Top 5 television characters

I can't remember where I saw this (maybe it was on this site on another thread) but MASH could be divided into two eras — the Wayne Rogers/Mike Farrell without a mustache era and the Mike Farrell with a mustache era. The first one went for laughs, the second one became too preachy.

 

MASH was the one time in history getting a BJ was bad.

As for the list, if nobody mentioned them: Eric Cartman and Sheldon Cooper.

 

Jim Rockford
Joe Rockford
Beth Davenport
Angel Martin
Lt. Doug Chapman

Cicely, Alaska division:
Chris Stevens
Bernard Stevens
Ed Chigliak
Holling Vincoeur

NOT Joel Fleischman

 

I could put Jim Rockford in the top 5 with Lucy and Costanza/Kramer/Elaine, so need 2 more.

 

Mr. AND Mrs. Tarlek

 

NOT Joel Fleischman

Rob Morrow is much better in Billions as the corrupt judge.

One of the best characters in Billions - a series full of them - is Kelly AuCoin, aka Dollar Bill. is father was a Congressman from Oregon.

 

Read a funny story about Mike Farrell - he was freaked out that MASH's ratings were down the season he joined a few eps in. William Christopher said "They'll come back. People know we're here and will be here while they check out other shows" (Probably also didn't help that CBS moved the show to a different day each of its first five seasons (amazing) and it had three different time slots during its run 8, 8:30, and 9. before finishing its run on Mondays the last four years. Rated 46th! in it's initial year (Sunday), only out of the top 10 in year four (Fridays). So yeah - they did come back. Also didn't realize Farrell was introduced in the premiere and Potter the next episode. Everyone made a big deal of Stevenson's dramatic exit. Wayne Rogers left and nobody noticed. Kinda like when Don Meredith left MNF for NBC - you get the sense that networks will throw money at someone from another network to try and hurt a program that's crushing them. Meredith did a few Police Story's and movies of the week - and cashed checks - before going back to ABC and MNF.

 

And an add on about Lucille Ball - watching reruns as a kid you didn't appreciate how rare it was to have a hilarious female comedian leading a show and doing physical comedy the way she did. In the '50s? There might have been women as funny or funnier before her, but they'd be working in vaudeville - not transmitted to mainstream America at 8 p.m. Throw in Desi Arnaz and that show was way ahead of its time, but people were too busy laughing to notice.

 

The list begins with Fonz.

 

He's on a short list of shows that became something totally different because of the popularity of one character. Family Matters and Urkel is another. Shoot, hearing about Garry Marshall going to Ron Howard and explaining/begging forgiveness for needing to push Fonzie more was one of those stories you don't hear enough about. (The show didn't make the Top 10 until its fourth season.)

 

To a lesser degree, Family Ties pretty much became the Alex Keaton show after a few seasons. Fox was perfect for that character.

 

Citizen's arrest on those who left out Barney Fife.

On a side note, one of the great underrated characters is Floyd the barber.

And to continue my Andy Griffith threadjack, there was a character named Malcolm Tucker --- a businessman trying to get to Charlotte whose car broke down on a Sunday in Mayberry --- who was part of what is generally considered the single best episiode: "Man In a Hurry."