Homer Simpson Named Greatest TV Character 142
A survey by Entertainment Weekly has named Homer Simpson the greatest character created for television or film in the past 20 years. Everyone's favorite beer-swilling, donut-eating dad beat out Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the top spot. From the article: "'People can relate to Homer because we're all secretly propelled by desires we can't admit to,' Groening was quoted as telling Entertainment Weekly. 'Homer is launching himself head-first into every single impulsive thought that occurs to him. His love of whatever ... is a joy to witness.'"
Re:Harry Potter was a TV character? (Score:2, Informative)
"Greatest character created for television or film"
Geez, it's bad enough that people can't RTFA, but that was in the summary for heavens sake.....
Re:Yup. (Score:4, Informative)
Purely from a variety and skill point of view, I would have to nominate Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf. The number of different characters and personality mutations that character (and subsequently the actor) had to go through was ENORMOUS. Each and every one of them were expertly done, they were all done by the same actor, and unlike The Mighty Boosh where one actor plays multiple characters, they were all still technically Rimmer.
Re:Except he was created in 1989. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Except he was created in 1989. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Except he was created in 1989. (Score:5, Informative)
That's the least of their problems. Number 2 (Harry Potter) was created for a book. Number 5 (Joker) was created for comics in the 1960s. Numbers 8 (Hannibal Lecter) and 9 (Carrie Bradshaw) were originally created for books as well. So this is really the list of the top characters appearing in television or film in the last 20 years.
Actually, everyone is quoting TFA and TFS, but if you actually go to the source [ew.com], it doesn't actually use the words "created" or "TV". It's simply "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years". They specifically refer to the "100 greatest characters in pop-culture" and state "(w)hether the fictional women, men, ogres, muppets, babies, and cartoon rockers who made our list were initially created before 1990 didn’t matter so long as they made a lasting impact in the culture after 1990."