TV character rankings: The Office
This is the first in a series of TV show character rankings I’ll be running here on Medium. The Office gets the honorary first spot since it remains atop my personal favorite TV shows of all-time rankings, and there are just so many great characters to rank. Over the next few weeks we’ll give the same treatment to comedies like New Girl, Parks and Rec, and Veep, as well as dramas like Lost, Stranger Things, and The Wire. We’ll even hit a few more niche shows like Chuck and Heroes. Without further ado, here are your character rankings for The Office. We’re going to include a lot of borderline characters, but not every single character ever listed on IMDB, no one would want that. (Except myself, maybe.)
40) Cathy Simms/Brian the Cameraman
I get that the powers that be at the The Office felt that they needed to keep the Jim and Pam storyline from growing stale, but it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. The Venus Man Trap Cathy and her wily attempts at Jim were only funny when Dwight came into the hotel room to get rid of that smug bed bug. As for Brian, he was certainly a good looking chap, but come on, you really think he stands a chance against Jim Halpert.
39) Jan Levinson
See this is where it’s tough separating the character from the actress. If there are any Office fiends out there who have listened to the actor commentary on the DVD (DVDs, remember those things?!) version of The Office, they know that Melora Hardin is one of the most personable and funny people in real life. Her character is the polar opposite. Clearly she’s a great actress, but god, Jan is heinous.
38) Robert California
The bumpiest time in the run of the show undoubtedly came in the immediate aftermath of Michael Scott’s exit, and James Spader’s creepy power-hungry replacement just never really landed.
37) Senator Robert Lipton
Yup, you’re reading a ranking of Office characters that includes Senator Robert Lipton.
36) DeAngelo Vickers
I love Will Ferrell. I’ve seen Step Brothers close to 25 times. I quote Anchorman to the level that people hate me for it. Maybe it was all the high expectations for my favorite comedian in my favorite comedy, but I just found the entire performance a letdown. It makes sense though, Ferrell’s style of comedy and the style of comedy in The Office are both great, but vastly different brands of comedy.
35) Bob Vance
Really only has one joke in the entire series. (“Bob Vance. Vance refrigeration.”) And while I somehow manage to quote that line in everyday life, one line is not enough to get him higher than 35th in the rankings.
34) Charles Milner
Idris Elba can wear the hell out of a suit, but he was a doomed character from the start. You don’t fuck with Halpert and live to see the day.
33) Katy “Purse Girl”
Jim’s brief Season 1 and early Season 2 fling, Amy Adams is one of the biggest names on the cast list now, but was relatively unknown at the time. Legally Blonde? Come on, Amy.
32) Jo Bennett
It would certainly appear that I have a problem with authority figures on The Office, as the bottom of these rankings are heavily stocked with some of the higher-ups at Dunder Mifflin. Kathy Bates, “Jo,” had some funny quirks (“nine times out of ten, that’s the anus they check”), but overall her syrupy-sweet accent could only get her so far.
31) Finger Lakes Guy
“People disappear in the Finger Lakes.”
30) Gabe Lewis
Zach Woods has had a bit of a breakout since his turn as the ineffectual Gabe on The Office, but let’s just put it this way, not every eventual All-Star wins Rookie of the Year in his first season.
29) Pete aka Plop
Jim 2.0 just wasn’t the same as the OG Jim. Granted we only had one season of Pete to work with, but regardless, it’s hard to copy the charisma of John Krasinski. He had flashes (building the comment card tower), but maybe it was just the lack of a “Dwight” to bounce off of, because Jim 2.0 just wasn’t the same.
28) Ryan Howard
Outside of Jan, the most insufferable main character. I never understood why B.J. Novak, a main writer on the show, decided to give himself such a terrible character, who wasn’t funny, and completely lacked charm or charisma. Only this high because I’m convinced somehow it was a meta-joke that just flew over my head.
27) Todd Packer
“Where’s Michael Snot? Sniffing some dude’s thong?” This is the turning point in the rankings, it’s all good characters from here. Packer is only this low because some of his scenes are now a bit tough to watch in the more aware (and maybe too PC) modern-day culture.
26) Carol Stills
Steve Carell’s real-life partner, Nancy Carell does a great job in her limited run as Carol on The Office. If I could third wheel any celebrity couple for a hike and a drink it would be the Carell’s.
25) Andy Bernard
Easily the most schizophrenic ranking if we go season-by-season, there are a lot of times that Ed Helm’s Cornell-obsessed, personality-mirroring Bernard are wildly entertaining (“Beer me that disc”), but man does he get butchered in the final season. In fact, Season 9 Andy would come in dead last on these rankings. Easily.
24) Roy Anderson
#neverforget
23) Val Johnson
One of the most underrated but beloved (at least by me) characters on the show, Ameenah Kaplan gets a bit of the shaft from the writing staff, as she only appears in a few scattered Season 9 episodes after getting together with Darryl in Season 8. And when she does appear, Darryl is trying to break up with her. Just no justice for Val.
22) Karen Filippelli
We all know now how talented Rashida Jones is, but she was doomed from the start of her Office run, as the biggest non-Roy determent to the audience’s insatiable Jim and Pam love. Even still, Jones does a good job of handling the aftermath of Jim and Pam getting together with the correct balance of bitterness and eye-rolling.
21) David Wallace
Early Wallace could have snagged a near top-ten spot (playing hoops in the backyard of your own party while currently the CEO is a boss move), but he faded a bit as his character faded. A patent for “Suck it” being sold to the U.S. military? Nah.
20) Erin Hannon
Another character that started off borderline top-ten but slipped a bit as the writers got a little looser with their characters in the later seasons. Ellie Kemper’s first couple seasons were about as golden as can be, with almost every line drawing a laugh out loud. But the further she got into the show, the weirder she got, and not good weird like Dwight or Creed. Thank god we have Kimmy Schmidt on now to watch the talents of a prime version of Kemper as much as we want.
19) Meredith Palmer
Michael’s reaction to Meredith topless in “The Christmas Party” alone nabs Meredith a top-20 spot. You’re welcome, Meredith.
18) Clark
Dwight 2.0, much to his chagrin, was a definite step up from the other “new guy,” Jim 2.0. Clark Duke’s turn as his character of the same name in Season 9 was the perfect combination of lazy, kinda creepy (Erin’s audition), but not too creepy, all while being likable. Duke’s humor fits in perfectly with The Office, so it’s not too surprising that he had a successful turn on the show.
17) Kevin Malone
This ranking will be heresy to many who consider Kevin to be one of the most underrated characters during the show’s entire run. Kev is great, his secret skills ranging from basketball to poker to drumming paint a full picture of our goofy big man, but he suffers from the “so underrated he’s now overrated” disease.
16) Mose
For the record, if I could meet any single person in the world and have a conversation over dinner with them, Michael Schur (producer of The Office, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine; creator of the baseball blog Fire Joe Morgan and podcast co-host with Joe Posnanski; Office character, Mose) would have a good case to be that guy. I’m not sure there’s a person out there whose interests and opinions align closer with my own.
15) Kelly Kapoor
I want to put Mindy Kaling higher based on how much I would go on to love her post-Office days, but honestly Kelly just isn’t that funny.
14) Angela Martin
Based on her post-Office roles (i.e. New Girl) and the limited times I’ve heard her speak off-camera, Martin did maybe the best acting job in The Office, and we’re really getting into the big guns now. It’s crazy that a show can go 14-deep in awesome characters. Guess it’s no surprise it’s the best show of all-time.
13) Toby Flenderson
Poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor Toby.
12) Oscar Martinez
11) Holly Flax
Could certainly be top-ten, my only hesitation is that, like How I Met Your Mother, a little part of me is skeeved out by the fact that it’s always the men in these shows that get their dream women, perfectly tailored to their every need that just show up for them. Holly is certainly a nearly perfectly written character, and Amy Ryan absolutely slays in the role, but can’t we get the reverse of this at some point. Give Kimmy Schmidt her manic pixie dream boy, please.
10) Nellie Bertram
This may be a ranking that turns some heads, but for whatever reason Catherine Tate absolutely killed me as Nellie. From her “big whopping penis” to her weird semi-friendship with Pam, I was all in on Nellie during her whole time with the show. The only acceptable non-Michael, non-Dwight manager of the office.
9) Creed Bratton
Like Kevin, he’s so underrated he’s a bit overrated at this point. That being said, the fact that he was actually not really acting that much and was just a real different dude is amazing. “That wasn’t a tapeworm.”
8) Nate
This is for the true Office heads. Nate appeared in the later seasons, and even then was far from a major character, but anyone who has watched the show through on multiple occasions knows that Nate is the One True Lord. “You had me at clookies, I can’t wait to find out what they are.” No one’s “technically not a hearing problem” has ever been used to funnier ends than Nate.
7) Darryl Philbin
There’s no character who has a steadier rise from bit character, to funny role character, to funny regular, to superstar, then Craig Robinson as the warehouse manager and eventual Athleap V.P. of Athlete Relations. Robinson manages to kill it on screen despite limited lines and having to play the straight character. His “urban” words he teaches Michael are among the funniest moments in the show. Dinkin flicka.
6/5) Phyllis Vance/Stanley Hudson
These two can’t be separated. They’re the best of the non-Big Four, and simply get better with each viewing. Whether it’s Phyllis asking if one night stand’s need to be reported to HR, or Stanley asking if Lady Fortune can give him a raise, there’s nary a line of dialogue from either of these two that doesn’t draw some sort an emotional response, usually a laugh. The two of them dancing — and Stanley’s gift to Phyllis — in the finale may or may not have caused some slight tearing up from this overly-sentimental writer.
4) Jim Halpert
Yes, yes, yes. Jim through Season 6 is basically a perfect character. And I realize that it’s tough to keep the magic going once Jim and Pam got together, but this is the top of the line, and even a slight drop off in the final seasons means Jim slides into the fourth slot. He’s still an all-time great character, and if you stopped watching The Office after Season 6, he’s likely top two. As someone named Jim who was in high school and college during the prime of The Office, I can’t tell you how hard I wanted to be Jim Halpert. He’s a legend.
3/2) Pam Beesly/Dwight Schrute
Sure, it might make more sense to put Jim and Pam together, since it’s one of the best relationships in TV history, but Pam and Dwight are one of the best platonic and slow-burning friendships in all of TV. A while ago I wrote a piece about how Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope of Parks and Rec were the greatest platonic TV relationship of all-time, and I still agree, but Pam and Dwight are right up there. Of course, both characters are amazing on their own, with Pam basically the woman I want my future daughter to grow up to be, and Dwight, well, Dwight is Dwight — a character like no other.
1) Michael Scott
The greatest TV character of all-time. If you disagree, I don’t trust you as a person. For a character to have as many jokes per minute as Steve Carell to have had and for as many of them to land is borderline impossible. And then to make him as empathetic a character at the same time is mind-blowing. Michael Scott is Jesus. Steve Carell is God. The Office is the Holy Spirit.
