TV's most pompous characters

[The Borgified Corpse]

In particular, I think the 2 most pompous characters in TV history are Frasier Crane from Cheers/Frasier and Major Charles Emmerson Winchester III from M*A*S*H. If there were, like, a pomposity olympics, who would win? Frasier Crane, Charles Winchester, or someone else entirely?

 

[Mr Light]

Ah, I thought this was going to be about Scrubs' Dr. Cox or House's Dr. House I've only seen the first two years of MASH so I can't comment on Winchester.

 

[mostly_nameless]

I would say House and the late Dr. Romano from E.R. have both of those choices beat.

I haven't seen a lot of Boston Legal, but I think Denny Crane probably is worse than Frasier Crane.

So, my votes in these Olympics would be:
Gold - House
Silver - Romano
Bronze - Winchester

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

Clair Huxtable

 

[Jayson]

Rodney McCay. He also happens to be one of my ten favorite sci-fi characters of all-time.

Jason

 

[TedShatner10]

The EMH from Voyager (in an ironic, entertaining way) and Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami (in an unironic, unentertaining way).

 

[Starbreaker]

Rodney McCay.

Jason

Oh yeah... Very annoying.

 

[nx1701g]

I always thought Niles was worse than Frasier.

 

[Gojirob]

Harriet Oleson, Little House. Pompousity's even more stuck-up auntie.

 

[Captaindemotion]

John from Melville's, the seafood restaurant upstairs from Cheers always gave Frasier a run for his money in the pomposity department.

I don't think Drs Cox, House or Romano were pompous - merely abrasive and sarcastic.

 

[Kirby]

Another vote for Niles Crane.

 

[FPAlpha]

Winchester because he actively pushed his "noble" heritage and supposedly superior skills into everyone's face (while still being a good person deep down.. very deep down)

 

[TheArsenal]

Basil Fawlty

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Harriet Oleson, Little House. Pompousity's even more stuck-up auntie.

Ooh! Good one! It's been years since I've watched Little House so I'd forgotten about her. But damn you're right. She fits right in.

I'd also say the Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager fits, although he wasn't quite on the same level.

I don't think Dr. Cox, Dr. House, or Dr. McKay qualify as "pompous." I think the more appropriate term is "abrasive, egocentric assholes." They're more in the same category as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space, Arnold J. Rimmer from Red Dwarf, & Eric Cartman from South Park.

I'm not sure Denny Crane qualifies either. I think pomposity requires a certain level of self-awareness. Denny Crane is too addled by dementia.

Niles Crane is a little pompous but his prissyness kinda turns his volume down. He may be self-important but he doesn't try to ram it down everyone else's throats with the kind of vehemence that Frasier does.

After thinking about it more, I'd have to go with Charles Winchester. David Ogden Stiers bleeds blue in pretty much every role he's ever played. He's the textbook definition.

 

[Trekker4747]

Dr. House: The gold standard.

But i think Frasier Crane is pretty damn up there too.

 

[coolghoul]

I adore Frasier the TV series (tho' I don't think I have watched Cheers at all) and I quite enjoyed MASH too.

However, I went with Ogden's Winchester rather than Kelsey's Frasier. I think it's more "natural" in Winchester. Frasier is mostly pretending - he has working class roots (as evidenced by Dad) and generally tries to do good very early on. How many hookup chances has he "lost" trying to do the right thing. In Winchester's case, he truly was a blue blood unlike Frasier.

And lastly anybody played by an actor whose middle name is "Ogden" and the actor actually publicizes that middle name by including it in all his credits has to be given the award, I'd think.

 

[Trekker4747]

I dunno. Most of the time in his own series Frasier was pretty damn pompous and almost shunned any kind of "working class" or "blue collar" activity unless one of his Cheers buds were around.

 

[Orintho]

Other - Hedonismbot from Futurama - lol

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Most pompous: House
Runner up: Gaius Baltar

 

[Harvey]

Rygel on Farscape. In the middle of season three, I'm being brought back. Who knew a puppet could be such a pompous douche?