I just read an internet news post showing AFI's top heros and villians:

I really thought that Lee Marvin's, Liberty Valance would make the villains list, as would the Birds frpm THE BIRDS (since the shark from JAWS made it).

[insert list]
Heroes

1. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), "To Kill a Mockingbird."

2. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

3. James Bond (Sean Connery), "Dr. No."

4. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), "Casablanca."

5. Will Kane (Gary Cooper), "High Noon."

6. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), "The Silence of the Lambs."

7. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), "Rocky."

8. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), "Aliens."

9. George Bailey (James Stewart), "It's a Wonderful Life."

10. T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), "Lawrence of Arabia."

11. Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

12. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda), "The Grapes of Wrath."

13. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), "Schindler's List."

14. Han Solo (Harrison Ford), "Star Wars."

15. Norma Rae Webster (Sally Field), "Norma Rae."

16. Shane (Alan Ladd), "Shane."

17. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), "Dirty Harry."

18. Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

19. Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), "In the Heat of the Night."

20. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, (Paul Newman and Robert Redford), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

21. Mahatma Gandhi (Ben Kingsley), "Gandhi."

22. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), "Spartacus."

23. Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), "On the Waterfront."

24. Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer (Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon), "Thelma and Louise."

25. Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper), "The Pride of the Yankees."

26. Superman (Christopher Reeve), "Superman."

27. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman), "All the President's Men."

28. Juror No. 8 (Henry Fonda), "12 Angry Men."

29. Gen. George Patton (George C. Scott), "Patton."

30. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman), "Cool Hand Luke."

31. Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts), "Erin Brockovich."

32. Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart), "The Big Sleep."

33. Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), "Fargo."

34. Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), "Tarzan the Ape Man."

35. Alvin York (Gary Cooper), "Sergeant York."

36. Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), "True Grit."

37. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), "Star Wars."

38. The Tramp (Charles Chaplin), "City Lights."

39. Lassie (Pal the dog), "Lassie Come Home."

40. Frank Serpico (Al Pacino), "Serpico."

41. Arthur Chipping (Robert Donat), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips."

42. Father Edward Flanagan (Spencer Tracy), "Boys Town."

43. Moses (Charlton Heston), "The Ten Commandments."

44. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman), "The French Connection."

45. Zorro (Tyrone Power), "The Mark of Zorro."

46. Batman (Michael Keaton), "Batman."

47. Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), "Silkwood."

48. The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

49. Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), "Philadelphia."

50. Maximus (Russell Crowe), "Gladiator."

Villains

1. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), "The Silence of the Lambs."

2. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), "Psycho."

3. Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), "The Empire Strikes Back."

4. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), "The Wizard of Oz."

5. Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

6. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), "It's a Wonderful Life."

7. Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), "Fatal Attraction."

8. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), "Double Indemnity."

9. Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), "The Exorcist."

10. The Queen (voiced by Lucille LaVerne), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

11. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), "The Godfather Part II."

12. Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), "A Clockwork Orange."

13. HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), "2001: A Space Odyssey."

14. The Alien (Bolaji Badejo), "Alien." 15. Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), "Schindler's List."

16. Noah Cross (John Huston), "Chinatown."

17. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), "Misery."

18. The Shark, "Jaws."

19. Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton), "Mutiny on the Bounty."

20. Man, "Bambi."

21. Mrs. John Iselin (Angela Lansbury), "The Manchurian Candidate."

22. The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), "The Terminator."

23. Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), "All About Eve."

24. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), "Wall Street."

25. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), "The Shining."

26. Cody Jarrett (James Cagney), "White Heat."

27. The Martians, "War of the Worlds."

28. Max Cady (Robert Mitchum), "Cape Fear."

29. Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), "The Night of the Hunter."

30. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), "Taxi Driver."

31. Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), "Rebecca."

32. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway), "Bonnie and Clyde."

33. Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), "Dracula."

34. Dr. Szell (Laurence Olivier), "Marathon Man."

35. J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), "Sweet Smell of Success."

36. Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), "Blue Velvet."

37. Harry Lime (Orson Welles), "The Third Man."

38. Rico Bandello (Edward G. Robinson), "Little Caesar."

39. Cruella De Vil (voiced by Betty Lou Gerson), "One Hundred and One Dalmatians."

40. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

41. Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway), "Mommie Dearest."

42. Tom Powers (James Cagney), "The Public Enemy."

43. Regina Giddens (Bette Davis), "The Little Foxes."

44. Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis), "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

45. The Joker (Jack Nicholson), "Batman."

46. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), "Die Hard."

47. Tony Camonte (Paul Muni), "Scarface."

48. Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), "The Usual Suspects."

49. Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), "Goldfinger."

50. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), "Training Day."

[end insert]

I watched some of that "special" and just could not understand why shows like that are produced/broadcast. Why? Someone would argue, "it's summer; therefore, this is the season for the re-runs and the crapy shows." But why is that? Or some other person would say, "well, it's the ABC's 50th anniversary."

Why has most of the television programming become mindless/senseless.

Villains
20. Man, "Bambi."


ROTFLMFAO!

I'm in agreement with Stylianos, and I feel compelled to wonder why all of the advertisements bore such uncanny synchronicity with the the content of the show itself. (Die Another Day DVD ad in the break before James Bond's segment, Jack Ryan DVD set commercial in between the Harrison Ford bits, etc.)

And I'm compelled to wonder whether the entire program wasn't one long commercial.

You'd never see a two-hour network broadcast depicting the triumphs and tragedies of classical mythological heroes and monsters, though they are more, more variegated, more primogenous, and for that matter, more interesting than what American film has cooked up in the last 100 years.

But you can't sell Greek mythology.

So such programming is relegated to PBS.

I didn't see it on TV, but read it on the internet (I assume the day after). It does appear that it was a commercial affair!

I guess they couldn't match a product for Liberty Valance or The Birds!

<<<-- Originally posted by Robert Knecht Schmidt : And I'm compelled to wonder whether the entire program wasn't one long commercial. -->>>

Actually I think that would describe much of what gets put on the networks these days

Wasn't it pathetic to see somebody of John Cleese's stature doing SUCH an idiotic commercial for Circuit City in the role of "Q" (or whatever that character has become in the new James Bond movies).