[Ilya Somin, July 14, 2006 at 5:24pm] Trackbacks
50 Greatest Sidekicks of All Time:

Entertainment Weekly has a list of the Fifty Greatest Sidekicks of all time.

Unfortunately, those of us who soldier on as sidekicks of the mighty Volokh Clan didn't quite make the cut. We won't be taking our rightful places alongside George Costanza, Chewbacca, Robin, and Willow Rosenberg. However, as EW points out, the key to being a great sidekick is "letting No. 1 get all the glory." So we take even greater pride in NOT being on the list than we would if we had made it!

jpaulg (mail):
Why no Chico and Harpo Marx? The greatest pair of sidekicks on film, stage and real life that anybody could ask for. And it took a talent as great as Groucho's to relegate them to sidekick status. Unfortunately Zeppo seemed stuck at 'understudy' and never got to graduate to being a fully fledged sidekick.
7.15.2006 1:44am
Crunchy Frog:
Other glaring omissions: Tubbs (Miami Vice), Fish (Abe Vigoda, from Barney Miller), Les Nessman (WKRP), C3PO (to R2-D2, or was it the other way around?)...
7.15.2006 3:58am
steve k:
Chico and Harpo were not sidekicks, but full-fledged clowns in their own right. Of course, EW tends to be top-heavy with recent stuff anyway.
7.15.2006 5:13am
Kevin L. Connors (mail) (www):
This is perhaps the stupidest of all stupid lists.

Most conspicuous in his absence is, of course, Mr. Spock (Star Trek). But I also don't recall seeing Tonto (The Lone Ranger), Barney Rubble (The Flintstones, but representative of all the Hanna-Barbera sidekicks), Bullwinkle (The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle), Pinky (Pinky and The Brain), Nora Charles (The Thin Man), Lee Chan ("#1 Son" from Charlie Chan), Felix Leiter (James Bond, 007), Billy (Easy Rider), Rochester (The Jack Benny Show), George Utley (Newhart) or Gracie Allen (Burns and Allen).
7.15.2006 12:22pm
Glenn W Bowen (mail):
it's set up so each new sidekick is on a new page... that's fifty freakin' pages. what a rip-off, man, are you gettin' a slice of the advertising over there???
7.15.2006 6:06pm
Kevin L. Connors (mail) (www):
It goes to five per page after the first 15. None the less, I still wish these people would just give the lists, sans commentary.
7.15.2006 7:09pm
Glenn W Bowen (mail):

Barney Rubble (The Flintstones, but representative of all the Hanna-Barbera sidekicks)


if the list included Ed Norton, Barney Rubble was covered.
7.16.2006 12:36am
Kevin L. Connors (mail) (www):
Oh, of course; this has to be #1 sidekick: Judas Iscariat.

Any arguments?
7.16.2006 7:05am
abb3w:
Well, Peter, Judas, and John all have good claims to the sidekick role, along with nine other guys. (How about Aaron to Moses, while we're at it? Cain and Abel... no, wait, that ended badly. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, maybe?) And the lack of Spock may be due to the ambiguity of who was sidekick to whom between Kirk, Spock, and Bones; given that Watson (for Holmes) is at number 6, you could almost argue that their literary ancestors made the list. I'd also argue as to whether Arthur Dent or Ford Prefect was the sidekick (at #36).

On the other hand, I'm just barely old enough (courtesy of Saturday Morning Reruns via the local PBS station) to feel the lack of Tonto is pathetic.
7.17.2006 2:31am
Larry Abraham (mail):
abb3W:

From the introduction to the list in the magazine:

"The bond is as old as Achilles and Patroclus, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Jesus and the Apostolic Entourage (especially Bartholomew, the 'Turtle' of the first century."

I believe the "Turtle" reference is to Entourage's Turtle, #20 on the list.

On the other hand, given that Al Gore's on the cover of the magazine this week, I can see why few readers of VC went out to buy it on the newsstand.
7.17.2006 11:41am