It’s a long way to Harlan County.

Sixteen years ago, Timothy Olyphant, who we love/know best as the badass hat-wearing Marshal Raylan Givens on “Justified,” made his first TV appearance in the short-lived CBS series, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” The show starred Maria Bello and Scott “Fourth Best Star Trek Captain” Bakula as two secret agents who posed as a married couple. Olyphant appears in the pilot episode, as Scooby, Bakula’s assistant.

So many candlesticks next to so many bookshelves were pulled before we found the secret place in the Internet where this clip was hidden, but it’s totally worth it to see a soul-patched Raylan (and not a cool soul patch, like the one he rocked on “Deadwood”) wearing a Ying-and-Yang fish shirt. Did we mention his name’s Scooby?
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As good as its surprising first season was, “Justified” entered rarefied heights in its second season, earning critical acclaim (a well deserved Emmy for Margo Martindale, plus nominations for Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins) as well as fanboy huffing here at Warming Glow, where all of the show’s trappings — a shoot-first protagonist, complex characters, femmes fatales, bourbon, snappy one-liners, and noir undertones — appeal equally to our intellectual proclivities and baser instincts. Entering Season 3, my primary concern was whether “Justified” would match Season 2′s quality and join “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” as a terrific show that grows from year to year, or regress to mere testosterone thrills, as its FX mate “Sons of Anarchy” did after its own stellar second season. After viewing the first four episodes of Season 3, I’m happy to say that the former is very much the case: “Justified” is still one of the best shows on television.

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Season three of “Justified” kicks off next week on the FX Network, and it’s the best drama the winter schedule has to offer. It’s a show that has managed to make Timothy Olyphant the star he always deserved to be and significantly raise the profile of several of Hollywood’s best character actors, many of whom have been toiling away in bit parts for decades. It’s clear that showrunner Graham Yost — who also wrote for “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” — has a keen appreciation for underappreciated acting talent.

Before the season kicks off, I thought we’d take a closer look at many of the show’s fine cast members. Before we do, however, here are a few interesting tidbits on the show itself: It’s set in Kentucky, but it’s filmed in California (although, the pilot episode was filmed in Western Pennsylvania). Timothy Olyphant’s character, Raylan Givens, is based on a character from two Elmore Leonard novels, Pronto and Riding the Rap. Leonard also wrote a short story centered on Givens, “Fire in the Hole,” which became the basis for the pilot episode of “Justified.” In fact, “Fire in the Hole” was the first working title of the show; at one point, it was also called “Lawman” before they settled on the title they have now. Oh, and the brilliant theme song comes from a group of musicians called Gangstagrass, which combine bluegrass and rap. This is the long version of the song.

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For years, HBO was the king of the promo. Their between-seasons trailers for “The Sopranos” and, in particular, “Six Feet Under” were a thing of beauty. I still occasionally watch the Nina Simone-scored promo for season four of “SFU”; it said everything you needed to know about the show in less than three minutes. Namely, DEATH IS EVERYWHERE.

But call 911, because someone’s committed regicide: FX has slain the king. Their promos have become increasingly awesome over the past couple of years, and they’ve outdone themselves with the teasers for season three of “Justified,” which premieres on January 17, 2012. The newest one’s got angry Boyd! Angrier Raylan! People crashing through glass! Um, Subway! It’s pretty great. View it after the jump, as well as the trailer for season six of “30 Rock,” featuring a WNBA booty-shaking Liz and Kelsey Grammer.

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FX has announced the January premiere dates for “Justified” and “Archer,” AKA “Why I Watch Television.” Circle these dates on your calendar: Tuesday, January 17th for “Justified” and Thursday the 19th for “Archer,” which will be paired with the new animated comedy “Unsupervised.”

[It] was created by “Sunny” writers Rob Rosell, Scott Marder and David Hornsby, and has a voice cast including Justin Long, Kristen Bell, Fred Armisen, Romany Malco, Kaitlin Olson and Alexa Vega, along with Rosell and Hornsby themselves. The show is about a pair of teenage best friends, Gary and Joel, trying to do the right thing with no parental supervision. [HitFix]

I can take or leave this new show. Right now I’m kind of mad that it’s distracting me from the point: people, we are a mere MONTH AND A HALF away from new seasons of “Justified” and “Archer”! That’s thirteen fresh episodes of Timothy Olyphant’s wry smile and H. Jon Benjamin’s deadpan delivery — UHHHH, I mean braless Natalie Zea and Lana Kane in her knockoff Fiaccis because I like girls! IS SHE A SEXY CARTOON OR WHAT?