Still Standing (TV Series) - Main Characters

Main Characters

• William "Bill" Miller (Mark Addy): The want-to-be cool father of the Miller family, he is a former high school football standout but is now often perceived as an overweight, lazy, Homer Simpson-like character. Bill has a tendency to take part in "macho" activities such as watching sports, drinking beer, and working on carpentry projects. Bill is not the most intelligent person in the bunch and only spent six weeks in college, but he does well working at a Sears-like department store's toilet department. He tends to play the "good cop" when parenting his kids. However, he can sometimes be overprotective with his eldest daughter, Lauren. When he gave the captain of the football team advice and the boy then asked Lauren out, Bill ruined the date. He also ruined Lauren's thirteenth birthday by telling the boy Lauren liked that she liked him. He often calls her "Pumpkin."

• Judith "Judy" Miller (born as Judy Michaels) (Jami Gertz): The mother of the Miller family, she is a good-looking woman in her late 30s, trying not to lose touch with her younger self and trying to be the "cool mom." She often goes to a hair dresser who Bill also went to for a period of time. Judy works as a dental assistant. She is more intelligent than Bill (marginally) and often joins in his schemes after seemingly having foiled them. She tries to be loose with her daughters, but Lauren loves to break the rules, so she often finds herself being the one person she does not want to be like: her mother. She can often be overprotective with her son, Brian, whom she calls Bri Bri. She never realized he was growing up until he did. When Brian begins to not want to hang out with her, she gets him sick by giving him the sippy cup of juice that her youngest daughter, Tina, who had just gotten over a cold, drank. In the Miller household, this cup is referred to as a "Sicky Cup." Normally she is happy when Brian gets a girl (something she thought he would never do) but when she sees his girlfriend, Bonnie, is taking over his life, she becomes overprotective causing Bonnie to break up with Brian.

• Brian Hops Miller (Taylor Ball): Eldest offspring and only son of the Miller family, Brian is a gifted (he is the valedictorian) but relatively unpopular high-school student; widely regarded as a geek, nerd, or lame (usually by his parents). Although he is straight, a running gag within the show is that Brian's sexual orientation has been questioned several times by his parents because he reads Vogue magazine (he justifies this by saying that "sometimes those models wear see-through clothes, and it gets cold in those studios"), twirls a baton, and quits his brief tenure as a high school football place kicker to join the cheerleading squad (ultimately revealed as his way to interact with cute girls). He was also asked out on a "Boy on Boy Gay Date" from an all-star athlete at school. It is also mentioned in one episode, when Bill and Judy come to Brian for help, that he is afraid of clowns. In later seasons, he is neglected and even ignored by his parents. This is ironic when one considers the amount of times the two parents mention their future reliance on Brian's success due to his intelligence. He loses his virginity during his junior-senior summer while on an exchange programme in Italy; he and his father are both glad that Brian lost his before Lauren did. At the end of the series, Brian is admitted to University of Chicago, his top choice. He is called "Bri-Bri" by his mother, much to his dismay. His excuse for not being called Bri Bri was that he filed his own tax return that year. Although, when Judy got him sick, he wanted to hang out with his mom all day. He tries to be cool, but he is not, which disappoints his father.

• Lauren Barley Miller (Renee Olstead): The hormonal, spoiled teenage older daughter of the Miller family, Lauren is one of the pretty, popular girls at school despite the fact that she hates everything about herself. She gets in trouble for breaking her parents' and the school's rules. She is not smart, nor does she apply herself as much as her brother does. Her parents expect she will amount to little more than a cocktail waitress. Lauren is shown to have a talent for the arts; in one episode she is found to be a gifted singer, and in another she stars in the school play (although she does not seem to be any good at clarinet, making her parents hide it from her). She is called "Pumpkin" by her dad, she's embarrassed by it. She is also a huge Blink-182 fan.

• Tina Kathleen Miller (Soleil Borda): The youngest child and mismatched daughter of the Miller family, Tina could be described as an obnoxious second grader. Tina's family sees her as clueless, but viewers see that she is one of the most clever in her family. In a few episodes, Tina is also portrayed being unafraid to take a practical joke to the next level. Sometimes she tends to be the "creepy child" of the family.

• Linda Michaels (Jennifer Irwin): Judy's younger sister, Linda spends much of her time hanging around the Miller house, much to Bill's dismay, although at the end of the episode "Still Helping Out," Bill, viewing Linda from behind as she is exercising, mistakes her for the shapely Rose Grundy, an attractive ex-Schultze Beer girl, only to learn of this awkward case of mistaken identity when Linda turns around, becoming sick to his stomach after the ordeal. Linda suffers from low self-esteem and high self-pity. She dates and eventually marries Perry, a singer in a Foghat cover band. Though she has a guestroom for when her mother comes to town, Helen prefers to sleep on the couch at Judy's, much to Linda's dismay.

• Daniel "Fitz" Fitzsimmons (Joel Murray): Bill's best friend, credited as so for seasons 3 and 4. He works with Bill as a salesman and has a gay son, Scotty, who hit on Brian and is team captain of the high school baseball team.