In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been having a bit of a Mad Men week around here in celebration of season five premiering this Sunday, March 25 at 9pm. In honor of this momentous, head-swimmingly alcoholic occasion, we wanted to celebrate by having a drink with some of our other favorite television characters. Not just any drink, though. We composed a roundup of their preferred alcoholic beverages. It’s the polite thing to do, right? See what bottles of booze you should be bringing to this TV party past the break, and let us know what characters and libations you’d add to the list below.

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Spotted by Super Punch, these clever (if perhaps, not entirely original) LEGO print advertisements by German agency Jung Von Matt are like a guessing game of sorts. Click through to see if you’re able to correctly identify some of your favorite cartoon characters when they’re presented in extremely minimalist minifig-form.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend, folks! What are your plans for the holiday? Will you join in on the Guinness-fueled debauchery, or will you channel Liz Lemon and hibernate until the streets are no longer seas of green? To get ourselves in the St. Patty’s Day spirit, we’ve decided to take film and TV leprechauns and rank ‘em from worst to best — because, well, what’s more Irish and debaucherous than a good ol’ fashioned leprechaun? Since it’s tough to fairly rate the effectiveness of a folkloric creature that’s prone to varying descriptions, we’re evaluating these tiny gold-hoarders with their most popular classification in mind — small, mischievous cobblers who store their gold in pots at the end of rainbows. Cool? Cool. Kick back, pour yourself a big bowl of Lucky Charms, and enjoy as we rank us some leprechauns.

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Gossip Girl is going to China. No, it’s not what you think — Blair isn’t marrying into Chinese money, Serena is not becoming an Asian pop star, and Dan’s book is not being translated into Mandarin. As unlikely as the idea seems, the creators of Gossip Girl truly are collaborating with a Chinese production company on an adaptation of the show, which Deadline notes is popular online viewing in the PRC. This odd news got us thinking about other unlikely, cool, and plain bizarre foreign adaptations of American TV shows. We’ve rounded up a few that we wish we could watch; add your favorites in the comments.

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There are pretty much no rules when it comes to cartoon character names. So, if you had the exciting opportunity to name one, where would you look for inspiration? Your favorite weird friends? Your favorite politicians? Your favorite songs? Every now and then, we’ll come across a well-known cartoon’s truly peculiar background story. Really, who would’ve thought that Scooby-Doo would be the direct result of a Frank Sinatra song? Check out the fun inspirations behind ten cartoon character names after the jump, and hit the comments to let us know about the others that you’ve discovered over the years.

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1. Radiohead have added a slew of new dates to their current North American tour. Find the full schedule here.

2. What do you think of Bob Staake’s cheeky, Seamus the Irish setter-inspired New Yorker cover image of Mitt Romney carting around Rick Santorum in a dog house strapped to the roof of the car? [via Politico]

3. A moody new trailer for Season 2 of Game of Thrones — which is set to Florence + the Machine’s “Seven Devils” — was released over the weekend. While it doesn’t contain a lot of new footage, it will make you anxious for the April 1st premiere date to arrive.

4. In related news, did you happen to catch last night’s epic Game of Thrones-themed couch gag on The Simpsons? Does this mean that Mr. Burns = Joffrey, because we’d totally agree with that.

5. Ralph McQuarrie, the legendary Star Wars concept artist and an Oscar winner for his visual effects work on Cocoon, has died at the age of 82 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s. Read George Lucas’ eulogy for his friend here. [via Inside Movies]

Bonus Buzz: A Collection Of Beautiful Clouds

Yesterday brought us George R.R. Martin fans a little gift: some exciting new footage from the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. But with the premiere still over a month away, we thought you could probably use something more to hold you over until the new episodes begin and winter finally comes. Like Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation claimed, the show really is a “crossover hit,” and appearing in dozens of hilarious online mash-ups with other pop-culture genres and franchises. We’ve compiled some of the best for diehard fans after the jump. If you found one that we missed, let us know in the comments!

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1. Hooray! Stephen Colbert will resume taping his show tonight after taking some time off last week to reportedly care for his 91-year-old mother. “My family and I would like to thank everyone who has offered their thoughts and prayers,” he tweeted to fans. “We are grateful and touched by your concern.” [via ArtsBeat]

2. Even though she doesn’t have any current projects to promote, Lindsay Lohan will be hosting Saturday Night Live on March 3rd; apparently she reached out to Lorne Michaels directly to book the gig, which we’re assuming is an attempt at some much-need image rehab. [via PopWatch]

3. Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds’ Training-Day­-meets-Bourne action flick Safe House duked it out with Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum’s sappy memory-loss romance The Vow for the top spot of the Presidents’ Day weekend box office; in fact, at this point it’s still too close to call. Meanwhile, sitting pretty in third place: Nicolas Cage’s sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which made $22 million. [via Moviefone]

4. Fans of Community and Doctor Who will be thrilled to hear that there’s really going to be an Inspector Spacetime web series; the only question is when the first webisode of the parody show within the show will air. [via io9]

5. Alexander Payne, Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (The Descendants), and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) scored the major wins at last night’s Writers Guild of America Awards; view the full list of winners here.

Bonus Buzz: ‘The Simpsons’ Ended Its 500th Episode With This Plea To Viewers

Think about the last time that The Simpsons made headlines for something other than ugly salary negotiations — it was that Banksy-helmed opening credit sequence back in 2010. Perhaps in an effort to recapture some of that art world relevancy, the Fox animated series plans to bring on Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal for a March 4th episode that’s cleverly titled “Exit Though the Kwik-E-Mart.”

“The story line is great,” writes Fairey on his website,” and they were kind enough to indulge a couple of my dialogue suggestions designed to make the social commentary more pointed (even though I had to make fun of myself to do so).” It sounds like this could actually be interesting. Will you be tuning in? [via Culture Monster]

Last week IFC announced that Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein would be releasing Portlandia: A Guide for Visitors this November. It’s the perfect idea for a show in which the town itself is such an important character; a more perfect vision of Portland, with a cool mayor, 100% employment, and hipster customs that seem more like local law – especially bicycle rights. And this guidebook might be our chance to find out where Ronald D. Moore of Battlestar Galactica fame lives so that we can visit him ourselves. Inspired by the news, we’ve been thinking about some other fictional TV towns that we wouldn’t mind visiting, even those without a decent Feminist Bookstore. Leave any of your favorites that we missed in the comments!

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