George Utley

George Utley is the handyman at the Stratford Inn, hired more out of local necessity than any evident skill. He shuffles in with a toolbox and a bottomless supply of non-sequiturs, answering questions no one asked and taking every absurdity in stride. Nothing much fazes him; nothing much gets fixed either.

Tom Poston plays George with a stillness that makes every stray remark land like a punchline dropped from a great height. The writing gives him almost no motivation beyond mild agreeableness, and that blankness is the joke — a man utterly untroubled by logic, delivered with such unhurried sincerity that the town's chaos seems to bend politely around him.