All hail the TV curmudgeon, cranky but indispensable
hate
spunk!'
In that instant, Lou Grant vaulted into the TV Curmudgeon Hall of Fame.
There isn't one, you say? Well, there ought to be.
The Curmudgeon is one of the most durable character types in all of television, stretching all the way back to the fuming, sputtering Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) on 'The Honeymooners' in the '50s, through the '70s with the irascible Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) on 'Sanford and Son,' and, in recent years, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) on 'Hacks' and homicide detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) on 'Bosch.'
The role of the Curmudgeon
is to keep a character — indeed, a series — at least somewhat grounded in reality. A proxy or a point of connection for the audience, they react as many in the audience would react.
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It is dyspepsia, not rage, that drives the Curmudgeon. They are not just grouchy; they are grouches because they believe, not without considerable evidence, that the world is run by idiots.
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Think of Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) on 'The Office,' serenely engrossed in a crossword puzzle as he ignores Michael Scott's (Steve Carell) latest inanity. Or gruff ex-cop
Or hard-driving TV journalist Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen), who fired nearly 100 secretaries during the initial run of 'Murphy Brown.' Or Frank Barone (Peter Boyle), Raymond's cantankerous dad, on 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' Or Russell Jackson (Zeljko Ivanek), the president's short-fused chief of staff on '
On 'The Golden Girls,' we were treated to not just one curmudgeon but two: Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur, queen of the slow burn) and her mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty).
Among the very best of the TV curmudgeons in recent years was Jay Pritchett (Ed O'Neill) on 'Modern Family.'
In one episode, Jay's stepson Manny (Rico Rodriguez) boasted that he was six for six on his college applications, and theatrically lamented
that it was hard to choose from 'so many suitors.' Said Manny: 'I feel like Lady Mary in the last season of 'Downton Abbey.'' Jay's dry response: 'I'd avoid the big football schools.'
Crucially, the true curmudgeon stops short of full-on misanthropy. So the category cannot accept the likes of homicide detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) in Netflix's new '
Bertram Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) on 'Silicon Valley,' or Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), dishing out nonstop verbal abuse in 'House,' or scarier-than-the-criminals Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) on 'NYPD Blue,' or any of the characters on HBO's 'Veep.'
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With his baleful stare and his don't-mess-with-me voice, Harrison Ford has always belonged to a rarefied category:
the leading man as curmudgeon. Now, playing the supporting role of therapist Paul Rhoades on Apple TV+'s '
There's a scene in 'Network' (1976), Paddy Chayefsky's scorching sendup of TV news, when programmer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway)
argues for letting deranged anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) go to even greater extremes. 'We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon,' she says.
Not us. What we want is a curmudgeon. They've got
spunk.
Don Aucoin can be reached at
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