Favorite TV Characters, Women in Reruns

I started to compile my list and discovered that I would need 2 lists, one for my Fave Five from Reruns and one for Fave Five All the Others.

My Rerun group also has some "Honorable Mentions", 'cause there' just too many great female characters. Here goes, let me know who's in your five.

First, the Honorable Mentions: Thelma Lou (she had no last name), Daisy "Granny" Moses, Agent 99, Bailey and Jennifer from WKRP, all the Eight is Enough girls...this list goes on a long, long time, so let's go with the top 5.

5. Miss Jane Hathaway

Sometimes beauty is not skin deep. Miss Jane was efficient, timelessly fashionable, shamelessly turned-on by Jethro, a Biddle Bird Watcher and relentlessly committed to propriety. Her buzzword was a barely restrained "Chief!", voicing her objection to whatever caper Milburn Drysdale was trying to pull.

4. Ginger Grant...or MaryAnn Summers?

I couldn't choose. They inspired endless debates, still going on today in bars and rec rooms: Ginger or MaryAnn? I wanted to be a castaway. The Skipper was old and fat, Gilligan was a dunce, the Professor a nerd, and Thurston Howell III was always under Lovey's watchful eye. Were I a castaway, both would be mine!

So, Ginger...or MaryAnn?

Bet you didn't know MaryAnn's last name before...

3. Samantha Stephens

When I was a little kid, I was hopelessly enamored with the beautiful witch. I knew that she couldn't really wiggle her nose, either, she shifted her mouth around so it looked like her nose moved, but that was OK. I wanted to be Darrin, and I think the original Darrin was way better than the replacement Darrin. I figured that Sam could nose-twitch me a new car, a million dollars, a new baseball mitt...come on, I was a little kid. When Samantha's dark haired sister came to visit it was like a Ginger vs. MaryAnne match up. How could you lose?
2. Laura Petrie
I still think that every guy would love to have a wife who can launch into a dance number at the drop of a hat. Laura would do that "OHHH, ROB!" thing and Rob would comfort her "it's ok, Honey" and then she'd start dancing, that kind of samba/tango thing in the black pants and sweater, and everything would be OK, as long as that battle-ax Sally stayed away.

1. Lisa Douglas

The chores...da ta ta dum dum...The Stores!

Fresh air...da ta ta dum dum..Times Square!

You are my wife...

Good - byyyye, city life...
Lisa flounced around in a gorgeous negligees, made lots of hotscakes, conversed with a pig and was always meticulously coiffed and made up even though there were no salons or spas anywhere around. She charmed everyone while husband Oliver Wendell Douglass was always in a pickle of some sort.

This has been a Filmways presentation, dahling....