TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time

the Internet Movie Database ^ | 29 Jun 2011 | Raisley Gordon

[Leaning Right]

Just for fun, here's a list of the 50 greatest TV characters of all time. It's very subjective, of course. But Barney Fife made the top 10, so this list can't all be bad.

[Leaning Right]

Here's the top ten:

1. Louie De Palma
2. Ed Norton
3. Lucy Ricardo
4. Arthur 'Fonzie' Fonzarelli
5. Archie Bunker
6. Spock
7. Lt. Columbo
8. Emma Peel
9. Barney Fife
10. George Costanza

[Mears]

To read that list you would think that TV no longer existed.

A trip down Memory Lane.

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[Dr. Sivana]

I didn’t even know what a Louie DePalma was! Reasonable list otherwise.

[JudyinCanada]

Wow. I have no idea who Louie DePalma is! I do know the rest though.

[DrDude]

A few more in no particular order.
Jed Clampett
Inspector Luger(Barney Miller)
Sheldon Cooper
Eddie haskell
Mr. haney

[JudyinCanada]

Lol - just googled. Someone in Taxi, which I never saw.

[exit82]

Louie DePalma was the Danny Devito character in “Taxi”.

[TXBlair]

Honestly, I’m surprised George Costanza made the list over Cosmo Kramer.

[tophat9000]

You guys don’t know who Louis De Palma was you don’t know the show “Taxi”

The problem is Taxi is not a high rerun show most people have seen the other ones

[tophat9000]

Yeah realistically Sheldon Cooper should be near the top of that list

[yarddog]

The top 5 should be:

1: Perry Mason
2: Matt Dillon
3: James Rockford
4: Sheriff Taylor
5: James Tiberius Kirk.

[newfreep]

"Louie DePalma" was absolutely hilarious...esp with "Jim" in his pre-"Doc Brown" days.

[Bullish]

The biggest real azzholes of TV would be a much longer list.

[COBOL2Java]

I didn’t even know what a Louie DePalma was! Reasonable
list otherwise.

Then you wouldn't know who Rev Jim Ignatowski is either; the character that launched Christopher Lloyd's career...

FWIW, "Taxi" was an incredible 80's TV sitcom which won 18 Emmy Awards.

[PlateOfShrimp]

I know it’s just a matter of opinion, but I would have put Emma “You’ll look at this show a whole lot differently when you see it as an adult” Peel at #1.

Of course, I always tell my kids that TV took a turn for the worse when it went to color.

[tophat9000]

And I’m surprised they have Emma Peel, I know Emma Peel, I love Emma Peel, but most people don’t know the old UK spy show The Avengers ...I can’t even find re runs of it

[abb]

I like your list better. I love Mrs. Peel (The Avengers), but she doesn’t belong in a top ten list. Top 50 maybe.

[MrEdd]

No Gilligan or Perry Mason?

[Dr. Sivana]

A trip down Memory Lane.

Simple. People like me turned off our sets to new programming some time ago, character based comedy has largely been displaced by "unscripted reality shows", today's generation gets exposed to Lucy and Spock through Nick at Nite and MeTV and DVDs.

[Bullish]

The Costanza character was 10 times more funny than Kramer.