Joss Whedon recently posted his 25 Favorite TV Characters and as a nerd fanboy I feel the need to follow suit. It is important to note the limitations of any list. My list of the best television characters cannot masquerade as a best of all time. The earliest characters on my list are from the late seventies / early eighties and that is because my active and intelligent television years only go back about that far. Also, there are very few characters from current shows on the list. This is because I tried to be sure that it wasn’t recent affections driving the list. Barney on How I Met Your Mother and Dr. House on House are two characters I considered for the list but dropped just because I think it is too soon to be sure. Finally, the list is alphabetical, so the first should be no more highly regarded than the last or any in between.
Allison Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg on Buffy The Vampire Slayer
On television, many characters become stagnant and entrenched. They don’t evolve. Willow Rosenberg was not one of those characters. She grew from the goofy, nerdy sidekick into a woman with complex desires and problems. If there is one word to define Willow it is “evolution”.
Andy Kaufman as Latka Gravas on Taxi
Andy Kaufman was a very gifted, but very strange comedian. He did some brilliant work outside of Taxi, but I think the constraints that network television kept him just enough in check that he did by far his best work as Latka, the immigrant mechanic who’s fictional home country and culture grew in complexity and absurdity with each passing episode.
Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene on ER
It’s hard to remember now, but back in the early nineties ER was the best show around and as Dr. Mark Greene, Anthony Edwards gave a wonderfully nuanced performance. George Clooney may have been the hunk, but Edwards was the heart of the show and he made ER great.
Bruce Willis as David Addison on Moonlighting
Moonlighting was, during the first two seasons, the funniest and most inspired detective show ever. The show hinged on the chemistry between Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepard. For that, I have to give all the credit to Bruce Willis because I couldn’t have spent ten minutes in room with that woman.
Claire Danes as Angela Chase on My So Called Life
Hers was, by far, the most realistic portrayal of a teenager I have ever seen on television. Much of the credit goes to the excellent writing, but Claire Danes’ portrayal of Angela Chase was the glue that held the whole show together.
Corbin Bernsen as Arnie Becker on L.A. Law
Arnie Becker was a joyful sleazebag. He was scheming, self-congratulatory and he couldn’t keep it in his pants if his life depended on it. More importantly, if you needed a divorce lawyer in the eighties, he was the guy you hired, just because you didn’t want to face him on the other side.
David Hyde Pierce as Niles Crane on Frasier
On Cheers, Frasier was intelligent, snobbish, self-involved and peculiar. He was all of those things on Frasier too, but as his brother Niles, David Hyde Pierce topped him in every category. Niles was more intelligent, more snobbish, more self-involved and just by looks of him the most peculiar guy in the room. He was the one person who could make Frasier look normal.
Dirk Benedict as Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck on The A-Team
Feeding off the reputation he created in Battlestar Galactica, Dirk Benedict rose to new heights as the A-Team’s resident scrounger, con man and horny bastard. The A-Team might have succeeded without him, but they wouldn’t have done it in style.
Ed O’Neil as Al Bundy on Married with Children
Al Bundy was a man of perfect contradictions. He was clever but stupid. He was thin but flabby. He loved his wife but couldn’t stand her. He hated women’s feet but he sold women’s shoes. He was miserable, but resisted all attempts to change. He was the perfect caricature of the modern married man.
Edward Woodward as Robert McCall on The Equalizer
Robert McCall was the geezer with a gun. In the early days of the show, before political correctness set in, he just blew away the bad guys without a moment’s hesitation. He was Reaganism at the street level.
Jeffrey Donovan as Detective David Creegan on Touching Evil
Sadly, this show lasted only thirteen episodes but Jeffrey Donovan was amazing as Detective David Creegan, a formerly by-the-books FBI agent who suffered a near fatal gunshot wound that cost him his family and a piece of his sanity but gave him a remarkable insight into crime. Many shows have played the mentally ill detective concept for laughs but in Touching Evil, Creegan’s pain and loss are ripping him apart and he is unable to fully control the impulses in his brain.
Jessica Alba as Max / X5-452 on
Jessica Alba’s Max tapped into so many our turn-of-the millennium hot-buttons: girl power; cloning; overreaching government surveillance and control; terrorism and minority rights. More importantly, Max kicked ass and she looked great doing it.
Kurtwood Smith as Red Forman on That 70s Show
In the early days of this show, before Topher Grace grew into a solid comedic actor and the rest of the kids became reasonable comic foils, Kurtwood Smith as the father who was desperately, angrily trying to teach his dumbass son how to be a man, generated most of the laughs. He never actually put his foot up Eric’s ass, but the threat made all the difference.
Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks
The dessert-loving Dale Cooper represented a whole new kind of FBI agent. His approach was part human observation, part numerology, and part Freudian dream analysis. At one point it involved throwing rocks at a post. I miss Agent Cooper.
Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing on Dallas
J.R. Ewing was the most evil bastard on television. He didn’t just hurt people; he crushed their spirits, took their money, bedded their wives and then he celebrated with a big-assed cigar.
Lucy Lawless as Xena on Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena was pure female empowerment. Strapped in leather; wielding a weapon forged by the Greek Gods and letting loose with a war cry as she kicked everyone’s ass from Greece to Rome to China to modern-day Hollywood.
Michael Chiklis as Detective Vic Mackey on The Shield
Vic Mackey is perhaps the most intense and complex character I have ever seen on television. He can turn from good to evil on a dime and never lose the core of his character. Great writing and great acting.
Michael Dorn as Worf in ST:TNG
I’m a nerd, so I had to include at least one Star Trek universe character, and for me that character was Worf. Worf was the square peg in the round saucer section of the bright and shiny Next Generation. He didn’t like to chat. He didn’t like to bathe. He did like to shoot at things. He may have been a Klingon, but he was most reminiscent of the glorious original Star Trek, when the crew LIVED for confrontation.
Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld
Kramerica Industries; The Japanese Businessmen; The Coffee Table Book; The Polar Bears; Joe Dimaggio; The J. Peterman Reality Tour; HE Pennypacker . . . the funny just keeps coming.
Pearce Brosnan as Remington Steel on Remington Steel
Long before he was the picture of suave in the 007 movies, Pearce Brosnan was the ultimate phony on Remington Steel. A con man with a heart, he was the completely unskilled fake detective who fronted for the very real and smart Laura Holt back when we could buy the premise that no one would believe a WOMAN would be able to run her own detective agency.

Phil Hartman as Bill McNeal on Newsradio
Newsradio was an underrated gem and Phil Hartman was in top form at Bill McNeal. He made fatuousness look good. The show was never the same without him.
Ricky Gervais as David Brent on The Office
Ricky Gervais pulled off the ultimate feat of making people laugh by playing a horrendously unfunny person who thinks he is hilarious. Somehow, he even managed to make me feel sorry for the poor deluded idiot.
Seth McFarlane as Stewie Griffin on Family Guy
Stewie Griffin is an evil, matricidal baby with an IQ off the charts and an irresistible attraction to teletubbies and leather bars. Nuff Said.
Tracy Grandstaff as Daria Morgendorffer on Daria
Daria was probably the most depressed and unhappy character to ever carry a show. She spoke in monotone. She avoided intimacy the way some people avoid cockroaches. Each episode, whether it brought a tiny victory or a crushing defeat, she reacted with determined indifference. To top it all off, she was unbelievably funny.
Various people as God in Joan of Arcadia
In Joan of Arcadia, God was a key character. He took different forms (handsome young man, playful little girl, security guard, cafeteria worker) and every time Joan encountered him he was true both to the spirit of the person he inhabited and to his own overriding character. God watched. God made minor changes. God gave some advice. Overall, God seemed like one of us, all of us and none of us at the same time. Best portrayal of a deity ever.