Top 5 television characters

[garrow]

I can feel myself getting nerdier responding to this...

S/He's known only as "The Doctor" and the show is styled as "Doctor Who."

My very subjective list of ten favourite characters in no particular order:

1. Baber Siddiqui - Little Mosque on the Prairie - Anyone with North African/Mediterranean roots knows a Baber. Hi, Dad!

2. Malcolm Tucker - The Thick of It - I had a Shih Tzu who reminded me of Malcolm. The irony is I named him after one of the easiest-going players in the NHL.

3. Archdeacon Robert - rev. - Hard to believe Simon McBurney is the bitchy Archdeacon with a heart of something gold-ish on rev. and the hippy, dippy choir master on The Vicar of Dibley.

4. Speaking of which... David Horton - The Vicar of Dibley - Gary Waldhorn was an old hand at sitcoms by the time he played the Horton pere. I have a tendency to watch for instances of good writing and acting and seeing someone completely turn around a character who had been an amalgam of stock tropes with one word still impresses the heck out of me.

5. Alice Tinker-Horton - The Vicar of Dibley - Been there, done that, worn the collar. I love me some Alice.

6. Manny - Black Books - There's a lot to love about this odd little show. Manny is the human iteration of Peanuts' Snoopy.

7. Wanda Dollard - Corner Gas - Over-educated, under-employed, and somehow happy in her own skin. She's my spirit animal.

8. Brian Topp - Spaced - Anyone who ever spent time in art school knows a Brian. Ours at CCAC was a guy who used to dehydrate roadkill, lacquer it, and then mount it on posts around the campus.

9. Every Character Ellen Dubin Played - Lexx - Lexx was this weird and weirdly beautiful show a bunch of people who wrote about hockey watched during a lockout. We'd collectively agreed to watch a series together and no one could remember the name of the show with a living spaceship. So some of us ended up watching Farscape and others of us watched Lexx. Those of us who stuck with Lexx were labeled pervy freaks for it. I don't care. I own copies of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension AND Big Trouble in Little China if that tells you anything about my taste in sci-fi. So back to Dubin. She embraced every character with the glee of a local kiddie show actor on nitrous. She was so much fun to watch! Actually, everyone was.

10. Jim Moriarty - Sherlock - The best Moriarty ever. He creeped the heck out of me. Then he's The Hot Priest on Fleabag? Nooooooooooooo! (And am I the only one excited that La Phoebe is going to be in the next Indiana Jones movie?)

I loved Lexx! I am not really into sci-fi, but loved that show. I once went to MegaCon in Orlando with a buddy and his wife who are really into sci-fi and I bought an autographed photo of Xenia Seeberg which I still have somewhere.

Best episode: Luvliner when the crew visits the space bordello and 790 is paired with a toaster. Hilarious.

 

[OscarMadison]

More...

Saffron -Absolutely Fabulous - Her sisters from other misters are the offspring of wannabe hippie parents.

Mike - The Young Ones - Imagine being the straight man in that crew.

Chidi - The Good Place - Another straight man whose cracks started to show.

Arnold Rimmer - Red Dwarf - My insane bucket list of things that will never happen includes Chris Barrie prank calling Michael Palin and the Archbishop of Canterbury as Michael Palin and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Good lord, he managed to continue to add wrinkles to Rimmer long after most people would have been phoning it in.

Cat - Red Dwarf - So inspired. He has to be here.

 

[OscarMadison]

790 is paired with a toaster.

I generally love bots and droids, but I never got over the inclination to drop-kick 790.

 

[Slacker]

Artemus Gordon - Wild, Wild West - The true ancestor of Q and Doc Brown.

Don't forget this guy ...

 

[WriteThinking]

I mostly just watch "Star Trek" in its various iterations, and I could make a list just based on those shows. Thus, my picks among those would be:

1.) Garak -- An enigmatic character in the extreme, and someone whose character was given a story and room for expansion over seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

2.) Dr. Julian Bashir -- Another character given a chance to grow and change, so the actor could provide great depth that did nothing but add to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

3). Seven of Nine -- Just a terrific, ever-evolving character all throughout her four seasons of existence on Star Trek: Voyager.

4). Spock -- A central character in Star Trek, the original series (and indeed, the entire franchise) who, even as great as he was, was underdeveloped, mostly as a result of the original series' short-lived run.

5). Data -- A machine who wanted to be human. Many of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation involved this character, played by Brent Spiner, who I thought was even better as the developer/leader of the Augments (Data predecessors) in Star Trek: Enterprise.

What I find interesting is that of these top characters, and most of the others mentioned in this thread, as well, none had top billing on their shows. Perhaps there are built-in constraints to being the star of a show -- things that are not as limiting to lesser lights.

 

[OscarMadison]

I loved Lexx! I am not really into sci-fi, but loved that show. I once went to MegaCon in Orlando with a buddy and his wife who are really into sci-fi and I bought an autographed photo of Xenia Seeberg which I still have somewhere.

Best episode: Luvliner when the crew visits the space bordello and 790 is paired with a toaster. Hilarious.

I think that was one of the high points of the series. Heaven and heck, which IIRC, was the arc that borrowed heavily from Maxfield Parrish was eye-poppingly pretty.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

One of the Darryl brothers from "Newhart," but not the other one.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Five of mine that I don't believe have been brought up yet:

Sawyer from Lost

Roger Sterling from Mad Men

Dr. Greene from ER

and the duo of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby (the Brain) Heenan.

 

[sgreenwell]

Five of mine that I don't believe have been brought up yet:

Sawyer from Lost

Roger Sterling from Mad Men

Dr. Greene from ER

and the duo of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby (the Brain) Heenan.

I mean, there's a problem with your list - Bobby Heenan was a broadcast journalist. This topic is just about characters.

 

[heyabbott]

 

[clintrichardson]

Have to put in a word for Hank Kingsley. Hey now.

Also:
Buster Bluth

 

[Songbird]

Lucy

Costanza/Kramer/Elaine

I have to think on the rest.