Current and former Garden Staters rocked the boob tube, appearing on everything from reality shows to comedies to game shows. There are several Jerseyans currently dotting the TV landscape, too, including Marlboro's Rob and Esther Kluge and Old Bridge's Nikki O'Connell in NBC's "Momma's Boys," Verona's Ariane Duarte in Bravo's "Top Chef," and Cherry Hill's own J.D. Roth, who is the creator of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and most recently the host of the ABC fall series "Opportunity Knocks."

I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying 2009 won't disappoint us, either: The CW and ABC are first out of the park, with a Cherry Hill contestant in "13" and a Marlboro woman trying to tempt "The Bachelor," respectively.

So let's take a look at my Top 10 Jersey-terrific TV moments of 2008, shall we? First, though, an honorable mention goes to two people: Kendall Park's Al LaGratta, who won the final Showcase Showdown as a "Price is Right" contestant in an episode earlier this month, and "American Gladiators" contestant Jesus "Jay" Martinez, a Perth Amboy police officer who battled the Gauntlet in an episode in May.

OK, now on to the Top 10:

10

Rutgers represented, and this time it wasn't the football team that got all the face time.

Members of the Rutgers Dance Team formed a group called Sass x7 and competed on the second season of MTV's "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew." While they didn't make it to the finals, Sass x7 was psyched to be the only all-female team left standing in the competition, which aired in June.

The young women were handpicked by coach Christine Zoffinger, who was approached by MTV about the show. Jersey team members included Madeleine Camacho of South Brunswick, Lindsay Ritter of Sayreville, Felicia Rembert of Colonia, Amanda Cilento of Dunellen and Dominique Conti of Paramus.

"Even though (the show is) dominated by mostly boys, we belong here and we can show that we're just as good as they are," Ritter said.

9

Don't mess with an "American Gladiator." That's the lesson a robber on a NJ Transit train learned one night after targeting the wrong victim — South Amboy resident Jamie Kovac.

Kovac, who was selected to be one of 12 gladiators — nickname: Fury — in NBC's update of the popular '80s show earlier this year, tore off after the criminal who grabbed her purse.

"All I could think of was that my video camera (which held her audition footage for the show) was in there, and I couldn't afford to lose that," she said.

"I ran off the train after him," she explained. "Down the platform, down two flights of stairs . . . Down the street, like a block and a half. By this point, I was really angry, and I was screaming at him that he better be able to outrun me, because I was going to catch him."

Even if you haven't heard this story before, you can guess how it ends: Kovac got her bag — and the video — back. And the rest is "American Gladiator" history.

8

It always is heartwarming when a reality-show contestant blossoms before your eyes — and it's even better when she's a Jersey girl.

Lauren Utter, a Monroe native, was a gawky 6-foot-1-inch beauty with a flare for expletives on the 10th cycle of The CW's "America's Next Top Model."

"I've never dressed up or worn makeup. . . . I don't even know how to put makeup on," Utter confessed. "I grew up in a biker family. My mom (Monroe's Karen Utter) is a biker chick. She never did it, so I never did it."

But that didn't stop host Tyra Banks from seeing potential in her; Utter ultimately was the eighth contestant — out of 14 — to go. That was a huge boost for her ego.

"I learned that I can take pretty damn good pictures," she said. "I never took a photo like that in my life."

7

Lea Rannells credits a dream for her modeling career.

"It's going to sound strange, but I had a dream . . . that somebody told me that my mission was to go get into modeling, and it was going to help me do great things," Rannells recalled. " . . . I got signed by an agency (the next) day."

Her pursuit of modeling soon led to her being selected as a model in the fourth season of the hit Bravo show "Project Runway." Over the course of the season, the 5-foot-10-inch Bridgewater beauty frequently was the first model picked by the designers, and she became good friends with "Runway" winner Christian Siriano. The pair worked together on the Hershey's challenge, in which Siriano created a dress made out of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrappers.

"He sewed me in it pretty much," Rannells said. "Because if you tried to pull the dress up from the bottom, it would rip. And if you sat down, it would rip."

6

Fuse's "Redemption Song" went to a place no other show has gone before: It featured not one, not two, but three Jerseyans competing for a record deal with Geffen.

Somerville's Esther Canata, Plainsboro's Elisa Schwartz and Old Bridge/Toms River's Jazmin Conte might have rough-and-tumble pasts, but they belted out songs like there was no tomorrow. Although Schwartz and Canata didn't last very long, Conte's powerful pipes guaranteed her a spot in the final three.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win the record deal. But based on all of their performances, there's no question that we'll be seeing — and hearing — more from them in the near future.

5

Jersey residents always have known the Garden State is full of ghoulishly good ghost stories — and now the rest of the country knows it, too.

Sci Fi's popular series "Ghost Hunters" conducted investigations at Perth Amboy's Proprietary House and the Red Mill Museum in Clinton earlier this year. The episode, which aired in June, showed The Atlantic Paranormal Society team — including Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson and Steve Gonsalves — poking around the mill and the former residence of Royal Governor William Franklin in search of spirits.

At the mill, things perked up considerably when Wilson felt repeated tugging on his pant leg. The phenomena was attributed to the ghost of a little girl believed to haunt the building. Wilson also was the recipient of some ear-flicking at the Proprietary House — though there were no sightings of the little boy in blue. Drat.

4

It takes guts to invite British chef Gordon Ramsay into your kitchen — especially when you know he's going to verbally berate you on an episode of Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares."

But the owners of Hannah & Mason's in Cranbury bit the bullet in an episode that aired in November. The shoot — which took place over four days in February — proved disruptive and grated on the nerves of not only customers but the restaurant's owners, Christopher Posner and Brian Kelly.

And while Ramsay might have switched up the menu and altered the decor, Kelly and Posner chose not to permanently adopt any of his changes.

"The blue paint stuck," Kelly said. "That stuck really good. We weren't going to go repaint the restaurant."

3

We all know by now that Central Jerseyans provide endless fodder for reality TV. But it's rare that someone actually scores an entire TV series. Such is the case with New Brunswick native Lloyd Boston, who will host "Closet Cases" on the Fine Living Network in early 2009.

The fashion correspondent for "Today" — who's covered New York Fashion Week for years — will offer advice to the clothes-challenged, including his own mother, Lynell Kollar. The episode, which features Kollar and wraps up the series' first season, was taped in October at Kollar's North Brunswick home and Bloomingdale's in Bridgewater Commons.

"It took her (my mom) years to let go and just listen to my advice," Boston said. "She's got a great body, great hair and a great face. But she doesn't use it as often as I think she should."

2

Who knew an animated hooker named Debbie would prove so fortuitous? Steve Dildarian sure didn't. The East Brunswick native's animated short, "Angry Unpaid Hooker," was more or less done as a joke.

"It was really just as a lark," Dildarian explained. "When other people started to take it seriously and say, 'Wow, that's great!' I would kind of look at them and say, 'Really, you think it's great?'"

After a bidding war between networks, HBO won the rights to "The Life & Times of Tim," a show based around the "Hooker" short. Dildarian serves as creator, writer and executive producer. The show wrapped up its first season in November.

1

The top spot belongs to Edison native Michelle Moore, who became the first $1 million winner in 26 years on "Wheel of Fortune."

What's truly shocking is that the 24-year-old newlywed florist from Santa Monica, Calif., somehow kept her huge win a secret from friends and family for two whole months.

"The show taped 8/8/08," she explained. "Even more interesting is that we (husband Donald and I) had gotten engaged on 7/7/07. Everyone's like, 'What's going to happen on 9/9/09?' I'm like, 'I have no idea, but I can't wait.'"

Neither can I. Happy holidays!