Michael Harris

Michael Harris is the slick, image-obsessed producer at the local TV station, forever chasing ratings, promotions, and his own reflection. He talks in trends and buzzwords, treats every crisis as a career opportunity, and can't quite believe anyone doesn't share his priorities. Ambition is his whole personality, worn without a trace of embarrassment.

Peter Scolari plays vanity with such gleeful precision that Michael never curdles into unlikable — he's too delighted with himself to resent. The writing hands him one absurd scheme after another, and Scolari sells each with total sincerity, turning corporate-speak and self-regard into some of the show's sharpest, silliest comic music.