As we prepare to say goodbye to Michael Scott, Bullz-Eye is honoring television’s best, worst, and strangest bosses. Most of them are just a device to motivate the main character, but there are a few who stand out, for reasons both good (they have your back) and bad (they might kill you). Others still are just odd, or can be both a spectacular boss and the most irritating prick on the planet.
Here are just a few of Bullz-Eye’s favorite bosses:
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”)
Jack Donaghy is, for lack of a need for any other definition, a man. He is the man we all aspire to be, even the hipster kids among us. He is tireless, unflappable, and totally at the top of his game. Before meeting his wife, he was chasing tail with Bob Ballard and drinking wine from ancient Phoenician amphoras. He consumes scotch like water. Jack Donaghy named his fists Saint Patrick and Saint Michael, a fact we know only because those fists were used to fight his own father. He eschews the familiar and espouses the opulent. Most of all, he somehow finds it in his arrogant heart to mentor one of the strangest bosses around: Liz Lemon.
Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole, “Office Space”)
Lumbergh, meanwhile, is terrifying because he is one of the most realistic bosses the entertainment world has ever seen. Promoted beyond his skill set — assuming he even has a skill set — Lumbergh knows he has a good thing, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to lose his cushy job to any of the peons beneath him, so he micromanages the bejeezus out of them, makes them work on weekends, and will even steal their cubicle walls if it helps drop employee morale. Monty Burns is playing at the Oprah level of power; there are only a handful of people with that kind of influence. But Lumbergh…the corporate world is littered with guys like him. God help us.
Gregory House (Hugh Laurie, “House M.D.”)
He will risk his own life to save the life of a patient. He will also take a knitting needle to the eye before complimenting one of his fellow doctors. Dr. Gregory House is a brilliant doctor but a pretty awful human being, so while you will get the education of a lifetime under his tutelage, the emotional scars from the experience may never heal.
For the full list of Bullz-Eye’s favorite bosses – good, bad, and strange – head over to the Bullz-Eye Blog.
