Twenty-Five Favorite Glass Teat Characters

Not that any of you asked:

1. The Doctor/Doctor Who. I can spend all day discussing which one of the many doctors who played the title character in Doctor Who I liked best, but to make a long story short, Peter Davison and the early Tom Baker are among my favorites.

2. Fox Mulder. The snarky male lead character in The X-Files. My role model.

3. Emma Peel. One of the first -- and best -- of the many female “tough chicks” who would eventually dominate TV. The female lead character on the best episodes of The Avengers. She's smart. She's beautiful. What more can you ask for?

4. Buffy Summers. The lead character of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

5. Rupert Giles. Buffy's paternal mentor and trainer in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Best TV librarian ever.

6. Dr. Gregory House. The lead character of the Hugh Laurie TV series House. A cynical, sarcastic doctor who's worthy a dozen shiny happy no-accounts.

7. Kim Kelly. The white trash “psycho” girlfriend of the James Franco character on Freaks and Geeks. One of the few TV characters I've seen that reminds me of a real-life person. (Actually she reminds me of a recent amor de mi vida but let's not go there.)

8. Edmund Blackadder. Funniest Rowan Atkinson character ever. Appeared in the series Blackadder, of course.

9. River Tam. Female character in Firefly. Most memorable little sister on TV since Samantha Mulder.

10. Basil Fawlty. Most memorable TV innkeeper ever. The type of hotel manager you love to hate. Appeared on Fawlty Towers.

11. Turlough. Most memorable male companion of the Doctor Who series.

12. Autolycus, King of Thieves. The most archetypical Bruce Campbell character since Ash. Appeared in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.

13. Holly. The female computer in Red Dwarf. Far more likable in her feminine aspect than in her initial male aspect.

14. Carl Kolchak. Lead character of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Not exactly the most memorable TV journalist ever but an early forerunner -- and spiritual ancestor -- of Fox Mulder.

15. Veronica Mars. Buffy meets Nancy Drew -- sans vampires, of course. Title character of the Veronica Mars series, of course.

16. Dawn Tinsley. The love interest of the Martin Freeman character in the British version of The Office. Possessor of the most interesting story arc in the series.

17. Arnold Rimmer. The outer space Thatcherite you love to hate. Appeared in Red Dwarf.

18. Tegan. Most memorable female companion of the Doctor Who series.

19. Beth Davenport. Because when I was a teenager watching The Rockford Files, I didn't want to just be Jim Rockford, I wanted to date his lawyer Beth Davenport too...

20. Jamie Summers. The title character of The Bionic Woman.

21. Federico Diaz. The Puerto Rican cosmetologist and future funeral parlor owner in Six Feet Under.

22. Dora Calderon. The beautiful Elizabeth Peña character in the otherwise so-so sitcom I Married Dora. I used to have a bad crush on Elizabeth Peña because of this show but eventually I got over it.

23. Brenda Chenoweth. Another favorite character from Six Feet Under.

24. Dana Scully. Female lead character in The X-Files. Yes, I know. She really deserves to be higher up on the list.

25. Billie Newman. Female journalist in Lou Grant. Because I like... er, journalists...


Of course I could have named many more...