Classic Movie Review: A Married Woman (1964)

A Married Woman (1964) 

Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard.

Written by: Jean-Luc Godard.

Starring: Macha Méril (Charlotte), Bernard Noël (Robert, the Lover), Philippe Leroy (Pierre, the Husband), Christophe Bourseiller (Nicolas), Roger Leenhardt (Self), Margareth Clémenti (Girl in Swimming Pool), Véronique Duval (Girl in Swimming Pool), Rita Maiden (Madame Celine), Georges Liron (The Physician).

 

The two films Jean-Luc Godard made right before and right after A Married Woman (1964) were Contempt and Band of Outsiders before and Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou right after. All four of those are celebrated, acknowledged masterworks by Godard – but somehow this film made right in the middle of them all is usually completely overlooked, and not listed among Godard’s greats. That’s really a shame, because it’s the type of Godard film that I miss – a film that is both able to understand its main character, make her a fully realized character, and critique her and the society around her, that produced her. Godard even has some sympathy for her. Godard even has some sympathy for her – something he will lose in just a few years. While A Married Woman may not quite be at the level of some of Godard’ best 1960s output – it certainly deserves a better reputation that it has.

 

Godard was right not to cast his then wife – Anna Karina – in the lead role of Charlotte, instead opting for Macha Méril instead. Karina, a terrific actress would have been wrong for this part as a bored housewife – who doesn’t realize how bored she is. Meril is perfect in the role though – spending her morning with her lover, Robert (Bernard Noel) before returning to her husband, Pierre (Philippe Leroy). She seems to be sleepwalking through all interactions with both men – they talk and talk and talk, and if they don’t quite seem to like her, they do at least have an interest in continuing their relationship. But Charlotte has little of interest to add to the conversation. She lives in a bubble of consumerism – told by magazines how to look and act, what to buy, etc. The best scene in the film – the most famous one – is when Charlotte sits alone reading a magazine, the ads taking up the entire screen, as she eavesdrops on a couple of teenage girls, talking about their own initiation into this hetero-normative worldview that Charlotte is an expert in. She’s an expert in nothing else – unable to contribute to a conversation about Auschwitz, because she has no idea what it is.

 

Perhaps the reason why A Married Woman isn’t as well-regarded as some of his other films of this period is because it can be read as casual, condescending misogyny. Godard didn’t want to name the film A Married Woman, but rather The Married Woman – thus extending his feelings that the bourgeoisie, middle class women are all empty headed, consumerist, who know nothing else but how to consume. It is only when Charlotte finds out she is pregnant – and doesn’t know how the father is – that she engages anything approaching self-introspection – trying to figure out which man she should be with; which man she loves. She isn’t even really able to defend herself against her abusive husband – weakly telling him at one point “you didn’t need to beat and rape me”. And yet, as we see in the first shot of the movie, of her hand, that ring suggests some kind of ownership – that Charlotte isn’t her own person anymore, but property. Amazingly for Godard though – since two years later, he would dismiss the younger generation as “the youth of Marx and Coca-Cola” in Masculin Feminin, he clearly feels some sympathy for Charlotte. He doesn’t like the way she is, doesn’t approve of it – but also sees it as the deliberate byproduct of a patriarchal society – one that wants women to be like Charlotte, pliant consumers, obedient wives, sexual objects, etc. I could see how dismissing the giant swatch of women in one swoop could be read as misogyny – and it isn’t like this is the only film from this period where you could credibly accuse Godard of the same – but I think Godard does make Charlotte both sympathetic and specific – she is a real character, not just a stand-in that Godard can use to make his political points. This is the Godard that I miss – the one that can make incisive, damning political points – but also tell a story, with a real character at its core at the same time.

Ranking the Columbia Noir Collection on Criterion Channel

The Columbia Noir collection was one of the most popular during the early days of the Criterion Channel – so much so, that for it is first anniversary they not only brought it back and expanded the selection. There are now 26 titles in the Columbia Noir collection. Last year, I watched or re-watched six of those titles – this year, I plan on watching the other 20. And below, is a ranking of all 26. Some of these I will do full reviews of – or already (have – others I won’t, simply as a matter of time). It is an excellent collection – with some legitimate masterworks, and some fun B movies as well – only a few aren’t really worth your time.

 

26. 5 Against the House (Phil Karlson, 1955) – Sometimes cheap B-movies remain so simply because they aren’t very good – and that’s the case with this heist film. Four friends, the old guys at college after returning from Korea, get mistaken for casino robbers in Reno, and hatch a plot to do it for real – and draw in the finance of one of one (Kim Novak). It’s a fairly cheap film, and feels like a programmer and nothing more. At one point, the young Novak breaks into song for some reason. The heist plot is overly complicated, and bizarrely it is all pinned on one guy (Brian Keith), and the rest apparently get off scot-free. Director Phil Karlson can be great – this very same year he directed The Phenix City Story, which is brilliant (as well as two other films in 1955 – including Tight Spot, also part of this collection). This feels like exactly what it was – something cheap tossed off for all involved without much care.

 

25. Blind Alley (Charles Vidor, 1939) – The earliest one in the collection is not one of the best. It’s fairly lightweight, and almost comical in its Freudian dissection of the criminal mind. The film is about a criminal (Morris) who escapes from jail, and takes a psychologist (Bellamy) and his family hostage – with Bellamy eventually figuring out all of Morris’ problems. The acting isn’t uniform either, with silent star Chester Morris, still mugging for the camera – and Ralph Bellamy having to speak in psycho-babble speeches. Yet, it’s a short movie – just under 70-minutes, and moves quickly. It’s an interesting little film – kind of combining the gangster genre of the 1930s, with what would come with noir, but not quite being either. A curiosity more than a satisfying film in its own right, it at least holds your attention.

 

24. Tight Spot (Phil Karlson, 1955) – Ginger Rogers stars as a tough female convict, who the cops – lead by Brian Keith, who falls for her, and Edward G. Robinson as the D.A., gets her out of jail in the hopes that she will testify against a mobster who will go free otherwise. It is hardly vintage Rogers or Robinson – both were kind of at the tail end of their movie careers as stars anyway, and they’re basically phoning it in. It’s also not really a noir either. For the most part it’s fun, but it really is a cheapie genre film, not made to last.

 

23.The Dark Past (Rudolph Mate, 1948) – This is a remake of Blind Alley – and it basically has the same issues with its screenplay as that film did – too many speeches, too much overt Freudian analysis, and adds another one – awkward bookends with the shrink, played by Lee J. Cobb. But it’s also slightly better overall than Blind Alley – mostly due to the fact that I think William Holden and Cobb more than Morris and Bellamy, and Mate’s direction basically apes better noir, which had become a thing by then is better than Vidor’s, who did more of a melodrama thing. Still, I’m not sure you really need to see either of these.

 

22. The Burglar (Paul Wendkos, 1957) – This film is about three films in one, all mushed together, in ways that don’t entirely satisfy. This sat on the shelf for two years, before Columbia bought it for release – and you can kind of see why. Dan Duryea, usually a great slimy character actor, here as the lead – as a burglar who steals jewels from a fake spiritualist, and then head to Atlantic City to hide out. The heist is a highlight of the movie – it’s not Rififi or anything, but it’s pretty good. Then the film kind of shifts into something else. Duryea is fine, a young Jayne Mansfield not so much. It’s all decent, and moves quickly from one thing to another, but it never quite comes together as a satisfying whole.

 

21. So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946) – So Dark the Night is a weird film – a kind of Agatha Christie style mystery, wrapped in the trappings of noir, that both plays itself for laughs, and takes it seriously – and all in just 71 minutes. Does it work? Not entirely – the big twist here, with what happens when a genius level detective on vacation (played by Steven Geray) starts investigating one murder, and finds it spin out to more, is, well, odd to say the least – the type of twist a hack screenwriter thinks is clever. But it certainly is, well, weird.

 

20. Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1947) – Any Noir with Humphrey Bogart in its lead cannot be all bad – and while that’s true of Dead Reckoning, it also certainly doesn’t rank among Bogart’s best noir. This film, where Bogart plays a paratrooper, returning to America with his buddy, who disappears, and turns up murdered, when he discovers he’s going to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor is classically structured noir all the way. Bogart starts playing detective – and it doesn’t take him long to get in over his head, and fall for a classic femme fatale (Lizbeth Scott). The movie kind of spins its wheels after a while though – repeating itself. And although 100 minutes is far from a long movie – it’s far too long for this one. Like I said, any noir with Bogart cannot be bad – and Scott helps a lot too – but there’s a reason it doesn’t rank with his more famous noirs.

 

19. The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959) – Director Samuel Fuller examined the subject of racism throughout his career, and it kind of takes over the 1959 noir The Crimson Kimono. The plot is about two detectives – best friends, one white, one Japanese America (James Shigeta), investigating the murder of a stripper, and both falling for the same woman (Victoria Shaw). To be honest, the murder mystery kind of gets lost along the way – in favor of Shigeta’s questioning his place in America, and the racism he faces. If this were made today, it would be laughed at as far too simplistic – but for 1959, it really was kind of groundbreaking – so there is some importance to the film. It isn’t quite all that interesting to watch however – a film full of good intentions, and an interesting time capsule, but hardly the best of Fuller’s great career.

 

18. The Mob (Robert Parrish, 1951) – This quick moving, not-really-noir, stars Broderick Crawford as a cop, who lets a murderer slip through his fingers, and then has to go undercover as a longshoreman from New Orleans to try and get to the bottom of corruption on the docks. The movie works best for its first hour – as Crawford gets deeper and deeper into the mob – also enjoyable to see him go toe-to-toe with Ernest Borgnine. The climax probably gets a little too complicated, and isn’t quite as much fun – but overall, this is pretty much exactly what Columbia Noir promises – fast-moving, entertaining B-level genre films.

 

17.Affair in Trinidad (Vincent Sherman, 1952) – Rita Hayworth’s “comeback” movie to Columbia after 5 years away, the film basically ends up being Gilda-light. Once again, Hayworth stars as a nightclub singer in a tropical locale, and Glenn Ford plays a man who both loves her and hates her, because of her relationship with an effeminate rich man. But this film isn’t as harsh as Gilda was – we know from the start that Hayworth is innocent, she acts the way she does because she’s trying to get information on her husband’s murder, and Ford acts the way he does but her husband was his brother, and he thinks his wife was cheating on him – and that everyone is trying to convince him his brother committed suicide. As a film itself, it’s fine – Hayworth is dances wonderfully, and does the rest of what she does well, as does Ford. It’s mainly interesting as an echo of Gilda though.

 

16. Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1956) – Jacques Tourneur was one of the great journeymen directors of his era – moving from one genre to the next with ease – sometimes producing masterpieces like Out of the Past, one of the best noirs ever made, and sometimes producing a fleet, entering B-movie like Nightfall. It is a classic wrong man set-up, with Aldo Ray accused of bank robbery and murder, and pursued, and falling for a young Anne Bancroft along the way. The movie is fleet footed and entertaining – and even if it never rises to the level of Tourneur’s best work, it’s certainly an entertaining B-movie.

 

15. Johnny O’Clock (Robert Rossen, 1947) – Robert Rossen’s breezy noir stars Dick Powell in full movie star mode as the charming title character – a man who runs a casino, and kind of floats on the surface, liked by all. Then, his playboy ways catch up with him, and he’s drawn into a web of murder and revenge. Lighter than a lot of noir – with a hero who is a likable heel that you still root for. Quite a good debut for Rossen – and a movie star vehicle for Powell, with solid character work by Lee J. Cobb. Diminished (slightly) but some unconvincing supporting performances, and the strange name of the title character – making it slightly harder to take seriously – but still a crackerjack entertainment.

 

14. Pushover (Richard Quine, 1954) – The presence of Fred MacMurray in the film really does make one think of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece Double Indemnity (1944). Once again, MacMurray falls for a femme fatale (Kim Novak) he is supposed to be investigating, leading him down a path to murder, and then more murder to cover it up, and try and get a lot of money to run away with the girl. The movie is, of course, no Double Indemnity – Novak’s performance, and her character, have nothing on Barbara Stanwyck. And the whole movie has the feel of a quickie B-movie, which it what it is. But that works amazing well, is fun and movies at a breakneck pace to its inevitable conclusion. A wonderful B-movie.

 

13. The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956) – There is an added layer of interest in The Harder They Fall because it was Bogart’s last film – filmed right before his cancer diagnosis, when he was clearly in pain. It’s also one of those late 1950s films where you can watch different kinds of acting – Bogart’s old school movie star charisma vs. Rod Steiger’s method acting – and remarkably they both work well individually, and together. The story, with Steiger’s heavy hiring Bogart’s recently fired boxing reporter to promote his latest prospect – a worthless, but huge, South American boxer to stardom. The whole thing works, in an old school way – and really does kind of feel like an end of an era in many ways.

 

12. The Brothers Rico (Phil Karlson, 1957) – Richard Conte stars as a former mob accountant who has gone straight – but is dragged back in to track down his younger brother, who may or may not have reached out to the D.A. On the surface, the film doesn’t really feel like noir – but it really kind of is, with Conte as the dupe, sucked deeper and deeper into a world. The cross-country narrative works as well, and Karlson’s direction is top notch. I do think the end of the film is a big letdown – you know what has to happen, but it just doesn’t work as well as the terrific rest of the film.

 

11.Drive a Crooked Road (Richard Quine, 1954) – Out of all the dupes in film noir, I’m not sure I feel more outright sympathy for any of them more than I do for Mickey Rooney’s Eddie in Drive a Crooked Road. A mechanic, and race car driver at local racers, he’s got a scar on his head, and seems a little slow, but is basically happy in his life – until a criminal’s girlfriend (Dianne Foster) seduces him, and gradually convince him to get the getaway driver for a bank robbery. Eddie is such an innocent here, who gets in way over his head, but he really doesn’t want to – he isn’t motivated by greed or lust, but because he genuinely loves her. The movie itself isn’t as good as the character or Rooney’s performance – but they do a lot of heavy lifting to make this one genuinely moving – and exciting.

 

10. The Lineup (Don Siegel, 1958) – Shot on location in San Francisco, The Lineup is a terrific entertainment – featuring a memorable performance by Eli Wallach as the psychopath gangster Dancer, who travels around the city retrieving packages of heroin, by any means necessary, smuggled in my unsuspecting tourists returning home. The film shifts focus a few times – first looking perhaps it’s going to be a wrong man narrative, then a police procedural, before finally settling on Dancer as its main character. The film makes terrific use of the real locations, and like the best of Siegel’s doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it.

 

9. The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952) – Watching The Sniper in 2020 is a very odd experience. It’s main character, Eddie Miller played by Arthur Franz, is pretty much a prototypical “angry white man with a gun” – who has just become a larger and larger problem in the nearly 70 years since the film was made. He is basically an incel – who gets angry at women, particularly women with boyfriends, who he feels “rejects” him, when really, they haven’t done anything wrong. The only real difference here is that Eddie takes out the specific women he hates, one-by-one, with a sniper rifle, instead of one mass incident. The film tries to psychoanalyze him a little – and has far more sympathy for Eddie than normal – right down to the final shot. It’s a film to watch and wrestle with.

 

8. My Name is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945) – The title character here is played in a terrific performance by Nina Foch in a terrific performance. She plays a down-on-her-luck woman who takes a job from a mysterious stranger – and then wakes up in their house, being told my everyone that she is not who she thinks she is. Terrific supporting work by Dame May Whitty, as an overbearing mother who is willing to do anything to protect her son. Director Lewis keeps things moving at a crackerjack pace for the entire 65-minute runtime. Personally, I think I would have liked it more had we not known the truth from the outset – but this is a terrific film in the vein of Gaslight.

 

7. Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946) – The film that made Rita Hayworth an icon, with one of the most memorable entrances in all of cinema, had previously struck me as kind of lightweight, mainly because the happy ending of the film feels so false. And yet, without that happy ending, this film would actually be incredibly dark and disturbing. Hayworth’s Gilda isn’t really even a femme fatale, or the villain here. It is Glenn Ford who is the dangerous one here – and he is just about perfect in his role, playing perfectly against Hayworth. Personally, I would have preferred a darker ending – that may have marked this a masterpiece – but as it stands, it’s still pretty great.

 

6. Human Desire (Fritz Lang, 1954) – A year after they made an acknowledged masterpiece – The Big Heat – director Fritz Lang reteamed with stars Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame to make this remake of Jean Renoir’s La Bette Humaine (1938) based on the novel by Emile Zola. The film doesn’t have the reputation of The Big Heat – and admittedly, it isn’t quite as good – but honestly, I think this film is grossly underrated. In the film, Ford plays a train engineer just returned from the Korean war, who falls for Grahme – who is married to an angry co-worker – Broderick Crawford – who has already killed one man, and may kill more. Made during the period when Grahme was one of the best actresses in Hollywood (seriously, she won a much deserved Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952 – yet I think she’s even better in The Big Heat and In a Lonely Place), she makes a wonderful would-be femme fatale – with Ford a slight twist on the regular dupe, and Crawford excellent as the human beast of the original title – this is an underrated film from one of the great directors of all time.

 

5. Experiment in Terror (Blake Edwards, 1962) – Blake Edwards is, of course, best known for his comedies (he is one of the great comedic directors of all time) – but here, he directs an excellent Hitchcock-ian thriller about an asthmatic man harassing a bank clerk (Lee Remnick) – forcing her to steal from her employer, with cop Glenn Ford trying to crack the case. My only doubt with this film is if it’ actually noir at all (it doesn’t really feel like it) – but whatever you call it, it is terrific. It’s also the latest film in the collection – and the longest, and yet Edwards never lets the tension flag, and it contains such terrific performances. Edwards isn’t who you’d expect to deliver something this terrific and taut – but he does.

 

4. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) – Like many of Welles’ Hollywood films, he made this for money – and it shows, as the film has a tossed off feel to it, as if Welles couldn’t care less about the narrative. Recut without him, the film almost feels like it’s missing some scenes – and the infamous funhouse climax is as brilliant as anything you will ever, even in its truncated form. Welles seems to want to undermine the whole thing – from his over-the-top accent, to making a farce out of the courtroom climax, to making his then wife, and leading lady, Rita Hayworth chop off and dye her infamous hair. Seriously, the film probably shouldn’t work at all – and yet somehow it does work, and brilliantly so.

 

3. Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958) – This is probably the oddest title in the collection – the most one-of-a-kind hidden gem that we all look for, and so rarely find. Martin Scorsese is a big fan, and has raised the visibility of the film – and you can see the influence on others – like perhaps Jim Jarmusch. The story, of a young, callous hitman (Vince Edwards) who is able to operate without feeling – that is until his latest client, who for the first time is a woman, and he just doesn’t seem to be able to finish the job. It is an idiosyncratic portrait of this hitman in existential dread. If Jean-Pierre Melville had made a low budget American film in 1958 – it may well have looked like Murder by Contract – a masterwork from little-known Irving Lerner.

 

2. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) – One of the best films of Fritz Lang’s career – certainly of his Hollywood career – in this film in which are hero is really an asshole, and responsible for almost all the horrible things that happens in the film, particularly the horrible things that befall all the women in the film. Glenn Ford – who, by the by the way, is terrific in a lot of films in this collection maybe gives the best performance of his career, as a cop whose wife and son are killed, and sets out for revenge. A young Lee Marvin is terrific here too as the heavy – and has the most famous scene. It is also one of the best performances of Gloria Grahame – which shows how great she is. Lang has this film fly by – in just 89-minutes - and undercuts the supposed happy ending. Overall, one of the great noirs of all time.

                                                                                

1.In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) – This is one of the best noirs ever made – and as great as any number of other films in this collection – are the easy choice for best in the collection. The film stars Bogart – in one of his 2 or 3 best performances – a screenwriter who may or may not be a murderer, who is cleared by his beautiful neighbor (the great Gloria Grahame) who starts to doubt her own testimony, even as she falls in love with him. This is a deep, dark film – probably the best of the great Nicholas Ray’s career. This is an enigmatic noir – one that has to string the audience along, not telling them all the information they have, but still make it satisfying – and doing a character study. Just because Bogart may not be a murderer – it doesn’t mean he isn’t a violent asshole. An absolute masterpiece.

Ranking the top 50 Office Characters

Okay, just so everyone knows how I got here – I originally was only to rank the characters who appeared in over 10 episodes – but that would leave off characters like Jo Bennett and Charles Miner, and that felt strange – so in order to accommodate that, I dropped it down to 7 episode. That took me to 43 people, and that felt odd, so I then just found 7 other characters who were important to the show, but less than 7 episode (I think the least is 3). The ranking criteria is a mixture of character and performance – but is basically the characters I liked to watch the most to the least – but really, most of them are pretty great.

 

50. Jordan Garfield (Cody Horn) (3 Episodes, Season 7) – Poor Jordan, never stood a chance. She came in late in Season 7 – after Michael left – and was gone in just three episodes, as they clearly didn’t think they needed her once Robert California took over. Horn was fine in the role – her highlight may be bonding with Pam as they had to protect all the clients from having to talk to Creed. I cannot help but wonder if perhaps she was designed to be what Cathy was in Season 8 – and the just decided to go in another direction. Whatever happened, Horn and Jordan were never really given a chance to become a real character, and is one of the most forgettable characters in the run of The Office.

 

49. Hannah Smotridge-Barr (Ursula Burton) – (6 Episodes, Season 3) – Other than Karen and Andy, Hannah was the last of the Stanford employees to last in Scranton. But Hannah never really was given a chance to be much of a character – she is clearly miserable from the beginning of her time to the end, she looks with disdain on everyone in the branch – and even if some of that is deserved (they do stare at her breastfeeding) – she also never really tried to fit in. It isn’t Burton’s fault that you basically forget Hannah – she seems designed to just be there for the first half of the season so they can slowly pick off the Stanford people one at a time. In the end, she does what she is there to do – but it’s hard to think of too many more forgettable Office characters who appeared in this many episodes).

 

48. Esther (Nora Kirkpatrick) (5 Episodes, Season 9) – Esther shows up in Season 9 for a brief run as Dwight’s girlfriend, and perhaps even fiancé - I wonder if the purposed spinoff about Dwight’s beet farm had of taken off had they ended up together. As it stands now, she’s basically there to infuriate Angela – and provide that brief speedbump in their relationship down the stretch before the ending we were hoping for. She is a lot of fun – but there comes a point where they are clearly done with her, and it just kind of ends.

 

47. Rolf (James Urbaniak) (4 Episodes, Seasons 5-6, 9) – Okay, so Rolf is barely a character on The Office – he shows up in just four episodes, and for the most part, it’s basically bit parts. But he’s always funny when he does show up – as he is basically playing a more extreme version of Dwight – which Dwight cannot help but admire, even as everyone else cannot stand him.

 

46. A.J. (Rob Huebel) (3 Episodes, Seasons 5,7) – Holly’s boyfriend during her time in Nashua doesn’t really get much to do. The show basically establishes him as a nice guy – he’s kind, he treats Holly well, they seem reasonably happy together – but without the love that Michael and Holly have. It’s hard to hate him, because he’s so inoffensive – but it’s hard to really like him either.

 

45. Bob Vance (Robert R. Shafer) – (25 Episodes, Season 2-7, 9) – Poor Bob Vance, he just isn’t that interesting a character. They basically wrote him as a one joke character – as he introduces him as “Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration”, over and over again, and even as he hangs around, and even marries Phyllis fairly early in its run, doesn’t really get any other personality other than that through 25 episodes - other than he clearly hates Michael, Dwight and Andy, and his and Phyllis’ sex life is apparently very healthy. Everyone who knows The Office knows immediately who Bob Vance is – but I doubt they can tell you much other than that one line.

 

44. Brian (Chris Diamantopoulos) (5 Episodes, Season 9) – The final season of the show made the decision to give us a peak behind the curtain – address the documentary and its crew in a way it had never done before – leading up to the airing itself. Brian representing that peak – the sound guy who we see stepping into comfort Pam when Jim yells at her about the recital, or protecting her from the warehouse guy who comes to attack her. It is hinted that he loves her, without ever quite following through on it. I do love how the show gave us that peak in Season 9 – but it’s more of an all-encompassing love, rather than Brian specific.

 

43. Val Johnson (Ameenah Kaplan) (14 Episodes, Seasons 8-9) – I cannot help but wonder that had The Office been able to find a way to be in a post-Michael world, and continue for years, if they would have done more with Val. They basically fired the entire warehouse staff in Season 8 to get her into her role as foreperson, and then worked hard to bring her and Darryl together – but once Season 9 begins, and it’s the ending, they pretty much abandon her – she shows up once in a while, but there’s not much there. It’s a shame because there was some promise here – and I liked Kaplan’s performance. But she basically ends up being kind of forgettable.

 

42. Cathy Simms (Lindsay Broad) (12 Episodes, Season 8) – I feel bad for Cathy, who never really got a chance on the show. She was brought in for the After Hours episode – where she tries to seduce Jim, and gets rejected again and again, and she is great in that. But she’s there for 11 other episodes, where quite frankly, she is more often than not lost in the background. I also understand that they cut a scene where we would have found out she just got out of an abusive relationship, which wouldn’t excuse what she did, but would make it more understandable. So Lindsay Broad never really had a chance to do much with this character – who is essentially an object for 11 out of 12 episodes, and then mocked in the 12^th one (and it’s not her last one) – and doesn’t even get any sort of send-off at all – she just never returns from Florida, and is never mentioned again. For someone who is such a key part of one of Season’s 8 best episodes, she deserved better.

 

41. Helene Beasley (Linda Purl) (9 Episodes, Season 6-7, 9) – Pam’s mom shows up several times during the latter half of the season – but her highlight episode is clearly Season 6’s Double Date – when Michael takes her, Jim and Pam out for Helene’s birthday, and then dumps her when he finds out how old she is. She is wonderful there – even if it still basically remains the Michael, Jim and Pam show for that episode. Her other highlight is Season 7’s Sex Ed, her last scene with Michael. Other than that, she’s mainly a background character at Halpert/Beasley family functions. Her character is great – but oddly, probably the best when she isn’t there, and Pam and Michael argue about her.

 

40. Donna Newton (Amy Pietz) (5 Episode, Seasons 6-7) – Donna shows up late in Season 6 to give Michael a final girlfriend before he gets back together with Holly. She is the manager of the bar they go to for happy hour, and she and Michael hit it off there, and get together soon after – only for him to discover that she is married, and he is the other man when he suspects she is cheating. Her best episode is Body Language, when she comes into the office for a sales pitch, and everyone debates with Michael if she’s into him or not (although, he’s quite amusing in a quick phone call in Sex Ed in Season 7). To be honest, I always think this storyline is rushed, and is basically filler – but Pietz is still very good in the role.

 

39. Dangelo Vickers (Will Ferrell) (4 Episode Season 7) – Ferrell was clearly brought in to add some star power in the the run-up, and immediate aftermath of Carrel’s departure. You cannot deny them comic chemistry together – and they have moments where it works. But he’s only around for 4 episodes – Training Day is a bit of a letdown after the engagement the previous episode (the bar cold open is Ferrell’s best in the episode), his best overall episode is probably Michael’s Last Dundies, and still he isn’t what you remember about that episode, he’s a third wheel in Goodbye Michael, and then he gets one stand-alone episode, and ends up with brain damage. Ferrell is, of course, a great comedic actor – but part of me wonders if the writers didn’t come up with this character, and cast Ferrell, to show the direction The Office wasn’t going to go in post Carrel, because the character never really works (seriously, if you don’t like a season of Robert California, imagine a whole season with Vickers – it’s a nightmare scenario).

 

38. Katy Moore (Amy Adams) (3 Episodes, Seasons 1-2) – Seriously, if Amy Adams didn’t get nominated for multiple Oscars – her first, around the time she was on the show, we’d probably remember Katy a little less than we do. She shows up in the Season 1 finale, selling purses, with all the guys in the office wanting to ask her out – and Jim “winning”. She shows up, barely, in The Fire, basically to show how bad she is for Jim, and then on Booze Cruise, where he cruelly dumps her. Seriously, two of her three episodes are all time Office classics – and yet her character is more of a prop than a character. Adams plays it well, but there’s only so much you can do with it.

 

37. Gabe Lewis (Zach Woods) - (51 Episodes, Season 6-9) – Poor Gabe, they never really figured out what to do with him. He was probably at his best in Season 6 – as the go-between for Jo and the Scranton office, and always being on the outside looking in, never quite being included. Season 7 had him date Erin – in a storyline that never really made much sense, and just showed him to increasingly be an asshole, but a meek one – probably one of those guys who would go online and complain that women don’t like “nice guys”. He probably should have left when Jo did at the end of Season 7 – but they extended him into Season 8, even though he really didn’t have much of a point that season. Woods is a talented comedic actor to be sure – but The Office never cracked Gabe – and at some point, just seems like they stopped even trying to.

 

36. Todd Packer (David Koechner) (16 Episodes, Seasons 2-3, 6-9) – Todd Packer is an hard character for lists like this – I never really enjoyed him as a character, but then again, that is precisely the point of him – Todd Packer is insufferable for everyone not named Michael Scott, and Koechner plays that perfectly. He needed to be used sparingly however – and they mainly understood that, as he never appeared in more than 4 episodes in a single season. His best episode probably is the one called Todd Packer – where it becomes clear even to Michael sees through him as he becomes insufferable even for him.

 

35. Carol Stills (Nancy Carrel) (8 Episodes, Seasons 2-3, 7, 9) – Carrel’s talented real-life wife played his first real love interest, aside from Jan, starting as Michael’s real estate agent selling him his condo. Out of all his love interests, she seems the most normal – a regular divorced mom, looking for love, who thinks Michael is normal – until she gets to know him, and he takes things from 0-60 real fast. Still, she remains calm with Michael throughout all their interactions, if increasingly irritated with him. She’s not in A Benihana Christmas much – but her scene dumping Michael is her best moment on the show. It was always welcome to see her back – even if she was stuck playing the straight-man throughout.

 

34. Hank Tate (Hugh Dane) (23 Episodes, Seasons 2-9) – The security guard at the office park, Hank showed up a few times every season, basically just to giving withering looks to the crazies at Dunder Mifflin, or give a sarcastic comment. This isn’t a deep character by any means, but he is incredibly funny almost every time he shows up – perfectly played by Dane. It’s hard to pick the best Hank episode, because he essentially does the same thing every time – but it’s always so amusing it’s impossible to complain.

 

33. Josh Porter (Charles Esten) (8 Episodes, Seasons 2-3) -  Josh was used basically as a counterpoint to Michael during the first third of Season 3 – with Jim at Stamford, working for manager Josh. Josh was the more normal boss, who did what he was supposed to, and looked down on Michael, without ever doing so vocally in front of everyone. But ultimately, he revealed himself to be the type of person that Michael isn’t – one that would hang all his employees out to dry in order to improve his own position. It’s not a particularly deep performance – but I think Esten captures something more universal in why so many hate their bosses – because we know that, deep down, they don’t care about us at all.

 

32. State Senator Rob Lipton (Jack Coleman) (14 Episodes, Seasons 7-9) – The State Senator is clearly a very important character in the last three seasons – so much tension in the office revolves around him – but Jack Coleman doesn’t quite get as many opportunities to shine in the role as you may think. Still, it is a pitch perfect performance as the closeted Republican hypocrite, leading to a perfect send-off for him in his final appearance, as seen on TV, which is just downright funny.

 

31. Hidetoshi Hasagawa/ Madge Madsen/ Calvin aka Glenn – and ALL Warehouse Workers (Hidetoshi Imura/Karly Rothenberg/Calvin Tenner) - (30 episodes combined, Seasons 1-9) – Basically, these three represent all the warehouse workers who showed up throughout the run of the series. They are often in the background – occasionally getting a good line, or do something good in the background. The highlight of these three is probably when Hidetoshi gets a monologue at the end of Happy Hour to explain why he left Japan. The fact that Calvin aka Glenn aka Lester appeared in 15 episodes over 6 seasons, but had three different names, show how much attention they got from the writes. Still, as a group, the warehouse workers could often be quite funny – so as a group, they deserve some respect.

 

30. Robert California (James Spader) (25 Episodes, Seasons 7-8) – It’s hard to fault James Spader for Robert California not quite working – they basically hired him to be the creepy guy he specializes in, play it completely straight, but have it be funny because of what he says, and the context. And Spader does that. And in episodes when Robert California is a supporting character – one who shows up for a few minutes and episode, he can actually work the way they want him to – being an agent of chaos, the type of rich guy who isn’t good at his job, but who floats through life without consequences. Had he been utilized like say David Wallace – a few times of seasons, he could have lasted it years. As a regular he was just too much.

 

29. Jo Bennett (Kathy Bates) (8 Episodes, Seasons 6-7) – Bates, unfortunately suffered a little bit from coming in during the second half of Season 6, which is when The Office was trying to figure out what to do with itself, and I’m not quite sure they ever figured out what she should be. Because Bates is a brilliant actress of course, Jo is an interesting character – and a fun one, with her accent, her sayings, her dogs, etc. – but given just how good of an actress she is, this feels like a missed opportunity for there to be a truly great character.

 

28. Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) (34 Episodes, Seasons 7-9) – I’m not sure they ever quite figured out how to use Tate, and her unique comic talents on the show. In the Season 7 finale where she interviews for Michael’s job, and throughout most of Season 8, where she leads the team in Florida, then conspires to take Andy’s job, they seem to want her to be as insufferable as possible – and Tate is more than up to the challenge. In Season 9, they tried to soften her a little – tried to get her to bond with Pam a little, and become exasperated with Toby, and it works – kind of – but she also becomes less memorable as a result.

 

27. Clark Green (Clark Duke) (19 Episodes, Season 9) – There are two things true about Clark – one, is that I don’t really think he was necessary, Season 9 could have been fine without him, and two, I kind of wish we got to see more of him, because grew on me throughout the middle of the season, before he was basically left behind for the more major characters. Still, when paired with Dwight, Clark could be hilarious. Had this show gone on a few more seasons, Clark could have climbed his way up this list.

 

26. Pete Miller (Jake Lacy) (21 Episodes, Season 9) – Most of what I just said about Clark can apply to Pete as well – although I think he established himself earlier, and you really can see him becoming the new Jim of The Office – at least in the few opportunities he was given to do that. He fits with Erin – and he handled Andy well, and overall, is just a likable presence. Was he necessary? Not really – but I enjoyed him anyway.

 

25. Nate Nickerson (Mark Proksch) (19 Episodes, Seasons 7-9) – Mark Proksch’s Nate is one of my favorite background characters in the Office – showing up here and there throughout the last three seasons of the show, always being a pathetic, deadpan delight. He starts as Dwight’s worker at the building then graduates to warehouse worker. The show knew just how to use his character -briefly, a scene or two here and there, and he was always hilarious.

 

24. Charles Miner (Idris Elba) (7 Episodes, Season 5) – The ever charming Elba had to turn that natural charisma way down to play Charles Miner – a man who is a deliberately boring character, which explains why he takes an immediate dislike to not just Michael, but Jim as well. He made a good opponent for Michael – someone Charles really should have been able to beat, but Michael still got the best of him, and gradually, Elba shows just how petty Charles really was. It’s odd he never really got a send-off – presumably, he was fired along with everyone else at corporate in season 6 – but we don’t get any word of it. Elba played him well – and it was nice to see someone not charmed by Jim, but it’s hard to be a top tier character when you are deliberately designed to be a stick in the mud.

 

23. David Wallace (Andy Buckley) (37 Episodes, Seasons 2-6, 8-9) – Andy Buckley is wonderful as David Wallace in Seasons 2-6, when he is the CFO of Dunder Mifflin, and basically has to oversee Michael – as the trio of Jan/Ryan/Charles who are supposed to, can never quite do it. He creates a portrait of basically a good businessman, exasperated by what he has to go through, but not seeing another option. I also enjoyed him playing the drums after he lost his job. They brought him back near the end of Season 8, and then through Season 9, and he’s fine – without quite getting the same opportunity to be great. Still, his staying power is impressive.

 

22. Mose Schrute (Michael Schur) (13 Episodes, Seasons 3-9) – Pretty much the only acting role of Michael Schur’s great career – this Office writer who went on to create Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99 and The Good Place is wonderful each and every time he shows up as Dwight’s very special cousin Mose. There isn’t much to the character really – but eventually in every episode he will break into a run, and that’s worth it. Deep character? No. But is he one you will ever forget? No.

 

21. Roy Anderson (David Denman) (32 Episodes, Seasons 1-3, 5-7, 9) – I always felt a little bad for Roy, who was set up immediately as an antagonist, because we want Jim and Pam together, and Roy is in the way. But Roy isn’t really a bad guy – he’s a little clueless, he takes Pam for granted a little, but without Jim there, then they probably would been like many people – get married, have a couple of kids, then get divorced, etc. Even when he gets violent, he does have a reason to be upset with both Jim and Pam (although he handled it very poorly to be sure). I particularly liked him in Season 3, when he wants Pam back, and is just kind of sad, and says things that aren’t true (my favorite about how he thinks Pam’s art is sexy). He is played well by Denman, a sympathetic character, who will still root against. It’s nice to see him back in Season 9 – happy and successful, and hopefully, a better person.

 

20. Karen Filippelli (27 Episodes, Seasons 3-7) – Like Roy, you do feel kind of bad for Karen, even if you don’t want her to end up with Jim. Still, she and Jim work well together in Stamford, and perhaps had the branches not merged, they could have been happy together. But once they’re all back in the same office, things get awkward. Jones plays the character well – funny, sarcastic, and smart, basically a good person, who is just in the way of the love story we want. Like Roy, it’s nice to see her end up happy, because she deserved that. You liked her, but you wanted her to go away.

 

19. Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) (17 Episodes, Seasons 4-5, 7) – Amy Ryan is, of course, a brilliant actress – most often in heavy projects like Gone Baby Gone, so it’s great to see her not just in a comedy, but allowed to be goofy in a comedy. The show does a great job of showing us just how perfect for Michael Holly is- which was necessary – but I do kind of wish they had done more to define her as a character unto herself, which they never really do. Her first run of episodes is designed to break Michael’s heart, and her second run is to get them together, so she never quite becomes a full person. Still, she was always a delight to watch – and it takes something special to make you think she is perfect for Michael Scott.

 

18. Erin Hannan (Ellie Kemper) (102 Episodes, Seasons 5-9) – I enjoyed Kemper’s Erin quite a bit during her time on the show – she is always so chipper, friendly and happy – but it masks a deeply unhappy upbringing, and longing for something more (I have to think this is why they cast her in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). It’ odd though that while I like her in the show, and think she became an integral part of it, she never quite like a member of the group inside the office itself – that she was outside the core, looking in, and I cannot figure out if it was intentional or not  - it could also be that for the most part, she wasn’t part of the show at its absolute peak).

 

17. Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) (168 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – I’m torn on Ryan in many ways – because on one hand, I never really liked him, I found him obnoxious in a way that was never really made sympathetic or understandable, unlike both Michael and Andy. But on the other hand, that is exactly the way his character is supposed to be – the show sees him much the way Pam does, as a prick who she doesn’t like very much. And the show seemed to know how to best utilize him as well – as a supporting character, someone who showed up for a few moments in each episode, but very rarely had episodes built around. Novak was always wonderful in the role, and he could be funny. But he was a character I liked more, the less he was utilized.

 

16. Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) (187 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Meredith is perhaps a notch below the most of the other office mates, if only because there was never much depth there. She was an alcoholic the whole time, and made fun of for how many men she slept with – the refreshing part being that she didn’t care, and fully embraced those roles – and her son, who we saw once as a child, who may be psychotic, and later as a teenager with a lot of tattoos. I don’t know if there was much there to Meredith – and she didn’t often get the one-liners that elevated other swallower characters. Yet, it is still a great performance by Kate Flannery, marked by her willingness to do just about anything for a laugh.

 

15. Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) (161 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Mindy Kaling looked to be having an absolute blast playing Kelly Kapoor during her run on the office. She didn’t often get whole storylines built around her, but she often got great moments, great one-liners – ones that continue to be memes to this day. Her on-again, off-again romance with Ryan was something that ran through her entire run, and often brought out the best in both of them – their pettiness, their self-absorption, etc. – although it was great to see her finally able to break free of him in season 9. There was never much depth to Kelly – she played a character obsessed with superficial things – but she played it to absolute perfection.

 

14. Phyllis Vance (Phyllis Smith) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Phyllis always felt like a little bit of a mystery to me – and I mean that in a good way. She was the one female salesman who lasted the whole series, and she never seemed to play the cutthroat games of the others, but just quietly went along, always making her sales. There was also the little peaks inside her relationship with Bob Vance – elevated by the fact that for the most part, Bob Vance was dull onscreen, but then Phyllis would make a comment that gave you a peek inside a more perverse relationship. Smith was able to use her stereotypical mom-like exterior to great use throughout the run of the show – her best comments almost always being made quietly. She was a fine character, to have play out in the background.

 

13. Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) (152 Episodes, Seasons 3-9) – Honestly, it took a little while for Helms’ Andy to grow on me. He was deliberately made to be off-putting when his role began in Stamford as Jim’s co-worker, and when he gets to Scranton, and has to deal with his anger issues. Still, he is a different kind of person lacking in self-awareness from Michael, and they often played off each well – and eventually, he does grow on you. In Season 8, he really is able to hold everything together, even as Robert California threatened to detail things that year. I’m not a huge fan of how they portray him throughout Season 9 (his abrupt shift in attitude towards Nellie sometime between the Season 8 finale and Season 9 premier is the first strange thing about him) which is probably what keeps him out of the top 10. They land it well, but most of that season he is insufferable.

 

12. Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) (120 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Robinson’s Darryl was at somewhat of a disadvantage, because while he was there from the beginning of the series, he didn’t really get to be a regular until later on in the run – when he moved from the warehouse into the office in Season 6, when the show started to become uneven. Still, it’s hard not to love Darryl, who knew precisely how to play Michael to get what he wanted, and their scenes often brought out the best in Robinson. In later seasons, they seemed to like to pair him with Andy – for a similar type of dynamic. Robinson had a great, easy going presence to him – but they complicated him as he went along – with his daughter, with his disappointments, etc. Robinson’s talents were evident – and they eventually figured out how to use him, so he became one of the best characters in the later years.

 

11. Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) (141 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Poor Toby. You couldn’t help but feel bad for him when Michael picked on him mercilessly – sometimes cruelly – because even though you liked Michael, you knew Toby didn’t deserve it. I’m not sure poor Toby ever caught a break – he had a crush on Pam, but that kept going nowhere, his dream of moving to Costa Rica went nowhere, he was stuck in the annex with Kelly and Ryan and even if the rest of the office was never as mean to him as Michael was, they didn’t really include him either. As played by Paul Lieberstein though, Toby was often hilarious – the sad sack Eeyore of the bunch, who often had hilarious, sad one-liners. Poor Toby.

 

10. Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) (177 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – As an accountant, I always had a soft spot for the Dunder Mifflin accounting department – and although Oscar ranks the third of three here, I still loved him. He was always a great foil for Michael – who picked on him for both being Mexican and, later, gay. Nunez perfectly played Oscar as the frustrated smartest guy in the room – he knows more than anyone else, but never really got to be in control, for other reasons (even when given the chance, he cannot quite bring himself to say it – like in Shareholder’s Meeting). He was uptight, but still somehow lovable – often cast in the role of straight man, but also capable of being quite funny.

 

9. Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton (180 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Creed was never designed to be a deep character – 9 seasons, 180 appearances, and he is still basically a comic enigma. He basically shows up to make a quick quip in his one-to-one interviews to the camera, or do something hilarious in the background. We basically know nothing about Creed – and that helps to make him as funny as he is, and also as interesting as he is. There is hardly a moment when Creed speaks that isn’t hilarious. Strangely, the first appearance you remember him for – in Season 2’s Halloween, where he talks Michael out of firing him, is one of the episodes he talks the most in. He is the perfect example of a character who when used sparingly is wonderful – and the writers knew it.

 

8. Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Something that struck me as I re-watched the show this time is that Stanley may well be an older version of Jim – a few decades longer doing a job he’s good at, but doesn’t love, and resigned to see it through. Aside from Jim, no one had more, amazing side-eye looks at the camera when something stupid was going on, and he could also always be counted on for a great one-liner. Perhaps it shows the importance of Dwight to Jim – as this is Jim’s future without someone to prank. That’s just a theory of course – overall, Stanley is, of course, a great character – always in the background, with his crossword puzzle, the guy in the office who just wants to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Leslie David Baker is a deadpan genius.

 

7. Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – It takes some skill to play a character who is essentially a stick in the mud, and yet make her both insufferable, lovable, and very funny at the same time. Angela is the most judgmental of all the Office characters – she looks down at everyone from the start, pretty much to the end (she is so proud of her husband, the Senator). Yet, as much as you sometimes dislike Angela – you always feel sympathy for her as well. Her chemistry with Rainn Wilson is great, and it’s always great to see her and Jenna Fischer play off each other as well. Angela took a long, roundabout way to get where she should be – but I’m happy that in the finale, she ended up there.

 

6. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – No one is more surprised than I am that out of all the officemates outside the main four that Kevin ended up being my favorite during this re-watch (my money was on Stanley). But Brian Baumgartner’s Kevin made me laugh more consistently than just about anyone on the show. I love how indignant he can get, how angry he gets over small things, and how he just doesn’t seem to understand some very basic things. He could be as wonderfully comic as anyone with his looks to the camera (that smile that creeps across his face). Also, more than just about any of the supporting office players, there seems to be a whole secret life Kevin is living – with his band, with his gambling addiction, with his fiancé, who he just isn’t engaged to at one point (he doesn’t want to talk about it). Baumgartner is an absolute riot throughout.

 

5. Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) (43 Episodes, Seasons 1-7, 9) – Out of all the occasional characters in the show, Melora Hardin’s Jan is, to me, the clear best one. Part of it is based on her absolutely brilliant performance in the best office episode ever – Dinner Party (seriously, that episode is perhaps Carrel’s best performance in the show, and Hardin is his equal throughout – a true accomplishment). But it’s more than that. It is her journey, from when she begins and we think she is a serious, competent businesswoman (which perhaps she was at one time – and perhaps became again) – to her absolute bottoming out with Michael, to picking up the pieces again. Because she wasn’t a consistent presence always, there was always this feeling of a tornado of activity going on with her when she wasn’t around. My only complaint – I wish she were given a slightly better end point. But overall, Jan is the best character in the office who wasn’t around all the time – and Hardin’s performance is a gem.

 

4. Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Jim is certainly among the most beloved characters on the show – which is why his actions throughout Season 9 cause so much distress in people, because they don’t want to think of him as an asshole. Still, from the time he and Pam get together in Season 4 through Season 8, he is basically perfect – so it’s nice to see him smudged a little. Besides, there was always something not quite perfect about him anyway – and I appreciate how they writers did that. In the role, Krasinski is just about perfect – it’s strange to me that he never got an Emmy nomination for the role. Krasinski is perfect here, and Jim is a great character. It’s hard to be one half of the perfect couple – but somehow, this works.

 

3. Dwight K. Schrute (Rainn Wilson) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – It really is a testament to Wilson’s performance that he was able to make Dwight Schrute into more than a cartoon character – which he easily could have been. You can see why Dwight can be annoying to be sure – but Wilson makes him both insufferable and lovable, gullible, and smart, competent and crazy, and somehow all of these things at the same time. He is also clearly the character who grows the most out of anyone throughout his nine seasons – his actions in the finale make complete and perfect sense – but would have been unthinkable to the Dwight of seasons 1 and 2. Yes, as the series went into the post-Michael era, the writers sometimes made Wilson go over-the-top – which he did to perfection even if you wish they didn’t push it that far. Still, Dwight is a great sitcom character - and one that becomes far more complicated then you ever would have thought.

 

2. Pam Beasley (Jenna Fischer) (188 Episodes, Seasons 1-9) – Pam Beasley is one of the most lovable characters in any TV show ever. Yes, she could be insecure and indecisive, but that just makes her even more relatable. She was always the heart of the show – the one you rooted for the most, whether it was in Season 2 when Jim was in love with her and she couldn’t see it, or season 3 when she was being rejected. Hell, I thought the show – especially in the finale – was WAY too hard on her for doubting Jim (he acted like a jerk for a while there). She is also responsible for some of the very best, most heartwarming moments in the entire show. I don’t think there is a moment that brings me more joy than the end of Season 3 when Jim asks her out, and she’s flustered – it is a truly great moment.

 

1. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) (140 Episodes, Seasons 1-7, 9) – Michael Scott is what made The Office great – really what elevated a very good sitcom to legendary status, and Carrel’s performance is perfect. That first seasons isn’t always great – they are figuring out the line between Michael being a jerk, and just being well-meaning but clueless. But from Season 2, this become one of the best performances in sitcom history -his six Emmy nominations in a row, for which he shamefully never won, were well-deserved. Carrel and Michael left a massive hole when they left – and while it was admirable how they tried to fill it, it’s also clear that they couldn’t. The Office ranks among the best network sitcoms of all time – and while the entire ensemble cast is brilliant, it’s hard to see that happening without Carrel and Michael Scott.