Interactive Fall TV Preview

For more than a dozen years, I’ve been offering helpful hints on what to watch and avoid every fall TV season (nailed it recommending 30 Rock and Chuck, less so slagging off Big Bang Theory and a couple of little shows called Ugly Betty and King of Queens).

Creative example of e-learning quizzes and activities.

View the interactive quiz

Faces to Watch – Interactive Video

Seeing History in ‘Mad Men’

The AMC period drama “Mad Men,” which returns for its fourth season on July 25, has consistently woven episodes around actual historical events. Matthew Weiner, the series creator, has said that he wanted to take a classic 1950s archetype, embodied by the character Don Draper, through the upheaval of the 1960s and into the early 1970s. Below, a look at the historical context of the series and at events that could shape it as it progresses.

View the interactive timeline

‘Lost’: A Character Gallery

“Lost” has never been an easy show to decode, but it upped the befuddlement factor even further in its final season. It killed off and resurrected characters, divided them among a constantly changing array of coalitions and added an entirely separate timeline, populated with different versions of the same people, set in Los Angeles. Below, a primer on who’s currently where, and how they got there, as the series nears its end.

View the interactive photo slideshow

War on Terror: Bush v. Bauer

Against the real-life backdrop of global terrorist attacks, the TV thriller “24,” which premiered in November 2001, built a huge fan base with special agent Jack BAuer, who is willing to do anything to defend his country. After viewership fell off in the sixth season, teh show is struggling to reinvent itself — and wrest itself from ties to an unpopular presidency — as the public tires of the war in Iraq and torture as a theme.

View the interactive video graphic

*Videos no longer load in this example but enough of the project remains to follow the design model.