BRACKETSVILLE, ILLINOIS

I only just discovered a few minutes ago that the Chicago Tribune is also running its own TV character March Madness "Bracketsville" competition. The first round is open until 4 pm Chicago time today, so there's really very little time to get your vote in!

REDEYE'S CHARACTER WARS
Greetings, fellow TV addicts. After laboring to compile a list of TV's best characters, we narrowed our list to the 32 bizarre, funny, neurotic and brilliant creations you see below. You have until 4 p.m. on March 12 to vote in this round before we declare winners and move on to the Sweet Sixteen. We've posted YouTube videos of all of them so start watching, start voting and may the best character win.

Here are the pairings for the first face-off:

1. Jack Bauer, “24” vs. Darnell “Crabman” Turner, “My Name is Earl”

2. Denny Crane, “Boston Legal” vs. Adrian Monk, “Monk”

3. Barney Stinson, “How I Met Your Mother,” vs. Sawyer Ford, “Lost”

4. Hiro Nakamura, “Heroes” vs. Dr. Miranda Bailey, “Grey’s Anatomy”

5. Jack Donaghy, “30 Rock” vs. Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, “Prison Break”

6. Glenn Quagmire, “Family Guy” vs. Wilhelmina Slater, “Ugly Betty”

7. Ari Gold, “Entourage” vs. Joy Turner, “My Name is Earl”

8. Lt. Horatio Crane, “CSI:Miami” vs. Darren Lamb, “Extras”

9. Tony Soprano, “The Sopranos” vs. Shawn Spencer, “Psych”

10. Dwight Schrute, “The Office” vs. Celia Hodes, “Weeds”

11. Stewie Griffin, “Family Guy” vs. Veronica Mars, “Veronica Mars”

12. Dr. Gregory House, “House” vs. Dr. J.D. Dorian, “Scrubs”

13. Michael Scott, “The Office” vs. Capt. Kara Thrace, “Battlestar Galactica”

14. Betty Suarez, “Ugly Betty” vs. Tracy Jordan, “30 Rock”

15. Lynette Scavo, “Desperate Housewives” vs. Smash Williams, “Friday Night Lights”

16. Homer Simpson, “The Simpsons” vs. Dr. Christian Troy, “Nip/Tuck”

Several surprises for me as I voted. Hiro is trailing the Nazi, for starters! I voted for Veronica and Darren, thinking them both to be sacrifical lambs (literally a Lamb in Darren's case), but they're actually beating their competitors. The biggest upset looks to be Dwight over Celia.

As with the Sitcom Star Wars from the Florida Times-Union, I'll keep you up to date right down to the final battle.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby