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May 25, 2012

Who are TV's most unpopular characters?

by Joel Keller, posted Jun 9th 2006 11:44AM
Robbie Rist as Cousin OliverI've always wondered how the Onion A.V. Club comes up with their off-the-wall Inventory lists. Do they come up with the concepts in editorial meetings, or do the writers just individually conjure these lists off the tops of their heads, like we do? Either way, some of the categories they come up with are funny and conversation-worthy to say the least.

Case in point: this week, the A.V. Club folks list "13 Memorably Unpopular Characters from Popular TV", and the list is right-on-target: I mean, who didn't hate Cousin Oliver, or pull the hairs out of their nose every time Scrappy-Doo came on the screen? Urkel also makes the list, although there are about 133 people who may dispute that claim. Even the choice of Dawn Summers is spot-on, as I confirmed with our resident Buffy-phile, Keith, this morning. Those Onion guys can come up with some pretty good lists. They're almost as good as ours.

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Mike Hoffpauir

Oh come on now about Caleb. He, for the lack of a better term, kicked ass! I have to admit it probably was more the actor than the writing but he made Xander a frickin cyclops! Hated only because he was one evil mofo. (man my vocab is bad tonight ;)

June 09 2006 at 10:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
doc

No worries Scott H. I can see why someone would have issues with Caleb. I'm realistic enough to admit that Caleb gained a lot of points in my Buffy scorebook because I was a big Two Guys A Girl And A Pizza Place fan, and a huge Firefly fan.

June 09 2006 at 7:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bojangles

I'm gonna sound like the whiney uptight sci-fi dork here, but under their #12 about the Dukes of Hazzard replacements, they mention Mulder and Scully being replaced by Doggett and Reyes. I hate to say this but Scully wasn't exactly replaced, she was in every episoded. The burden I carry of being the ONLY Doggett fan is a heavy one...

June 09 2006 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

And oops, I forgot, of course "Angel" DID do the baby-to-grown-human trick, with Jasmine in Season 4.

June 09 2006 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

Not to argue with a guy with 14 stars, or hijack the thread into Buffy territory, but for my money that stupid preacher character they shoehorned into the mostly lousy final season of Buffy is my most hated. No depth, no personality, just some oaf to fight with. Even "Angel" went 5 years and never had as boring and one-dimensional a character as that preacher guy (I think his name was Caleb? I just remember wondering what bad comic book hack was writing his scenes.)

Grown-up Connor in "Angel" was fine, other than his moments of ickiness with Cordelia. But before that, when he hated Angel, and after that, when he showed up a couple times as a well-adjusted kid in the last season, I had no problems with him. (And it's not like he went from baby to adult in the blink of an eye, which they did on "The 4400"--there was a valid explanation involving hell dimensions and other time planes, or something :-)

June 09 2006 at 2:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eric franco

I have to say, I did hate that little bastard Oliver on the waning days of the Brady Bunch. I hope he died in a horrific accident, or a terminal disease took care of him!

June 09 2006 at 2:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
doc

Are you kidding me with the Dawn Summers? I know there are those that have their issues with Dawn, but the most hated character on Buffy should go to Kennedy. Where did she get off being part in the meetings in season 7? Taking lines away from Xander, Willow, and Giles? I loathe Kennedy with a firey passion. But let's not forget that neither of them can lay claim to the number one most hated character in all of the Buffyverse. Grown-up Connor. Hands down the worst idea anyone at Mutant Enemy ever had.

June 09 2006 at 2:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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