{"id":10148,"date":"2006-08-23T19:29:11","date_gmt":"2006-08-24T02:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/08\/23\/the-no-win-25-favorite-tv-characters-list.html"},"modified":"2013-06-04T15:19:45","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T21:19:45","slug":"the_no_win_25_f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/23\/the_no_win_25_f.html","title":{"rendered":"The No-Win 25 Favorite TV Characters List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Doyce<\/a>, or maybe KTBuffy<\/a>, the List o’ 25 Favorite TV Characters.<\/p>\n

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 …<\/p>\n

The following is no particular order except where they occured to me.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \nLt. Commander Montgomery Scott<\/strong> (James Doohan). The Lord of the Geeks. Second banana on Star Trek<\/em>, 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.\n<\/li>\n
  2. \nLaura Petrie<\/strong> (Mary Tyler Moore). Loving wife, great housekeeper, dancer, and more-than-adequate domestic foil for Dick Van Dyke on his eponymous show.<\/li>\n
  3. \nLondo Mollari <\/strong>(Peter Jurassik). Buffoon, monster, good guy, bad guy, the tragi-comic centerpiece of Babylon 5<\/em>. (Honorable mention to his Serpent, the inimitable Mister Morden.)<\/li>\n
  4. \nThe Doctor<\/strong> (Chris Eccleston, Tom Baker, John Pertwee, et al.). ‘Nuff said.<\/li>\n
  5. \nNumber 6<\/strong> (Patrick McGoohan). The Prisoner<\/em> sometimes went from surreality to incoherence, but the iron-willed prisoner of conscience and independence was a faboo character.<\/li>\n
  6. \nDoctor Miguelito Loveless<\/strong> (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<\/em> foes.<\/li>\n
  7. \nDoctor Mark Craig<\/strong> (William Daniels). Best (or most accurate) portrayal of a heart surgeon evah<\/em>. (St. Elsewhere<\/em>)<\/li>\n
  8. \nRobert McCall<\/strong> (Edward Woodward). The trying-to-atone spy-in-from-the-cold on The Equalizer<\/em>. Classy, clever, and deadly.<\/li>\n
  9. \nShepherd Book<\/strong> (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<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  10. \nThe Riddler<\/strong> (Frank Gorshin). The one Batman<\/em> 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).<\/li>\n
  11. \nColumbo<\/strong> (Peter Falk). Still — and ostensibly doltish — waters run deep. “Oh, just one more question …”<\/li>\n
  12. \nBrother Cadfael<\/strong> (Derek Jacobi). Yeah, originally a book character, but a splendid rendition of the monkish detective.<\/li>\n
  13. \nHarley Quinn<\/strong> (Arleen Sorkin). How can a character (even a cartoon one, on Batman: The Animated Series<\/em>) be so naive, pitiful, zany, and psychopathic?\n<\/li>\n
  14. \nBen Stone<\/strong> (Michael Moriarty). Sure, Jack McCoy’s been on Law & Order<\/em> longer, but Stone tops my list of DA’s I would not<\/em> 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.<\/li>\n
  15. \nSteve Taylor<\/strong> (Jack Davenport). Amidst nuanced extremes, Steve’s first-among-equals protagonist on Coupling<\/em> manages to ground the series in reality without being a stick in the mud.<\/li>\n
  16. \nCommander Adama<\/strong> (James Edward Olmos). Manages to be the down-to-earth, reliable, moral paterfamilias of Battlestar Galactica<\/em> 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.<\/li>\n
  17. \nCarl Kolchak<\/strong> (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.\n<\/li>\n
  18. \nLisa Simpson<\/strong> (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.<\/li>\n
  19. \nMrs. Emma Peel<\/strong> (Diana Rigg). Classy, clever, lethal, and a real dish in a leather catsuit (The Avengers<\/em>).<\/li>\n
  20. \nThe Narrator<\/strong> (Rod Serling). Voice of God or … whatever. He had all the best lines on The Twilight Zone<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  21. \nXena<\/strong> (Lucy Lawless). As kick-ass as Hercules without being all namby-pamby nice about it. Swords, redemption, and bad mythology — triffic stuff.<\/li>\n
  22. \nRupert Giles<\/strong> (Anthony Head). Human, earnest, intelligent, and regularly outgunned and outsmarted by Buffy<\/em> and the Scooby Gang.<\/li>\n
  23. \nVelma Dinkley<\/strong> (Nicole Jaffe, et al.). Speaking of Scooby<\/em>, the smart one of Mystery, Inc. Yes, I have a thing for smart characters, especially smart women. Got a problem with that?<\/li>\n
  24. \nRace Bannon<\/strong> (Mike Road). CIA agent, world adventurer, crack shot, judo expert, and bodyguard to the son (Jonny Quest<\/em>) of the smartest man on the planet. Oh, and he got to flirt with Jezebel Jade and wear that really cool red shirt.\n<\/li>\n
  25. \nQ<\/strong> (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<\/em> cast.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And that’s (God help me) 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[362,361,360,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-tv-babylon-5","category-media-tv-fireflyserenity","category-media-tv-star-trek","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130636,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/09\/rip-william-schallert.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":0},"title":"RIP, William Schallert","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-May-16 11:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The man had a huge resume in movies and TV. Indeed, it seems there wasn't a TV show of the 50s-70s that he didn't show up in, sometimes multiple times in different characters.For me, he will always be the officious Nilz Baris in the classic Star Trek episode \"The Trouble\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/08\/star-trek-discovery-watch-broadcast-tv.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":1},"title":"“Star Trek: Discovery” — I would watch this. On broadcast TV.","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 8-Oct-17 11:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We got around to watching the Discovery first episode, the one that CBS so graciously posted on their own broadcast network rather than their pay streaming channel. I was the most enthused in the household, and that was only at a \"I would watch more if it were handed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/328711-4-800x4455B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/328711-4-800x4455B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/328711-4-800x4455B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128614,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/05\/everyones-got-must-have-ideas-for-the-next-star-trek.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":2},"title":"Everyone's got "must-have" ideas for the next Star Trek","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Nov-15 8:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Given that so little info was given from the CBS announcement (aside from the zany \"streaming video only\" aspect of its distribution, it's not surprising that everyone's jumping on what the show should be about and, more importantly, what the characters should be like.A lot of that has been (on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128344,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/18\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less-redux.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":3},"title":"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows (kinda-sorta more-or-less) (Redux)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Oct-15 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"So this is based on an article from a Popular Mechanics (!) article on \"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever\" [http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/culture\/movies\/g156\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows]. See here [https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/17\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less.html] for caveats and comments on that list. I've decided to do my own force ranking (thanks +Stan Pedzick), working within the same list (to do otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TV%2BGuide%2BSF.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132038,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/14\/because-star-trek-would-never-ever-work-on-broadcast-tv.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":4},"title":"Because "Star Trek" would never, ever work on broadcast TV","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Nov-16 8:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which is why CBS is doing Star Trek fans a favor by putting the new show on its crappy little pay channel. Thanks, CBS! Despite Current Glut of Successful Scifi Shows, CBS Executive Says New Star Trek Wouldn't Work on TV CBS can eat a bag of dicks. Come on,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131466,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/on-star-treks.html","url_meta":{"origin":10148,"position":5},"title":"On Star Treks","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Sep-16 11:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A 50th Anniversary Analysis:I deeply love, with a nostalgia of childhood and a ritualistic familiarity with every episode and massive chunks of dialog[1], Star Trek, the Original Series. Sure, it has its multitudinous flaws, many of them a result of the general state of late 1960s TV (and network shenanigans),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37156,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10148\/revisions\/37156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}