OT: Your Top 25 TV Characters of all-time
1. Don Draper (Mad Men)
2. Michael Scott (The Office)
3. Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
4. Hank Hill (King of the Hill)
5. Tony Soprano (The Sopranos)
6. Stringer Bell (The Wire)
7. Selina Meyer (Veep)
8. Saul Goodman (Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul)
9. Ron Swanson (Parks and Rec)
10. Randy Marsh (South Park)
11. Ted Talbot (Rectify)
12. Gustavo Fring (Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul)
13. Philip Jennings (The Americans)
14. Omar Little (The Wire)
15. Richard Harrow (Boardwalk Empire)
16. Ruth Fisher (Six Feet Under)
17. Daniel Holden (Rectify)
18. Tyrion Lanister (Game of Thrones)
19. Chris Moltisanti (The Sopranos)
20. Leslie Knope (Parks and Rec)
21. Sue Heck (The Middle)
22. Phil Dunphy (Modern Family)
23. Brian (Family Guy)
24. Harvey Specter (Suits)
25. Nelson Van Alden (Boardwalk Empire)
Honorable/Special mention (Mostly characters not having quite enough screen-time to crack it): Ned Stark (Game of Thrones), D'Angelo Barksdale (The Wire), Bunny Colvin (The Wire), Rusty Cohle (True Detective),, Sally Draper (Mad Men), Luis Stevens (Even Stevens), NobusukeTagomi (The Man in the High Castle)
Just missed the cut: Mike McLintock (Veep), Dwight Schrute (The Office) , Dr. Jenna James (Getting On), Elliot Anderson (Mr. Robot)
Two things:
Yes, I admit that there is a pretty big major recency bias involved in my selection based on what shows I have watched
-Yes, top 25 is a lot so obviously feel free to just make top 5, 10, ect
Way too many to remember over the years but a few that come to mind and in no particular order
Latka (sp) Taxi
Raylan Givens/Boyd Crowder Justified
Officer Dangle Reno 911
Dick Louden/George Uttley Newhart
Homey the Clown In Living Color
Burt Campbell Soap
Early Cuyler Squidbillies
Finally a mention of one of the funniest characters from "Soap", one of the most underrated comedies of all time. Burt "I'm invisible/abducted by aliens" Campbell (Richard Mulligan) and his loving but neurotic wife Mary (Cathryn Damon), Mary's sister, the lovably ditsy Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and her philandering husband Chester (Robert Mandan), the absolutely delicious daughter Corinne Tate(Diana Canova), gay cousin Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal), and the only truly sane character on the entire show, butler Benson Dubois (Robert Gulliame), along with the rest of the Campbell, Tate and Dallas families.
I think the show was on for only 4 or 5 seasons, but it was must-see TV back in the late 70's and almost as controversial and ground-breaking in that decade as "All In The Family" was several years earlier.
i have always thought that was one of the all-time great shows, and i too left off any mention on my list. shame, shame, shame. great show.
IMO I think that show was way ahead of it's time and absolutely the funniest ever. It's a shame it did not last longer than it did!!!
a few others
Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory)
Jim Ignitowski (Taxi)
Lucy Ball (I love Lucy)
Sophia Patrillo (Golden Girls)
Hal (Malcom in the Middle)
Axel Heck (The Middle)
Frankie Heck (The Middle)
Frasier Crane (Frasier/Cheers)
Mork (Mork and Mindy)
Johnny Carson
list is endless
It would realistically take a good day or two to really come up with top 25. Nick Tortelli was one of my favorites though.
Rollo Larson was classic as well.
A few others I love:
Delores from westworld
Cartman
Eric from true blood
Dexter
Walter white
Also Tyrone Biggums
There are some good choices on here and all, but not one person is gonna mention Red Forman? Definitely one of my favorites.
Jim Rockord
Jean Luc Picard
Thomas Magnum
Chuck
Dr Sam Beckett, Quantum Leap and most of the aforementioned
Columbo
Gilligan
Boyd Crowder
Where’s MacGyver bruh?
McGruber >> McGyver
Honorable mention to Les Nessman of WKRP, if only for his coverage of the Thanksgiving tragedy.
Don't really have a top 10 / 25 ... but here's a few that come to mind (very sitcom biased).
George Costanza - Seinfeld, Michael Scott - The Office, Hawk - Spenser for Hire, Dr. Johnny Fever - WKRP, Ted Baxter - The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Fonz - Happy Days (early seasons only), Felix Unger and Oscar Madison - The Odd Couple, Larry Bird - The Neighbors, Murray Hewitt - Flight of the Conchords
The 3 Angels on the original Charlie's Angels
In addition to the original 3 (Kate Jackson, Jacyln Smith, and Farrah's Fawcetts I'll add the 4th Angel (Cheryl Ladd), who replaced Farrah.
Les Nessman
Give me Troy Barnes (Community) any day of the week
I probably won’t be able to rattle off 25 names, but in no particular order
Homer Simpson
Sheldon Cooper
Tyrion Lannister
Walter White
George Costanza
Eric Cartman
Ramsay Bolton
Ron Swanson
Arya Stark
Frank Underwood
Andrew Cunanan (not the real guy, but the actor who played him Assassination of Gianni Versace - he was disturbing but absolutely phenomenal)
Eleven
Also forgot someone on my list. Rafi from The League. Just an amazing, psychotic, but absolutely hilarious character.
No Kramer or Hank Moody. Disappointing.
I forgot about any of the characters from "Friends". The most memorable would either be Joey Tribbiani or Chandler Bing
Gilligan.
BTW, Mary Ann > Ginger
Missing some characters from Malcolm in the Middle (Hal) and Scrubs (JD and Dr. Cox).
A lot of great characters have been mentioned. A few that have been missed that need mentioned:
Bojack Horseman
- The entire cast tbh
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Ed & Al
- Mustang
- Armstrong
- All of the Sins
- Again I could say the entire cast
Archer
- I'm sensing an entire cast theme...
- Kreiger
As soon as I realized Hank Moody wasn’t on this list I checked out.
#1 thru #25: 
Jack Bauer is not number 1, but he is top 24 for me...
I don't care how young you are if Basil Fawlty isn't on your list you haven't lived.
Also, my favorites include John Locke from Lost, Ted Mosby from HIMYM, and Sarah Braverman from Parenthood. I'm weird.
Archie Bunker
Just here to add Dennis Reynolds to the discussion
Since the OP included a couple cartoon characters Homer Simpson and Hank Hill) in his list and several other cartoon characters have since been mentioned, here's some old ones that must be included: Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck , Yogi and BooBoo Bear, and of course, Rocky & Bullwinkle.
Zach Morris
If we're going all the way back to the 50's (as some have), who can forget Eddie Haskell? I also always liked Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) from Barney Miller.
Entire cast of Seinfeld
Jack Bauer
Leslie Knope
Phil Dunphy
Larry David
Why not top 100?
Why isn't it August yet?