Best Characters — Lead Male

Whoops – I got busy for a while there. A long while! Let’s continue the lists, though, with my final entry. Honorary Mention to David Brent & Michael Scott, Chuck Bartowski, Larry David, Denny Crane, and Black Adder.

20. Greg House (Hugh Laurie), House

I’m a sucker for sarcasm, and Laurie delivers. I’m also not a huge fan of procedurals, and so whether it’s just me or not, I can’t help but feel that so much of his bile is aimed at the genre itself, and at the expectations of heroism, functionality, and so forth. If only the staff of Grey’s Anatomy had a date with Dr. House.

19. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), M*A*S*H

The womanizing is kind of pat and tiring, but behind it is a remarkable charisma. If people watched the show and did so for so long, I’d bet that a large reason is Alda’s ability to grab and maintain interest. He also managed to sell the hardship and tragedies of M*A*S*H with subtlety, never letting it become just another happy-happy sitcom even while being the source of such happy-happy-ness.

18. Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Twin Peaks

MacLachlan manages a hard feat in Twin Peaks, playing his character in a way that makes him both a point of entry into the profoundly bizarre world of Twin Peaks, and someone who is no less profoundly bizarre in his own way.

17. Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), The Pee Wee Herman Show

Simply put, is there any more fucked up character on television who is so enjoyable? A great hybrid between kids performer and drug-induced, crazed indy character, Pee Wee’s kind of awesome.

16. Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), Fawlty Towers

As pure as sarcasm gets on television, Fawlty is also the pregenitor to a whole slew of characters who just missed the cut for this list, including Larry David, David Brent, Michael Scott, and Black Adder. Seething contempt for the world, and doomed to failure, Fawlty’s great television.

15. Dr. Who (various), Doctor Who

It’s hard to know where to place the Doctor on this list, since some performances are deserving of higher placement, some of no placement. But I love the idea of a character with so many versions and actors and capacities, so he has to be here somewhere. #15 seems as good as any a place.

14. William Adama (Edward James Olmos), Battlestar Galactica

Another Draper-esque performance involving long looks and an unflinching face that still evokes such interest and sympathy. Indeed, he’s kind of like Don Draper mixed with Eric Taylor.

13. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), The Sopranos

Like #9, I haven’t seen all of this show, partly because it always seemed a little too over-hyped. But Gandolfini does an excellent job at putting some flesh on the very skeletal mob boss of so many other films and shows. He’s also really funny.

12. Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Mad Men

Hamm manages to do a heck of a lot without doing much at all, his stoic expression a cipher at times. He behaves like an asshole so much of the time … and yet I’m fascinated by him and often feel for him, a testament to a really well written and acted character.

11. Eric Cartman (Trey Parker), South Park

Does evil turd-dom get any better than Cartman? I struggle to think of a more utterly reprehensible character in comedy history who is so delightful. Or who has such a hilariously wonderful singing voice.

10. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), Breaking Bad

I can already hear the BB fans raging at White’s placement here, but from the outset I should note that I’ve only seen Season One to date, so I can’t get carried away. It’s hard not to, though, given the strength of that performance. A lovely and contradictory mix of a character who seems so desperately lost yet who also has such purpose.

9. Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), The Cosby Show

The “everything ends up just fine”-ism of the show may rile my critical capacities, but Cosby is just such a wonderfully gifted comedian at peak in this show, always a pleasure to watch.

8. Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen), Da Ali G Show

First breaking into the television world via The Eleven O’Clock Show on Channel 4 in England, Cohen took Chris Morris’ character-based mode of interviewing to an entirely new level. There’s an element of Eric Cartman in him, as he says shocking things, but the satirical purpose is usually a lot clearer and stronger than with Cartman. It also produces a few rare moments when interviewer, interview subject, and topic of interview are all being satirized for different things. Smart stuff.

7. Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Deadwood

Easily the most compelling presence in a highly compelling show, Al is a joy to watch as he moves from bad guy to good guy to victim to victimizer and all sorts of places in between. Famous for his colorful language and swearing, he also has come of the densest, more complex dialogue in television, a fact that’s easy to overlook since McShane’s acting makes it all so seamless.

6. Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), 24

It’s really easy to criticize and lambaste both the show and the performance. Endless torture and endless yelling. But if you actually watched it, both the show and Jack were always more complex. Jack was often (and especially in the conclusion) out of line and irascible, excessive, and a raging shell. In the process, Sutherland gave more humanity and depth to the action hero than I’ve seen pretty much anywhere else.

5. Stephen Colbert (Stephen Colbert), The Colbert Report

I must admit that when Colbert’s show started, I didn’t see how it could last, and how he could keep character for so long, four days a week, while still being amusing. He proved be completely wrong, not only being so very funny for so long, but also skewering the punditocracy all the more in the process.

4. Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Friday Night Lights

Kyle Chandler brings so much complexity to Eric – he can be the show’s best comic relief at times (his one-eyed squint/twitches are especially amusing), he can be a hypermasculine turd at one moment while a sensitive and thoughtful father and husband and coach at others. This upcoming season seems to be bringing a lot of the Losties back to TV, but there is no justice in the TV world if we don’t see Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler back soon too.

3. Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), Dexter

Dexter is often the only character in the show who is truly allowed to be a character, but boy does he deliver. Michael C. Hall’s performance is fantastic, his soothing voiceover a rare exception to my cringing reaction to most televisual voiceovers. I like the moral ambiguity, I like how damaged he is and yet how much he tries, and since almost everything in the show is set up to tell us about him, his character is constantly building.

2. Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson), The Muppet Show and Sesame Street

Sure, he’s not fleshed out like many of the serialized characters on this list, but Kermit is still a guide to and role model for all that’s good in the world. #1 on this list may’ve got me through the last twenty years of my life, but no character did a better job at helping me through the first few years.

1. Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta), The Simpsons

Did you really think I’d pick anyone else? Nobody does stupid like Homer, few have come up with as many memorable lines, and few make me smile as much just at the mention of them. The writers give him great jokes, and the animators do great things too, granted, but Dan Castellaneta’s vocal performance is simply brilliant. Mmmmm … supelerior performance.