A lot of my favorite shows have protagonists who are charming/entertaining psychopaths. Greg House, Thomas Durant, Cumberbatch’s Holmes, etc. I’m sure there’s a long, rich tradition of these, but who were the earliest?
I want to limit this to network television shows; no Masterpiece Theater or GE/Texaco Theater adaptations of classic novels and plays. I’m looking for episodic network television, primary or secondary characters only (Someone in the weekly credits, not the twice-yearly appearance by Paul Lynde or Jack Cassidy). I guess everyone on The Addams Family qualifies, so let’s exclude situation comedies: Hourlong dramas only. Who are the earliest charming psychopath protagonists on American network television?
Nah, Ginger is just a narcissist and Mr. Howell clearly suffers from some kind of obsessive disorder focused on money. But The Professor appears to be sabotaging every attempt to escape by assigning the terminally incompetent Gilligan to a lynchpin role so that he will be blamed when the plan fails and leaves them stranded on the island yet again. The guestion is what is Roy Hinkley’s motivation? Is it a sociology study without informed consent? Is he on the run from the FBI and wants company on is hidden island retreat? Is there a more sinister plot behind his persistant sabotage? Tune in next week to find out, here on Gilligan’s Isle.
Most of the cast of characters on daytime soaps (even the “good” characters) struck me this way, and some of them go way back. Limited to prime time…well, JR Ewing was pretty evil, right? Was he the protagonist?
Peyton Place, prime time’s original soap opera, had enough sociopaths to at least fill a suburb: Leslie Carrington, Catherine Harrington, Stella Chernak and Jill Smith, among others. Like most soaps, characters flipped between good and evil as the story required.
As far as earliest I always found Bob Cummings a sociopath as the protagonist. An early Charlie Harper but the 1950’s version.
As a photographer “Bob’s business consists almost exclusively of shooting glamour girls, who Bob pursues with a singleness of purpose.” from [URL=“http://www.tv.com/shows/the-bob-cummings-show/”
Sargent Bilko also comes to mind as someone whose moral center may be nontraditional.
Tony was greedy, brutal, and fundamentally dishonest. He was also a pathetic, sad, assclown who was terrified of his mother. One thing he never was, though, was charming, IMO. He could project an untrustworthy likability when it suited him, but charm? No. Gandolfini’s acting was fantastic in that he kept us interested for so long in the day-to-day life of a scumbag.
Lester Gruber is the sailor you are thinking of. The character was a stereotypical small-time grifter. He was played by Carl Ballantine, perhaps the inventor of comedy stage magic.
A lot of people on the show were drawn to his personality. His wife, children, members of his mob family (most notably Christopher.) Few outside people liked him, but that is because he did not try to be charming with them. He was charming enough to his family and mob family that a lot of people were tricked into thinking he genuinely cared about them.
Other charming psychopaths: Vic Mackey, Don Draper, and Al Swearengen,