A most devout fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Sarah Michelle Gellar herself, even I was a little surprised and confused by her inclusion in Entertainment Weekly and TV Land’s co-production of “The 50 Greatest TV Icons.” Surely… there have to be some more, um, established folks who belong in the top tier. Then I read on and realized that Sarah is hardly overstepping her bounds. This top 50 is plagued with more than a handful of randos.

Calista Flockhart, Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker and Heather Locklear? These all seem like premature and arbitrary mentions in my humble opinion - especially with Locklear outranking Regis Philbin - but lists of this sort are anything but perfect. Also, this was something of a public poll, and who am I to question the democratic process? One watcher’s Sex & the City is another (clearly superior) watcher’s Buffy.

The actual rankings might seem a little far-fetched, but the list does include all of the usual suspects as well. Bill Cosby, Mary Tyler Moore, Lucille Ball and Oprah Winfrey all grace the top ten, and Johnny Carson comes in at number one - exactly where he belongs. TV Land is airing a two-hour special tonight (8-10PM) to count them down and get some icon-on-icon commentary (like Kelly fawning over Regis below). The candid interviews with Kermit the Frog (#21) are reason enough to check it out - as long as one of your tuners is set to Friday Night Lights.