Shows from non-network sources spread, as zombies forage and Heisenberg fades out

Original, buzzworthy scripted dramas turned up in some of the most unexpected places in 2013.

A&E (“Bates Motel”). Sundance Channel (“Rectify”). Even NBC (“The Blacklist”).

Some of the best TV, though, wasn’t even technically TV. Netflix rolled out “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black,” along with new episodes of “Arrested Development.”

Along those lines, Amazon unveiled its first original series with the John Goodman-led “Alpha House.” Xbox announced it will debut its own original shows in 2014. Heck, we’re probably no more than a decade away from the first Emmy-nominated series produced specifically for your refrigerator.

Locally, KSNV-TV, Channel 3 began getting out of the entertainment business by dumping “Days of Our Lives,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” in favor of local news. KTUD-TV, Channel 25, meanwhile, got out of the business altogether by signing off for good.

A&E’s “Bad Ink,” featuring the hijinks of local punk-rock mainstays Dirk Vermin and Rob Ruckus, and Syfy’s body-painting series “Naked Vegas” joined the crowded field of Las Vegas-based workplace reality shows.

After 26 years with the Metropolitan Police Department, Yolanda McClary took her forensic skills to TNT, where she helped secure indictments in small-town murders in “Cold Justice.”

Steven Soderbergh and Michael Douglas brought Liberace back to life, although likely not in the way many of his fans may have hoped, as he was shown frequenting porn shops and making his young lover (Matt Damon) undergo cosmetic surgery to look like him, then trying to adopt him, in HBO’s Emmy-dominating “Behind the Candelabra.”

Caesars Palace was part of a season-long story arc on Showtime’s “House of Lies.”

The Ralph Lamb drama “Vegas” limped off into the sunset, as did TLC’s catfight-friendly “Sin City Rules,” the final three episodes of which were banished to the channel’s website.

And, after 10 years in late-night TV, Clark High School graduate Jimmy Kimmel finally moved up to 11:35 p.m. to go head-to-head with his boyhood hero, David Letterman, and his adulthood nemesis, Jay Leno, and helped contribute to the latter’s second retirement from “The Tonight Show.”

Outside the valley, 2013 was a “Sharknado” world, and everything else was just living in it.

“Breaking Bad” fans bid an emotional farewell to Walt, Jesse, Skyler, baby Holly and Walt Jr. (or Flynn, or whatever he was calling himself that week) with a run of eight episodes that cemented its status as one of TV’s all-time greats.

The final vestiges of NBC’s Thursday-night greatness faded to black with the end of “The Office” and “30 Rock.” The demise of “CSI: NY” left the Vegas-based original as the final piece of the once dominant CBS franchise. And with its finale, “Dexter” murdered any residual good will felt by viewers.

AMC’s “The Killing” came back from cancellation in June, was canceled again in September, then was simultaneously revived a second time and canceled a third time in November when Netflix announced it would release a final season in 2014.

Viewers also said goodbye to “Army Wives,” “The Big C,” “Eastbound and Down,” “Fringe,” “Futurama,” “The Glades,” “Happy Endings,” “Hoarders,” “Intervention,” “Private Practice,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Southland” and “Spartacus.”

And “Smash” was finally smushed.

“The Walking Dead” continued to be the biggest thing on cable not governed by Roger Goodell. Although even its zombies would be a good bet to cover the spread against the Texans.

Foreigners came back from the dead on Sundance Channel’s classy “The Returned” and BBC America’s inspired “In the Flesh.”

BBC America also was home to Tatiana Maslany — who burst onto the scene, portraying seven clones and giving each of them distinct looks and personalities, in “Orphan Black” — and the powerful “Broadchurch,” which turned out to be what “The Killing” could have, and probably should have, been.

Showtime’s new “Masters of Sex” was either the year’s nakedest drama or its most superbly acted softcore porno.

“How I Met Your Mother” finally revealed the mother and began its long, slow slog to its series finale.

With “Under the Dome,” CBS brought back the miniseries — now known as the “event series” — with huge results. Then it went and ruined everything by renewing it for next summer and delaying its inevitably disappointing resolution.

Speaking of events, NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!” defied both expectations and logic by attracting more than 18 million viewers, many of whom were left asking, “How do you solve a problem like Carrie Underwood?”

They bookended an awful fall lineup of new network series, with “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” squandering ABC’s best opportunity in years, and only NBC’s “The Blacklist” and Fox’s gonzo “Sleepy Hollow” truly standing out.

In other oddities, Discovery stranded pairs of strangers in remote locations for 21 days without food, water or clothes in “Naked and Afraid.”

Paula Deen, “Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson and seemingly half the houseguests on CBS’ “Big Brother” partied like it was 1959 with incendiary comments about race, sexuality or both.

And by losing all control of her tongue, sexually assaulting a foam finger and twerking on everything in sight at MTV’s Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus enraged parents and watchdog groups throughout the nation.

On the plus side, she now holds the patent for whatever’s the exact opposite of Viagra.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.