By TIM GOODMAN, San Francisco Chronicle

The entire point of remakes is that there are no good ideas on television anymore. No, wait, scratch that. The entire point is that by feeding you something you might be familiar with -- and perhaps liked the first time around or in reruns -- it'll be that much easier to sell it to you again without all the explaining.

There's just no question that keeping up with television these days requires either a computer or smart phone with automatic reminders or some kind of assistant who will come to your house, program your DVR ("I believe 'Breaking Bad' is running long tonight, sir.") and gently remind you that roughly eight series have started up on cable as you're reading this.

Three series left the air permanently this week, leaving behind lessons on how to succeed (or not) in the industry and how the landscape of television was changed -- and is changing still -- because of their runs.

On Monday, the broadcast networks will announce their schedules for next season and, in the process, prove that they're running out of ideas and will have to learn the hard way about history.

As much glorious, giddy fun as it was to mock and deride NBC executives recently over their late-night wars -- a finger-pointing, cover-your-mouth giggle fest that even other networks participated in -- let's not forget that they are not the only boneheads on the block.

Everything we know we learned from television:

-- Most wince-inducing holiday-themed headline ever: "Jon and Kate will reunite for Christmas."

They got it mostly right, they made it better than the year before, it wasn't nearly as boring as past shows and Neil Patrick Harris acquitted himself nicely at Sunday night's 61st Annual Prime-time Emmys. So, in honor of small miracles, the griping will be kept to a minimum.

Here's a random rundown of moments from the night:

As a recent column pointed out, there's more than enough television brilliance boxed in DVD sets to keep you from ever having to watch in real time. Or pay for cable.
It's the new, economy-fueled, savvy-viewer paradigm shift in television.
With that in mind, here's another list of excellent, commercial-free television waiting for you to rent or own on DVD:

Are you broke and can't afford HBO? No problem. Tired of watching network television because just when you fall in love with a show it gets canceled -- before the writers are allowed to end it properly? No problem.
Just don't watch. Or watch in a different way.

One of the strangest television seasons in recent memory is heading into the final stretch, at least in theory. In practice, there are only calendar years, not seasons, so now we can retire the term for good.