I have a Panasonic 42" HDTV. I have had it for only 2 years. The power supply died! Thank God I purchased a protection plan. They put in a whole new power supply. I think the problem could have been that the power cord was too short to fit into the surge protector on it's own, I had to buy an extension cord. My question is... What kind of extension cord should I be using for televisions?

I would guess something of a decent quality... not a dollar store extension cord. Buy an extension cord from some place like Best Buy, they would probably offer only high quality extension cords.