Stepping into the wayback machine…I gotta say Mrs. Emma Peel or John Steed, or both.
No, wait, John Crichton.
I’ll second John Crichton and Oz, and I will add Rupert Giles from Buffy, especially when he goes all Ripper and kills/beats/intimidates someone. So cool.
i’ll see your Crichton and raise you Scorpius 
(ahh hell, who am i kidding, i nominate the entire cast of Farscape)
Word up. Incredible breadth and depth of knowledge PLUS massive smarts, intuition, bravery, eloquence, adaptiveness, humility, artistic ability, and sang-froid, PLUS remarkably handsome. Can I be him when I grow up? OK, then can I marry him?
Willow from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ The stuff she could do was so cool! And she’s hot too!
I’ll third that. Nothing fazed that man!
But I also have to join the Oz bandwagon.
Oz: It was intense.
Xander: Yeah, for a minute there I thought you were gonna make an expression.
Oz: Well, I felt one coming on, I won’t lie.
A second (only second so far?) vote for Jack “Get me a hacksaw” Bauer from the Jack Bauer Power Hour!
Oz, Xander, Spike, Angel and Andrew were all cool, but Rupert Giles was cooler than all of them put together. Wesley Wyndham-Price was way cool too, but not until he jumped ship to “Angel.” (On “Buffy” he was a nit.) Gunn was a cool character, but (for the most part) badly used by the series.
I’ll second Steed & Emma Peel. I’ll also nominate the Doctor (4th incarnation - that’s Tom Baker) from “Doctor Who”, and mention that Romana (2nd incarnation - Lolly <?> Ward) was his coolest companion.
And I’ll throw in a plug for Eddy Monsson & Patsy Stone from “ab fab” as the coolest “uncool” characters on tv. (Brits in general are way cool)
Wesley Wyndham-Pryce from season 4 (and partly season 3) of Angel is by far the coolest TV character in my books, although Oz, Spike, and Garak follow closely behind.
I’ll third Jack Bauer from the Jack Bauer Power Hour. Let’s face it, how much would it suck for the last words you ever hear to be, “Sorry we let you down, Ryan.”
I’ll also billionth Mal Reynolds.
Finally, there’s Perry Cox of Scrubs. A kind, caring genius whose own neuroses and irritating life have caused him to become the most cynical, sarcastic man in the universe. Plus he’s married to Christa Miller, and she’s just one of the most gorgeous women ever.
-Joe
You stole mine!
When I was in high school, my friend Bill came to me and said; “Hey Emma, have you heard about Madonna’s new movie? She plays a lesbian witch or something.”
I fiddled with my pentacle on its rainbow string as dawned on my that lesbian witches were hot. “Waitaminute…” :smack:
Both Galen and Matthew Gideon from Crusade were very cool. (now there’s a show that died a wrongful death).
But, the end all be all of coolness on television is Lex Luthor. (both John Shea’s and Michael Rosenbaum’s versions).
I’m going with John Chriton as well, though honorable meantions to Oz, Spike and Jack Bauer. However for Firefly, the coolest character is obviously Wash. He’s got dinosaurs in his cockpit!
Brak’s dad!
Don’t you mean anyone or anything named James Brown?
Some of these have already been mentioned, but I’ll so agree and add one or two from the same series…
“Alias” – Jack, Irena, Sloan and potentially Sark
“BtVS” – SPIKE! (sorry), Oz and Tara
“Roseanne” – Darleen, a guest appearance later on by Heather Matarazzo (condoms for D.J.!) and David
Completely new ones…
“M.A.S.H.” – Hawkeye & B.J., Klinger, Radar, the priest and Col. Potter
“My So-Called Life” – Rayanne, Rickie and Brian (What can I say! I have a soft spot for nerds.)
“Family” (1976) – Kristy McNichol as Buddy (I so wanted to be her!!)
And those are right off the top of my pointy little head.
I’ll second Dr. Perry Cox from “Scrubs” and I’d like to add David Caruso’s character from “CSI: Miami”.
Michael Knight from Nightrider.
Ok, you can start throwing stones now.
Another cool character:
Kermit, the sunglasses-wearing nerd with the Uzi, from Kung Fu. ‘I have to protect my disks’.
Frank Drebin, hands down. A man who is calm in any situation, whether he’s before an exploding fireworks factory calmly telling people to move along, nothing to see here; or watching his own car career down the road, and asking witnesses if they got the restration number.
To wit:
'My name is Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin. A series of gorgeous fashion models had been found unconscious and naked in laundromats. Unfortunately, I was assigned to investigate credit union holdups. I was doing my laundry when the call came in on a shootout. ’
or
'We’re sorry to bother you at such a time like this, Mrs. Twice. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn’t dead then. ’
or
'You take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street, or sticking your face in a fan. ’
My hero.
