Hucklebug Episode 172: No RIPs (we just missed the news about Jean Simmons), shout-outs, Wii tennis update, movies (Bet: none; Stennie: After the Thin Man), highlights and lowlights, fuck-offs and you-rules, douchey hats for douchey guys, Top Five Sitcom Characters.
Music: “The Hucklebuck,” performed by Otis Redding, Lee Rocker, and Frank Sinatra.
My list of sitcom characters will be pitiful. I haven’t seen many sitcoms past 1985 and didn’t recognize your lists. So if you won’t make too much fun of me for being ignorant here is a list of great characters from antique sitcoms I remember.
* Lurch from Addams Family
* Corporal Agarn from F Troop (a great character for Larry Storch, who I love)
* Maxwell Smart from Get Smart
* Floyd the Barber from Andy Griffith
* Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley (horrible show but I love Lenny and Squiggy)
* Grady Wilson from Sanford and Son
* The Major from Soap
* Les Nessman from WKRP in Cincinnati
* The Coach on Cheers (original bartender)
My #1 favorite – Frank Drebin from Police Squad!
That’s the best I can do. Sorry. I’ve seen a couple of movies but don’t know much about TV.
If we’re just focusing on sitcoms, here’s my list:
5. Basil Fawlty
4. Rob & Laura Petrie (can’t have one without the other, as a wise man once said)
3. Maxwell Smart (how could I not?)
2. Dr. Johnny Fever (aka Johnny Sunshine, Johnny Cool, Johnny Duke, Johnny Style, Johnny Midnight…)
1. Deputy Barney Fife (do I really need to explain?)
Honorable Mentions:
Radar O’Reilly
Queen Elizabeth I (from Black Adder II, as played by my second wife Miranda Richardson)
Bailey Quarters, obviously
Sgt. Nick Yemana
Dave Lister
I’m assuming characters from dramas are coming soon, or as I like to call them, “the boring hour-long shows.” I have the top two nailed down, but after that it’ll take some work to fill out the list.
I have to say that I much prefer Brit-coms. That said, my all-time #1 HAS to be Karen Walker, Will and Grace.
2) Hyacinth Bucket (boo-kay), Keeping up Appearances
3) Patsy Stone, Absolutely Fabulous & Delilah, Jam & Jerusalem (Joanna Lumley plays both)
4) Dawn French as the Vicar of Dibley
5) Mr. Humphries, Are you being served?
Also, I vote for “asshat” for the John Edwards types, “doucheboy” for all the Jon Gosslins, and “ballsweat” for Glen Beck.
And, lastly, we all know which in-law is a stick in the gears of moving things along at holidays. Talk all you want. I am offended by it myself LOL!
Wow – Mikey finished his audio book. I haven’t even begun mine.
I don’t have any favorite villains because they’re bad.
YAY! Granny is out of the hospital! Boo for Stennie’s mom’s heart needing a stent! I’m glad your mom is on top of this kind of stuff. She’s got good thoughts coming from me.
The updates for Stennieville haven’t been showing up in on my Google Reader, so I just assumed you hadn’t been blogging. There’s so much to read! But I had to take a peek at Mary Kay. She’s a beaut.
Sitcoms! I can do sitcoms!
Niles- from Frasier
Rhoda – Mary Tyler Moore
Gob – Arrested Development
The Vicar – The Vicar of Dibley
Frank – Everyone Loves Raymond
Murphy Brown – Murphy Brown
Look, Heidi – WOMEN!
OH MY GOD Stennie! I can’t believe Rimmer didn’t even make your list! You dressed up as him for Halloween! You named your CAT after him!! I’m shocked. Also surprised Miles from Murphy Brown wasn’t in you Bubbling Under. I guess I knew you when…
Still working on my own list.
Favorite sitcom characters (not already mentioned by others), starting with the most recent.
Jack Donaughy, 30 Rock
The perfect vehicle for Alec Baldwin. Just his hair and his stone-faced glances crack me up, but he’s had some truly awesome lines:
“The Italians have a saying, Lemon: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. They’ve never won a war or mass-produced a decent car, but on this they’re right.”
[About Kenneth, the Page] “In five years we’ll all be working for him or dead by his hand.”
Dr. Tobias Fünke, Arrested Development
Frankly, every character on that show could be in the top five and my bubbling under.
Hank Hill, (w/ Bobby a close 2d), King of the Hill
Cliff Claven from Cheers
Serves as a cautionary tale – just because you know something that someone else has gotten wrong, you don’t have to say so. Beware of any sentence that begins with the word “actually . . . “
Wojo from Barney Miller
Though, again, every character on that show was worthy and indispensible, IMO.
Of those mentioned, in which I concur:
Basil Fawlty (Don’t mention the war!”)
Barney Fife
Dr. Johnny Fever and Bailey Quarters (always found her much hotter/more appealing than Loni Anderson)
Vicar of Dibley
Dawn French was also wonderful as a different character each week in a show called “Murder Most Horrid”
I’m so behind, so I just wanted to say hello and pimp for a shout-out. I’m not so sure about the sitcom characters—I like the ones who are truly evil. Not evil as in “let-me-eviscerate-this-cat-before-you” but evil in that they would just like to make people squirm and say whatever comes into their heads. For example, Christine Baranski’s character on Sybil, most people on Married With Children (with the exception of Marcy, the next door neighbor) and Ned from the relatively obscure “Ned and Stacey”.