How does your favorite Gang of Four map? (i.e., Star Trek, Seinfeld, The Beatles...)

[Ghanima]

Aliens:

1. Ripley
2. Hicks
3. Newt
4. Hudson

[Voyager]

@NoClueBoy

Slight nitpick. The Star Trek TOS gang was mostly the Holy Three of Kirk, Spock, and Bones. They regularly alternated (via the writers, of course) among the four positions you give. So, the TOS gang isn’t really four.

(Just thought you enjoy a very obsesed Trekker chiming in.) :dubious:

I agree it is the gang of three, but it makes more sense viewed through old Freudian psychology:
Id: McCoy
Superego - Spock
Ego: Kirk

where the ego is the part that integrates the warring id and superego.

Star Wars characters are examples of the Heros Journey plot, which many of us write automatically. Besides the one listed, there is the Mentor figure, here Obi-wan.

As for the OP, how about MASH?

First few seasons

1. Hawkeye
2. Trapper John
3. Henry
4. Radar

In the latter series

1. Hawkeye
2. Charles or Potter
3. BJ
4. Klinger

In the earlier seasons Frank and Hot Lips were (feeble) villains, and don’t get included.

[chrisk]

@NoClueBoy

1. Louis Wu
2. Speaker to Animals / Teela Brown
3. The Ringworld itself / Teela Brown / Nessus / Speaker to Animals
4. Nessus / various minor characters

I would tend to nail it down, for the fab four of ‘Ringworld’ as:

1. Louis
2. Teela
3. Speaker
4. Nessus.

It’s not perfect, but I think that’s closer than anything else, including swapping speaker and teela as you leave open in your schema. Putting ‘the ringworld itself’ and ‘minor characters’ in is superfluous.

[AncientHumanoid]

@chrisk

Putting ‘the ringworld itself’ and ‘minor characters’ in is superfluous.

Oh, I don’t know. It seemed to me that Ringworld itself was almost meant to take on a roll bigger and more in depth than simply being a location. ymmv ianapp (Pak Protector)

;j <---------------- Speaker to Animalstein

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Seven

The Gang of Four, Gang of Four

Jiang Qing
Zhang Chunqiao
Yao Wenyuan
Wang Hongwen

[ddgryphon]

@Nonsuch

I would offer:

1. Eric & Donna (more complex)
2. Kelso & Jackie (less complex, more “ideal”)
3. Hyde/Red
4. Fez

Actually I think this is more correct as I got a couple of categories confused – I agree with your assessment.

[ddgryphon]

1. Hero, conflicted - typically the true protagonist of the situation/story
2. Hero, not conflicted - typically more of a pure “hero ideal”
3. Contrarian or emotionally more complex
4. Comedy relief

Murphy Brown:

1. Murphy
2. Jim
3. Corky
4. Frank

Designing Women

1. Julia
2. Charlene
3. Mary Jo
4. Suzanne/Anthony

Dick Van Dyke

1. Dick
2. Laura
3. Sally
4. Buddy/Mel

Andy Griffith Show

1. Andy
2. Opie
3. Barney
4. Goober/Gomer

As Time Goes By

1. Jean
2. Lionel
3. The Girls (Judy/Sandy)
4. Allistair

Gunsmoke

1. Matt
2. Kitty (later Newly took on this role – but never looked as good in the dress)
3. Doc
4. Chester/Festus

Bonanza

1. Ben
2. Adam
3. Little Joe
4. Hoss

That’s all for now

[Little_Nemo]

1. Batman
2. Superman
3. Green Arrow
4. Plastic Man

[Little_Nemo]

1. Lou
2. Mary
3. Murray
4. Ted

[Little_Nemo]

1. Dorothy
2. Scarecrow
3. Tin Man
4. Cowardly Lion

[Little_Nemo]

1. Michael
2. Sonny
3. Tom
4. Fredo

[Monstre]

Scrubs: The “main four” seem to be J.D., Turk, Elliot, and Carla. But I’m not sure they fill out all the categories alone. Need to use some other characters, and the first two vary depending on who the storyline focuses on:

1. Hero, conflicted: J.D., Elliot
2. Hero, unconflicted: Turk, Carla
3. Contrarian: Dr. Cox
4. Comedy relief: The janitor

If I had to use just the “main four”, and consider how it seems to fall out most often, I’d say:

1. J.D.
2. Turk
3. Carla
4. Elliot

[Larry_Borgia]

This doesn’t really work for Hyperion, but…

1.) Sol Weintraub, Brawne Lamia
2.) Het Masteen, Colonel Kassad
3.) Lenar Hoyt, The Consul.
4.) Martin Silenus.

[Monstre]

Lost:

1. Jack (conflicted)
2. John Locke (not so conflicted. At least not until late season 2)
3. Kate (complex)
4. Hurley (comedy relief)
   24

Okay, I know there aren’t really a set of just four central characters throughout, but still… thought I’d see who seemed to fit. By season.

Season 1:

1. Jack Bauer (Duh!)
2. David Palmer / Nina Myers (yes, for most of the way through)
3. Sherry Palmer / George Mason
4. Not sure there was a comedy relief in this season.

Season 2:

1. Jack
2. David Palmer
3. Sherry Palmer / George Mason
4. Kim (there are cougars out there!)

Season 3:

1. Jack
2. Tony / (maybe Chase, too)
3. Chloe / Ryan Chapelle (both contrarian, different styles)
4. CLOW-DIA ?

Season 4:

1. Jack
2. Sec. Def. Heller / Curtis
3. Erin Driscoll
4. Chloe / Edgar

Season 5:

1. Jack
2. Aaron Pierce / Bill Buchanan
3. Lynn McGill / President Logan
4. Chloe

Since there are so many “main” characters coming in and out of plot threads, one could probably focus on different realms to pull them out – like in season 5, the “CTU” gang of characters, vs. the “presidential retreat” characters. Each one could easily have it’s own set.

[Larry_Borgia]

1.) Yog Sothoth
2.) Cthulu
3.) Shub-Niggaurath
4.) Nyarlathotep

[Sublight]

Battle of the Planets

1. Jason

2. Princess

3. Mark

4. Tiny/Keyop

5. Davey Jones

6. Mike Nesmith

7. Mickey Dolenz (hell, even his name says ‘sadness’)

8. Peter Tork

[Raguleader]

@WordMan

1. Hero, conflicted - typically the true protagonist of the situation/story
2. Hero, not conflicted - typically more of a pure “hero ideal”
3. Contrarian or emotionally more complex
4. Comedy relief

1. Horatio Hornblower
2. William Bush
3. Archie Kennedy
4. Matthews/Styles (Throughout the movies, these two are a unified pair, with Styles tending to be Matthews’s foil)

[WordMan]

@Little Nemo

1. Michael
2. Sonny
3. Tom
4. Fredo

A few points:

• the breakout above is freaking brilliant.

• I have no idea what to do about situations where there are lots of characters, but perhaps four seem to be prominent, i.e., Lost - I like a bunch of the attempts I’ve seen, though.

• cactus waltz - I hear you about the gender thing. I guess my point is that some other divisions/groupings - such as the reference to the Freudian grouping for Star Trek’s big 3 - also apply, and I was wondering if your grouping was an alternate grouping more than a re-interpretation of the grouping I offered in the OP. No right answer - I was just thinking out loud…

Darn - I wish I could find something on this…I coulda sworn my English prof used this construct to take apart some Shakespeare and implied that it was a standard way to see how a playwright put different aspects of themselves into main characters, but try Googling Shakespeare! :rolleyes:

[Kat]

1. Hero, conflicted - typically the true protagonist of the situation/story
2. Hero, not conflicted - typically more of a pure “hero ideal”
3. Contrarian or emotionally more complex
4. Comedy relief

1. Jo
2. Meg
3. Beth
4. Amy

Or how about:

1. Taltos
2. Morrolan
3. Aliera
4. Loiosh

Or to go even more obscure:

1. Gene
2. Linda
3. Snowclaw
4. the castle (or perhaps Osmirik)

I’m pretty sure there’s at least one other person who knows these:

1. Val Con
2. Miri
3. Edger
4. the Juntavas?

[Larry_Borgia]

1.)Stephen Colbert
2.)Jon Stewart
3.)Lewis Black
4.)The 24-hour cable news shows

This is my favorite thread ever.