It’s impossible to evaluate television’s 2004 offerings without taking into account one of the best television episodes of the year: the Christmas edition of “All My Children,” in which the residents of Pine Valley annually gather to pretend to celebrate the joyful tidings of the holidays while continuing to despise one another. Acts of deception and violence were, as always, put on hold for one brief afternoon, as Erica and Jack and Bianca and Stuart and J.R. exchanged presents and dirty looks. It was a hoot, and belongs more squarely in the comic tradition than anything on TV’s most overrated show, “Desperate Housewives” – which has taken to representing itself as a comedy to cover up the astonishing lack of drama in ABC’s Sunday night smash hit.