This is the sixth and final round of the Great TV Sitcom Battle, Male Characters edition. Rankings are based on input gathered in another thread. Vote for your favorite character.
It seems odd that Bob Newhart is liable to win out of a field that originally included Barney Fife, Archie Bunker, Maxwell Smart, Ed Norton, Lou Grant, Buddy Sorrell, and (my favorite) Rollo Lawson. Any and all of whom were way funnier than Bob Newhart (to me anyway).
I feel like Bob Newhart’s real genius was in choosing his supporting cast. I never thought he was particularly funny on his own.
Ditto, but add Al Bundy to that list, please.
No, Sherman T. Potter was the clear winner.
I’ve thought the same thing; Bob Newhart was such a great straight man that anyone around him was instantly funny. The thing is, that’s a rare talent and Newhart was the master of it. A lot of his standup routines had his famous one-sided phone calls, where the humor came from Newhart’s reactions to the funny things we know were said but didn’t actually hear. Even when Bob Newhart was alone on stage, the other guy got all the funny lines.
But doesn’t that make him funny?
A good portion of my laughter from The Bob Newhart Show was generated directly from Newhart’s reactions.
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Sure, but it’s a very particular style of humor. It was subtle, and probably looked a lot easier than it was. I can’t think of anyone else who worked in that same way.
These first three you listed are my top three; I’d probably rank them Max, Archie, then Barney.
But what can I say, the people have spoken.
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Alan Arkin could do the tiniest funny look and make you piss your pants laughing.
George Burns did the same thing with Gracie Allen. Burns said something to the effect that when working with Gracie, his biggest laughs came from lines like, “Oh, really?”
Of course, Burns wasn’t part of the poll.
I think an asterisk is in order explaining that Dr. Smith from Lost in Space was disqualified on a technicality.
No vote from me this time. I’ve never watched either show. I’d probably vote for Cleese if I had seen them both.
The technicality being that he did not appear in a sitcom?
For the record, these characters would also have been disqualified: Atticus Finch, Harry Potter, Huckleberry Finn, Princess Leia, and Godzilla.
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But none of them were playing comedy to the situation like Dr. Smith.
Are we going to have more of these? Sitcom children might be interesting.
As they say…stay tuned.
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