The Slack Pack

Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) is not quite the greatest stoner in the history of film (we'll be getting to The Big Lebowski's Jeff Bridges in a little while), but his surfer-dude personality became a bitchin' archetype for kindred adventurers like Bill & Ted to follow.

Clerks (1994)
At first, all Smith had was his voice. Didn't have any money, didn't have any idea where to put the camera (still doesn't, many critics would say), but he had that witty, profane, pop culture-soaked voice that made spending all day at a convenience store with slackers Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) into a fun way to pass the time. Smith also gave himself the not-too-taxing role of Silent Bob, which became his signature character.

Chasing Amy (1997)
The unlikely romance that made stars of Ben Affleck and sidekick Jason Lee, and that gave Smith his biggest acting challenge to date: the monologue that gives the film its title.

Clerks 2 (2006)
Even slackers have to grow up sometime. That's the lesson facing Dante and Randal (still in service-industry purgatory 12 years later) and Smith himself, as he closes what looks to be only the first chapter in a long career. —Gary Susman

Married with Children (1987-1997)

With a cigarette dangling from one hand and the remote control in the other, Sagal's sex-obsessed Peggy rules the suburban middle-class wasteland that is the Bundy household. It was the actress' own idea to outfit her character in '60s- and '70s-style TV-housewife garb — a hilarious move, as it further highlighted the divide between those women's devotion to homemaking and Peg's refusal to lift a finger, lest she chip a fake nail.