it feels only appropriate for a show so unabashedly about the glories (and failures) of television itself to take inspiration from the great series finales of the past. So here goes.

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The "Glee" track, from Season 4, below:

Indeed, the song bears an uncanny resemblance to Coulton's 2005 release, posted on YouTube via user Enzemo:

Salon has reached out to Fox via email and is waiting to hear back.

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1. Great moments in product placement ("great" moments): On “Parenthood,” cancer-stricken Kristina (Monica Potter) recorded a video for her children so the "Parenthood" audience could cry more. Her husband, Adam, watched said video on his Mac, which got major pride of place. A crowded Apple dock was visible for most of it and Adam very notably used the volume button as he settled in to watch. Macs, with volume functionality! Also the perfect computer to use when assembling your “If I die, know that I loved you” speech!

2. For a change this week, "Modern Family" decided to put the shrewish, dream-crushing shoe on Phil, not Claire Dunphy. Claire wanted to buy a house to flip it, Phil thought it was too risky, but didn't want to be the one to say no, and had to go through all sorts of contortions to play the part Claire usually plays. It was a nice role reversal — Oh, look, Phil can be an adult sometimes! — and one that suggests "Modern Family" doesn't always have to make Claire the shrew to structurally work.

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Last week, I was watching another of executive producer Ryan Murphy's shows, "The New Normal." In this particular episode, gay couple Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha) found out the gender of the baby that was growing in the belly of their surrogate, Goldie (Georgia King). It was sweet and funny, with the level of story, character development and the usual flourishes Murphy imbues on all of his shows.

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From “Nashville” 

“Nashville” has been full of great music, but it’s the duets that have been mesmerizing, more effectively distilling and tracking the characters’ changing emotions than any dialogue. The three best: the first episode’s “If I Didn’t Know Better,” which presaged the inevitable Gunnar-Scarlett puppy-dog love story; the Deacon-Rayna duet “No One Will Ever Love You,” a bit of singing that’s emotionally tantamount to adultery; and Rayna and Juliette’s how-could-I-really-hate-you-when-singing-with-you-is-so-much-fun peace treaty, “Wrong Song.”

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So when Kate Hudson appeared in the first episode of “Glee’s” fourth season — appearing in the very first shot of that first episode, in fact —  I almost turned it off. In the three months since I’d last experienced “Glee’s” casual cruelty, plot incoherence and self-satisfied yet perfunctory treatment of serious issues, my frustrations had mellowed. But, oh dear God, here was another famous person. Well, I apologize to Kate Hudson for dismissing her so quickly. She can’t really sing, but is the best thing to happen to “Glee” since at least Gwyneth Paltrow. (That's not an insult.)

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This week, those tireless warriors against "the filth … the entertainment media are throwing at our children," a misleadingly named group called One Million Moms, did precisely the expected thing: They issued a scathing indictment of a new TV show their organization has not even seen. But the mere premise of the upcoming NBC comedy "The New Normal," about a gay couple and the surrogate who's having their baby, was enough to send them into paroxysms about the "openly gay Ryan Murphy's" latest venture. (Murphy also created "Glee" and "American Horror Show.")

"NBC is using public airwaves to continue to subject families to the decay of morals and values, and the sanctity of marriage in attempting to redefine marriage," they declared. "These things are harmful to our society, and this program is damaging to our culture ... NBC's 'The New Normal' is attempting to desensitize America and our children. It is the opposite of how families are designed and created. You cannot recreate the biological wheel."

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On Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor," Bill O'Reilly grappled with the terrible, terrible paradox that while "Glee" may have some merits, it also sends the message "that alternative lifestyles for children may be positive." And then, oh no, he showed a clip of the character Unique performing a KC and the Sunshine Band song in a dress and heels. O'Reilly, who is terribly concerned that America's youth "might go out and experiment with this stuff," next welcomed Carlson, along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, for an old-fashioned round of pearl-clutching. "Here we go again," said Carlson, "pandering to .3 percent of the American population that consider themselves transgender. Now I get to explain this to my 8-year-old, if I just wanted to watch a nice family show with some nice music?"

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You got the feeling the whole thing was built around a product endorsement, in this case “Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour,” which was mentioned twice and just happens to open in the U.S. right around the time next week’s “Glee” rolls around.

Part of the problem was the lily-white cast. This might be central Ohio, but can we believe there are no African-American males at William McKinley High School? Even when the singing group from the competing private school is on-screen, the only black male face is in the background.

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OK, actually, I should qualify that -- the middle section was brilliant. The wraparound stuff was the "Glee" usual: silly, pandering and dull. During the final number -- "Do They Know It's Christmas," set in a soup kitchen that no doubt was populated by the children of "Glee" cast and crew -- even the actors seemed bored, except for Jane Lynch, whose Coach Sylvester was acknowledging the first anniversary of her sister's death. (Tear cup.) But OH MY GOD IF YOU COULD HAVE SEEN THAT MIDDLE SECTION, DIARY! Presented in black-and-white, it perfectly re-created the set, the tone and even the camera moves of "The Judy Garland Show" Christmas special from 1963, but with a cultural flash forward/flashback quality, presenting a patchwork quilt vision of America that wouldn't have gotten past the network censors four decades ago.

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That's a trick question. Midway through its third season there's little that's necessary about "Glee," save for the underused Chris Colfer's performance as out gay teenager Kurt Hummel, the even more severely underused Mike O'Malley's performance as his dad, one out of every five musical numbers, and Sue Sylvester's surreal rants, which Jane Lynch sells even when the writing is just sassy word salad. And even those compensatory values aren't enough to make me watch each week. After a long and increasingly desperate infatuation with this musical comedy soap -- which repeatedly threatened to be astonishing and sometimes delivered, only to settle for cheerfully incoherent inanity at least 80 percent of the time -- I've relegated it to the second tier of my DVR, which consists of shows that I skip for weeks at a time, then catch up on in one dutiful burst. I doubt I would have watched this installment in real time if my 14-year-old daughter hadn't reminded me that it promised to deliver big moments this week. Her reactions were more entertaining than the show. She contrived reasons to leave the room whenever nooky threatened to break out, and ended up watching the parts she'd skipped while I was in the next room writing this recap. "If you were 14, would you want to watch this episode with your dad?" she asked later. Hell, no. I vividly recall being in the same tiny house with my mom while she watched "The Postman Always Rings Twice" on cable with the sound cranked way up, but only because my therapist dug that repressed memory out through hypnosis and primal scream therapy.

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The season premiere of Fox's comedy/drama/musical series -- aka the most infuriating show on TV -- had me wondering. It wasn't mind-bogglingly bad, as "Glee" so often is, nor was it genuinely inventive and passionate, as the series also often is. It was just ... How to put this? Is there an emoticon signifying a weary sigh leavened by the faint stirrings of hope? There isn't? Bummer.

It's a new school year. All the familiar faces are back, except for sinewy blond Sam Evans, who was last seen threatening to add some much-needed pep to the series by dating the plus-size African-American Mercedes. In a throwaway bit, we learn that Sam "moved away" over the summer, and now Mercedes has a plus-size African-American boyfriend. (Too bad; a relationship between Sam and Mercedes would have been groundbreaking for all sorts of reasons.) Will Schuester is back to teaching music at McKinley High after giving up on his dream of being a Broadway star (the fellow who replaced him won a Tony) and is trying to recruit new glee club members via the Purple Piano Project. The latter places a bunch of donated upright pianos (painted by Will) throughout the school, the better to encourage the teens to show off their talent by bursting into song. (They needed so much help doing that. Good going, Will!)

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Last week, Shields posted a new series of photos he'd shot of a primly ponytailed Morris on his website, along with the note that "Even Barbie bruises." In the pictures, the doll-like beauty appears made up with a whopper of a black eye, gets tied up with the electrical cord of an iron, lounges playfully on an ironing board and, in one shot, turns the tables and brandishes the appliance at the crotch of the photographer himself. It's certainly a far cry from the usual hot chick in her underwear tableaux you might expect from a shoot featuring one of the stars of a hit TV show. But does it make abuse look sexy?

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2. S'Paz of the day: "Empire Boardwalk's" Paz de la Huerta got more than a slap on the wrist for her bar brawl back in April. Though prosecutors were going to let her off on the condition she enter an alcohol treatment program and do a couple of days of community service, Judge Diana Boyar said Paz had to be evaluated by a rehab facility before she signed off on the deal.

3. "Friday" of the day: Grantland has compiled an oral history of "Friday Night Lights'" successes -- and failures -- throughout the years.

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These changes shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. "Glee" could never really figure out what to do with Chord's character -- the blond bass-mouth who looked like a more wholesome Culkin brother -- but Criss stole the show last season as the confident, preppy Blaine. His covers of "Teenage Dream" and "Hey, Soul Sister" brought new life to the overplayed Katy Perry and Train songs.

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1. Justin Bieber and Tiffani Thiessen have a creepy crush on each other: As evidenced by the shirts the two wore to Canada's MuchMusic Video Awards, bearing each other's faces. Bieber was born one year after "Saved by the Bell" went off the air.

2. James Blunt's blunder: Put a photo of himself on Facebook in front of a historical building near Auschwitz, then claimed it was his "hotel in Poland."

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