Will Alan's jokes about Katharine McPhee starring in "Smash: The Smash Williams Story" live on until 2013? Stay tuned.

Happy almost New Year, everybody! As you know, I took last week off to hang with my family (and eat a disturbing amount of milk chocolate in the wilds of Hershey, PA), but now I'm back to prep for the start of the Television Critics Association winter press tour, which kicks off on Thursday night.

I'll have a quick post on the "Doctor Who" Christmas special up shortly, but first I wanted to link to various TV-related things — some co-written by me, some not — that ran on HitFix in my absence, for anyone who was also away last week but has some time today before 2012 goes away:

* Fienberg and I teamed up for a look at the biggest TV stories of 2012, including NBC's return from the dead, "Homeland" announcing its Emmy presence with authority, the popularity (and backstage tumult) at "The Walking Dead," and more.

* Looking ahead, Dan, Liane and I picked some of the most anticipated TV premieres (both new and returning shows) of 2013.

* Dan picked his 10 least favorite shows of 2012, proving once again that Angry Dan is also Awesome Dan. But he also reminded us that he can write very eloquently about stuff he likes as well with his second 10 best shows of 2012 list.

* While I was in Hershey, we lost two great character actors with extensive TV credits: Jack Klugman and Charles Durning. Klugman was, of course, Oscar Madison (here's Oscar and Felix on "Password") and Quincy, M.E. (and also used that show to help save many lives in the real world, as explained in this terrific Washington Post story), while Durning was a regular on "Evening Shade" and was always fantastic whenever he would pop up on "Rescue Me" as Tommy's dad.

* And creator Bryan Fuller confirmed what we all knew for a long time: NBC won't be going forward with "Mockingbird Lane," after the pilot aired back in October.

Good to be back (though, like the rest of you, I'll be off again tomorrow). Lots to talk about as we enter 2013 — and that's even if I finally take pity on Dan and retire all discussion of Katharine McPhee playing the title role in "Smash: The Smash Williams Story."

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com