In the course of writing Pop Rocks, I'm often exposed to information so horrific, so atrocious, so...repugnant it defies human comprehension. I first stumbled upon this particular tidbit several months ago, but only now has my sanity recovered from the eldritch horror of it all:

There is about a month before the premiere of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" season 6. To tide fans over the show's return, E! has debuted a trailer for the reality series. There is no big drama in the preview since all the girls are featured in good mood.

Season 6? How in the name of Norman Lear can we have endured six seasons of television revolving around a family whose sole claims to fame are being the progeny of the guy who helped O.J. Simpson get away with murder and filming themselves having sex?

Oh, who am I kidding? None of this is shocking anymore, but just because I like to stoke the fires of misplaced outrage (let's all get irate about an E! show while our federal education budget is slashed), here are a few superior programs that never enjoyed the Kardashians' TV success.

My So-Called Life (1 season) -- I'm employing empirical standards for "good," since I loathed this show like only someone forced to relive his adolescence a scant four years after it was over. Critics seemed to like it, though. Heh, what do they know?

And what's with the angsty blond kid? Lose the white boy 'fro, Art Garfunkel: it's 1994!

Star Trek (The Original Series) (3 seasons) -- They didn't even get a five-year mission, and I never got to practice my own personal form of pon farr.

Any Joss Whedon series not called Buffy: The Buffy Slayer -- A crying shame for Firefly, not so much for Dollhouse. Even the inexplicably popular Angel only made it five seasons, leaving David Boreanaz free to pursue forensics.