# What TV character has the most impressive resume? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406 "2011-01-04T20:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/21 "2011-01-05T02:21:28Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Art Vandelay…Importer/Exporter extraordinaire… Also architect and marine biologist! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/22 "2011-01-05T02:25:32Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Nobel Laureate Sam Beckett MD was a concert pianist before he earned a doctorate in Music – along with a doctorate in Archaeology, and a doctorate in Quantum Physics, and a doctorate in Ancient Languages, and a doctorate in Chemistry, and a doctorate in Astronomy. In his spare time, he apparently designed a supercomputer which he programmed with the ego of Barbra Streisand; it’s a great help on the missions he undertakes via the time machine he invented. Um. Frasier has a replica of the sofa Coco Chanel had in her atelier… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/23 "2011-01-05T02:30:10Z")
Andrea Thomas was an archeologist who found an amulet that gave her superpowers. Prefer someone who was more self-made? Professor William Omaha McElroy was an Egyptologist at Yale University. He’d get conked on the head and become King Tut, master criminal. Britt Reid was young, successful and, as the Green Hornet, had an arsenal at his disposal that rivaled Batman’s. On top of that, he had BRUCE FREAKIN’ LEE as his sidekick. In your face, Bruce Wayne! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/24 "2011-01-05T05:27:47Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > My nominees; Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural. They have hunted and killed ghosts, demons, werewolves, vampires, wendigos, shapeshifters, skinwalkers, tulpas, djinns, witches, angels, grim reapers, the Seven Deadly Sins, Lilith the first demon, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, took down Lucifer (though didn’t kill him) and Dean has not only gotten away with being a smartass with Death, he actually WAS Death for a day. Plus both have died and come back several times, and though this is maybe not a positive thing, they both played a part in starting and then avoiding the Apocalypse. As impressive as the A-Team is, I think the Winchesters trump anything the A-Team did. In a low-turnout casting call, Buffy might give Sam and Dean a callback. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/25 "2011-01-05T05:31:25Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Jared from **The Pretender** had a different job every week for however long that series lasted. Granted I guess he always vanished from every job without two weeks notice, so he might get kinda crummy references But Jarod trumps every single other name in this thread. Because he could do anything they could do only better and he didn’t **need** a resume. If he were to submit a fake one claiming a Ph.D. in cellular biology that he had never earned, that would be, in his case, false modesty, thrown in just to avoid embarrassing the cellular biologists who knew so much less about the subject than he did. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/26 "2011-01-05T05:35:36Z")
Dr. Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/27 "2011-01-05T05:42:30Z")
Sam Carter weaponised a _star_. Beat that! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/28 "2011-01-05T05:43:08Z")
I guess it would depend on what job you’re looking to fill. The Winchesters don’t have a lot of formal education. Dean has a GED, and although Sam went to college, he didn’t graduate. And even if you need someone to kill some evil thing, with Sam and Dean there’s a high likelihood that they’ll fuck up terribly and get killed. (Although they’ll get brought back for some convoluted reason.) OTOH, if the job you’re looking to fill is “underwear model” or something along those lines, they’d be fine choices. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/29 "2011-01-05T05:58:21Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Confirmed. His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man’s entire body. He can also speak French…in Russian. Stay thirsty my friends. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/30 "2011-01-05T06:12:29Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And the most amazing thing about Supe in those days was that Clark Kent always looked bigger and more powerful in those boxy 50s suits than he did in his pj’s of a costume. So if Kal-El was a god, then Clark was god’s big brother. > > That’ll make heads spin over at the theological seminary! I’ve noticed this incongruity. George Reeves looked more macho in everything he did than when he wore the costume. Can’t figure out why Lois wasn’t getting wet for Clark. I can only guess that seeing a guy in super-hero costume on TV was impressive enough for them to ignore the problem. Adam West should have done a lot more sit-ups. The Batman movie guys must have noticed this and added the muscle suits. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/31 "2011-01-05T06:20:15Z")
Oh yeah, the resume. How about Jethro Bodine. Movie producer, knight, merry man, double naught spy, talent agent, bookkeeper, Oxford graduate, among other vocations and accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/32 "2011-01-05T06:41:07Z")
Going back a long ways, I nominate Paladin from **Have Gun, Will Travel**. He speaks about fifteen languages. He is familiar with, and quotes, all sorts of world literature, back from the time of the Greeks. He was called on to be the judge of a wine contest. He knows his opera. He is a world class cook. He can ride a camel. In one show he was ambushed, and showed up at a house in basically his underwear. By the time the half hour was over he gave the cook lessons on how to make better dishes, he seduced the widow lady of the house with poetry, he went over and fixed up her financial books, and beat the crap out of the evil ranch hands wanting to take over the spread. He outdraws and kills on the average of a bad guy per show also, almost all justifiably. He also makes a ton of money, and has constant female companionship. Oh, and on one show he feeds Oscar Wilde most of his famous bon mots. I’m only on the third season, so I apologize for this resume being so skimpy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/33 "2011-01-05T07:02:12Z")
The Quantum Leap guy. But since that is just make believe, the real answer is Jim Rockford. He can print up business cards and pretend to by anybody believably. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/34 "2011-01-05T12:07:40Z")
Chuck Norris ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/35 "2011-01-05T12:21:47Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Sam Carter weaponised a _star_. Beat that! The last season finale, the Doctor prevented every star in the universe from going supernova at every point in time. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/36 "2011-01-05T15:39:38Z")
Can’t believe I’m the first to mention Buckaroo Banzai! ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/37 "2011-01-05T15:45:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The last season finale, the Doctor prevented every star in the universe from going supernova at every point in time. And didn’t he burn up a sun so that he could talk to Rose in the parallel universe? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/38 "2011-01-05T16:07:07Z")
Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock. He is the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming for General Electric. Attended Princeton University on the Amory Blaine Handsomeness Scholarship and paid his way by working the day shift at a graveyard, and the graveyard shift at a Days Inn". Later attended Harvard Business Schoolwhere he was voted “Most.” Wrote “You’re So Vain” for Carley Simon. It’s also strongly implied that Jack once practiced martial arts under Chuck Norris. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/39 "2011-01-05T16:10:10Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > And didn’t he burn up a sun so that he could talk to Rose in the parallel universe? Yeah the only TV character which I can think of with a more impressive resume than the Doctor would have to be Q. “He can stop death, create life, travel through time, stop time, multitask/create multiple versions of himself and create entire worlds effortlessly. He can change a person’s mind or make them take any action.” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406/40 "2011-01-05T17:24:38Z")
How about a shout out for Xena? She defeated and killed a number of gods from various pantheons, out-thought and out-fought Caesar and Pompey, came back from the dead at least once, turned an archangel into the Devil himself, AND had a baby without benefit of impregnation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-character-has-the-most-impressive-resume/566406.md?page=3)