George Oscar Bluth, Sr.

George Bluth Sr. is the founder and chairman of the Bluth Company, hauled away by federal agents in the pilot for fraud so brazen it barely qualifies as concealed. From his cell he keeps meddling, issuing schemes and self-justifications through his bewildered son Michael, utterly convinced he's done nothing any builder wouldn't do.

Jeffrey Tambor plays delusion as total conviction rather than villainy, which is funnier and stranger — George Sr. never doubts himself, so every absurd rationalization lands as sincere. The character works as the family's original sin made flesh, the reason everyone else is broken, delivered with a straight face and impeccable comic timing.