The 20 best everyman characters on TV

Few fictional detectives have the everyman charm of Columbo, memorably played by the late Peter Falk. With his disheveled appearance and husky voice, Columbo is far from the glamorous private detective, but this is exactly what gives him his charm. It’s precisely his everyman demeanor that makes him so relentlessly effective at getting to the bottom of a homicide. Almost everyone underestimates him, and it’s for this reason that his gotcha questions — a key part of his schtick — are almost always effective. If there’s a crime to be solved, Columbo is the person to call. 

King of the Hill remains a beloved sitcom, even though it's been over a decade since it went off the air. This is primarily thanks to its central character, Hank Hill. A middle-aged white man living in suburban Texas, he exemplifies many of the traits of the 1990s (and 2000s) everyman. He goes to work, believes in patriotism, and can’t quite make sense of his wife, Peg, or son, Bobby. Undoubtedly, Hank is a fundamentally good guy with a strong moral compass, and beneath his sometimes gruff exterior, there is a heart of gold. 

Few puppets are quite as beloved as Kermit the Frog. From the moment that he appeared on The Muppet Show, he found his way into the hearts of audiences and never left. Of all of the Muppets, Kermit is the one who fits most neatly into the paradigm of the everyman, and, strange though it might sound, it’s easy for the audience to identify and sympathize with him (even if he is a frog). And, like every great everyman, he also has a remarkable romance, this time with the boisterous Miss Piggy. Even after all of these years, Kermit still has the power to charm. 

Netflix’s Stranger Things knows how to use its nostalgia to good effect. Among its many fascinating characters, Jim Hopper is inarguably the everyman, at least when the show begins. He’s just what one would expect of a small-town cop, but as the series goes on, he shows that beneath his everyman persona, there is the true heart of a hero. He might not have the sculpted physique of the superheroes of the MCU, but he is still willing to sacrifice himself for those that he loves. As he proves with his experience in the Russian prison camp, there is much more to him than meets the eye. 

Game of Thrones is a series focused on the issue of power: how to get it, how to keep it, and how to destroy others with it. In a world where various noble houses are always struggling for power, Sean Bean’s Ned Stark is cut from a different cloth. He just wants to live in his castle at Winterfell and tend to his lands, but his old friend Robert Baratheon draws him into the deadly game of thrones. Like many other everyman figures before him, he soon finds that his earthy wisdom can only take him so far. The audience is led to love and care about him, making his ultimate demise all the more tragic.

If one sitcom seems to have been made for the everyman, it would be Cheers. Set in the bar of the same name, one of its most important characters is Ted Danson’s Sam Malone, who is now a bartender after having been a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Like all of the great everyman characters of TV, Sam Malone holds the ensemble together. There’s also no denying that much of this is due to the undeniable charisma of Ten Danson, who often dives deeply into Sam’s psychology, creating a character that is vibrantly and gloriously human.

If both Frasier and Niles Crane are the epitome of class, taste, and style in the hit sitcom Frasier, then their father, Martin Crane, is the opposite. As played by John Mahoney, Martin is an earthy and very salty man, someone who has no patience with the upper-class aspirations of his two sons. He is, quite simply, a working-class guy (he was a policeman before he was forced to retire due to an injury), and this shapes his perspective on life and family. While the audience can often sympathize with Frasier and Niles and even aspire to be like them, Martin is their surrogate — the person they can truly understand. 

The Office remains one of the most successful and widely-beloved sitcoms of the 20th century, and much of its enduring popularity can be ascribed to its cast. John Krasinski became a star thanks to his performance as Jim Halpert, the everyman who works at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. With his boyish good looks and bucketloads of charm, Jim was the perfect everyman character, so it’s easy to see why he became such a fan favorite. It’s also easy to see why so many fans would have become immediately invested in his relationship with Pam, given the extent to which they were so clearly meant for each other. 

The power of the everyman character lies in his ability to channel the expectations that a given culture has of its men. Sometimes, however, the figure can also invert or subvert those very expectations, and this is certainly the case with Al Bundy, memorably portrayed by Ed O’Neill in Married…With Children. Al sits on the line between the person men can identify with and the person they never want to become. With his life filled with frustration and thwarted dreams and ambitions, Al Bundy is a reminder of just how easy it can be for one’s life to go off the rails and how easy it is to slip into marital misery.

Modern Family more than lives up to its name, and throughout its many seasons, it allows audiences to get a sense of just how much has changed about the American idea of family and how much has stayed the same. Ty Burrell is perfectly cast as Phil Dunphy. Phil is the epitome of a nice guy, continuing to romance his wife (despite several years of marriage) and spending time with and trying to understand his kids. His sunny optimism and relentless cheer feel authentic, and he can’t help but wish those qualities were more common in the real world. 

John Goodman is one of the most gifted actors of his generation, and though he has been in many movies and TV series, for many, he will always be Dan Conner, the wife of Roseanne in Roseanne and its successor, The Conners. He’s perfectly cast as a working-class husband and dad trying to make ends meet. Dan might not always be the most patient person — and he’s far from perfect — but he’s still easy to identify with and like because he feels, acts, and looks like someone one could meet in real life. It’s no wonder that he has become so beloved and why, even now, he remains one of the best dads on TV.

There’s no question that Bryan Cranston gave the performance of his career in Breaking Bad, in which he plays the everyman Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who gradually turns to darkness and becomes a celebrated meth cook and drug lord. It is precisely Cranston’s ability to subvert his everyman persona (established in his previous work in Malcolm in the Middle) that makes Walter White so fascinating and terrifying to watch. He is a frightening reminder that beneath even the calmest exteriors, there is often a seething ball of rage, just waiting for its chance to burst out into the open.

As Danny Tanner, Bob Saget solidified his place in the annals of great TV actors, and his character more than earned his place as one of the great TV dads. Like so many other male television characters, Danny is an everyman trying to do the best he can for his three daughters. There’s something endearingly earnest about Danny, whether in the many heart-to-hearts he has with his daughters or in how he is obsessed with keeping his house clean. Somehow, he manages to be both the kind of dad everyone would want as well as someone who is a fully realized (and thus fully human) character. 

In many ways, Fred Flintstone is the paradigmatic example of the everyman. With his working-class persona and bluff demeanor, he is very much cut in the mold of such beloved sitcom characters as Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners. Though he doesn’t show the same body type as his cartoon successors, such as Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, there is still something believable about the way that Fred looks. He isn’t the sort of Adonis ideal but a regular guy — someone with whom adults and children could identify because he was like them rather than someone whose appearance could never be matched. 

If there’s one actor who has turned playing an everyman into a viable career, it’s Kevin James. He is perfectly cast as Doug Heffernan, who is, of course, the main character of the long-running series The King of Queens.  Doug is the kind of lovable doofus so common on TV, but James’ skill as an actor lies in his ability to keep his character from ever descending into outright caricature. Moreover, his bond with his wife, Carrie (played by the great Leah Remini), feels much more like a marriage of equals than is usual in this particular type of sitcom. 

Drawing on his family and life experiences, Ray Romano created Everybody Loves Raymond, focusing on the title character and his general bemusement in the face of his wife and family. Something is endearing and infuriating about the extent to which Ray can’t quite seem to find his footing, which often leads to spats with his wife, Debra, and his overbearing mother. More than anything else, Everybody Loves Raymond shows just how difficult families can be, and something is refreshing about this honest take on the nature of American domesticity at the close of the 20th century.

The Simpsons has gone through its fair share of ups and downs during its many seasons on the air, but one thing has remained constant: Homer Simpson. He is about as everyman as possible, both by design and through his years of development as a character. Though he can be a bit of a dunce at times, he has a genuine affection for his wife and kids (even Bart). He’s the type of character in which all sorts of people can see themselves reflected, which is the mark of a truly great and iconic TV character. 

Much like Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin of Family Guy is very much meant to be a buffoonish character, someone it is almost impossible to take seriously. However, as vulgar and foolish as he is, there’s still something more than a little lovable about Peter. When it comes down to it, he genuinely loves Lois and his children, and he is loyal to his friends (most of the time). The true brilliance of Peter as a character is his ability to straddle the line between obnoxious and lovable, which is always a sure sign that a character is destined to become canonical. 

Unlike so many other cartoon dads, Bob Belcher isn’t a buffoon. In fact, he seems competent at what he does: making burgers. He’s even more loyal and loving to his family than Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, and, given how utterly exasperating his wife Linda and children can be, this says a great deal about his character. What really sets him apart is H. Jon Benjamin’s voice acting. He makes Bob into someone more than a bit bemused by the world, but he mercifully never allows him to descend into the cynical or the outright misanthropic. 

During the height of its popularity in the 1990s, Home Improvement was one of the funniest television shows, and much of this was due to Tim Allen’s performance as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. Allen was perfectly cast as the “everyman” Tim Taylor, and though the show always stayed light-hearted, it wasn’t afraid to contend with weightier issues. While Tim could, at times, be a bit of a doofus, he was also a dependable family man and, by all appearances, successful as the co-host of his home improvement show (though some of this was due to his fellow host, Al). Tim Taylor was the perfect everyman for the optimistic 1990s.