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.
PAD
• 
Now you’ve got me wondering… do you consider this a good or a bad thing?
– Z
And, of course, another of the greatest characters (Homer) is a boorish, insensitive, borderline alcoholic and functionally retarded bøøb, and also the patriarch of a nuclear family. No *way* you could get that past network execs.
Oh, and The Honeymooners was 39 episodes I believe.
I still get a charge out of the memory of my 9th grade English teacher showing episodes of the show in class and me dying of laughter while the other 20 plus kids sat their with a “Cletus the Slack Jaw yokel” look on their face. They didn’t get it!
More’s the pity.
But way cool news about Archie Bunker! Maybe this news will spur the company that has the rights to the show to get more of the seasons out on DVD. ONly the first 3 are available at the moment.
“First…address the ball…”
“He-llooo ball!”
Oh, I think it’s definitely a bad thing. It indicates how humorless we’ve come about the exact things that we should be laughing at. Nothing defuses the potency of bullies or bigotry by laughter. Instead we take it so seriously that we say, “You shouldn’t be talking about it, and we shouldn’t be seeing anybody talking about it!” Which just worsens the situation rather than improve it.
PAD
Two words: Eric Cartman.
(Well, you didn’t *say* it had to be a network show, did you…?)
Peter:
Lucy was pregnant with her second child Desi Arnaz, Junior during the series. The first, her daughter Lucille, was born between the original pilot episode and the regular series. But Lucy was not far enough along at that point to even know she was pregnant yet when they filmed the pilot.
Agree with you about the groundbreaking issues, but I wonder if it would not have been better to list the Top 100 as the most MEMORABLE instead.
Oh, I think it’s definitely a bad thing. It indicates how humorless we’ve come about the exact things that we should be laughing at. Nothing defuses the potency of bullies or bigotry by laughter. Instead we take it so seriously that we say, “You shouldn’t be talking about it, and we shouldn’t be seeing anybody talking about it!” Which just worsens the situation rather than improve it.
PAD
Just to add to that, is it just me or did the show start to WAY down hill when Archie started “mellowing out”.
I’ve only seen the show in reruns, so I’m not exactly sure what season it was, but from a veiwer’s piont I view I know that at some point they drop the bigot angle of his character
and all of a sudden “All in the Family” becomes just another sitcom.
Here, for the record, are my Top Ten:
(In No Particular Order)
1.) J. R. Ewing
2. ) Fonzie
3.) Spike (From Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
4.) Captain Sisko
5.) Michael Logan ( From “Law and Order”)
6.) Lilly (“I’ll Fly Away”)
7.) Archie Bunker
8.) Fonzie
9.) Faith
10.) Jack McCoy (“Law and Order”)
PAD,
I agree with you 100%. It was “Entertainment Weekly”, I believe, who did a recent “Flashback” to the episode when “Maude” found out she was pregnant and there was a very powerful episode concerning that, and they then stated, the where she decided to have an abortion would almost certainly not make it onto the airwaves today.
We really need to loosen up as a nation.
Mr. D, I don’t think it’s the public at large that would have trouble with these politically-correct characters. I think it’s the executives at these massive media conglomerates who have the trouble. The smaller a company is, the more willing it is to take risks or try different approaches. But there are no small companies in television these days.
The execs who approve programs want to be “company players,” they don’t want to rock anyone’s boat, and they don’t want to stand out. It’s the one standout in the crowd that gets fired first. So they do their best to avoid shows with characters that might be the slightest bit individualistic.
I expected Lucy over Archie. I guess there’s still a glass ceiling 🙂
The thing I’ve noticed about shows like this typically are heavily geared towards current pop-culture at the expense of classics. This one didn’t do too badly, but does anyone think Monk would be on a list like this 10 years from now? You can see it some in placement, too. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen an epsiode of “Leave it to Beaver”, but he’s more memorable and more in our culture – even in jest – than some of the higher characters on the list.
Glaring omissions: The Brady family, Charlie Townsend.
You should spend more time at the race track, Peter, with picks like that!
Mark L: Actually, “Mork and Mindy” debuted in 1978, 26 years ago. I’d say the character has stood the test of time pretty well.
There’s definitely a “glass ceiling”, in that far more interesting parts get written for men than for women. Only about a quarter of the list is women. (I also note that out of the over 100 characters listed, seven are black, one is Hispanic, and the rest are white, but that’s another discussion.)
(I had to look up Charlie Townsend. *snicker* That’s a good one.)
Anyway, here’s my list of “characters I like that didn’t make the list”. Some I do think should have made it, some I’m less sure of, and the list is in no particular order, so you’ll have to guess which is which.
Spike (“Buffy” and “Angel”)
G’Kar (“Babylon 5”)
Londo Mollari (“Babylon 5”)
Susan Ivanova (“Babylon 5”)
C.J. Craig (“The West Wing”)
Arnie Becker (“L.A. Law”)
Douglas Wambaugh (“Picket Fences”)
Judge Henry Bone (“Picket Fences”)
The Clampetts (“Beverly Hillbillies”)
Lorelai Gilmore (“The Gilmore Girls”)
Latka Gravas (“Taxi”)
Frank Furillo (“Hill Street Blues”)
Max Klinger (“M*A*S*H*”)
Ann Romano (“One Day at a Time”)
Frank McPike (“Wiseguy”)
Les Nessman (“WKRP in Cincinnati”)
Quark (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”)
Right there with you re: Les Nesman
“Mark L: Actually, “Mork and Mindy” debuted in 1978, 26 years ago. I’d say the character has stood the test of time pretty well.”
Actually, he wrote Monk. I assume he meant the title character played by Tony Shalhoub from the USA network show.
And if I’m right, the fact that you experienced that confusion proves his point…. 🙂
You are right Pack. I meant Monk (#99), not Mork (#60). Mork should be on the list.
Mark Berstein, how could you have forgotten Charlie? 🙂
The Bravo site still isn’t listing anything above #21. Anyone here care to post the top twenty for those of us who don’t get ‘Bravo’, please?
As a brit I find it hard to be impressed with Archie Bunker, since he is an americanized copy of Alf Garnett from the british sitcom “Till Death Do Us Part”. The original never fell into the trap of making the protagonist in any way loveable or sympathetic.
PAD:
I promise I don’t disagree with you just to be doing it, but have you forgotten the D.L. Hughley show from a couple of years back? Granted, Daryl Hughley wasn’t nearly as bigoted as Archie Bunker, but basically the concept was there. They even added a lesbian neighbor of Oriental persuasion for him pit against him.
I’m pretty sure that LOTS of the characters I loved as a kid would not make these days. For example:
DR. SMITH– From murdering commie traitor rat to mincing nancy-boy, this guy, Will, and the Robot were the only reasons to watch, until you hit puberty and discovered Judy’s special charms. Made Charles Nelson Reiley look like a lumberjack.
ROGER “RACE” BANNON- Pretty much the Bizarro World Dr. Smith. Murdering racist xenophobe but otherwise all around man’s man and positive role model for our motherless youth. Not terribly far removed from the parody version on THE VENTURE BROTHERS.
SGT SCHULTZ- Made it possible to love Nazis again. Wow, is there ANY show on TV that would have a harder time getting greenlit today than HOGAN’S HEROES???
MARINE BOY- Take everything that is terminally uncool about the Filmation Aquaman and fix it and you have Marine Boy. Rocket boots? Check! Oxygen gum? Check! His best friend is a mermaid? Check! Marine Boy seemed exactly like what a kid would have come up with if told to create a series called Marine Boy
KOLCHAK- Yes, it was the all time worst victim of the Smallville Kryptonite Mutant of the Week Syndrome. By the time they were cancelled they had plum run out of monsters. Had they gone to a second season they would have had to really reach out for ideas–maybe they would have had one of those amazing creatures from Indonesian movies like MYSTICS IN BALI which features a girl whose head detaches from her body and flies around. Big whoop you say. Oh, did I mention that HER SPINAL COLUMN AND MOST OF HER INTERNAL ORGANS REMAIN ATTACHED??? Yeah, wait till your kids try drugs, then slip THIS into the VCR. THAT’LL scare them straight, straight into the home for emotionally disturbed youth.
“Mr. D, I don’t think it’s the public at large that would have trouble with these politically-correct characters. I think it’s the executives at these massive media conglomerates who have the trouble.”
Well, yes, they’re the trouble in the sense that they would redflag it, but the public reaction is what they’re concerned over.
I think they’re reluctant to green light the next show that’s going to be targeted by pressure groups who object to a show’s existence and develop campaigns pressuring sponsors into dropping their sponssorship.
PAD
PAD I think we can still get edgy characters on
And, even though he’s a recent character, I still think Jack Bauer should have been included. He chopped someone’s freakin hand off!
I just wonder why they grouped some characters together, like the Friends cast, Seinfeld cast (am I the only person in America who hated that show?), Gomez and Mortica, while others they split like Kirk and Spock, Norton and Kramden or Edith and Archie? It’s not like they needed to pad the list (no pun intended).
Pack: OK, I definitely need new glasses. Thanks for pointing out the error. As it happens, I’m a fan of “Monk”, and of Tony Shaloub, and my guess is that he’d have a pretty good chance of being on such a list ten years from now. Adrian Monk is a truly original character, wonderfully played.
PAD I think we can still get edgy characters on cable TV. Sorry I was doing 900 things at once when I was writing this and just hit post. Ðámņ multitasking.
I just wonder why they grouped some characters together, like the Friends cast, Seinfeld cast (am I the only person in America who hated that show?), Gomez and Mortica, while others they split like Kirk and Spock, Norton and Kramden or Edith and Archie? It’s not like they needed to pad the list (no pun intended).
All you have to do is look at “Joey” to answer why the cast of Friends was listed together. Same thing with Seinfeld. None of these characters, while interesting in a group setting, could hold a show on their own. Both Jason Alexander and Julia Dreyfus from Seinfeld have had two shows each, and neither have caught on.
I finally remembered who Eleanor Frutt is, and who Gil Grissom and what’s-her-name are, but I still don’t know who Charles Townsend is, or Artie, or Ðìçk Solomon, or Vic Mackey. Lt. Castillo? Was he the boss from “Miami Vice”?
Are any of them really greater than, say, Captain Kangaroo or Lassie? Sam McCloud or Lt. Peter Clifford? Siegfried Farnon?
Was Dr. Johnny Fever really all that great a “character”? Or Benson? What about Richard Mulligan’s on “Soap,” for Pete’s sake? And how can you have Jimmy Rockford without Angel?
How the bleep did Carrie Bradshaw and Tony Soprano and up so high on the list, and Scully and Mulder (and since when is it Scully and Mulder? Since Gillian Anderson agreed to appear on the show, and David Duchovny didn’t?) end up relatively low at Number 32?
Frank Furillo, Peter? Daniel J. Tavanti couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag.
Sorry. TRavanti.
Yikes! I just scrolled up and realized I included Fonzie twice in my Top Ten.
So I need to include….The Bionic Woman. Before Xena, Buffy, heck, even before Lynda carter’s Wonder Woman, Lindsay Wagner showed a female lead could sustain an action/adventure/sci-fi series as the lead.
Thomas Reed,
“There are no small companies in television these days”
Well, they may not be mom-and-pops, but I think you will find the “smaller” networks, because they have so few affiliates to begin with, and because they appeal to a younger, edgier, more tolerant demographic, they are more willing to take chances with their characters.
The WB, in particular, and UPN also. Compare the lame “controversial” kiss Mariel Hemingway planted on Roseanne that time. Also consider how many sexual situations they actually put Will from “Will and Grace” in. Now, contrast that with Willow on “Buffy”, the “good girl” (the safe stereotype would have been to make Faith a lesbian. Not only did Willow “come out”, but she had a sustained relationship – complete with on-screen kisses and bed scenes – with Tara, then suffered loss, then recovered to form a relationship with Kennedy and have more hot sex.
Re: Doctor Johnny Fever…
Between the “Phone Cops” episode, the sobriety test with Officer Kirk from Happy Days, his place in TV History is secure.
Also loved Frank Bonner as Herb Tarlik, especially for the “Real Families” episode with Peter Marshall and “Herb Tarlik is an all-round fine person.”
Loved Mike Road’s voicing of Roger “Race” Bannon, especially when he shared a kiss with Jade.
Would love to have seen Speed Racer mentioned on the list. That was my favorite cartoon as a kid, along with Underdog and Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The 1960s Spider-Man cartoon with Paul Soles, Peg Dixon, et al were also my favorites, as well as an introduction to the character, and whose voices I hear when I re-read those Silver Age comics.
The George Reeves Superman is another must-have.
For catchphrases, gotta go with Don Adams as Maxwell Smart. Wouldja believe it? Missed it by THAT much!
I agree with “TallestFanEver,” Jack Bauer should have been included, and he is certainly the edgiest character on prime time network TV. That said, I believe Peter’s point was that you could no longer find characters that edgy on sitcoms — dramas have no shortage of edge.
And “Raymond” said:
Charles Townsend is, or Artie, or Ðìçk Solomon, or Vic Mackey. Lt. Castillo? Was he the boss from “Miami Vice”?
Charles Townsend? Don’t see that name on the list. Do you have him confused with Charles Ingalls, Michael Landon’s character from LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE?
Artie is Rip Torn’s character from THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW.
Ðìçk Solomon is John Lithgow’s character from THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN.
Vic Mackey is Michael Chiklis’ brilliant character on THE SHIELD.
And yes, Lt. Castillo was Edward James Olmos’ character on MIAMI VICE.
I cannot believe J.R. Ewing was left off the list, despite appearing as clip art on the show. The most glaring omission of all, in my book.
Incidentally, next week TV Land is airing a similar series — TV’s 100 Most Memorable Moments. Shall we debate that here, as well? 🙂
For those asking who the top 20 were, here goes. The top 10 is from memory so I may havethem slightly out of order.
20. Ed Norton (“The Honeymooners”)
19. Eric Cartman (“South Park”)
18. Roseanne Conner (“Roseanne”)
17. Jim Rockford (“The Rockford Files”)
16. George Jefferson (“The Jeffersons”)
15. J.R. Ewing (“Dallas”)
14. Hawkeye Pierce (“M”A”S”H”)
13. Buffy Summers (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)
12. Edith Bunker (“All in the Family”)
11. Carrie Bradshaw (“Sex and the City”)
10. Tony Soprano (“The Sopranos”)
9. Captain James T. Kirk (“Star Trek”)
8. Mary Richards (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”)
7. Lt. Columbo (“Columbo”)
6. Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli (“Happy Days”)
5. Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes and Cosmo Kramer (“Seinfeld”)
4. Homer Simpson (“The Simpsons”)
3. Lucy Ricardo (“I Love Lucy”)
2. Ralph Kramden (“The Honeymooners”)
1. Archie Bunker (“All in the Family” and “Archie Bunker’s Place”)
I see now that Chales Townsend came up in discussion and not that someone was claiming he was on the list. Charles Townsend was the titular Charlie of CHARLIE’S ANGELS, the never-seen, voice-only character played by John Forsythe.
How about a list of the top never-seen characters? It would have to include Carlton from RHODA, Vera from CHEERS, Maris from FRASIER, and Wilson from HOME IMPROVEMENT, among others.
>>
Jason Alexander and Julia Dreyfus weren’t playing George and Eliane on those other shows, so really your argument doesn’t hold. Until they do a “George” show or a “Eliane” show, (which was reportably discussed at one time) or a Kramer show we have no way of really knowing if any of these characters could support thier own show. I would have never thought that Fraiser, Rhoda or Benson could have supported thier own shows yet they did, for many years. As to what a “George” show might look like, one need only look at Curb Your Enthusism”. It’s long been known that the character of George was based on Larry David and there are scenes and episodes of CYE that would play just as well if it was Jason Alexander playing George as they do with Larry David playing a verson of himself.
// ROGER “RACE” BANNON- Pretty much the Bizarro World Dr. Smith. Murdering racist xenophobe but otherwise all around man’s man and positive role model for our motherless youth. Not terribly far removed from the parody version on THE VENTURE BROTHERS. //
You know I’ve seen all the espisodes of Johnny Quest and I never thought that Race Bannon was a Murdering, racist Xenophobe. Care to cite some examples. Certainly the show was full of cold war attitudes that may look racist, jignostic or xenophobic to todays audiences but so was a lot of show and movies in the 60’s. (including Star Trek, James Bond and the early Marvel Comics). In the context of the time Race’s attitudes were fairly normal, and even looking back at them with a mordern sensiblity the words “murdering, racist, xonophobe” come off pretty harsh. Race was really just an American version of James Bond, (or an earthbound version of James T Kirk), and like those other two characters if his adventures were being told today certain attitudes would have to be ajusted, but probably not as many as you would think.
I don’t find Curb Your Enthusiasm funny. I find it extremely annoying. And I have given it many chances since everyone tells me how great it is (which I liken to the scene in Huckleberry Finn where everyone is too humiliated at being tricked by the Duke’s show to say it was bad, so they tell everyone else to watch it…kind of an Emperor’s New Clothes thing going. Felt the same way about Blair Witch). Anyway, point of the rambling, don’t like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Having said that, I have seen the episoide with Jason Alexander complaining about how annoying and stupid George was, and Larry David doing a slow burn because, well, he WAS George. That was rather amusing. But then I was bored by the next scene.
// 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. //
Hate to point it out to you, but your showing a little bit of TV history ignorance. The Honeymooners were created as skits on the Jackie Gleason show in the 50’s. The classic 39 episodes, that everyone’s seen over and over again, were spun off of the Gleason show but they are hardly the only Honeymooners out there. There were dozens of small skits on the Gleason show before the classic 39. After the Gleason show there was season of music episodes that aren’t seen to much these days. A few years later Gleason had another show and revived the Honeymooners, (with a different actress playing Alice). Carney joined the cast and did weekly Honeymooners skits, (some quite long in lenght), this Gleason show ran for almost a decade. Then in the 70’s the Honeymooners was revived again as a series of specials, (with Gleason and Carney again reviving thier roles, although the wives would be played by multiple actresses). Bottem line Gleason and Carney played Ralph and Norton 100’s of times on TV over 3 decades, hardly a sprinter.
// I don’t find Curb Your Enthusiasm funny. I find it extremely annoying. And I have given it many chances since everyone tells me how great it is (which I liken to the scene in Huckleberry Finn where everyone is too humiliated at being tricked by the Duke’s show to say it was bad, so they tell everyone else to watch it…kind of an Emperor’s New Clothes thing going. Felt the same way about Blair Witch). Anyway, point of the rambling, don’t like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Having said that, I have seen the episoide with Jason Alexander complaining about how annoying and stupid George was, and Larry David doing a slow burn because, well, he WAS George. That was rather amusing. But then I was bored by the next scene. //
Reguardless of whether you like it of not CYE is a somewhat sucessful show and with some tweaking and Jason Alexander could have very well been called “George”. The point being the character of George could of, in all liklyhood, held his own show, using CYE as a model.
“Hate to point it out to you, but your showing a little bit of TV history ignorance. The Honeymooners were created as skits on the Jackie Gleason show in the 50’s. The classic 39 episodes, that everyone’s seen over and over again, were spun off of the Gleason show but they are hardly the only Honeymooners out there. There were dozens of small skits on the Gleason show before the classic 39
First of all, I never understand why people say they “hate to point out” something and then do it anyway. If you wish to claim someone is ignorant, don’t be apologetic about it, just do it (by the way, you meant “you’re,” not “your.” “Your” is the possessive while “you’re” is the contraction of “you are.”)
Second, yes, I was aware of the “Honeymooners” history. In fact, I even knew that the Honeymooners started out, not on “The Jackie Gleason Show,” but on “Cavalcade of Stars,” that Pert Kelton (Marian the Librarian’s mom from “Music Man”)was the original Alice, and that Norton was a cop in those shows. I remember watching those one hour musical specials in the 70s. The only thing I didn’t remember off hand was the exact number of “classic” episodes. On the other hand, even factoring in the sketches and the so-called “lost episodes,” “I Love Lucy” still had far more episodes–and even more beyond that if you admit that Lucy Carmichael was pretty much Lucy Ricardo with Ricky dead and little Ricky several years older.
Furthermore, “I Love Lucy,” by the nature of having so many more episodes, has been syndicated far wider and more frequently than “Honeymooners,” and even after constant wider exposure, is still popular and instantly recognizable. Which makes Lucy Ricardo, to my mind, simply a more impressive accomplishment than Ralph Kramden.
PAD
“You know I’ve seen all the espisodes of Johnny Quest and I never thought that Race Bannon was a Murdering, racist Xenophobe. Care to cite some examples. Certainly the show was full of cold war attitudes that may look racist, jignostic or xenophobic to todays audiences but so was a lot of show and movies in the 60’s. (including Star Trek, James Bond and the early Marvel Comics). In the context of the time Race’s attitudes were fairly normal, and even looking back at them with a mordern sensiblity the words “murdering, racist, xonophobe” come off pretty harsh. Race was really just an American version of James Bond, (or an earthbound version of James T Kirk), and like those other two characters if his adventures were being told today certain attitudes would have to be ajusted, but probably not as many as you would think.”
I was being more or less tongue in cheek. I mean, if I were in his position, with a bunch of machine gun shooting mummy worshipers on Camel back firing at me and my young wards, I’d probably be lobbing grenades at them saying stuff like “Take that, Bedouin Bugs!”
Was he racist? Well, he never seemed to look down on Hadji so there you are (though if he had, the Hadjster might have gone all Sim Sim Salabim on his ášš with his mystic Asian know-how). I seem to recall him speaking disparagingly about the pygmies but who DOESN’T find pygmies funny, unless they are shooting at you with poison blow darts in which case they are not terribly amusing at all.
As for xenophobic, well yeah, but he had good reason to be. Johnny Quest foreigners are always ready to stick one of those curvy knives in your back at the first opportunity, especially that yellow devil Dr Syn.
And he had a cool nickname too. Roger “Race” Bannon. That’s cool. When I worked as a shipping clerk for Chuck Rozanski’s Mile High Comics (Yeah, THERE’S some stories) we would get orders from people with incredibly stupid nicknames who were totally unaware of the fact. Robert “Bob” Dorfman, Peter “Pete” Hardcastle, that sort of thing. Like me walking up to someone and introducing myself as William “Bill” Mulligan. Jeeze! If you’re gonna go through the trouble of a nickname, pick one that people weren’t going to use anyway: Thomas “Tip” O’Neil, George “The Animal” Steele, Paris “Braindead” Hilton.
Sneezy the squid – You’re not the only one. Even my favourite actress (the previously mentioned Maggie Han) wasn’t enough to get me to sit through an entire episode of SEINFELD.
“As for xenophobic, well yeah, but he had good reason to be. Johnny Quest foreigners are always ready to stick one of those curvy knives in your back at the first opportunity, especially that yellow devil Dr Syn.”
Wait a minute, I thought Dr. Syn was the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh…(and why the hëll is THAT not out on DVD? To me one of the best moments in “League of Extraordinary Gentleman” was the visible portrait of the Scarecrow as one of the earlier League members.)
PAD
Just wondering, did any non-human characters make the top one hundred list?
Didn’t someone say the Robot from Lost in Space?
I could point to three I would put right in there,
1. K.I.T.T.
2. The Batmobile
3. Lassie
// Just wondering, did any non-human characters make the top one hundred list?
Didn’t someone say the Robot from Lost in Space?
I could point to three I would put right in there,
1. K.I.T.T.
2. The Batmobile
3. Lassie
//
Lassie should have been in the list. I’m not sure I would consider the Batmobile a character, (hey it’s a cool car but unlike KITT it didn’t talk or have a personality), however if we do consider the Batmobile a character then we must consider the star ship Enterprise a character as well.
\\ First of all, I never understand why people say they “hate to point out” something and then do it anyway. If you wish to claim someone is ignorant, don’t be apologetic about it, just do it \\
It’s one of those things that just seems polite and civil, although thinking about, yeah you’re right it doesn’t make sense. In any event I didn’t mean offence, if any was taken my apoligies.
// and even more beyond that if you admit that Lucy Carmichael was pretty much Lucy Ricardo with Ricky dead and little Ricky several years older. //
It’s been years since I’ve seen the Lucy Show, and my memory may be faulty, but I’m not sure I would go that far. I don’t remember Lucy Carmicheal being as obsessed with getting into show bussiness as Lucy Ricardo was. (I also don’t remember The Lucy Show being as funny as I love Lucy, when you think about it Rickie added a lot). Although thinking about it wouldn’t it have been great if they discovered a lost last episode of the Lucy Show that had her walking up in bed next to Desi, a la the end of Newhart.
\\ Furthermore, “I Love Lucy,” by the nature of having so many more episodes, has been syndicated far wider and more frequently than “Honeymooners,” and even after constant wider exposure, is still popular and instantly recognizable. Which makes Lucy Ricardo, to my mind, simply a more impressive accomplishment than Ralph Kramden. \\
I don’t disagre with you on this, my statement was responding to the impression in your post that the Honeymooners was a one season “Sprint” compared to Lucy’s “marathon.” (An impression I could understand if one wasn’t aware of the characters history before the “Classic 39” and it’s continued history long after it). Simply wasn’t true. If playing the same characters 100’s of times over a 3 decade period isn’t a marathon I don’t know what is. Lucy and company may have had a longer marathon, (I don’t dispute that), but that doesn’t make Ralph and Norton’s run a sprint by any means.
PDA says:
“Wait a minute, I thought Dr. Syn was the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh…(and why the hëll is THAT not out on DVD? To me one of the best moments in “League of Extraordinary Gentleman” was the visible portrait of the Scarecrow as one of the earlier League members.)”
Hear hear! I’ll sign any petition to get The Scarecrow released–what could be the holdup?
And you are, of course, correct– it was Dr ZIN. Not to be confused with Invader ZIM either.
To partially redeem myself, heres a scary picture of actor Jeff Chandler, in case anyone wants to know where they got the idea for Race Bannon’s look. http://www.classicjq.com/info/images/JeffChandler.jpg