EVERY OFFICE CHARACTER RANKED
I am late to the part with the American version of The Office, NBC's much beloved single camera, no laugh track, no live audience sitcom that remained one of the most viewed and lauded programs during much of its nine year run. Honestly, the intimidating amount of episodes, (two-hundred and one to be exact), put me off of finally marathoning all of them until this year. I do have lots of mediocre horror movies to watch after all.
Over five years after it wrapped itself up, it is old news at this point what made the show so great. Equal parts silly and heartfelt, The Office also balanced its large ensemble cast effortlessly. Focusing on some of its characters more than others, (Michael, Dwight, Pam, and Jim), but knowing when to use its bit players for the most appropriate punch-ups, (Creed, Meredith, Stanley, and Kevin), The Office brought several others into its ranks along the way, some memorable, some not as much. Ergo, I felt it would be amusing to rank the cast members with the most screen time based on my fondness for them.
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| Also for no real reason, the single funniest thing that ever happened on this program. |
The show was so focused on its ensemble cast that a list like this seems more fitting than say just picking my favorite episodes. The writing on The Office was routinely solid and even when certain arcs were disappointing and certain characters were mismanaged, there was not a single episode of the show that did not have a laugh out loud moment or several. A large handful of such character-driven moments managed to be quite touching to the point of making the viewer swell up as well. So, good television all and all.
I have seen a handful of lists exactly like this one online and each one both included and disqualified different players. My rules where thus; every character had to have been interviewed by the documentary crew and every character had to have been an employee of Dunder Mifflin at one point or another. Now that said, I might be forgetting one or two chaps or ladies who may have got a single talking head moment and appeared in a single episode, but to the best of my research and memory, these are the names I could come up with. Furthermore, if I did let a few people slip for such reasons, that means they probably were not worth remembering in the first place. So here is Dunder Miff's brightest and not-so-brightest staff members, (that's what she said?)...
While I will admit that there were a few instances where Todd Packer was so juvenile that I chuckled a bit, the never-ending streak of meanness that always accompanied them made him rather deplorable. Michael Scott considering him his best friend and thinking he was so hilarious for so long made just as much sense as pick-anything-else Michael Scott ever thought, but even he eventually had enough and realized how much of an absolute jagoff this guy was. Packer never got redeemed and even in his last appearance a few episodes before the finale, he made revenge cupcakes for the whole office and parked in a handicap spot. So once an asshat, always an asshat.
Slightly nudging ahead of Packer was Pam's cringe-worthy ex-fiance Roy Anderson, if only because Roy at least got his shit together and even seemed a downright catch by the last time we saw him. This was when he owned his own gravel company, drove a fancy car, and genuinely appeared humbled and thankful after all of his fuckups. Yet when Roy was still employed at Dunder Mifflin and everyone was just waiting for him and Pam to finally be over with, he was a raging, inconsiderate prick who hit rock bottom after violently attacking Jim, getting fired, and then arrested at some point. Roy hardly ever did or said anything funny throughout his run, but he was not necessarily one of the show's rare straight-men either. He was basically almost always just there to be an asshole.
A brief yet major thorn in Michael Scott's side was Charles Miner, Jan Levinson's replacement as Vice President of the Northeast Region of Dunder Miffilin who long before Dwight instituted such a policy, became the first person to step in with a decree of no nonsense. Miner was a classic foible for wacky high-jinks; an authority figure who technically was just doing his job correctly but at the same time came off as an unmistakable villain for spoiling everyone's fun. Charles was not a bad guy so much as he was just a bad guy to be caught up in Scranton's branch with such eccentric and silly employees. He not only made Michael Scott quit, (and then only return if Miner was no longer allowed to set foot in the building again), but he also pulled off the impressive feat of making Michael forget how much he hated Toby in comparison.
The two new characters that were brought in for the very last season of The Office never had enough time to really connect with any of us the way the others did and the lesser of the two was Clark Green, or Dwight Jr. for a spell. Clark seemed fine I guess even though he was a bit of a schmuck, but the guy did go above and beyond the call of duty, becoming Jan's boytoy, pretending to be Dwight's son, and putting up with getting shuffled around all for the sake of impressing his superiors and moving up in the company. He was a yes man though not to the exasperating extent that Gabe was, but ultimately he was just kind of mediocre and more or less unnecessary, particularly showing up as late as he did when literally every other story arc seemed much more pressing and interesting than any of his.
Grouping these two noobs together, Pete Miller was the slightly better of the two fresh cast members in season nine, if only because the show left us with him and Erin as a rather functional couple. That and Pete appeared to be a level-headed and decent person. He was still pretty boring all things considered, but I would be lying if I did not laugh out loud literally every time anyone refereed to him as Plop, a nickname which was one of the very few wonderful things Andy could be credited with in that last season. Pete was somewhat set up as a Jim Part II; a good looking, normal guy with no real ambitions who was trying to route his way through a rather exaggerated and comical workplace. He did OK in that regard.
By all accounts Michael Scott's one time boss and love interest Jan Levinson was a horrible person. She was as delusional as anyone else on the show, but far more unhealthily balanced, regularly taking advantage of not only Michael's puppy-dog loyalty and nativity, but her entire position as Vice President of the Northeaster Region where she thought she could endlessly slack off and indulge in her nymphomania or whatever. All of that said though, her character was embarrassingly hilarious at times, especially once she became an eccentric parent on a level that would make the Shrute's blush in envy, ceaselessly singing to her child and going to the length of recording a Doris Day cover album. The whole horrible smelling candle making scheme was also great.
Chief Financial Officer and later CEO of Dunder Mifflin David Wallace almost got through the entire series without ever succumbing to eccentric madness like virtually the entire rest of the cast did. Yet once he is let go after the Sabre acquisition, the cabin fever sets in and he puts together a terrible new product idea Suck It, (a vacuum that only cleans up children's toys), and a terrible new band with his son. So for a brief moment, he seemed to have caught a bit of the crazies. Before all of that and once bouncing back from it though, good ole David Wallace was the sturdy, overly-tolerant higher-up who let his employees do their thing and at worst shook his head in confusion and maybe, (and very understandably), raised his voice at the tomfoolery going on.
Jim Halpert's one-time love interest turned Regional Manager Utica Karen Filippelli was rather unknowingly caught up in a love triangle in which she was doomed to emerge the loser in. Yet really, she seemed a perfectly normal and pleasant person throughout all of it. While that also made her a bit lame in comparison to her co-workers, she was still handled rather well by the writers who realized that keeping her around once Jim and Pam were finally together where they belonged would have unnecessarily made things more awkward than they already were. Her line explaining her job as "an easy gig when your boss isn't an idiot and your boyfriend isn't in love with someone else" rather perfectly crystallizes two of the major, ongoing arcs of the entire series.
Jo Bennett had plenty of potential to be one of The Office's best characters, (and casting Kathy Bates assuredly helped), but she ended up being so sparsely used that she really did not get to make a full impression the way others did. At first, warning alarms went off as Jo looked like she was going to be nothing more than another version of Charles Miner, a big bad boss lady sent in to make everyone cut the hoopla down to a minimum and get in line with her way of doing things. Yet just like others above the Scranton branch, she put up with plenty to warrant our sympathies and had a few touching moments with Michael where she became more admirable. Bennett was always pretty funny though and out of all of the show's no-bullshit bosses, she was the one you most wanted to root for.
Starting off with the more prestigious title of Coordinating Director of Emerging Regions for the Sabre Corporation, Gabe Lewis quickly got reduced to an unglorified babysitter for the office and virtually the butt of his co-workers jokes. An effeminate, goofy looking, rather pathetic cuckold who only grew more so, Gabe did had some funny doings along the way. His ridiculous soundscapes, Lady Gaga costume, and resemblance to Abraham Lincoln were all hilarious and before his pitiful attempts to win Erin back became unwatchable, he was the sad puppy of Dunder Mifflin that you felt just as at home with laughing at as feeling sorry for. The guy rarely appears to get a break and you wish him well just as soon as he stops being a little wiener yes man who grows a pair and maybe moves back to Japan to get laid.
Similar to Andy, Ryan Howard was the one Office character who the writers, (including B.J. Novak), continuously seemed to have no idea what to do with. Starting as a deer-caught-in-headlights temp who seemed genuinely disturbed by how insane Michael Scott was to inexplicably getting the corporate gig in New York and becoming a blowhard little prick, to doing some jail time and then just as inexplicably coming back with no job description and getting an office space in the closet, Ryan was everywhere and nowhere all at once. Along the way he appeared rational, spiteful, disinterested, manipulative, lazy, unfocused, scatterbrained, and kind of pathetic depending on what the script needed him to be. As uneven as he always was, the guy was occasionally pretty amusing whether acting as the audience member and conveying "What the hell is going on here", scamming people out of money, or unhealthy flip-flopping with Kelly.
Along with Creed but to a less successful extent, Meredith Palmer was used as Dunder Mifflin's go-to for a quick and funny line or in her case, bit of physical discomfort. Throughout the show, she was run over by Michael, attacked numerous times by Dwight, and Pam even unintentionally got her to shave her head when she did not have to. Meredith was The Office's white-trash, train-wreck alcoholic who probably would have slept with everyone of her co-workers multiple times over and then forgotten about it. She was also maybe a little too brash for my liking, almost sort of a far, far less deplorable and more harmless Todd Packer. I for one always found myself laughing way harder at things that happened to her than the things she said. Still, a number of those such things were some of the show's best moments so you cannot hate her in the least.
No character on The Office was as frustratingly mismanaged as Andy "Nard Dog" Bernard. To more extremes than Ryan was, Andy kept being used as a plot devise for both long stretches and short bursts where he was all over the place as a character. Originally he seemed to be kind of a bro-ish jerk when working with Jim at the Stamford branch, then he became an unhinged, violent lunatic, then a weird, slightly fruity clown for awhile, and then the only character to rival Dwight and Michael Scott's utter delusion. Sadly by the last two seasons and particularly nine, Andy was almost painfully difficult to endure. He randomly turned into Michael Scott at his worst; obliviously narcissistic and illogical and permanently losing both Erin and his steady job in the process. There were an abundance of moments though where Andy was lovable and great, so it is best to forget about all of the sloppy ones and how he ended up as a viral video punch-line.
Yes Michael Scott's would-be replacement Deangelo Vickers was rather an asshole and a different kind of stupid, but Will Ferrell played him so Will Ferrelly that I would be dishonest if I said I did not laugh at almost everything he did. Ferrell would have been a nice, permanent addition to the show as his eccentricities made him sit right at home in the manager's seat, but as it where, he was only on board for a slightly extended cameo before they sent him off fittingly as the only character probably on any show to become a vegetable after a basketball playing accident. Deangelo was a bit underwritten, but he had such a brief run that he never got the chance to get more fleshed-out. For a minute though, he had the ability to be both equally charming and rude at the same time and at least he got Michael's seal of approval before stepping down.
No regular character who held a continuous position at Dunder Mifflin Scranton since season one came as close to being a "normal" person than their token gay, Latino accountant Oscar Martinez. Often described as the smartest guy in the room, Oscar remained baffled and concerned over what new cockameme agenda Michael Scott or any of his other co-workers where unleashing throughout the series. Yet unlike Stanley who would just ignore it or Jim who would play along, Oscar would get flustered at how hopelessly illogical his place of employment truly was. His arc with Angela's then-closeted gay (State) Senator husband briefly got a little too aggravatingly unresolved, but once the show did finally close the book on it, he and and his fellow accountant's reconciliation was truly touching and Oscar became easy to forgive for his misguided romance.
Suffering the same uphill battles that Clark and Pete faced in season nine, Nellie Bertram appeared late enough in the series to have a similar difficult time gaining our appreciation. While she initially comes off as arrogant and unnecessarily bitchy, it was a wise move to quickly reveal that she was utterly full of shit and the first person to own up to it. Nellie was a treat for the last two seasons, just as lazy as Ryan or Stanley, just as incompetent at her job as Andy or Kevin, and her accidental, not-really-hook-up with Toby was one of the funniest reoccurring moments near the end of the show. Also with one very well written scene involving her traveling magician ex, Nellie was given all the backstory required to really fall for her and it showed that even someone brought in as late as she was could be just as memorable of a character as anyone else.
Making Toby's replacement HR Representative the person who would become Michael's true love, (when Toby of course was his true arch-nemesis), was a brilliant if very scrpity way to go about it. From her very first appearance, Holly Flax was anything but unlikable. The handful of episodes where she legitimately thought Kevin was retarded rank right up there with Dwight's spontaneous fire drill as the funniest shit that was ever on The Office and no character was more ripe for such a misunderstanding as Holly. Impressively, she had all of Michael's childish playfulness and juvenile sense of humor while at the same time feeling and reacting eons more like a real person than Michael ever did. This exact juxtaposition is what made her so enduring where we could both perfectly buy into her falling for him and at the same time respect her intelligence for doing so.
Mrs. Bob Vance Phyllis underwent a gradual progression from the very first season where she was just kind of a harmless, heavyset lady who seemed like she would knit you a sweater if you asked her. As the series went on though, I loved how Phyllis turned into a snarky shit-talker and when she was not being unintentionally, (or intentionally), mean, she was usually correct when speaking her mind. Phyllis was also on the receiving end of a number of office jokes like how she kept utilizing the same cliches when it rains outside and when she was listening to 50 Shades of Grey on tape, of course getting Dwight to directly put a stop to it as only he knows how. The fact that Phyllis seemed to get laid more than anyone else in the office and had the most openly and aggressively affectionate marriage out of anyone was also a hilarious touch to her character.
Mindy Kaling was originally hired on The Office as a writer and occasional performer and her onscreen counterpart Kelly Kapoor was a perfect addition in every way. There probably is not a real office environment anywhere in America where a girl, (or gay man), just like Kelly is not one of their employees. As ignorant to her own heritage and on-paper religion as she is an utter expert on the Kardashians or the Twilight series, Kelly is the type of pop culture consumer airhead who remains blissfully oblivious to anything important and seems perpetually at home prioritizing all of the wrong things. This of course includes Ryan, who only needs to be a domestic abuser to become the worst boyfriend on earth. Kelly's hardly any better though, which made their hilariously unstable relationship always work within the confines of the show.
Adding James Spader to the mix whether it is the Marvel Cinematic Universe or The Office is almost always a solid idea and surprising to no one, he was fantastic on his one season of this show. I know feelings have always been mixed on his character Robert California, but it appears that most people who did not approve of him simply could not get over the fact that Steve Carell had left as opposed to anything Spader did or did not do. As it were, California was not only a completely different presence than Michal Scott was, but he was completely at odds with every character the show ever had. That and Spader's fantastically vague, subtly pervy performance is what made him so great. He was able to both intimidate and confuse his staff to the point of tears and the way they just casually explain how he got the CEO position in the first place and then just as nonchalantly as he walks out of the show with a million dollars from David Wallace made him The Office's bizarre sorcerer who left a trail of bewilderment in his wake.
Not leaving Pam out of the equation, the most adorable and delightful character on The Office was the show's other receptionist Erin Hannon. At times it seemed like Erin was written as perhaps too dumb of a character, (after all, we already had Kevin), but her cheerful cluelessness was always worth a chuckle or several. No matter what Erin was up to, who she was dating, or even if she was in the wrong, you always were on her side and this is as much due to Ellie Kemper's bubbly performance as it was to the writers who consistently kept her character in check. Watching Kemper nod her head and smile, all the while knowing she had no idea what was going on whether she literally said so or not was a virtual go-to route to take in getting a laugh out of us. I could have done without the reveal of her true parents in the series finale which was not only sappy to a fault but also was not even an arc remotely worth wrapping up, but I guess it was just thrown in to make us even more happy for her than we already were.
Writer/director/producer/showrunner Paul Lieberstein's Toby Flenderson was The Office's equivalent of both Droopy the Dog and Charlie Brown all rolled into one. As Michael Scott's forever foible, Toby was the wimpish, quiet, boring dork who lived in the back of the office where no one could be left alone long enough with him to get cornered into a discussion about his latest Chad Flenderson novel or his thorough research on the Scranton Strangler case which he just may have mentioned he was a juror on once or twice. Toby's character went beyond just feeling bad for; he was so hilariously written as the show's hopeless loser that no matter how much Michael or life in general kept shitting on him, you just put up with it and wanted more. No matter how much Toby got comically beaten down though, many of his coworkers still wanted to cheer him up and include him in things. The last we hear of him, he is renting a space in New York with six other roommates and finds no more meaning in life since he is no longer being filmed. Still, probably just a simple text or phone call from one of the Scranton crew will give him all the fuel he needs to carry on for a few more days.
Former Mrs. (State) Senator Robert Lipton, one time Mrs. Engaged to Andy Bernard, and now fittingly Mrs. Dwight K. Shrute, Angela Martin was written so well as the show's tight-assed, ubber-conservative, no sense of humor Debbie Downer that it almost slipped right by us that she was also technically the office's true hussy. Angela was a laughably hypocritical, typically crazy cat lady yet through some miracle, by the series finale she had become blissfully happy in the arms of her eventual soulmate Dwight. Even more impressive though was how we the audience slowly began to root for her. She was not necessarily portrayed as a villain and she was always so bitchy and tightly wound that pretty much everything she ever said was a hoot, but when Dwight nearly kills her in his car and then proclaims with a megaphone before bending the knee that he would father a hundred of her babies if she had them with other men, that was basically it; we were permanently on team Angelia and Dwight.
The only thing keeping Stanley Hudson from being even higher on this list is really that he so openly and shamelessly cheated on his wife for so long and it is hardly the most becoming of character traits to have. This is probably fitting though since no one on The Office gave less of a fuck about anything to the extend that Stanley did/did not. He even legitimately scared Jim when they had to socialize in Florida together by how recklessly he wanted to not give a fuck. Stanley was the only Dunder Mifflin employee who was never once amused by Michal Scott's clowning about antics and in one of the show's best moments, he blows his gasket and confronts him about just that. Once out of his system though and once the two decide to put up with each other, Stanley just goes through the motions ever further awaiting his retirement, which finally arrives come the last episode. Showing that he really is just "a big teddy bear", he even took the time in his not giving a fuck to carve a mini statue of Phyllis as a gift. So in other words, he kind of likes things about his former place of employment as much as he pretends not to.
Out of the three primarily main male characters on The Office, (also including Michael and Dwight), Jim Halpert was the most down to earth. He found his way into Dunder Mifflin the same way that countless other underachievers have in the real world; simply looking for a steady paycheck where he could put in the minimal effort and try and figure out what he really wanted to do with his life. Also like many of us, as the years keep rolling by he found his position just as grounded as it was when he started with no end in sight. That is until the stars aligned and put Pam Beasley in his life, which granted after a few years of working the kinks out, finally came through in the biggest of ways. Jim and Pam's relationship was the steady heart of the show and through it all, Jim pretty steadily maintained the ability to make himself and Pam laugh by endlessly pranking Dwight and humoring Michael or any other weirdo that came though the Scranton branch's walls. While being a likeable goofball who was fully aware of how much his job both allowed and encouraged his goofiness, Jim also continued to grow up and always remained insanely devoted to Pam, the absolute love of his life.
On that note, Pam Beasley Halpert from episode one was the best female character and second half to the show's soul along with her eventual husband Jim. The seasons long story arc of Pam and Jim finally getting married and becoming officially inseparable was so compelling and well written that it was almost a bit of a bummer once they finally did. At that point, the show kind of ran out of things to do with them besides have them turn into obnoxious, stereotypical first time parents who think everything their children do is both adorable and brilliant while not being able to stop proving it to people. I then appreciated the final season where they actually had some real and relatable troubles to go through. Brian the camera guy never convincingly appeared as a threat to Jim, since Pam's dedication to her man could not possibly implode, close as it may have seemed. In many ways, Pam put up with the most on The Office, (more so from her wackjob boss Michael than anyone), but she honestly seemed to love and care about most of her co-workers more than anyone else while at the same time having her own faults to overcome along the way. Also, that one time she got hammered at the Dundies was pretty amazing.
It is a shame really that Darryl Philbin took so long to become a regular on The Office, being stuck down in the warehouse until season six when Jo finally promotes him upstairs and gives him his own office proper. He was great before that, (and Craig Robinson was always great portraying him), but just so sparingly used that it really took until past the halfway run of the series where he really got to shine. Darryl's utterly dry delivery made it childsplay to toy with any of his more neurotic co-workers, which he did to consistency amusing effects throughout every season of the show. Aside from Stanley, Darryl probably hated his job more regularly than anyone else working there and also seemed to make the largest efforts to distance himself from his co-workers than anyone else. Yet also the same as Stanley, Daryl always had a soft spot deep down for Dunder Mifflin and even after he happily sailed ship to Athlead, he still had fun getting a (very) random dance off and reminiscing with the old office crew in the finale.
While season one Michael Scott is indeed very rough to sit through, by the time they actually started to lighten his character up and not make him a full-blown maniac, I became impressed by how well the show managed him. Utterly lacking in all self-awareness, Michael Scott was narcissistic, easily distracted, untrustworthy, annoying, and destructive to everyone around him. Yet at the same time he was a idiot savant who managed to be a brilliant salesman when the time came for it and it could not be argued that his wildly unconventional management skills and disillusionment made for high productivity as the numbers the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin routinely brought in under his wing were always impressive. Though he would forget from episode to episode to stop being a moronic asshole to people, he would also always come around and most would always forgive him. In the end, being loved a whole lot was all that he was ever desperately going for. Michael's final episode, (season finale cameo notwithstanding, though that was perfectly done as well), was arguably the most heartfelt moment in the entire series and how The Office managed to pull that off with such an on-paper disaster of a person is paramount in what made the show so good to begin with.
Seemingly every TV comedy needs a bumbling doofus as one of its cast of characters and "how the hell is he an accountant?" Kevin Malone fit that bill on The Office quite well. Overweight, bald, probably smelly, and equipped with the IQ of a ten year old and the hormones of a twelve year old, Kevin could not possibly help but to always be funny no matter what was going on. You have him giggling at suggestive words more than Michael even did, once again Holly thinking he is retarded for real, him trying to keep Oscar's secret from Angela, his Police cover band where he does lead vocals and plays drums, and of course him dropping chili, (see GIF), and there is just nothing not to love about this guy. It would have been sad that the season finale revealed that Kevin got fired from Dunder Mifflin if not for the fact that it makes perfect, logical sense and if anything, it always seemed rather ridiculous that he kept such a job for so long in the first place. Yet he then buys his own bar, patches things up with Dwight, and still being a Scranton local, any office member can pretty much stop buy his place of business after work for a beer and to talk cookies any day of the week. So Kevin got a pretty sweat deal after all.
After Steve Carell stepped down from The Office at the end of season seven, much of the show's absurdity fell squarely on the shoulders of proud beat farmer/lead salesmen/eventual Regional Manager Dwight K. Shrute. Rainn Wilson made the character of Dwight instantly memorable and though he technically changed very little and remained Dunder Mifflin's most diligently stubborn employee, the way the show convinced us that everyone around him would stand behind him no matter how much he looked down upon them was just as impressive as any of the other creative obstacles this show overcame. Dwight was as insane as Michael was, but a very unique kind of insane. In Dwight's case, his narcissism was so cartoonishly overblown that no one, (least of all Jim), could ever take him seriously enough to actually be threatened by it. Going one further, by going along with Dwight's madness, it just made him even easier to well, go along with. No matter how much he was asking for every prank that Jim ever pulled on him, (and he certainly was), and no matter how many rude and selfish things he did, by the time he marries Angela, finds out he is a father, gets his blackbelt in karate, and becomes Regional Manager, you want to applaud as one of his subordinates just the way he wants you do.
It was apparent to me very early on that Creed Bratton was going to be my favorite thing on this show. Supposedly only a slightly fictionalized version of himself, the real Creed Bratton as well as The Office version is revealed to be a founding member of The Grass Roots and an ex-hippy. Now while the real Creed is most likely also not a senile degenerate who is wanted by the law, the show's Creed is all that and more. Simply put, everything Creed ever did or said on this show made me laugh out loud. In the grand scheme of things, he did and said very little and was consistently utilized as a supporting player, but when he was used it was absolutely appropriately timed and necessary. Having no real duties to perform at Dunder Mifflin to begin with and probably just walking in one day before anyone else on the show got there and figuring out a loophole to collect a paycheck, (or not), Creed also openly has no morals and no idea what is going on at any time. Yet he owned every scene he was ever in and so many brief yet fantastic moments as him becoming acting Regional Manager for a day, (oh how I wish that was a whole season), describing the Loch Ness Monster to everyone, writing what he thinks is his own blog, stealing people's money right in front of them, and panicking because he cannot remember what his actual job is, made him the most consistently hilarious thing the show had to offer. Creed would not have been able to carry the entire show nor should he have, but he was perfect as he was and The Office would have been such a different and less awesome thing without him.
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