Bloodless Coup

You know what, I don't watch enough TV to do this. I started and all I had was Whedon stuff, Star Trek and Twin Peaks.

What - and that wasn't enough for 25 characters? I mean it seems like there have 25 Star Treks alone. :)

what's with the anti-HBO thread here? tony soprano's obvious, claire from SFU, and, a bit more of a stretch since fewer people tune in, swearingen from deadwood.

and for those who go a little farther back, i'd also list artie (rip torn) and / or kingsley from the larry sanders show.

and then there are a few to choose from on mash and taxi . . . Ach! too many to chose from.

Well I just don't remember MASH and Taxi that well. That ruled out a lot of the late 1970s-early 1980s shows. Though that said, I can't think of any people right off-hand from those shows I'd put on the list, b/c it's about characters. And I don't know that there are any specific, regular characters from those shows that I loved enough to put on here. I liked the sum more than the parts (though honestly both those shows had periods when I didn't like the sum). And of course we have a bit of the accessibility heuristic in use here - I haven't seen the old shows in ages, whereas the Joss Whedon shows come to mind much more quickly ...

Oh, that characters vs. the show thing is also why I don't have anyone from Sex and the City or Six Feet Under on here. To me when it comes to the regulars, I think I liked 'em as a group more than I did individually (the regulars I mean - I freakin' adored Patty Clarkson on SFU, but she wasn't a regular). But of course a lot of people would put a Claire or the like on this list (though she wasn't my favorite on SFU).

If I was writing the list in a year or two Swearingen might very well be on it - but I have't watched that enough yet. Still, he's great (btw, has Brian Cox been great on that show or what? but then he is Brian Cox).

Oh, and the one glaring omission from my list comes to mind since you've mentioned HBO - Ari Gold. Love. Him. So.

I don't know -- I think Hawkeye Pierce and Radar both qualify qua characters, as do Louie and Latka from Taxi.

Tony Soprano I still think is obvious, and I'd have a hard time not putting Jed Bartlett on there as well, although that's another ensemble with several to chose from. Toby Zeigler probably deserves to be there just as much, as does C.J. Craig.

It's interesting, because the older shows tended to feature much flatter characters as such, even when skilled performances filled in the gaps (i.e., Louie). Part of the reason Hawkeye is the obvious choice from M*A*S*H is that he was wonderfully written and wonderfully performed -- a truly sophisticated character in what was really just a slightly better produced 70's sit-com with a slightly higher budget than its peers.

I find most 70's TV hard to watch now because I think the writing has been forced to greater heights in the last ten years, in no small part due to the success of the HBO experiment (which people who KNOW will realize actually started 20+ years ago with First and Ten, and caught its stride with Dream On and Larry Sanders; Sopranos was a new offshoot of a long-standing effort by HBO to elevate the sophistication of serial TV), and predictably the shows that floor me are the ones that shake me by the lapels and say, "You could NEVER write ANYTHING this good." :-)

For what it's worth, CJ Craig from West Wing and Louie from Taxi both crossed my mind (as did Carol Kane on Taxi, though I don't recall her being a regular) - they are way up on my list - but probably not Top 25 (maybe CJ).

I'm trying to think of other 70's possibilities, but few are jumping to mind. Weezie? The Harts of Hart to Hart? That I'm even considering those is probably blasphemy to you. I get what you are saying about the characters of old in terms of the writing. A lot of those shows are painful to see now (and some were painful then). And yeah the HBO shows are much better than most. But this list is about specific characters, not shows.