Your favorite television characters...and why!

Thought this might be an interesting companion thread to the "Top TV moments"."thread.

1) Landry Clark - "Friday Night Lights" - The kid is just completely earnest. He speaks his mind, often in a hilariously sardonic manner, and he iis portrayed just about perfectly by Jesse Plemons.

2) Niles Crane - "Frasier" - While David Hyde Pierce earned his proper due for his portrayal of quite possibly the best supporting character in television history (incredible 11 consecutive best supporting emmy nominations), his best work was in the show's tender moments. His interactions in the later seasons with Daphne were so....good. Couldn't think of a better word. He was awesome.

3) Hank Moody - "Californication" - The role David Duchovny was just born to play, and he absolutely nailed every scene in the first season. Funny when he needed to be, which was often, but also tragic, Moody was a great study of of highs and lows.

4) Ari Gold - "Entourage" - Jeremy Piven. Over the top. Perfect.

I freely admit that if I'd watched more of the West Wing (which I will devour when I get Netflix), Jed Bartlet would be on it.

 

Toby Zeigler
Matt Saracen
Ross Gellar
Hawkeye
Robert Barone

 

I'll go all - FX
Dutch Wachenbach - The Shield (brilliant, earnest, self-loathing, self-aggrandizing prick, and proven cat-killer)
The Lt. - Rescue Me (Nobody can steal a scene like John Scurti)
Christian Troy - Nip/Tuck (His scene at the dinner with the cougars last season pretty much summed up his character)
And a shoutout to TNT's Closer, pretty much the entire cast.

 

"You think I'm a loser?
Because I have a stinking job that I hate, a family that doesn't respect me, and a whole city that curses the day I was born?
Well, that may mean loser to you, but let me tell you something.
Every day when I wake up in the morning, I know it's not going to get any better until I go back to sleep. So I get up. I have my watered-down Tang and my still-frozen Pop Tart. I get in my car with no gas, no upholstery, and six more payments. I fight honking traffic just for the privilege of putting cheap shoes onto the cloven hooves of people like you.
I'll never play football like I wanted to.
I'll never know the touch of a beautiful woman.
And I'll never know the joy of driving through the city without a bag over my head.
But I'm not a loser.
Because, despite it all, me and every other guy who'll never be what they wanted to be, is out there, being what we don't want to be, forty hours a week, for life.
And the fact that I didn't put a gun in my mouth years ago ... that little fact makes me a winner, baby."

 

There's no way I can rank these in order and there's a good chance I'll be posting on this thread multiple times as I remember more (it's 2:15 a.m. and I'm not fully awake):

** Eric Cartman (South Park) -- God, I don't even know how to sum him up. Does anyone come up with a better plan than Cartman? He is the manifestation of Freud's "Id" principle. That is the only way I know how to describe him.

** Russell "Stringer" Bell (The Wire) -- My favorite character off what I consider the best television show ever. "Stringer" had so many different layers to him. As a criminal, he was deplorable. But then you saw him taking business classes at a local college; he was trying to clean up the murders; he helped found a co-op between the dealers; the way he ran his meetings. After he was killed, when McNulty searched his apartment and found all the evidence that "Stringer" was much deeper than the average guy he'd been chasing, it really affected him.

** Dwight K. Schrute (The Office) -- We've all worked with someone that possesses some of the same qualities that Dwight has. Someone that kisses the boss' ass, who strives for promotions and is a stickler for office rules. But if I could work with Dwight, I'd jump at the opportunity. Sadly, I know the geek in me would allow us to get along reasonably well and I'd get a good laugh at some of my co-workers playing pranks on the uptight fucker.

** Tim Riggins (Friday Night Lights) -- At first glance, he seems like a typical redneck high school football player, more content to get drunk than do anything else. And, while that may in fact be true, Riggins has proven to be one of the most complex characters on TV. His loyalty to his friends (going with Street to Mexico; keeping Julie from getting into trouble at the party; etc., etc.) is only outweighed by his ability to land hot older women and put himself in situations where you know he's never gonna catch a break and get the opportunity he truly deserves.

 

Dr. Melfi. She's the only person who can consistently beat Tony Soprano.

 

George Costanza and about a dozen or more characters from the Wire.

 

1) Hawkeye Pierce -- MASH (probably the best TV character of all-time, definitely top five).
2) Vic Mackey -- The Shield
3) Frank Pembleton -- Homicide: Life on the Street
4) Sam Malone -- Cheers
5) Rollo Lawson -- Sanford and Son

 

I am sooooo full of fail for forgetting George. Dammit.

 

As uneven as the writing is (hello, manatee idea balls), Stewie and Brian are great characters in "Family Guy." Any time a baby says, "Does anyone else smell Astroglide?" I have to laugh.

 

Chris Moltisanti.
Eric Cartman.
John Munch.
Ari Gold.
Dr. Perry Cox.
George Costanza.

 

denny crane because, well, he's denny crane.