Top 5 television characters

I thought he was good on the show, but I'm certainly glad he left. I think his departure paved the way for the show to be great for a long time, in part because it opened the door for Jimmy Smits.

 

It is weird though how CBS seems to be able to plug just about any middle-aged male into a lead cop show and the show will run for a decade. Harmon, Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, Hawaii 5-0, SWAT, Seal Team...it's kind of nuts. I still don't see how CSI Miami lasted 10 years.
Same for NYPD Blue - why they shot that show in LA is beyond me. One of the reasons I preferred Law and Order.

 

Smits was great but Caruso had Irish NYC cop written all over him, he had that hard edge Smits lacked, he could be an asshole on the show and you believed him. Not quite so much with Smits.

Kelly in bed with Robin Wexler in the episode that ended with him saying "Here comes spring" was one of the best ever.

 

CBS knows its audience. It's been feeding them the equivalent of tapioca pudding for about 20 years.

 

You can go back to mannix, barnaby jones, Kojack, the original H50, Cagney and Lacey.

 

Love the Winchester mention. The show runners found a smart foil who knew when not to be difficult. Frank Burns was fun and easy to despise, but cloning him would not have worked. Good for the folks behind the cameras and good for David Ogden Stiers.

 

On one of the "M*A*S*H" retrospective specials had the producers talking about them creating the Winchester character and touched on that very fact: They had someone who was inferior to Hawkeye and Trapper/BJ in every way but rank, then put in a character who was a better surgeon and could go toe-to-toe with his tentmates verbally. I never realized that until I heard them talking about that, and thought it was brilliant.
My favorite example of this was in one of the early Winchester episodes, when they're all in the tent one night and Hawkeye and BJ start bragging about past dates: Hawkeye talked about dating a beauty pageant queen in Maine and BJ about dating Esther Williams' stand in. Then Charles chimes in.
Charles: Have you heard of Audrey Hepburn?
Hawkeye: You dated Audrey Hepburn's stand-in?
Charles: Of course not; I dated her!
Hawkeye and BJ immediately call him on it, saying he's lying, and Charles takes out an old photo of him and Hepburn. Then he goes in for game, set and match: "When will you two realize that your fantasy will never match my reality?"