# TV's best protagonists



## TheIntelligencePolice (Jun 26, 2022)

Who, in your humble opinion, is the best protagonist(s) you've had the pleasure to watch from the comfort of your front room?

TV's given us a lot of great characters down the years, we've laughed with them, cried with them, and I'll wager that on a lot of occasions we've wanted to jump through the screen and slap some sense into them. But I think everyone has those characters who they like just that little bit more than the rest, so c'mon, name the names.

For me the ones that spring first to mind are; Buffy Summers, Dean Winchester, and even though he's not sci-fi/fantasy related, Jack Bauer. Each of them are deep, complex characters that even though they do cringy, stupid, and sometimes horrifying things, they're compelling characters who appeal to me on so many different levels.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 26, 2022)

J R Ewing ( Dallas)  his motto " Once you give up your integrity , the rest is piece of cake "    He was  one od the great most memorable  television protagonists of all time.  The one everyone   loved to hate , he was wonderfully dastardly and he had style .


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## Harpo (Jun 26, 2022)

Norman Stanley Fletcher.


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## Rodders (Jun 26, 2022)

There are so many, but my favourite is probably Captain John Sheridan from Babylon 5.

I've always liked Bruce Boxleitner and Babylon 5 is my favourite Science Fiction experience, so i suppose it's natural for him to be the protagonist that comes to mind when asked this question. As to why? Probably his strong sense of right, wrong and duty. He's a good role model and the hero we deserve.


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## Danny McG (Jun 26, 2022)

BAYLOR said:


> he was wonderfully *dastardly* and he had style


And right away this guy popped into my head....I remember as a teenager yelling at the telly
"No, just keep driving, you're miles in front so don't waste time setting traps for the others, drive!"


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## hitmouse (Jun 26, 2022)

James T Kirk
Blackadder
Malcolm Tucker
Rick and Vyvian
Smithy and Nessa
Captain Mainwaring
Arthur Dent


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## BAYLOR (Jun 26, 2022)

Danny McG said:


> And right away this guy popped into my head....I remember as a teenager yelling at the telly
> "No, just keep driving, you're miles in front so don't waste time setting traps for the others, drive!"
> View attachment 90869



Dick Dastardly and Mutlety  appeared in two different series   one the was Dastardly and Mutley in their Flying Machines  and the other  Wacky Races, I remember both of those series .    A fews ago ,  there was  comic book series that took Dick Dastardly and  Mutely and the rest of the Wacky Racers and gave it a  very Dark and nasty  Mad Max spin . The artwork for these comics is quite good and quite disturbing. I think you like it .


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 26, 2022)

BAYLOR said:


> Dick Dastardly and Mutlety  appeared in two different series   one the was Dastardly and Mutley in their Flying Machines  and the other  Wacky Races, I remember both of those series .    A fews ago ,  there was  comic book series that took Dick Dastardly and  Mutely and the rest of the Wacky Racers and gave it a  very Dark and nasty  Mad Max spin . The artwork for these comics is quite good and quite disturbing. I think you like it .




They were also in Laff-a-lympics, although under the names of the 'Dread Baron' and 'Mumbly', leading 'The Really Rottens'. It's actually a pretty fun series featuring Scooby Doo, Captain Caveman and other Hanna-Barbera characters. I'm not sure why it seems to have been largely forgotten.


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 26, 2022)

My contenders would be the boys from the Dwarf. I'd like to see myself as Cat, but in reality I'm probably a cross between Lister and Rimmer.

One of the best protagonists I've seen on tv was Obadiah Hawkeswill. A character so brilliantly brought to life by Pete Postlethwaite that the author said he regretted killing him off so soon.

If I had to choose one character though as the most memorable, it would have to be Sir Humphrey Appleby  played on tv by the wonderful Sir Nigel Hawthorne. Never has a character ever spoken so eloquently, nor used a hundred words where one would have sufficed.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 26, 2022)

paranoid marvin said:


> They were also in Laff-a-lympics, although under the names of the 'Dread Baron' and 'Mumbly', leading 'The Really Rottens'. It's actually a pretty fun series featuring Scooby Doo, Captain Caveman and other Hanna-Barbera characters. I'm not sure why it seems to have been largely forgotten.



At that time, they were re-using   these  old characters  because , at that point in time ,  they'd largely  run out good ideas and were putting any old crap show on the air.  They  figured the kids would watch them  anyways and,  for a long time, they were right.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 26, 2022)

*Maxwell Smart * known as bumbling Controll agent 86. From Shoe Phone to Cone of Silence .


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## BAYLOR (Jun 26, 2022)

Dr Shrinker 

Dr Shrinker , Dr Shrinker , 
He's a madman with an evil mind !


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## Astro Pen (Jun 26, 2022)

It is an almost endless list but a few that surfaced rapidly.

Number Six  (Patrick McGoohan  in The Prisoner)

Frances Urquart in the original British _House of Cards_

Emma Peel

The Man from Uncle  (Robert Vaughan)

William Hartnell as the real Dr Who despite the occasional fluffed line

Basil Fawlty

Roger Moore as The Saint, the epitome of cool


and I am with @BAYLOR  on J.R Ewing, the only brain in his whole moronic family. He had no choice.


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## Guttersnipe (Jun 27, 2022)

The Doctors from Doctor Who.
James Gordon from Gotham. 
Angel from Angel.
Chidi Anagonye from The Good Place.
Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock.
Max Evans from Roswell.
I agree with James T. Kirk and Buffy Summers.


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 27, 2022)

Mal from Firefly has to be one of mine.
Napoleon Solo - who out epitomied Roger Moore in coolness by far.
Emma Peel.
Noggin the Nog.

But the person I have _most _ identified with and wanted to be *ever* in any TV show I have ever seen, and, according to those who know me, I uncannily resemble, is Bernard Black .



			
				wikipedia said:
			
		

> Bernard Black is the owner of Black Books, a small London bookshop. The series revolves around the lives of Bernard, Manny and Fran. Bernard's persona of a grouchy and misanthropic shopkeeper is a central theme; he has a hatred of the outside world and all the people who inhabit it, except for his best friend, Fran, who initially runs a trendy bric-a-brac shop, Nifty Gifty, next-door to the shop.
> 
> Bernard displays little interest or knowledge in retail (or, indeed, anything outside drinking, smoking and reading) and actively avoids having to interact with anyone, even inside his shop, as he has a seething dislike towards his customers who treat his bookshop more like a personal library.


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## Parson (Jun 27, 2022)

*Spock*, in a league of his own. He was so smart and so capable that I didn't even consider the no emotions side of it. --- Much more the TV series than the movies.

*Tim Taylor*, for rather opposite reasons. He reminded me of my bumbling clueless self. But, at least he had a good heart.

*Columbo*, I think because he played so ultimately against type casting.


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## Droflet (Jun 27, 2022)

I enjoyed the troubled father-son relationship between Walter and Jesse in Breaking Bad.


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## Rodders (Jun 27, 2022)

Sergeant Bilko from the Phil Silvers show had me in stitches as a kid. Really funny stuff.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 27, 2022)

Dr Richard Kimball   *The Fugitive *
David Vincent           *The Invaders *


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## Mouse (Jun 27, 2022)

Difficult because secondary characters are usually waaaaaay more interesting than the protags. For example, I prefer Anya to Buffy. Godber to Fletcher. Rimmer to Lister. Wash to Mal. etc. etc.

John Crichton from Farscape (though Aeryn is my favourite character).

All four TMNTs (though Michelangelo is clearly the best).

All four Monkees (though Micky ftw).

Trying to think of a show I really like where the protag is a woman (apart from Buffy and like I said, I prefer Anya). Maybe Echo from Dollhouse.


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## Le Panda du Mal (Jun 27, 2022)

Kerr Avon from Blake's 7
John Crichton from Farscape (especially after Scorpius is implanted in his mind)
John Drake from Danger Man
Omar Little from The Wire
Although it's unclear how she will continue in the series, Ashin of the North from _The Kingdom _


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## Rodders (Jun 27, 2022)

Great shout on Crichton and Aeryn Soon. 

Buck Rogers
Flash Gordon
Starbuck, Apollo and Adama. (old or new)
Kirk, Picard and Sisko.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds.


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## TheIntelligencePolice (Jun 27, 2022)

Some good names on here, some even I'd forgotten! But a few others I'd forgot:

Del Boy Trotter.
Niles Crane. (The wife and I have just completed a full rewatch of Frasier.
And I dunno if anyone remembers a rather obscure comedy series called Watching from the end of the eighties to the early nineties, but I loved the character of Brenda in that.


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 27, 2022)

TheIntelligencePolice said:


> Some good names on here, some even I'd forgotten! But a few others I'd forgot:
> 
> Del Boy Trotter.
> Niles Crane. (The wife and I have just completed a full rewatch of Frasier.
> And I dunno if anyone remembers a rather obscure comedy series called Watching from the end of the eighties to the early nineties, but I loved the character of Brenda in that.




Yeah, I remember watching Watching at the time and loving it. I actually forgot all about then saw a few episodes on Youtube and found that it was just as funny. Pretty incredible that it ran for 7 series and 56 episodes, yet no-one remembers it and it rarely gets repeated.


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 27, 2022)

Rodders said:


> Sergeant Bilko from the Phil Silvers show had me in stitches as a kid. Really funny stuff.



Loved Bilko. Its seemed to run continually through my teenage years, and then suddenly disappeared without trace. I love (and envy) loquacious characters such as Ernie and Sir Humphrey, who can seemingly talk for minutes on a subject without repetition and without taking a breath. They would both do marvellously well on 'Just a Minute'.


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 27, 2022)

I would also have to add Jeremy Brett's Sherlock to the list of unforgettable protagonists. In the end, the actor and his persona became indistinguishable from each other; he literally put his heart and soul into the character and likely led to his all-too-early death. I like Basil Rathbone's depiction of Holmes, and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock was a refreshing change. But Jeremy Brett WAS Holmes. And I suspect always will be.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jun 28, 2022)

I agree with several of those who have been mentioned so far.

But I think my personal favorite might be Jim Rockford.


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## CupofJoe (Jun 28, 2022)

Benjamin Sisko from STS9
And as other have said Buffy Summers
@Mouse has a good point about secondary character. They are often given far more room to manoeuvre and become more interesting because of that. For me, a well written show can play to this strength and give us something that we are not expecting but still accept as fitting in to the format we know.


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## Toby Frost (Jun 28, 2022)

George Smiley

Honourable mentions to:

Walter White
Edmund Blackadder
Bagpuss
The Clangers
Josh, CJ, Toby and Donna from The West Wing

(wow, the crossover potential is amazing!)


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## Astro Pen (Jun 28, 2022)

Not my personal favourite but I am surprised not to see John Thaw as *Inspector Morse* "Inspector Morose"
Going right back there was Rupert Davies as *Maigret*
and *Jason King*, the ultimate in 1970's 'hairdresser' style




and a favourite of mine Steve Forrest as *The Barron*

The latter half of theme containing one of the best brass riffs I have heard in any series


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