# The 41 Greatest Sitcom Characters of All Time

> Catchphrase machines, lovable monsters and a few genuinely decent people, spread across seven decades of studio audiences and single-camera cringe.

*By YPB Team · Published November 2, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-41-greatest-sitcom-characters-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Michael Scott** — score 1000/1000
   Steve Carell played the Scranton regional manager of Dunder Mifflin for seven seasons of NBC's The Office.
2. **Archie Bunker** — score 721/1000
   Carroll O'Connor won four Emmys as the bigoted Queens loading-dock foreman on All in the Family.
3. **Charlie Kelly** — score 712/1000
   Charlie Day plays the illiterate, rat-bashing janitor of Paddy's Pub on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which he also writes and executive produces.
4. **Liz Lemon** — score 712/1000
   Tina Fey created 30 Rock and won the 2008 Emmy for Lead Actress as its frazzled sketch-show head writer.
5. **Sam Malone** — score 653/1000
   Ted Danson played the former Red Sox relief pitcher who owns the Boston bar across all 11 seasons of Cheers.
6. **Niles Crane** — score 631/1000
   David Hyde Pierce won four Emmys as Frasier's fastidious younger brother.
7. **Del Boy Trotter** — score 614/1000
   David Jason played the Peckham market trader with big schemes in the BBC's Only Fools and Horses from 1981 to 2003.
8. **Al Bundy** — score 570/1000
   Ed O'Neill played the miserable shoe salesman and former high-school football hero on Married... with Children for 11 seasons.
9. **Cosmo Kramer** — score 521/1000
   Michael Richards won three Emmys as Jerry's neighbour, famous for sliding through the apartment door, on Seinfeld.
10. **Barney Fife** — score 521/1000
   Don Knotts won five Emmys as the jumpy Mayberry deputy on The Andy Griffith Show.
11. **Steve Urkel** — score 521/1000
   Jaleel White's nerdy neighbour on Family Matters began as a one-episode guest in season one and became the show's central character.
12. **Lucille Bluth** — score 521/1000
   Jessica Walter played the acid-tongued Bluth family matriarch on Arrested Development, earning a 2005 Emmy nomination.
13. **Ralph Kramden** — score 521/1000
   Jackie Gleason's blustering Brooklyn bus driver anchored The Honeymooners, whose 39 filmed episodes aired on CBS in 1955–56.
14. **Hawkeye Pierce** — score 521/1000
   Alan Alda played the wisecracking Army surgeon through all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, whose 1983 finale drew more than 100 million US viewers.
15. **Phoebe Buffay** — score 521/1000
   Lisa Kudrow won a 1998 Emmy as the eccentric masseuse and "Smelly Cat" songwriter on Friends.
16. **Frasier Crane** — score 466/1000
   Kelsey Grammer played the Boston-turned-Seattle psychiatrist for 20 straight seasons across Cheers and Frasier, then again in the 2023 revival.
17. **Lucy Ricardo** — score 466/1000
   Lucille Ball played the scheming, stage-struck Manhattan housewife on CBS's I Love Lucy from 1951 to 1957.
18. **Alex P. Keaton** — score 466/1000
   Michael J. Fox won three consecutive Emmys as the Reagan-admiring teenage conservative on Family Ties.
19. **Mary Richards** — score 466/1000
   Mary Tyler Moore played the single Minneapolis TV newsroom producer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977.
20. **Karen Walker** — score 404/1000
   Megan Mullally won two Emmys as the boozy socialite who works as Grace's assistant on Will & Grace.
21. **Leslie Knope** — score 404/1000
   Amy Poehler won a Golden Globe for the relentlessly upbeat Pawnee, Indiana parks official on Parks and Recreation.
22. **Ron Swanson** — score 404/1000
   Nick Offerman's mustachioed, government-hating parks director appears in all seven seasons of Parks and Recreation.
23. **Larry David** — score 404/1000
   Larry David plays a fictionalised version of himself on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, which ran for 12 seasons from 2000.
24. **Edina Monsoon** — score 404/1000
   Jennifer Saunders created Absolutely Fabulous and played its fashion-obsessed London PR agent.
25. **Phil Dunphy** — score 404/1000
   Ty Burrell won two Emmys as the self-styled cool dad and real estate agent on Modern Family.
26. **Elaine Benes** — score 404/1000
   Julia Louis-Dreyfus won a 1996 Emmy for playing Jerry's ex-girlfriend turned close friend on Seinfeld.
27. **Dwight Schrute** — score 333/1000
   Rainn Wilson's beet-farming assistant to the regional manager earned him three Emmy nominations on The Office.
28. **Abed Nadir** — score 333/1000
   Danny Pudi plays the pop-culture-obsessed film student at Greendale Community College on Community.
29. **Sophia Petrillo** — score 333/1000
   Estelle Getty played Dorothy's blunt Sicilian-born mother on The Golden Girls, despite being younger than Bea Arthur in real life.
30. **George Costanza** — score 333/1000
   Jason Alexander played Jerry's neurotic, perpetually scheming best friend, a character partly modelled on co-creator Larry David.
31. **Joey Tribbiani** — score 333/1000
   Matt LeBlanc's struggling soap actor from Friends got his own spin-off, Joey, in 2004.
32. **Barney Stinson** — score 333/1000
   Neil Patrick Harris received four Emmy nominations as the suit-obsessed serial dater on How I Met Your Mother.
33. **Sheldon Cooper** — score 333/1000
   Jim Parsons won four Emmys playing the rigid Caltech physicist on The Big Bang Theory.
34. **Mr. Bean** — score 333/1000
   Rowan Atkinson's near-silent man-child first appeared on ITV in 1990 and later carried two feature films.
35. **Basil Fawlty** — score 251/1000
   John Cleese co-wrote and played the rude Torquay hotelier in Fawlty Towers, which ran for just 12 episodes in 1975 and 1979.
36. **Raymond Holt** — score 251/1000
   Andre Braugher played the deadpan, openly gay precinct captain on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and drew several Emmy nominations for it.
37. **Chandler Bing** — score 155/1000
   Matthew Perry played the sarcastic office worker on all ten seasons of Friends (1994–2004).
38. **Fonzie** — score 155/1000
   Henry Winkler's leather-jacketed Arthur Fonzarelli grew from a supporting part into the main draw of ABC's Happy Days (1974–84).
39. **Jack Donaghy** — score 155/1000
   Alec Baldwin won two Emmys as Jack Donaghy, GE's vice president of East Coast television and microwave oven programming, who oversees the sketch show at the heart of 30 Rock.
40. **David Brent** — score 0/1000
   Ricky Gervais co-created and played the Wernham Hogg branch manager in the BBC's The Office (2001–03).
41. **Moira Rose** — score 0/1000
   Catherine O'Hara won the 2020 Emmy for the former soap star with a wall of wigs on Schitt's Creek.

Tags: tv shows, comedy, characters, sitcoms