So I had eight out of ten in the top ten, had Columbo in the right rank, had the Fonz and Homer in the right order, and had the top three but in the wrong order.
I can see the argument for putting Archie first, because the show was so groundbreaking. On the other hand, considering “I Love Lucy” essentially invented the format now used for filming sitcoms, had Lucy married to her real life husband over the strenuous objections of the network executives (who wanted a different actor), and featured the first pregnancy and delivery on sitcoms, I think we’ve come to take for granted just how groundbreaking “I Love Lucy” was. And the Honeymooners was…what? Forty nine episodes? It’s a sprinter versus a marathon runner. So I still think my top three was better.
However, let us consider something…
Greatest character of all time was an unrelenting bigot. Greatest character number two was a perpetual loser who constantly threatened to beat his wife. Number three had no job and lived only to try and horn in on her husband’s career.
If you tried to bring any of these characters to life now? Wouldn’t even get a pick up for a script. The fact that the characters had immense shadings and were lovable at the core wouldn’t enter into it. Especially Archie. An unrelenting bigot on a comedy using the language he does? On a drama, yes (see: Sipowitz). But a sitcom? uh uh.
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I’ll sign the petition for the Scarecrow as well! I was terribly upset when Disney pulled last August’s release. I’m just afraid when it does come out it will be the 95 minute movie version and not the entire story. Ideally I would like it to be one of those “Vault Disney” productions, with the Disney intros and interviews. Patrick McGoohan said in an interview once that the three best things he did in his career were THE PRISONER, THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA, and SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH, so perhaps he’d spring for an interview.
Here’s an interesting Lucy story I just heard–in the 50s she was accussed of being a Commie, so Desi went on stage before their show and said something like, “we hate the Commies, they drove me out of Cuba; the only thing red about Lucy is her hair–and that’s fake!” All in all, I thought that was pretty clever, especially for someone not known for his mastery of the English language.
And now, my own Top 5 TV characters I presume have been ignored by everyone else, in no particular order:
1. Gordon Jump as the “Different Strokes” pedophile. (“See me/feel me/touch me/heal me.”)
2. Dr. Peter White from “St. Elsewhere.” (First his character becomes a rapist, then ends up going to hëll. Now THERE’S a character arc!)
3. Anabisi (sp?) from “Oz.” (How DID he get that little pez hat to stay on his head, anyway?)
4. Sunny Steelgrave from “Wiseguy.” (“Knights in White Satin, never reaching the end…”)
5. Johnny Slash from “Square Pegs.” (Because he looked so dámņ cool. Plus. He. Was. The. Son. Of. James. Tiberius. Kirk.)
Remember, Archie was based on Alf Garnett, a character who had vehicles going well into the nineties. Before the writer dies, they were going to have an A Grandchild For Alf, with the grandchild from Till Death Do Us Part turning out to be the Prime Minister (in real life, the actor who played Alf’s son-in-law, is Cherie Blair’s father).
But comedy bigots and misanthropes continue. Whether that’s Hank Kingsley or Larry David in the US, or David Brent or Alan Patridge in the UK. Britcoms have generally starred unlikeable characters – which generally makes them far more loveable in the long term.
And in 2005, Charlie Brooker’s fictitious TV programme “ÇÙNT” from TVGoHome is being made into a real TV show by Chris Morris – currently called Box Of Slice.