With all that said, here are some of my favorite TV characters from some of my favorite TV shows. :)
Michael Kelson (That 70's Show)
Played by: Ashton Kutcher
Played by: Ashton Kutcher
Since the dawn of time, there have been lovable idiots- people with hearts of gold, but brains of mashed potatoes. Michael Kelso (simply known as "Kelso" to his friends) is one of those idiots. Sexy as heck but dumb as a brick, Kelso is continually the source of amusement for his friends and colleagues, though his good-naturedness (and not entirely understanding that they're laughing at him) prevents him from taking things too personally. As far as he's concerned, as long as he's attractive ("man pretty," as he says) life will go well for him, and he's not entirely wrong about that. He's able to use his goofiness and his layered 70's hair to his advantage, and manages to escape the consequences of foolish (and hilarious) actions. Gullible, vain, and spacey, Kelso is at the mercy of his friends, but none more so than his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie, who treats Kelso like a big dumb Ken doll she can play with. That's ok, Kelso doesn't mind. Just tell him he's pretty, and it's all good.
Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)
Played by: Jim Parsons
Played by: Jim Parsons
I'm sorry, I mean't DR. Sheldon Cooper. Truly one of the great comedic characters of the last decade, Sheldon has found himself in a permenant place in the comedy pantheon with his snide arrogance and inflated sense of nerd purpose. A clever, but irritating thorn in the side of his friends, Sheldon is highly intelligent, but rigid, condescending, and snippy, and has a tendency to belittle his friends' intelligence, despite the fact that in most circles, they would all be considered geniuses. Sheldon starts out the series with a robotic sense of right and wrong and an utter loathing for any form of sentiment, but throughout the show, is shown to humble himself bit by bit in the face of changing circumstances. Sheldon almost singlehandedly rocketed The Big Bang Theory to fame- the show is a ratings giant, and almost consistently pulls in 18 million viewers per week, not even counting all the reruns that seem to play constantly. Snarky, irritating, and yet hilarious, Dr. Sheldon Cooper is one TV character that we'll certainly be talking about 20 years from now.
Peggy Olsen (Mad Men)
Played By: Elizabeth Moss
In the time before the Women's Liberation movement, there were women like Peggy Olsen. She works in the heavy-drinking, sex-having man's world of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, a Madison Avenue advertising firm in the 60s, under the thumb of creative director Don Draper (more on him later.) In the very first episode, Peggy is presented as an awkward secretary coming right out of Catholic School and into the big leagues, and the rampant debauchery in the office is startling and frightening to her. She attempts to emulate the other women in the office, who are all secretaries as well, in their sex appeal and flirtatious ways, but finds it doesn't come naturally to her. Despite, and perhaps because of this, Peggy is allowed to shine in other ways, and even convinces the dominating Draper to promote her to copywriter, a first for women in the company. As the show progresses, Peggy becomes bolder in her relationship with her male cohorts. They treat her with respect, but only so far as feels necessary. They acknowledge that she is good at her job, but still look at her as if she is a duck who has learned to speak French- a novelty, not the standard. She continues to take their teasing with a kind of passive patience, but chooses to fight back when she feels it necessary. After a while, Peggy begins to assimilate into the group. She drinks as heavily and as frequently as they do, she becomes interested- although someone vaguely- in the burgeoning hippie/beatnik scene, and she has several relationships with men and even a slight fling with a woman from Grenwich Village. She also becomes an obsessive workaholic. She stays at the office hours after the others leave, drinking and smoking pot all the while. Everything else has to take a back burner, particularly her relationships with men. She has lost more than one lover over her inability to leave work at the office, and it hasn’t seemed to make her any happier. In many ways, Peggy is the modern woman, or the beginnings of the post-modern feminist. The whole world is on the bring of change, and I feel that as the season continues, she will become a very polarizing character in her attempt to be a small woman in a big man’s world.
Played By: Elizabeth Moss
In the time before the Women's Liberation movement, there were women like Peggy Olsen. She works in the heavy-drinking, sex-having man's world of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, a Madison Avenue advertising firm in the 60s, under the thumb of creative director Don Draper (more on him later.) In the very first episode, Peggy is presented as an awkward secretary coming right out of Catholic School and into the big leagues, and the rampant debauchery in the office is startling and frightening to her. She attempts to emulate the other women in the office, who are all secretaries as well, in their sex appeal and flirtatious ways, but finds it doesn't come naturally to her. Despite, and perhaps because of this, Peggy is allowed to shine in other ways, and even convinces the dominating Draper to promote her to copywriter, a first for women in the company. As the show progresses, Peggy becomes bolder in her relationship with her male cohorts. They treat her with respect, but only so far as feels necessary. They acknowledge that she is good at her job, but still look at her as if she is a duck who has learned to speak French- a novelty, not the standard. She continues to take their teasing with a kind of passive patience, but chooses to fight back when she feels it necessary. After a while, Peggy begins to assimilate into the group. She drinks as heavily and as frequently as they do, she becomes interested- although someone vaguely- in the burgeoning hippie/beatnik scene, and she has several relationships with men and even a slight fling with a woman from Grenwich Village. She also becomes an obsessive workaholic. She stays at the office hours after the others leave, drinking and smoking pot all the while. Everything else has to take a back burner, particularly her relationships with men. She has lost more than one lover over her inability to leave work at the office, and it hasn’t seemed to make her any happier. In many ways, Peggy is the modern woman, or the beginnings of the post-modern feminist. The whole world is on the bring of change, and I feel that as the season continues, she will become a very polarizing character in her attempt to be a small woman in a big man’s world.
Shawn Hunter (Boy Meets World)
Played By: Rider Strong
Be still, my pounding heart. I can honestly say that Shawn Hunter was the first boy I ever had a crush on, with his baggy 90s 'bad boy' clothes and flippy, parted-down-the-middle hair. But it was more than his 90s-tastic style and bad boy persona: Shawn was vulnerable. There was a beautiful, sexy vulnerability to him that was impossible to resist as a tweenage girl, and he was just the right mixture of dangerous, and sweet. The best thing about Shawn's character in compared to the others (I'm looking at you, Topanga and Eric) was that his personality stayed pretty consistent throughout the run of the show. He didn't have a dramatic personality change halfway through (again, Topanga). The only thing that kept changing about Shawn was his crazy family- most of the jokes made about Shawn are regarding his poor, trailer-living criminal family and general lack of ambition in life due to his poor background, and while we do see him rise above his background, his family history changed almost episode to episode. First he had a sister named Debbie who was never heard from again, and then a half brother who did the same, and then another half brother, and then his mom left, and then it turned out it wasn't his mom, and then his dad died, and on it went. Poor Shawn. Part of me still wants to snuggle you close and tell you how much I love you. :)
Played By: Rider Strong
Be still, my pounding heart. I can honestly say that Shawn Hunter was the first boy I ever had a crush on, with his baggy 90s 'bad boy' clothes and flippy, parted-down-the-middle hair. But it was more than his 90s-tastic style and bad boy persona: Shawn was vulnerable. There was a beautiful, sexy vulnerability to him that was impossible to resist as a tweenage girl, and he was just the right mixture of dangerous, and sweet. The best thing about Shawn's character in compared to the others (I'm looking at you, Topanga and Eric) was that his personality stayed pretty consistent throughout the run of the show. He didn't have a dramatic personality change halfway through (again, Topanga). The only thing that kept changing about Shawn was his crazy family- most of the jokes made about Shawn are regarding his poor, trailer-living criminal family and general lack of ambition in life due to his poor background, and while we do see him rise above his background, his family history changed almost episode to episode. First he had a sister named Debbie who was never heard from again, and then a half brother who did the same, and then another half brother, and then his mom left, and then it turned out it wasn't his mom, and then his dad died, and on it went. Poor Shawn. Part of me still wants to snuggle you close and tell you how much I love you. :)
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