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10 Best (or Worst?)
TV Neighbors
Would you want them next-door?
By Dave McCoy
MSN Entertainment

Strange, colorful, memorable neighbors are as essential to the TV sitcom genre as a bad laugh track. Their close proximity to home -- the area where most of a sitcom's central action takes place -- allows them to drop by and create classic comedic situations. Over the years, certain supporting characters have at times surpassed a TV show's main focus and earned a cult following all of their own. With that, we look through television history and present this list -- from animated to invisible, from classic to current -- of best TV neighbors.

10. Eddie Haskell (Leave It To Beaver)
Courteous and polite toward adults yet obnoxious and downright evil toward everyone else, Wally Cleaver's best friend, Eddie Haskell, became so popular that his name became a synonym for two-faced rats.
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9. Larry (Three's Company)
Props to the Ropers and Mr. Furley, but our favorite Three's Company neighbor is the leisure-suit wearing, hairy-chested, smooth-talking lounge lizard, Larry Dallas. You could make an argument that Larry and his pal Jack Tripper symbolize much about single life in pre-AIDS Los Angeles ... but then again, Larry probably wouldn't understand the term "symbolize."
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8. Wilson (Home Improvement)
The most famous forehead in TV history, Wilson Wilson was never actually seen by his neighbors, the Taylors. However, this didn't stop him from dropping wisdom over the fence (and usually over Tim's head), making it feel like the ghost of Mike Brady was living next door to Tim Allen.
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7. Lenny and Squiggy (Laverne and Shirley)
So awkward, so annoying, so brilliantly dumb they turned the word "Hello!" into a catch phrase, L&S's truck-driving, grease-ball neighbors pestered them to death during their entire run. Look up "creep," and you'll most likely find a photo of these guys.

6. The Jeffersons (All in the Family)
Before they moved on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky, George, Louise and Lionel Jefferson lived in Queens, next door to Archie Bunker, from 1972-75. The African-American family provided ample fodder for their prejudiced neighbor and in the process made All in the Family the first TV show to address and satirize the country's racial tensions.
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5. Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)
Nerdy, eternally optimistic and devoutly religious, Ned Flanders is probably the most ridiculed "person" in Springfield. His character is part mocking of Republican family values and part antithesis of everything his cynical neighbor Homer Simpson embodies, but with all he endures, they should make him a saint.
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4. Ed and Trixie Norton (The Honeymooners)
Bless the poor Nortons: Being neighbors and close friends with the bickering Ralph and Alice Kramden wasn't paradise. Also, it's easy to get obscured when you're playing next to "The Great One," Jackie Gleason. But Art Carney was more than up to the challenge, making Ed Norton the greatest sideman in TV history.
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3. Fred and Ethel Mertz (I Love Lucy)
The quintessential married neighbors -- along with the Nortons -- for the longest-running sitcom on TV, Fred and Ethel embodied normalcy next to their zany best friends, the Ricardos. Both characters played straight men to Ricky and Lucy, yet left their own mark that still resonates 50 years later.
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2. Entire cast of Friends
Since Chandler, Joey, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe and Monica all lived next to one another (or with each other) at one time or another, how could we leave anyone off this list? Friends uses hallways and flip-flopping apartments for humor better than any recent show, and probably has convinced more 20-somethings to move into the same complex than any show in history ... Foolishly.
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1. Cosmo Kramer (Seinfeld)
The first name is a big clue. His head is in outer space, he has no job, he prefers his neighbor Jerry's apartment to his own living quarters, barging in frequently, and the only thing crazier than his hair are his money-making ideas. He'd be a nightmare neighbor in reality ... but on TV, he's the best.
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Grady Wilson?

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Originally posted by Jason
How about Barney and Betty Rubble? First thing I thought of.

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Originally posted by Htd
I vote for Steve and Marcy / Jefferson and Marcy to be on that list...

I think the neighbors were Julio and his goat Chico

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