The Bad Boys of Television: Top Ten Greatest Male Anti-Heroes In Tv Drama.

Kendall Rivers
8 min readApr 6, 2024
James Gandolfini as the iconic mob boss Tony Soprano-Image Source: Chase Films; Brad Grey Television; HBO Entertainment.

It’s so good to be so bad. Television has given us a lot of iconic “bad boys” on the small screen. In comedy we have such flawed individuals as Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, Louie DePalma and Eric Cartman, just to name a few. But the true prominence of the anti-hero came from some of the great television dramas of the past forty or so years. Here are the top ten “bad guys” who we can’t help but love.

10. Dr. Gregory House. House M.D.

Hugh Laurie as House, M.D. -Image Source: Heel and Toe Films; Shore Z Productions; Bad Hat Harry Productions; Universal Television.

A brilliant Diagnoistician and an unbearably smug and snarky pain in the you know what that broke so many laws (including the hippocratic oath a time or two) that it’s hard to keep track, Dr. Gregory House wasn’t your typical friendly neighborhood doctor. But what he lacked in proper manners and procedure he more than made up for in always saving the day, finding the cure to whatever ailed his patients. He may have had a subpar beside manner, but House is the doctor anyone of us would beg to have if we were in a desperate medical crisis.

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Kendall Rivers

Kendall is a screenwriter who’s a huge fan of classic tv and movies. He enjoys creating good stories and characters. https://www.facebook.com/kendall.rivers.3