>>>Which of your favorite TV characters would be done by an impressionist as the character and not as the actor. It should be someone you can build a reasonable segment around, not just a line or two.
>>>
>>>Rev Jim is Rev Jim and not Christopher Lloyd.
>>>
>>>Gomer Pyle (whether you think he's funny or not) counts in my mind.
>>>
>>>So does Cosmo Kramer (a poor man's Rev Jim and not nearly (IMNVHO) as creative)
>>>
>>>Red Skelton's characters probably do NOT count since any impression of them are impressions of Red Skelton doing the character, not of the character itself.
>>>
>>>The same is true of Jackie Gleason, but I'm of two minds about Crazy Guggenheim.
>>>
>>>At any rate, that's my list. I'm curious about who others may add.
>>
>>There was a cartoon character back in the 30's called Betty Boop. Her voice was done by Mae Questel who purportedly was copying the voice of Helen Kane (though the studio wouldn't admit to that). Annette Hanshaw was a singer who did a version of a 'Betty Boop' song called "I Wanna Be Loved by You". She sang it though, under the name 'Dot Dare'.
>>
>>So, we have Dot Dare doing Annette Hanshaw singing 'I Wanna Be Loved By You' as Mae Questel doing Betty Boop doing Helen Kane.
>>
>>I dare anyone to top that!
>>
>>For the record, Mae Questel was also the voice of Olive Oyl in the late '30s
>
>There must be at least one copyright infringement involved here! :)

In fact, Helen Kane did sue the Paramount studio and Max Fleischer. She lost in spite of the fact that I doubt anyone alive who was familiar with Kane's personna and style and Betty Boop's had any real doubt about where Fleischer got the image from.