Joss Whedon & James Gunn’s Top TV Characters

I have two confessions to make, neither of which will come as a shock to long time GMMR readers, but might be a bit shocking to our newbies.

(1) I best know Joss Whedon from his stint as the car rental guy on Veronica Mars.

Ok, well that’s not entirely accurate. I have known “of” Joss Whedon for years. But as someone who has never seen Buffy, Angel, Firefly or any of his TV shows, I can’t say that I know much of his work beside his guest appearance on VM. And before the “are you crazy” and “OMG you have to see Buffy” emails come flying in, please let me say this: I believe every single one of you that tout Buffy as an amazing show – probably one of the best, EVER!! But I didn’t get into it while it was on, and now there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to catch up with the series. I can’t keep up with my TiVo as it is now. Sadly, Buffy and the other now-defunct Joss Whedon shows might become part of my DVD library when I retire (if I live that long).

(2) I only first heard of James Gunn as Jenna Fischer‘s husband and Kirk from Gilmore Girls brother.

I am NOT, repeat NOT a fan of horror movies. I know some of you love them, but I am a big old scaredy cat and I just can’t watch them. I get freaked out too easily, and I can’t sleep for weeks. So until you guarantee me that John, Josh, Jason or Ryan will hold me tight while watching, I may never see any of James Gunn’s already classic movies. That being said, I thought he was fantastic in Lollilove, and anyone that had the foresight to marry the fabulous Jenna Fischer years before she made it big in The Office…well, the guy must know what he’s doing, right?

Now that you know the extent of my knowledge of both men’s body of work, you may be a bit shocked to know that I am crazy about both these guys. I read their stuff online all the time, and I really enjoy their take on all things pop culture. Whether it’s Joss’s comments on WHEDONesque.com or James’ MySpace blog updates, I love love love when these guys have something new to say.

So here we are….both men have recently shared their take on the Top 25 TV characters of all time. First it was James Gunn’s list on MySpace, then his comments back to the legion of fans on WHEDONesque, and now finally it’s Joss Whedon’s response to James Gunn’s list and Joss’s own personal take on the best in TV characters. Did you follow that? Yeah, me neither.

I wanted to share my favorites from both lists. But make sure to check out the rest for yourselves.

From the list of James Gunn (full list can be found here)

Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), THE OFFICE (American)
Gob Bluth (Will Arnett), ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
David Brent (Ricky Gervais), THE OFFICE (British)
Creed (Creed Bratton), THE OFFICE (American)
Reverend Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd), TAXI

…yeah, just because the guy is married to someone on the list (a list which also includes one of her co-workers, and her boss) doesn’t detract from his overall opinion. Those are some of the best characters – so there!!

From the list of Joss Whedon (full list can be found here)

George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera) – Arrested Development is impossible to choose from, but the buttoned-down kid is usually the character I can’t stand and George Michael is frikkin’ adorable. Poor little guy.

Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) from V Mars. Smirking his way into TV history.

Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) – The American Office is another throw-a-stone (hit-a-favorite), but I’m giving it up for Jim, ’cause I’ve watched that scene between him and Pam in the season 2 finale like 17 times and his readings are smooth like booze. Also, he’s the person in that scene who’s not married to James Gunn, so I can rant and nobody gets freaked. (I fear James as I fear few things.)

Dr. Gregory House (Huge Laurie) – House. If you saw him in Blackadder, even more so, but if you haven’t, House. The last great humanist.

So now that you have their take…who are YOUR favorite TV characters of all time and why? I’m dying to see what y’all think. Make sure you post your favorites here. I’ll be compiling a list for a future post. Maybe your reponses will be included.