CARLTON FLETCHER: A glance at TV’s most memorable characters

“Oo-wee-oo, I look just like Buddy Holly, oh-oh-oh and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.”

— Weezer

In its May 2021 issue (1351), Rolling Stone magazine named its Top 50 TV sitcoms of all-time. Such lists are subjective, of course, but RS pretty much got it right, earning its reputation as the definitive voice on pop culture.

Here’s the magazine’s Top 15 sitcoms:

1. The Simpsons (Fox)

2. Cheers (NBC)

3. Seinfeld (NBC)

4. I Love Lucy (CBS)

5. All in the Family (CBS)

6. MASH (CBS)

7. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS)

8. The Honeymooners (CBS)

9. Parks & Recreation (NBC)

10. The Larry Sanders Show (HBO)

11. The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS)

12. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

13. Frasier (NBC)

14. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS)

15. Arrested Development (Fox)

(Just to be picky, I would have had NBC’s “The Office” in my Top 5 (RS had it at No. 23), and where in the heck was “WKRP in Cincinnati”?)

As fate would have it, just the night before — before I had even glanced at the Rolling Stone article — I had one of my random-thoughts-while-I-couldn’t-sleep moments during which I started putting together my list of the greatest TV characters of all-time. We all have our favorite shows, I reasoned, but sometimes there are absolutely great characters on so-so or even bad shows, and we watch the shows because of those characters. Frank (William H. Macy) and Fiona (Emmy Rossum) Gallagher on Showtime’s “Shameless,” “Mr. Spock” (Leonard Nimoy) on “Star Trek” or the Fonzie (Henry Winkler) on “Happy Days,” for examples.

Anyway, here’s a list I came up with off the top of my head:

1. Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) — Seinfeld

2 (tie). Barney Fife (Don Knotts) — Andy Griffith Show

2 (tie). Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) — The Wire

3. Archie Bunker (Carol O’Connor) — All in the Family

4. Mick Belker (Bruce Weitz)) — Hill Street Blues

5. Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) — (I Love Lucy)

6. Hank Voigt (Jason Beghe) — Chicago P.D.

7. Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) — The Wire

8. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) — The Sopranos

9. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) — The Office

10. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) — The Shield

11. Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) — Happy Days

12. Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) — The Andy Griffith Show

13. George Costanza (Jason Alexander) — Seinfeld

14. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) — The Office

15. Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) — Atlanta

16. Detectives Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West)/Lester Freemon (Clarke Peters)/Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce) — The Wire (All three were such integral parts — sometimes bungling, but always “good po-lice” — on this best TV show ever, I list them as one.)

17. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) — Star Trek

18. Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) — Dexter

19. Little Joe Cartwright (Michael Landon) — Bonanza

20. Selena Meyer, Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) — Veep/Seinfeld (Two great roles for this perennial Emmy winner.)

21. Earnest T. Bass (Howard Morris) — The Andy Griffith Show

22. Larry (Larry David) — Curb Your Enthusiasm

23. Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) — Branded

24. Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) — Shameless

25. Gomer Pyle (Jim Naybors) — Gomer Pyle USMC, Andy Griffith Show

26. Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown) — This Is Us

27. Radar O’Reilley (Gary Burghoff) — MASH

28. Rev. Jim (Christopher Lloyd) — Taxi

29. Leon Black (J.B. Smoove) — Curb Your Enthusiasm

30. Blake Shelton — The Voice (Some may argue that Blake’s not a character, but watch the show. He definitely is.)

There are, of course, thousands of great TV characters that should make such a list — and dump others off — if I wanted to do a little research. But a) I’m too lazy to get into a lot of research, b) it would take a lot of time I don’t have to conduct research, and c) I like to do things off the top of my head. Because it’s a guarantee that the moment I hit “send” on this computer and ship this story up to the copy desk, it’ll dawn on me that I forgot about as many characters as I remembered. And I’ll feel like a dummy.

(You can help me with the latter by reminding me of some of your favorite TV characters. Just email ‘em along.)