I’m often frightened by just how much of America watches CBS’s relentless lineup of crime procedural dramas, but this fact was particularly startling to me: Pauley Perrette, who plays goth lab tech Abby in “NCIS,” has a Q score that ties Morgan Freeman’s and Tom Hanks’s as the highest in the country.

Marketing Evaluations, Inc., The Q Scores Company, has just released its January/February 2010 Performer Q study, which asked a representative sample of 1,800 children, teens, and adults to rate the familiarity and appeal of personalities. The surprising results: Perennial favorite Tom Hanks’ Q Score is now tied with Morgan Freeman’s and NCIS‘ Pauley Perrette’s — which means even though Perrette is roughly half as well-known as Hanks and Freeman, those who are familiar with her adore her. She’s the only female in the Top 10. [PopWatch]

Now, I’m not saying Perrette isn’t likable. But the most likable? The only female in a top ten populated by film icons like Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Depp, and Harrison Ford is a television actress who plays a supporting role? Someone put Julia Roberts on suicide watch.

“The Electric Company” was a children’s television show from the 1970s that continued airing re-runs well into the ’80s (which explains why I vaguely remember it). But I never realized that the show featured Morgan Freeman, Bill Cosby, and Rita Moreno (Anita in the film version of West Side Story).

Anyway, here’s video of Freeman rockin’ with the letter “G” — sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s soft, baby. That’s right, before he was Hollywood’s go-to septuagenarian granddaughter-humper of gravitas, he was just a groovy hippie in a tasseled vest and peach bellbottoms dancin’ with a white woman to improve reading skills. The ’70s were a crazy time, man. Vote Nixon!

[Funny or Die - thanks, WWSM]