'Cool like Fonzie': 32 Of The Coolest Characters In TV History
The characters everyone wants to be friends with.

"We're all going to be cool like Fonzie" are the words that Jules Winfield (Samuel L. Jackson) says in Pulp Fiction. It's not random, of course, that he chose Henry Winkler's character from Happy Days to define cool. The Fonz remains one of, if not the coolest characters in television history, but he's hardly alone on the small screen for his coolness. This list includes many of those cool characters you could always see yourself being friends with.
Rico Tubbs - Miami Vice
Charlie Harper - Two And A Half Men
Charlie Sheen has been some wild ups and downs in his personal and professional life, but his character on Two and a Half Men has always been the definition of laid-back cool. Maybe too much, compared to the other characters around him. He does bring a great balance, though.
Bunk Moreland - The Wire
The Bunk, Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce), on The Wire, is well-dressed and as smooth as his silk ties. He's one of the best "murder police" in the Baltimore PD, and he never misses a trick. It's easy to understand why he's on this list.
Thomas Magnum - Magnum P.I.
There are a lot of cool TV detectives, but the top of the list has to be Thomas Magnum from Magnum P.I. He drives a Ferarri, he wears short shorts, and he's got some of the best facial hair in the game. The ladies want him, and the gentlemen want to be him. He's got all the game, and he gets to live on a giant estate in Hawaii. That's winning.
Carol Peletier - The Walking Dead
In the beginning of The Walking Dead, Carol Peletier didn't seem like much of a survivor. She suffered at the hands of an abusive husband and seemed well out of her depth when the zombie apocalypse started. She used everything she learned, though, and by the end, she wasn't just one of the baddest survivors on the show; she was also one of the coolest.
Barney Stinson - How I Met Your Mother
This one might be a little controversial because despite having a ton of amazing quotes and having a classic aloof nature, Barney Stintson is pretty swarmy. Of course, everyone has a friend like that, and almost everyone lets those friends get away with their bad behavior because they are so cool.
Sydney Bristow - Alias
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) on Alias is the epitome of cool under pressure. She always knew what to do and was as capable as any spy in Hollywood history. She deserves a spot high on any list about cool characters.
CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER
Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News
Mrs. Maisel - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Any woman in the 1950s who chooses to strike out on her own and take a chance like Midge Maisel should be cool in anyone's book. When she's as funny as Mrs. Maisel, it's an open-and-shut case. She's the coolest.
Chandler Bing - Friends
Chandler on Friends, played by the late Matthew Perry, isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's hard to deny his coolness. Of all the friends, he's easily the coolest. There is an aloofness to him that lends itself to cool, and compared to Joey and Ross? It's not even a race, really, Chandler wins every time.
Michael Knight - Knight Rider
Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) had a great perm, he wore an awesome Members-Only-looking leather coat, and he drove a Trans Am that talked to him. By any standard, that is cool. By the standards of the '80s? It was the top of the mountain. Everyone loves David Hasselhoff.
Fonzie - Happy Days
Here we are, at the coolest of the cool. Arthur Fonzarelli, or "The Fonz" or "Fonzie," if you like. He could do things like fix jukeboxes just by hitting them. He rode a motorcycle and wore a leather jacket. And he had that great hair! Plus, he's everyone's favorite person, including all the parents and authority figures. It just doesn't get cooler.
Al Swearengen - Deadwood
He's mean, he's nasty, and he makes an enemy out of everyone. Yet, for some undefinable reason, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) is definitely cool. Maybe its his verboseness, or maybe it's his confidence, it's hard to pinpoint exactly. Even though he's a violent criminal, he's still really cool.
Daria - Daria
For an entire generation of disaffected teenagers in the 1990s, Daria on Daria summed up everything they were feeling. Unimpressed with the world, beaten down by modern life, and more interested in being sullen than anything else, Daria was everything a cool kid was in the '90s.
Daryl Dixon - The Walking Dead
Of all the characters on The Walking Dead, none were cooler than the cross-bow-wielding, motorcycle-riding, complete stud, Daryl Dixon. He was soft-spoken, but when he did speak, everyone listened. He didn't have to say much to be cool, he just had to be himself. He was always ready for a fight and always backed his friends. He's just the best.
Don Draper - Mad Men
The mid-20th Century produced a lot of "cool." Don Draper, who led the charge in culture, defines that cool. There are a million moments in Mad Men where Draper (Jon Hamm) proves just how cool he is. He may have been living a lie, but man it was a cool life!
Cosmo Kramer - Seinfeld
To paraphrase Jerry on Seinfeld, Kramer does nothing, falls backward into money, mooches food off your neighbors, and hooks up without dating. While actor Michael Richards has had a checkered career since starring on one of the best sitcoms of all time, his character on the show was always cool. He was the one we all wanted to be.
Fleabag - Fleabag
Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is so cool, she doesn't even need a name. That's really saying something. She's smart, funny, cynical, and yeah, sometimes angry or mean, but most of the time, it's her biting wit that puts her on this list. There are a lot of people who strive to have that kind of wit, but very few ever do. Cool.
Sam Malone - Cheers
Anyone who owns a bar like Cheers is going to have to be on this list. He's loyal to his friends and regulars, he's an ex-pro athlete, and he never has problems dating beautiful women. He's also one of the funniest characters from one of the funniest sitcoms ever. We all want to be Sam, in some ways.
Face - The A-Team
Templeton "Face" Peck is the coolest character on The A-Team and usually the coolest under pressure, too. He's most likely to be the one that to go undercover because of it. He's also got some of the best lines on the show. Everyone on the team is cool in their own way, but Face takes the cake when it comes to real "coolness."
Mary Richards - The Mary Tyler Moore Show
She's gonna make it after all! Mary Richards oozes everything cool in all seven seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She showed girls and women everywhere that they, too, could make it in the corporate world and in the news business, all while looking sheik and being insanely cool.
Spock - Star Trek
Of all the characters in the original Star Trek, Spock has to be the coolest, right? Bones seems like the most fun, and Kirk would be hilarious to hang out with, but Spock has them all beat. He's cool, calm, and collected at all times, and he has just even of a human side to make him real. He has all the facts, too, which is good for all those arguments in a bar, right?
Tyrion Lannister - Game Of Thrones
The list of "cool" Lannisters on Game of Thrones is a short list. It's a list of one, really, and that one is, of course, Tyrion. From the way he dances to his trial, or the way he stays as loyal as he can to people until the end, he's the one family member you can trust. Obviously he's also a lot of fun.
Columbo - Columbo
What can we say about Peter Falk's amazing character, Columbo, in the show of the same name? He plays the bumbling detective who actually knows exactly what is going on at all times. He doesn't put on airs, and he doesn't care what people think of him at first blush. In fact, his nonchalant nature is exactly what makes him so effective - and cool.
Sonny Crockett - Miami Vice
One half of the coolest '80s TV detectives, Sonny Crockett oozes cool. He drives exotic cars, looks great in a white suit and pastel shirts, and he is, in the end, Don Johnson. Don Johnson is as cool as his character, and it all comes across on the screen. With all the wild guest stars in Miami Vice history, he had to hold his own, and he more than did.
Lucy Ricardo - I Love Lucy
Lucy Ricardo was a television pioneer in every way. She not only had one of the first legitimately huge hits on the medium, she did it as a women. That only is enough to make her cool enough for this list. The fact that her character on I Love Lucy was a little goofy and a little batty only adds to the cool factor.
Buffy Summers - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Talk about a character who became a role model for teenagers everywhere! The way Buffy Summers from Buffy The Vampire Slayer always handled herself made her formidable, but cool as heck while she was.
Lester Freamon - The Wire
"Cool Lester Smooth" is just one of Lester Freamon's nicknames on The Wire. He does have a certain tweed impertinence, but he's got all the answers. The show is too realistic to have a real Holmsian character, but Lester, played brilliantly by Clarke Peters, is as close as the show comes, and everyone knows that's cool. Plus, he looks out for his friends and has endless patience. Oodles of coolness.
Silvio Dante - The Sopranos
Every kingpin needs a trustworthy #2, and for Tony Soprano, that's his consiglieri, Silvio Dante. He is as loyal as it comes, and he does a mean Al Pacino impression. It helps that the character is played by a bona fide rock star, "Little" Steven Van Zandt from the E Street Band. Silvio was "peak cool" from the peak era of prestige TV.
Arya Stark - Game Of Thrones
Unlike the Lannisters in Game of Thrones, there are a lot of cool Starks. How can you pick just one among Ned, Robb, and all the rest? Well, really, it's easy. Arya is the coolest. In fact, she's pretty much the coolest character in the whole series, both on screen and in the books.
Sawyer - Lost
Okay we'll admit, Sawyer on Lost is often a jerk. But man, he's so cool sometimes. If you like bad boys, he's the ultimate bad boy and as we all know, bad boys are cool. It's just the way it goes. It's a fact. Plus, that hair... that hair is awesome.
Lisa Simpson - The Simpsons
This is a hill not a lot of Simpsons fans will die on, but those of us who will, will go down fighting. Lisa Simpson is the best. She's the best family member and the heart of the show's morality. If Lisa disapproves, you should do that thing. She's also really fun when she wants to be, even if some people disagree. Nerds are cool!
Wednesday Addams - Wednesday
Just like bad boys are always cool, bad girls are too. Wednesday Addams is as bad a girl can get, in the very best way. That means she's the coolest. The level of aloofness is frankly incredible and means she has to be on this list.
Hugh Scott is the Syndication Editor for CinemaBlend. Before CinemaBlend, he was the managing editor for Suggest.com and Gossipcop.com, covering celebrity news and debunking false gossip. He has been in the publishing industry for almost two decades, covering pop culture – movies and TV shows, especially – with a keen interest and love for Gen X culture, the older influences on it, and what it has since inspired. He graduated from Boston University with a degree in Political Science but cured himself of the desire to be a politician almost immediately after graduation.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.