# Name the most evil (but non violent) TV characters you can think of. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274 "2014-09-02T18:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/21 "2014-09-02T22:22:20Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Much worse than him was [David Morse’s detective character from _House_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tritter). He ridiculously abused his power for personal revenge and should have been fired. However House ridiculously abuses his power and routinely commits felonies to feed his addiction and treats patients while under the influence. But we are supposed to like him. For all you can say about Tritter, in the end he was 100% right about House. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/22 "2014-09-02T22:33:58Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > However House ridiculously abuses his power and routinely commits felonies to feed his addiction and treats patients while under the influence. But we are supposed to like him. For all you can say about Tritter, in the end he was 100% right about House. Oh, House himself was a creep for sure. I enjoyed the show in fits and starts, but I can’t help but attribute a lot of its popularity to wish-fulfillment fantasy on the part of a lot of people who wished they were _so goddamn good_ at their job that they could treat everyone like shit and (largely) get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/23 "2014-09-02T23:07:40Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Pick basically any character from Wolf of Wall Street? Or how about Gordon Gekko? Not tv characters. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/24 "2014-09-02T23:14:58Z")
From my long years of watching TV, the well dressed, well coifed, erudite, upper middle class WASPy mother signal utter EVIL to the heroine. Moaning, bitching, kvetching. Everybody Loves Raymond, Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Mary Tyler Moore, House’s girlfriend - if they have a WASP mother, she is evil. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/25 "2014-09-02T23:17:03Z")
I suppose having henchmen rules out Dr Miguelito Loveless on _ **Wild, Wild, West** _? :dubious: (To be fair, the only time they were shown as being violent was when they were fighting with Jim.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/26 "2014-09-02T23:19:41Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Everybody Loves Raymond, Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Mary Tyler Moore, House’s girlfriend - if they have a WASP mother, she is evil. **Mary’s** mother was evil?!? :dubious: 😕 I think you must be confusing her with Rhoda’s kvetchy mother, who wasn’t WASPy by any stretch of the imagination! ---
**Author:** ![SPosting](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@SPosting](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPosting)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/27 "2014-09-02T23:37:52Z")
What about Amon from Legend of Korra? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/28 "2014-09-02T23:46:56Z")
Livia Soprano ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/29 "2014-09-03T00:43:32Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > He’s been violent though. He once hit a man with a club and asked Smithers to dismember the corpse and send his widow a corsage. > > Also he was Dracula once. What do you mean “once”? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/30 "2014-09-03T00:49:22Z")
I’m embarrassed to be admitting that I came along for the ride this year when my daughter binge-watched _Gossip Girl_. But I did (at least for part of it), and as a consequence, I am able to nominate Bartholomew Bass. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/31 "2014-09-03T00:56:49Z")
Carmella Soprano. She turned a blind eye to her husband’s Mafia connections, all the while acting like the good Christian housewife. She enjoyed the nice house, and cars, and suburban life, knowing full well that it was blood money. And she failed in her most basic duty to protect her children from bad people. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/32 "2014-09-03T01:02:06Z")
Going to TV animation, I think I only saw him getting rid of some unsavory characters using his murder bag, but he never seemed to kill or dirty his hands directly. I think Dr. Henry Killinger of the Venture Brothers qualifies. Even more so when clues that he is supposed to **be** Henry Kissinger pop up: When Killlinger gives Dr. Venture his super villain suit, Dr. Venture says that it’s “different”, Killinger responds saying “Nixon said the same thing when I gave him his first power tie.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/33 "2014-09-03T01:35:03Z")
Eddie Haskell? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/34 "2014-09-03T01:46:48Z")
President Roslin. NuBSG. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/35 "2014-09-03T01:51:30Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#): > > Disagree. All that could describe Sheldon and he can be supportive and occasionally complimentary of his friend. The mom, OTOH, goes beyond merely neglectful and into cruel and mean. Indeed, when mentioning his siblings, Leonard has related that they’ve gotten love and support and praise etc. It just seems that she goes out of her way to destroy Leonard’s ego, literally since birth. I have a pet theory that his whole life is an experiment by his mother to see what would happen to a child raised without love. But still: not evil. Destroying a dam and flooding a town killing thousands isn’t necessarily **violent** , so how about Cecil Terwilliger? ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/36 "2014-09-03T01:59:28Z")
Been a while since I’ve watched Leverage (in fact, I could stand to give it another go, and listening to the commentaries, and then reading the blog posts about it on Kung Fu Monkey), but quite a few of the baddies would fit the bill; few of them were violent, and a decent handful were technically within the letter of the law, probably. It goes double for later seasons; the antagonists got rather more cartoonish as the show went on. If it’s fair to compartmentalize specific interactions, the various spies in The Americans could fit. I’m thinking about their treatment of the closeted spec ops fella from last season. The short-lived original handlers, then Philip and Elizabeth, each blackmailed him with the threat of exposing his orientation and ruining his career into betraying his country. Of course, the show’s set up so you usually sympathize with the KGB agents… ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/37 "2014-09-03T02:19:23Z")
**Frank Underwood** of House of Cards. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/38 "2014-09-03T02:33:50Z")
Was Dr. Smith on _Lost in Space_ ever really violent? He certainly tried to be evil, he just wasn’t very good at it. ---
**Author:** ![pseudograph](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pseudograph/32/19768_2.png) [@pseudograph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudograph)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/39 "2014-09-03T03:34:17Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > **Frank Underwood** of House of Cards. Pretty sure pushing someone in front of a subway train constitutes violence. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274/40 "2014-09-03T05:27:12Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > But still: not evil. How so? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-most-evil-but-non-violent-tv-characters-you-can-think-of/697274.md?page=3)