Top Ten Best TV characters of all time

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

I don’t know if anyone else out there is watching this thing on Bravo about the Top 100 Best TV characters of all time, which has been airing each installment at 9 PM EST. I haven’t the faintest idea who actually came up with this list, but it’s been a lot of fun to watch. Tomorrow they’ll be having the top 20. Here’s my top 10:

1) Lucy Ricardo
2) Archie Bunker
3) Ralph Kramden
4) Captain James T. Kirk
5) Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli
6) Homer Simpson
7) Lieutenant Columbo
8) Cosmo Kramer
9) J.R. Ewing
10) Captain Frank Furillo

70 comments on “Top Ten Best TV characters of all time”

  1. Bladestar wrote…
    The Cast of Friends get only 1 slot to themselves

    Which, in my humble opinion, is one more than they deserve.

    Jeff – Agreed. All FRIENDS accomplished, in my opinion, is to show how far downhill television ‘comedy’ had gone since the halcyon days of truly clever writing as exemplified in GET SMART and other such series. I could only tolerate five, maybe ten minutes of the insipid FRIENDS before turning off the set.

    As to my trivia query …

    Austin James – Super genius in the Asimov co-created series PROBE dating back to the early 80s.

  2. Arrrggh! Where’s a ‘delete’ button when you need one?

    Sorry. Tried to stop the post operation to correct a typo but somehow the post got put up twice instead.

  3. Can you beleive Carrie Bradshaw rated so high. She was such a bland nothing character that fell in love a lot and that was it really.

  4. How do Gomez & Morticia get listed together, and Sam & Diane, but Emily doesn’t share the slot with Bob? Or 99 with Max? Or The Chief, for that matter?

    Charles Ingalls? Michael Landon on “Little House on the Prairie”? Never watched it, but come on! They probably felt Landon deserved some sort of recognition, but wasn’t Hoss a better character (on another Landon show)?

    Okay. Vic Mackey. Heh. I thought he was the cook on “Alice.”

    Who are Artie and Ðìçk Solomon? I know who ArNie was, but can’t place these two at all.

    Dr. Craig should probably have made the Top 10. Bilko, too.

  5. Raymond,
    If you’ve never seen “Little House On The Prairie”, or beteer yet if you didn’t watch it when it was first run, then you just don’t understand the series or the character or the appeal both had.
    Think about it. It’s the ’70s. Many Americans are still in the midst of a sexual revolution and a national “malaise”(assassinations, civil rights struggles and riots, Vietnam, the unfolding of Watergate) . In the midst of this Michael Landon decided to star and produce in a show set at the turn of the 20th Century, based on a series of books that mainly appealed to young girls, and that was so seeped in “values” many considered t corny.
    Very few people thought the show would be a success.
    And it WAS! The character of Charles Ingalls had a nobility about him and he was the rock of not only his family but his community. He dealt with issues ranging from appetite for “tabloids” of the day and how they can destroy people (the more things change, the more they remain the same) to “racism” against Indians to personal tragedies like his daughter going blind and the death of his grandson.
    The character so personified the show that his absence drastically affected the success (or lack of it) for the show’s continuation/sequel “Little House: A New Beginning” despite having a lot of the same themes and a lot of the same characters.
    He definitely belongs on the list.

  6. RE:Okay. Vic Mackey. Heh. I thought he was the cook on “Alice.”
    Umm NO! That would be Vic Tayback,Vic Mackey is a cop with very questionable morals on the FX series the SHIELD.
    Tayback was also on one of my favorite old STAR TREK episodes’A PIECE OF THE ACTION’where the crew landed on a planet where everyone was a gangster like the old UNTOUCHABLES series.
    Almost forgot another of the best characters of all time
    Frank Drebbin(POLICE SQUAD) which later inspired the great NAKED GUN movies!!

  7. RE: Posted by JamesLynch at November 26, 2004 08:59 AM
    What about Jim Profit? … Man, I would love for this series to be released on DVD…

    Amen Brother!

    Kurt

  8. Jerome,

    The Charles Ingalls character brings up a point that PAD alluded to. The “most memorable” characters on the list were flawed somehow: racist, abusive, etc. Why do we honor flawed characters, but not (as much) the noble ones? It reminds me of the Batman/Superman or Cyclops/Wolverine types of discussions. We all want to live up to the example of Superman, but inevitably we fall short, so we identify more with Batman. It’s more interesting for the writers and readers to have imperfect characters, even though we try to be more like Superman.

  11. Mark L.,
    Good points, although I am glad he at least made the Top 100!

    V,
    Well, he did in TV Guide’s list a couple years back, which I actually think was a better list. It
    A.) Included Lilly from “I’ll Fly Away”, a truly superior actress playing a truly superior character in a truly superior show

    B.) It didn’t cop out by including couples or “cast offs”, just individuals

    C.) It has Art Carney’s “Norton” at #2, arguing he often upstaged Gleason and set the standard for others that would follow, including Cosmo Kramer; Lucy at #3; Archie Bunker at #4, Fonzie at #5 and Spock at #6. The only thing that runied it was #1, which was louie from “Taxi”, which made more than one person go whaaaaaaaat?

  12. “Why do we honor flawed characters, but not (as much) the noble ones? It reminds me of the Batman/Superman or Cyclops/Wolverine types of discussions. We all want to live up to the example of Superman, but inevitably we fall short, so we identify more with Batman. It’s more interesting for the writers and readers to have imperfect characters, even though we try to be more like Superman.”

    It’s not so much that we honor them, it’s that they make for more interesting stories than an unalterably good character does. The same would be true for a purely evil character–how many good stories can you have starring Hitler? How long did The Joker comic book last?

    Louie at number 1? WTF?

  13. How about number 6 from the Prisoner?
    Emma Peel?
    James West from Wild Wild West?
    Spock (much more memorable than Kirk in my opinion)

  15. The Top ten TV CHarachters ever. (In my opinion)

    1. Maryann Thorp (Cybill)
    2. Eric Cartman
    3. The Desperate Housewives
    4. …. Come to think of it There aren’t 10 good tv characters.

  16. HELLOOOO! Aren’t we forgetting Sherlock Holmes!? Ya know, the worlds greatest detecive? Who has been portrayed my more people in movies than any other fictional character in history? I think he deserves a spot in the list!!

  17. Sherlock homes? yes i agree nobody cant forget him!

    What about Gill Grissom and Sara Sidle? i just love them to the death!!!!

    I love Lucy Carter as well!!! ahh she’s my idol! and what about the nanny? we cant exclude her. Or the three stuges!!!

  20. Belatedly, I’d have to add this one:

    Akutsu-sensei from the Japanese ‘dorama’ series JYOOU NO KYOUSHITSU (Queen’s Classroom)which was about a sixth-grade teacher who would have hardened Marine boot camp sergeants running for cover. I wish we had teachers such as her around here.

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