Friday, August 25, 2006

A Brief Delay and A Question

Some early non-computer tasks this morning mean that the usual Friday movie and entertainment news will not appear until sometime later this afternoon. Fear not, all will be normal soon.

In the meantime a question for your consideration, and you may leave your answers in the comments.

Who are the Ten Most Memorable Television characters?

The idea was tackled by writer/director Joss Whedon here, and he says the idea came his way from writer James Gunn. Whedon did mention one I would put on my list, Agent Dale Cooper. And Gunn says no cartoon characters allowed, but there is no way I could make a list without mentioning Homer Simpson, so forget that rule. My list will appear later in an Update.

Have at it!

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:38 AM

    Man, thats a pretty big question. I mean, are all characters involved? Is this just series, or are MOTW's included?

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  2. Anonymous10:03 AM

    How about JR Ewing, Mister Rogers, Heathcliff Huxtable, Tattoo and Columbo?

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  3. And Lucy & Desi Arnaz..
    James Garner, Marshall Dillon (Peter Graves?), Superman (George Reeves?), Gale Storm..

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  4. Anonymous12:09 PM

    Scully, Mulder, Soupy Sales, Cap'n Kangaroo,The dancing dwarf from Twin Peaks... that's about all that come to my mind, but I never watched much TV.

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  5. Of course the Coop, but also from Twin Peaks there's Albert Rosenfeld (Miguel Ferrar[sp?]) and Gordon Cole (David Lynch). That show was just full of memorable characters.

    I'm going to agree with Mr. Gunn on Al Swearengen from Deadwood and Titus Pullo from Rome. I fell deeply in TV love at first sight with the both of them. Oh! And Calamity Jane! Right on.

    With Mr. Whedon I agree on Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone.

    The rest of the list, in no order:

    1. From "Homicide: Life on the Street", Det. Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher).
    2. From "Farscape", (a) Zhaan (Virginia Hey), and (b) Scorpius (Wayne Pygram).
    3. From "Night Court", Dan Fielding (John Laroquette).
    4. From "Xena: Warrior Princess", Joxer the Mighty (Ted "Black Rainbow" Raimi).
    5. From "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", (a) Spike (James Marsters) and (b) Drusilla (Juliet Landau).
    6. From "Father Ted", (a) Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon), and (b) Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly)

    I can't think of any more at the moment, but those will do.

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  6. a fine start!!

    And yes AT, anything goes, from movies to mini-series to cartoons -- its all good.

    Now if I can just get ths stupid Blogger Login to work, I'll add some of my choices in an update on this post.

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  7. Anonymous2:49 PM

    If anything goes, add the "gotta make the donuts" guy and Mr.Whipple to my list.

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  8. Anonymous3:39 PM

    Capt. Kirk/Picard/Spock/Data
    Uncle Arthur
    Montgomery Burns
    Stewie Griffin
    The Soup Nazi
    Huggy Bear
    (Insert fav Twin Peaks character here)
    Ernest T. Bass
    Howard Cosell
    Any Monty Python sketch/character

    There are many more but these will be a good start

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  9. Anonymous4:10 PM

    Off the top of my head:
    Dale Cooper, without question
    Capt. Jame T. Kirk
    Spike from "Buffy"
    Fox Mulder
    Barnabas Collins
    Carl Kolchak - the original Darren MCGavin, not that new crap
    G'Kar from "Babylon 5"
    Dan Fielding
    Carol Burnett as anything

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  10. Oh yeah, Barnabas Collins! Good one. Jonathan Frid's Barnabas, not the newfangled one from the remake.

    I would need a separate list for cartoons.

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  11. Basil Fawlty (Fawlty Towers)
    Mary Tyler Moore (D.V Dyke and her show)
    Andre Braugher from Homicide
    Homer Simpson (d'oh!)
    George Castanza (Jason Alexander)
    Jackie Gleason (honeymooner's) sue me..i'm older than most of you and he has been the inspiration for countles TV sitcom characters
    Lucille Ball (for the 'I love Lucy' shows, not the dreadful 'Lucy Show'
    Don Knotts as Barney
    Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy)
    James Gandolfini (Sopranos)

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  12. I really appreciate all the comments so far, but for some reason Blogger is not working right and I haven't been able to update or add posts today. Dammit.

    I hope to have this corrected ASAP -- or this blog my have to move to a different address and service!!! I hope not, time will tell.

    Thanks - keep adding your comments and I'll have this straightened out soon.

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  13. I couldn't get it down to ten, and this was just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could whittle it down if I had to. So, in no particular order:

    1) Omar - The Wire
    2) Frank Pembleton - Homicide
    3) Fox Mulder - X-Files
    4) Tony Soprano - The Sopranos
    5) Data or Worf (it's a toss-up) - Star Trek: The Next Generation
    6) Calamity Jane - Deadwood
    7) Mrs. Garrett - The Facts of Life
    8) Ralph Furley - Three's Company
    9) Elaine Benes - Seinfeld
    10) Dick Loudon - Newhart
    11) Maynard G. Krebs - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
    12) The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) - Dr. Who
    13) Patty Lane/Cathy Lane - The Patty Duke Show
    14) Mr. Roarke - Fantasy Island
    15) James T. Kirk - Star Trek

    I didn't include sketch comedy characters, or else Dave Chappelle as Rick James from Chappelle's Show would have been on the list for sure, as well as the entire cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Nor did I include real people playing themselves or versions of themselves, or else Fred Rogers and Stephen Colbert would be on there, too.

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  14. oh god!!!
    I KNEW i forgot someone!!! dammit!!

    Put Stephen Colbert on my list (see the above post)

    A fine list there, btw!!!

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  15. Anonymous11:46 PM

    C'mon, people, let's list characters, not just actors!
    I agree with including cartoons (& I also agree with Wednesday that there should be a separate list for cartoon characters.....half ny top 10 would come from Jonny Quest!)
    Another rule change for my list - inextricably linked pairs count as one.
    Choosing just 10 from almost 60 years of TV is slicin' it mighty thin, but here goes....
    Roughly in chronological oreder..
    1.Lucy Ricardo - Love her or hate her...you remember her
    2.Perry Mason - Those courtroom reveals! Maybe it was just the theme song.
    3.Rod Serling as Host of the Twilight Zone - Stretching the definition of "character", but he was in the sets, & hopefully he didn't quite sound like that in real life.
    4.Kirk & Spock - no explantion required
    5.Batman - the 60's version. Mention Batman to 90% of the population to this day & they'll go "Bam!"..."Pow!".."Thwack!"
    6.John Steed & Emma Peel - Possibly the best couple in TV history (A certain pair of Boston lawyers still need to stand the test of time....)
    7.Fonzie - I wanted a 70's sitcom to be represented. Who better than the first one to Jump the Shark?
    8.J.R. Ewing - the '80's in one man.
    9.The aforementioned yellow-skinned dolt, Homer Simpson - the ultimate sitcom father lout.
    10.Denny Crane - Name on the Door

    Joe - Thanks to catering to the Boob tube Bunch for a change!

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  16. Anonymous12:07 AM

    Y'all are kinda young, but tits is right about Maynard G. Krebs. Now let's see those hyped tits, tits.

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  17. Anonymous12:33 AM

    "Work!"
    I forgot to mention, every time somebody mentioned Calamity Jane, I thought of F Troop. That's where my head is.

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  18. maynard krebs and gilligan both were battling for a spot and it was with much reluctance i omitted the work of Mr Bob Denver. Again, judging by the number of repeats i have viewed, bob should have gotten a mention.

    same goes for two characters on Andy Griffith -- Barney and Ernest T Bass. Especially Barney -- when he left the show, the show essentially ended.

    top tens are just really difficult -- perhaps I should have gone for a top 25???

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