Via Doyce, or maybe KTBuffy, the List o’ 25 Favorite TV Characters.
It’s No-Win because — I know as soon as I save it, or someone comments on it, that I’ll think of a dozen more. Dammit. And, then, of course, there are any number of one-off characters from anthology shows, or character actors, whom I simply cannot justify calling my “favorite TV charactrer” in and of themselves. And it would probably be unfair for me to identify more than one person in a given TV series …
The following is no particular order except where they occured to me.
- Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan). The Lord of the Geeks. Second banana on Star Trek, to be sure, but not only did Scotty get a few episodes “of his own,” he had a ton of fun supporting roles as well.
- Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore). Loving wife, great housekeeper, dancer, and more-than-adequate domestic foil for Dick Van Dyke on his eponymous show.
- Londo Mollari (Peter Jurassik). Buffoon, monster, good guy, bad guy, the tragi-comic centerpiece of Babylon 5. (Honorable mention to his Serpent, the inimitable Mister Morden.)
- The Doctor (Chris Eccleston, Tom Baker, John Pertwee, et al.). ‘Nuff said.
- Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). The Prisoner sometimes went from surreality to incoherence, but the iron-willed prisoner of conscience and independence was a faboo character.
- Doctor Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn). If a hero is defined by his villain, Dr. Loveless was the perfect pseudo-Bond villain — a sociopathic mad genius who loved children and fine music and who constantly proved himself a bigger man than his erstwhile Wild Wild West foes.
- Doctor Mark Craig (William Daniels). Best (or most accurate) portrayal of a heart surgeon evah. (St. Elsewhere)
- Robert McCall (Edward Woodward). The trying-to-atone spy-in-from-the-cold on The Equalizer. Classy, clever, and deadly.
- Shepherd Book (Ron Glass). He’s a priest! He’s a philosopher! He’s a pacifist! He’s got a sense of humor! He’s got a secret that makes you pretty certain most of those didn’t used to be the case! A great, understated character from Firefly.
- The Riddler (Frank Gorshin). The one Batman villain one could actually believe was insane. I loved the laugh, I loved the sheer physicality of the (acted) character. (Honorable mention to the many faces of Catwoman).
- Columbo (Peter Falk). Still — and ostensibly doltish — waters run deep. “Oh, just one more question …”
- Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi). Yeah, originally a book character, but a splendid rendition of the monkish detective.
- Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin). How can a character (even a cartoon one, on Batman: The Animated Series) be so naive, pitiful, zany, and psychopathic?
- Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty). Sure, Jack McCoy’s been on Law & Order longer, but Stone tops my list of DA’s I would not want gunning for me. McCoy might cheat, but he’d also eventually admit defeat; Stone would hunt you to the grave in his moral outrage.
- Steve Taylor (Jack Davenport). Amidst nuanced extremes, Steve’s first-among-equals protagonist on Coupling manages to ground the series in reality without being a stick in the mud.
- Commander Adama (James Edward Olmos). Manages to be the down-to-earth, reliable, moral paterfamilias of Battlestar Galactica the fleet — and then turns around and shows that he’s got feet of clay and a pragmatic streak a centon wide. And he does it in an incredibly understated fashion.
- Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin). Half X-Files, half Buffy, with a rumpled suit, shady ethics, a cheap camera, and more unbelieved secrets than you could shake a stick at.
- Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith). For anyone who ever felt that they were surrounded by idiots, Lisa is your patron saint. But she’s not a shrew — she can have fun and play music and be a kid, even as she learns grunting lessons from her mom.
- Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg). Classy, clever, lethal, and a real dish in a leather catsuit (The Avengers).
- The Narrator (Rod Serling). Voice of God or … whatever. He had all the best lines on The Twilight Zone.
- Xena (Lucy Lawless). As kick-ass as Hercules without being all namby-pamby nice about it. Swords, redemption, and bad mythology — triffic stuff.
- Rupert Giles (Anthony Head). Human, earnest, intelligent, and regularly outgunned and outsmarted by Buffy and the Scooby Gang.
- Velma Dinkley (Nicole Jaffe, et al.). Speaking of Scooby, the smart one of Mystery, Inc. Yes, I have a thing for smart characters, especially smart women. Got a problem with that?
- Race Bannon (Mike Road). CIA agent, world adventurer, crack shot, judo expert, and bodyguard to the son (Jonny Quest) of the smartest man on the planet. Oh, and he got to flirt with Jezebel Jade and wear that really cool red shirt.
- Q (John de Lancie). The nigh-omnipotent villain everyone loved to hate, but who was a great foil to the often-too-pompous Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.
And that’s (God help me) 25.
45 view(s)
And BD’s list reminds me of Alfie Bester (Walter Koenig) on B5 (fabulous villain, very intentionally dislikable, but with enough humanity and vulnerability that, at times, you keep finding yourself reevaluating the basis for that dislike).
BD also reminds me of Basil Fawlty (of Fawlty Towers); the entire cast was great, but Cleese’s work as the selfish yet sympathy-inducing high-strung Fawlty was pure comedy gold.
And Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart) was pretty good, too.
BD’s list being here.
Others worth consideration:
Jeeves (Hugh Laurie) in the Jeeves & Wooster series (Stephen Fry’s Bertie Wooster was pretty splendied, too).
Nero Wolfe (Maury Chakin) in A&E’s Nero Wolfe series (Timothy Hutton’s Archie Goodwin was pretty keen, as well.
Caligula (John Hurt), Livia (Sian Phillips), and Augustus (Brian Blessed) in the I, Claudius mini-series (with plenty of kudos for the rest of the cast, too).
All of those were adaptations of literary (and historical) characters, but the actors involved (and the writers and director) made them come alive.
Yep…
I, Claudius was a whos who of the Royal Shakespere truope, so yes, they were all great. And if you had actually included Claudius, you could have had Darek Jacobi on there twice. ;P I still love the scene where Livia is dieing and Claudius drops his act…so wonderful. *glee*
Yes, you have many of the those that where on my short list.
If it had been a list of 50, then I would have had, The Doctor, The Master, Number 6, Emma Peel, Dr. Loveless, Harvey Mudd, Harly Quinn (*sqee*), Hawkgirl, Adama (new series), Xena, Autolycus, Q, Jeeves and Wooster, and most of most of the cast of I, claudius.
Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) – House of Cards. Evil, slimy, perfect.
Ah — Harry Mudd. Oh, yeah! Gotta have him.
“Harcourt!“
(Harvey Mudd is a fairly famous sci/engineering college, part of the Claremont College cluster where I attended, subject of building-naming donations by the founder of my company, and just a plain old funny name. But not the same as Harry Mudd. 🙂
Harry Mudd…right. 🙂
Okay, why does my list look so different from everybody else’s? Heck, even Dave and I only overlapped on 4% of our entries! (And yes, I know I cheated on one of them.)
1. Mr. Spock (Star Trek)
2. Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
3. Garak (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
4. Baltar (Battlestar Galactica) [1978]
5. Dr. Zachary Smith (Lost in Space)
6. Al Calavicci (Quantum Leap)
7. Carl Kolchak (The Night Stalker)
8. Jack Benny (The Jack Benny Show)
9. Granny Clampett (The Beverly Hillbillies)
10. Mr. Haney (Green Acres)
11. Hank Kimball (Green Acres)
12. Buddy Sorrell (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
13. Ted Baxter (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
14. Howard Borden (The Bob Newhart Show)
15. Maxwell Smart (Get Smart)
16. Cpl. Randolph Agarn (F Troop)
17. Mork (Mork and Mindy)
18. Frank Drebin (Police Squad!)
19. Cliff Clavin (Cheers)
20. Phoebe Buffay (Friends)
21. Bullwinkle (Rocky and His Friends)
22. George of the Jungle (George of the Jungle)
23. Super Chicken (George of the Jungle)
24. Dexter (Dexter’s Laboratory)
25. The Justice Friends (Dexter’s Laboratory)
Hard to argue with many of your choices (of the ones I can speak to). I did consider Mr Peabody and Maxwell Smart.
After reviewing Solonor’s list, I’d like to squeeze in …
Higgins (from Magnum, PI — though the titular character is damned fine, too). And Dan Fielding (Night Court).
A slight change in my line-up: Howard Borden is being replaced by Elliot Carlin (same show). If I had more slots, I’d also add Rollin Hand (Mission: Impossible).
I considered M:I, and if I’d gone there, Rollin (Martin Landau) would have been it. BJ Hunnicut (or, as Margie suggested, Sidney) from M*A*S*H would be other candidates. And the inimitable Joe Friday, of course.