Top 10 Sitcom Characters Who Were Ahead of Their Time
#10: Beverly LaSalle “All in the Family” (1971-79)
Top 10 Memorable Beverly Hills, 90210 Moments
Popularizing the archetype of the lovable bigot, “All in the Family’s” Archie Bunker was noticeably dumb about a lot of things. In one episode, after he saves a woman’s life in his taxi cab, Archie is shocked to discover Beverly is a drag performer. What starts off as a joke at his expense soon becomes something kind of revolutionary for American TV. Although not a series regular, Beverly became a good friend to Archie’s accepting wife, Edith. Beverly's death as a result of a homophobic attack in a later episode shook the devoutly Christian Edith’s faith. Though it might seem dated today, the humanity the writers and cast gave the character was something rarely seen on American primetime TV.
#9: Ellen Morgan “Ellen” (1994-98)
Top 10 Times The Ellen Show Went Too Far
Where other sitcom heroines were concerned with finding eligible men to date, Ellen Morgan didn’t seem to have any interest. Of course, the reasons for that are a bit more obvious now. If this weren’t against the grain enough for the time, Ellen DeGeneres and her co-writers decided to have her character come out in a two-part episode. She made the announcement alongside numerous guest stars, including Laura Dern playing her love interest and Oprah as her therapist. Gay characters leading shows was not exactly commonplace yet, but this became a media frenzy. The ensuing controversy saw advertiser pushback, bomb threats, and even death threats against DeGeneres.
#8: Tom & Helen Willis “The Jeffersons” (1975-85)
Top 10 LGBTQ+ TV Characters Who Were Ahead of Their Time
George and Louise Jefferson represented a whole new idea of what black characters on television could be. Right alongside them were Tom and Helen Willis, their neighbors and future in-laws. “The Jeffersons,” a spin-off of the aforementioned “All in the Family,” was actually the first sitcom to regularly feature a married interracial couple in its cast. To put it into perspective, the Willises were on TV less than a decade after the Loving v.Virginia decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. The show didn’t present the Willises without any complications, though. George Jefferson frequently got his digs in at the couple, and a lot of the conflict between the characters had to do with their status as an interracial couple.
#7: Dorothy Zbornak, Rose Nylund, Blanche Devereaux & Sophia Petrillo “The Golden Girls” (1985-92)
Long before “Sex and the City” featured frank sexual discussions between friends, “The Golden Girls” were showing that age was nothing but a number. What appealed to NBC executives and audiences alike at the time was that the Girls didn’t sound like anything or anyone else on TV at the time. These women were not trying to be trendy. They were honest, had goals, and were allowed to have romantic lives well into their fifties and beyond, an age demographic that the TV universe of the era was not serving at all. Not only was its premise racy for the time, but the show dealt with hot button topics with sensitivity, respect, and, most importantly, humor.
#6: Benson DuBois “Soap” (1977-81)
Why Olivia Benson is the Role Model We Need Right Now
Actor Robert Guillaume had reservations about playing a wisecracking butler who clearly hates the family he works for. It was actually the kind of character he had vowed not to play. However, the character, featured on the groundbreaking sitcom “Soap,” was incredibly well-written and developed, not framed by the stereotypes of servant characters. Despite his job, Benson did not suffer the foolishness of his employers, but he certainly wasn’t heartless, either. If anything, he was the most clear-headed character on the entire show. The laughs were never at Benson’s expense. The character was such a breath of fresh air, he received his own eponymous spin-off that lasted longer than the original show.
#5: Ann Marie “That Girl” (1966-71)
Top 20 Funniest Sitcom Characters Of All Time
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is famously credited with being one of the first shows to feature an unmarried woman making it on her own. But Ann Marie of “That Girl” was charming TV audiences a good four years before Mary Richards made her debut. Marlo Thomas played the plucky aspiring actress who was trying to make it on her own in New York. While awkward young female heroines are way more prevalent in TV now, Ann MArie’s social dysfunction and quirkiness was fresh and new when the show premiered. Ann Marie was imperfect, and it’s precisely why she became a role model.
#4: Maude Findlay “Maude” (1972-78)
Long before Murphy Brown angered conservatives just for being a single mother, the show “Maude,” another “All in the Family” spinoff, made the brave choice of having its lead character choose to terminate a pregnancy. For this episode alone, Maude Findlay was a TV groundbreaker. The character was first developed as the counterpoint to the bigoted, Nixon-loving Archie Bunker. As played by Bea Arthur, the middle-aged, ultra-liberal, and sharp-tongued New Yorker was determined to stand apart and sometimes, above, the world around her. That, of course, didn’t mean she was immune from making some mistakes of her own. Despite her staunch character, Maude was also as complex and neurotic as anyone could be.
#3: Julia Baker “Julia” (1968-71)
After several successful performances on stage and on film, Diahann Carroll made television history when she was cast as Julia Baker, a middle-class single mother and professional living in the suburbs. “Julia” was the first series to portray an African American lead in a non-domestic worker role. The series follows a widowed nurse named Julia Baker as she is left to raise her young son on her own. Although a watershed moment, the character predated the middle-class families of “The Jeffersons” and “The Cosby Show,” and had a big influence in representation, even if it was a show with a generally light, humorous tone.
#2: Jodie Dallas “Soap” (1977-81)
Back to “Soap.” Not only did creator Susan Harris write one of the first gay regular characters on an American sitcom, she didn’t leave anything up for interpretation. Billy Crystal played Jodie Dallas, an out, unapologetically gay man contemplating gender-affirming surgery and dating a closeted football star. While some of his storylines definitely wouldn’t fly today, the character was a pioneer in a primetime landscape that usually saw LGBTQ+ characters as one-off plot devices. That’s not to say the show didn’t make a few jokes at his expense. Frankly, the show made every single person in the cast look ridiculous—except Benson, of course. More often than not, the writers made a case for Jodie’s humanity and decency even when the world was against him.
#1: Lucy Ricardo “I Love Lucy” (1951-57)
Top 20 Classic I Love Lucy Moments
Given how Lucy Ricardo set the standard for American TV comedy heroines, how could she not be ahead of her time? Lucy was not the dutiful, traditional sitcom housewife who subtly outmaneuvered her husband without his knowledge. She didn’t subtly do anything. Anytime she tried to be secretive, she ended up making a huge hilarious mess out of it. And she wasn’t only content with home life. The show’s most memorable episodes involve her getting a job of her own, or trying to sneak her way into her husband Ricky’s nightclub act. Just as “I Love Lucy” invented many of the modern sitcom scenarios, Lucy Ricardo is proof that if you make people laugh hard enough, you can get away with a lot. Who’s your fave sitcom character? Tell us in the comments!
