25 Favorite TV Character Meme

[shadowkat]

Gaked from embers_log and well James Gunn and Joss Whedon:

MY 25 FAVORITE TV CHARACTERS EVER
(or at least the ones I could think of sitting down for a half-hour...)
The RULES

No puppets or cartoons, otherwise Kermit and Homer would definitely be on this list.

No mini-series, otherwise I'd definitely include Philip Marlow from THE SINGING DETECTIVE.

No reality show people, otherwise Matt Kennedy Gould from THE JOE SCHMO SHOW would be on here.

All characters must be regulars on the show. Okay, here we go - (these are mine by the way, for Whedon's go here:http://whedonesque.com/index.php?comments=11157#137930 and I think I only share about four in common with Whedon - Logan, Beltzer, Columbo, and House.)


1. Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series
2. Starbuck from Battle Star Galatica new verison
3. Aeryn Sun from Farscape
4. David Addison from Moonlighting
5. Jane Tennyson from Prime Suspect
6. Columbo
7. Bayliss from Homicide Life on the Streets
8. Gaius Baltar from Battle Star Galatica
9. Logan from Veronica Mars
10. Keith Mars
11. Wash from Firefly
12. Nikita from La Femme Nikita
13. Christina from Grey's Anatomy
14. House from House
15. Beltzer from Hill Street Blues
16. Wesley Wyndom Price from Angel the Series
17. Josh Lyman from the West Wing
18. CJ Cregg from the West Wing
19. Hawkeye Pierce from MASH
20. Mr. Steele from Remington Steele
21. Dr. Carter from ER
22. Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation
23. Chandler from Friends
24. Murphy Brown from Murphy Brown
25. George from Dead Like Me

Am thinking should have made this harder for myself and limited it to one character per series.
Hard enough as is. And like all lists subject to change as my mood does. These are basically the ones I remember.

And as an aside - yes, I know, Joss Whedon managed to kill my favorite character in each of his series.
Another aside, I find it mildly frightening that I've watched or currently watch all the tv shows Whedon is, including General Hospital. Ack.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Ah, kind of like 'West Wing'?
Thanks for the tip, I'll remember that!

It is sad when shows stall and fail in their later seasons, I didn't like the later seasons of 'Seinfeld' (it started being 'about' a whole lot of stupid things), or 'Cheers'. But I have always felt that 'Buffy' and 'Angel' really did manage to get to a higher and higher level.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

Except West Wing really took off in its last two seasons with Vinick and Santos election.
But I think that was five and six.

I'm the opposite of most Buffy and Angel fans in that I actually prefer the latter seasons. In fact, the only seasons I own on DVD are BTVS 4-7 and ATS 4 and 5. No real interest in the first three seasons of either series, although I'll admit season 2 of both series were fairly riveting at the time, still found the latter seasons more engaging, experimental, and interesting upon re-watching. I know I'm in the minority on that score, don't really care that much. I may change my mind in five years, who knows? No use wasting time arguing about it. You like what you like for your own reasons.
People either get it or they don't. Blasting people for liking things they don't like seems a tad silly.

Felt much the same way about Seinfield and Cheers. Those were tv shows that I adored when no one else was watching them. Same with Homicide Life on the Street. Took a while to catch on and when they did, they started to go downhill in my opinion and I stopped watching as much. I remember worrying they'd cancel Cheers and when no one knew what I was talking about when I mentioned Seinfeild and Homicide. The seasons where we had "Harry the Hat" - who I almost put on the list above but realized he was not a regular, and the fantastic bit on the parking garage on Seinfield.
Plus Ned Beatty's character on Homicide who disappears in the latter seasons.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Oh I definitely agree on the loving of the later seasons of Buffy & Angel, I've been rewatching both and it seems like every (or nearly every) individual episode was a complete gem in those late seasons.
We've been making lists of favorite episode by season, and in Buffy's first and third seasons I found there weren't that many I loved that much (I picked 'The Pack' and 'Dopplegangland')
but in the sixth and seventh seasons I found it impossible to pick just one...

Actually Ats favorites were a little easier: I LOVED the cross over episodes in the early seasons, and then I really loved more and more in the later ones, but I ended up with:

1st. In the Dark
2nd. Disharmony
3rd. Waiting in the Wings (particularly w/deleted scenes!)
4th. Deep Down ('I'll take away your bucket')
5th. Damage (yay Andrew! and Smile Time, and Shells)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ah tough...I have a tendency to change my favorites each time I do it.

BTVS?
1. Prophecy Girl (The Pack and Nightmares)
2. Passion (School Hard, Becoming I & II, Innocence, Surprise, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered are close seconds)
3. Dopplegangland, (Lover's Walk, Enemies, Consequences, Band Candy, and the Wish are pretty close seconds)
4. Restless (although Hush, Harsh Light of Day, The Freshman, Pangs, Yoko Factor, Who are You, Something Blue all come in close second)
5. Fool for Love (but hard to choose - since I also adore The Replacement, The Body,
The Gift, Checkpoint, Out of my Mind, Intervention, Forever, Triangle, Tough Love, Crush, Into the Woods all favorites)
6. OMWF (but also hard - love Afterlife, Bargaining, Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Gone, Hell's Bells, Entropy, Dead Things, Life Serial, Flooded, Villains, Two to Go, Grave - I think there may have been only three that season that I wasn't in love with.)
7. Four-way tie: Beneath Me, Selfless, Sleeper, and Conversations with Dead People
(Also loved Him, LMPTM (more than most people do - even though I see the issues people had with it, I'm a comics fan and saw what the writers intended as well - it's one of those episodes I can see five different ways and from five different perspectives, rare in tv), Potential, Dirty Girls, Chosen, Lessons, Same Time Same Place, Never Leave Me, Empty Places, Touched. I think Storyteller may have been the only one that didn't completely work for me.)

Angel...

1. The Faith episodes which I can no longer remember the name of. (Dear Boy and In the Dark were also enjoyable. I remember giving up on the series half-way through and coming back when they had cross-overs.)
2. Darla (close second are the ones that included Drusilla) (They lost me at different points.)
3. Wes taking the baby episode and getting his throat cut, Loyalty a close second
4. Can't choose one. Deep Down/Souless/Supersymmetry/Orpheus/the Faith episode/Home
all come close to first place. I adored that entire season. Didn't mind the evil Cordy arc - the character got more interesting actually with it.
5. Also can't choose just one. Destiny/Damage/Hellbound/Girl in Question (adored that episode), Shells/Smile Time. I think the only episode I didn't like that much was the wolf one which can't remember the name of. Everything else worked for me.

I really adored the last two seasons. Angel got darker and his friends got more depth and attention, less focus on who we are saving this week. More character arcs.

Feel no real need to re-watch the earlier seasons, but I do enjoy re-watching the later ones, which seem to have more layers and can be twisted this way and that.

I honestly think Whedon and his writers improved as they moved forward. And they had the best group of writers in their latter seasons.