The 100 Greatest TV Characters

Bravo TV ^ | November 2004

[ConservativeStatement]

This comprehensive five-part series will focus its critical eye on famous television characters that have become a part of the fabric of American pop culture. Blending classic moments, rare photos and interview with both stars and show creators, the series will spotlight how our favorite TV characters broke out of the pack to emerge as pop icons.

[jennyp]

Now that I think about it, I guess Eb the hired hand would probably have placed better than Mr. Kimball the county agent anyway?

Oh, I don't know about that. Mr. Kimball was much more memorable than Eb. Well, not much more memorable - but more memorable. Well, not memorable exactly - more like influential. Well, now that you mention it...

Anyway, nobody's mentioned Lisa Douglas & Fred Ziffel. Lisa Douglas, at least, deserves to be up there somewhere. Certainly Mr. Haney. (Oliver Wendell Douglas was a great straight man, but he was so good at it he wasn't as memorable as some of the others!)

[Calvin Locke]

That was the funniest thing I EVER saw on TV!

Second funniest.

Basil Fawlty had me rolling on the floor a couple of times more.

[Helms]

[jennyp]

Don't forget Cosmo Topper!

Ah yes, Topper! That reminds me: Uncle Martin.

[Glenn]

(You know, they make televisior programs in colour now)

I am really olde. Dunno what a televisior is.

[jennyp]

Thanks for posting the list... Interesting that the only "characters" to make it from the Golden Age of Television (the 1950's) were Marshall Dillon, Sgt. Joe Friday, and Lucy. Notice the omission of any of the "1950's Dads": Ozzie, Fathers Know Best (Jim Anderson), etc. I guess those "family values" don't make it to today's era and the network that brought Queer Eye to the small screen.

It would be so fascinating to take a national poll & break down the results by age.

[Calvin Locke]

Likewise, I had to go to IMDB for a few of characters.
It would have been nice to include the show, but then, that would imply that the choices
people didn't recognize weren't all that memorable.

[Calvin Locke]

but I do like "Prisoner No. 6" as played by Patrick McGoohan (sp?)."

I came across a link to a British 100 (sort of), from 2001, looking up Basil Fawlty.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0283164/fullcredits

[Scarpetta]

Not one cast member from Barney Miller?

[Calvin Locke]

(Eclectic, you say? Yeppers.)

Oh goody. Who the heck is "Artie"?

From Alice or Hart to Hart?

My guess is the former, but I don't remember it at all.

I think I remember Hot l Baltimore better.

[Tunehead54]

Isn't that Col. Potter? (Hee Hee) But I do forget which one was Friday and which was Saturday? ;-)

[Uncle Meat]

Anybody seen the Canadian show "The Trailer Park Boys"?
There's this goofy charactor named Bubbles that wears these coke bottle glasses that usually ends up stealing the show.

[Preech1]

Kolchak was THE MAN long before Art Bell ever came along...there'll never be another.

[puppetz]

What about Ralph Cramdon? "One of these days Alice, BOOM, to the mooon!"

[puppetz]

What about Ralph Cramdon? "One of these days Alice, BOOM, to the mooon!"

[ConservativeStatement]

The absolute worst MASH episode was called "Inga" when Mariette Hartley played a Swedish nurse and Hawkeye became whipped. So sappy. Even as a huge MASH fan, I couldn't get through that episode.

[TruthWillWin]

What about Ralph Cramdon? "One of these days Alice, BOOM, to the mooon!"

See #2.

[barker]

Maverick is #33. Loved both Maverick and the Rockford Files.

[TruthWillWin]

... Interesting that the only "characters" to make it from the Golden Age of Television (the 1950's) were Marshall Dillon, Sgt. Joe Friday, and Lucy.

Agreed, they left some real good ones off the list but also on the list from the 50's were Ed Norton, Beaver, Maynard G. Krebs, and Ralph Kramden. At least I think those were from the 50's, possible one or 2 were early 60's.