The Greatest Breakout Characters in TV History

Ranker ^ | no date given | no author given

[Leaning Right]

When a television show first starts, the writers of the program already have the star in mind. They write for the characters they think the audience will relate to and like the most and design the show around those characters. However, once the show hits the airwaves, the viewers don’t always agree. Sometimes the true star of the show is the unlikeliest candidate. The breakout character is usually a character who was introduced as part of the supporting cast, but for one reason or another became a fan favorite.

[Leaning Right]

Something nonpolitical for a Sunday. And as aways with lists like these, your mileage may vary.

Here are their overall top 5 breakout TV characters:

5. Sheldon Cooper - The Big Bang Theory
4. Barney Stinson - How I Met Your Mother
3. Dwight Schrute - The Office
2. Daryl Dixon - The Walking Dead
1. Ron Swanson - Parks and Recreation

Among older voters (Baby Boomers):

5. Barney Fife - The Andy Griffith Show
4. Stewie Griffin - Family Guy
3. Spock - Star Trek
2. Dwight Schrute - The Office
1. Fonzie - Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi

I guess I'm really stuck in the past. Because my favorite breakout character - Ed Norton - didn't even make the older voter's list.

[Vermont Lt]

The voting list for those born before 1944 were Ed Norton, Festus, and....what was the question?

[Fai Mao]

Niles Crane

[jeffc]

Kramer - Seinfeld

[Bucky14]

Raffi from “The League”.

[Sirius Lee]

Kramer

Yes!

[Magnatron]

Aaron Paul — Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad

It’s no small feat to go from being planned to getting killed off in the first season to making it to the series finale 6 years later...

[be-baw]

Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) is one of many glaring omissions to that list. if I took the time, I could probably come up with 100 more characters that didn’t make the list that should have.

[Sirius Lee]

Although...most quoted and meme generating? That honor may belong to George Constanza.

[AC86UT89]

There is a clear “recency bias” in this list, but it is all good fun so let’s not take ti too seriously.

That said, Fonzie of Happy Days is probably the biggest breakout character in TV history. That character went from only one or two lines per episode to being the biggest TV star of the biggest TV show of the 1970s.

They changed the entire premise of the show to revolve around his character, the show lasted over 10 years on the air, while the original star character, Richie, was eventually written out of the show entirely. Forty years later, Fonzie’s leather jacket still hangs in the Smithsonian Institution if I am not mistaken.

[SMGFan]

For a few years Bart was break out on The Simpsons.

[OrioleFan]

Tim Conway.

[Hot Tabasco]

Reading the title my first thought was Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris......

[hardspunned]

Eddie Haskell

[Dr. Sivana]

I guess I'm really stuck in the past. Because my favorite breakout character - Ed Norton - didn't even make the older voter's list.

He was great, but didn’t steal the spotlight from Gleasn. One glaring omission from the older list is “special guest star” Dr. Zachary Smith, who managed to change the entire tone of “Lost in Space”.

[central_va]

Sgt. Schultz.

[DouglasKC]

Exactly right about Fonzie in Happy Days there is no other character that even comes close.

[LukeL]

Festus was great, especially in the scenes with Doc.

[Leaning Right]

> They changed the entire premise of the show to revolve around his [Fonzie’s] character <

And they ruined the show in the process. ‘Happy Days’ started out as a gentle comedy about life in the 50’s. It turned into a show about some scrawny little guy who was - quite unbelievably - everybody’s #1 hero.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Steve Urkle from Family Matters.