Memorable bosses of TV and movies

Film and television have produced a host of nasty bosses that can make your worst day at the office seem like a walk in the park. Take a look at the most memorable bosses from pop culture, including Don Draper, before “Mad Men’’ returns to AMC on April 13.

Montgomery “Monty’’ Burns

Unfortunately for the town of Springfield on “The Simpsons,’’ the community’s richest citizen is also its most villainous. He dumps his plant’s nuclear waste in playgrounds, builds a device to block out the sun, hospitalizes a young boy to motivate his sports team, laughs for days about his many, many misdeeds (“What was I laughing at again? Oh, yes, that crippled Irishman!’’) Montgomery Burns is an “excellent’’ contender for the most evil boss in pop culture.

Justin Pitt

Justin Pitt was Elaine Benes’s eccentric boss at Doubleday on “Seinfeld.’’ His reason for hiring Elaine? She reminded him of Jackie Onassis. His assignments for her: finding the perfect pair of socks, taking the salt out off his pretzels, and making sure he would be able to hold a rope for the Woody Woodpecker balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Elaine once had to pry him away from the hypnotic trance of a “Magic Eye’’ image. Elaine was even briefly in Mr. Pitt’s will before it appeared she and Jerry were conspiring to kill him.

Jack Donaghy

Alec Baldwin earned his place on this list as Jack Donaghy on NBC’s “30 Rock.’’ Despite his tense relations with Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), he was responsible for a lot of the laughs on the show – and had one of the best character introductions in TV history, which set the standard for his tendency of deriding his underlings.

Tony Soprano

Now here’s a boss who redefined the phrase “Boss.’’ Short-tempered, brutal, and unhinged – be glad you don’t have to attend a company potluck with this thug. Be even more grateful that you probably won’t be on the receiving end of one of Tony’s “severance packages.’’

Charlie Skinner and Leona Lansing

Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) and Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda) keep HBO’s “Newsroom’’ running. Charlie’s commitment to journalistic integrity and Leona’s orders to gain the trust of the public back when the news team lost that integrity in Season 2 make them both great leaders. That being said, Charlie is prone to breakdowns from time to time, and Leona spent the season finale stoned at a party while her news team covered the 2012 presidential election.

Miranda Priestly

Meryl Streep drives Anne Hathaway crazy as New York magazine editor Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada.’’ Posh, caustic, and relentless, she causes Hathaway’s naive character, Andrea, to not only abhor her job, but also change her lifestyle completely in order to keep it.

Gordon Gekko

“Greed is good.’’ With those three words, Gordon Gekko — the corporate weasel in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street’’ — painted a coat of sleeze over the US financial industry that still lingers today. Gekko shows few, if any, scrupples about destroying companies to milk profits and corrupting his ambitious protege.

Michael Scott

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) was paper company Dunder Mifflin’s bumbling boss for most of the long run of NBC’s “The Office.’’ He made his mark on the show with corny jokes, terrible team-building activities, and several very inappropriate conversations about what’s appropriate in the workplace. While some of his goofiness came off as loveable – he always had the best intentions, except maybe when he was dealing with Toby – other workers like Stanley were less impressed.

Meredith Johnson

In “Disclosure,’’ Demi Moore plays an executive-level femme fatale who sexually harasses one of her co-workers (Michael Douglas) and then sues him for him for the offense. Talk about a hostile work environment!

Walter White

Bryan Cranston’s turn as meth king Walter White on AMC’s “Breaking Bad’’ may have captivated viewers – and even had some rooting for him as he committed his evil deeds – but it is doubtful that anyone would want him for a boss. Some of Heisenberg’s best lines could easily fit into a workplace nightmare; “We’re done when I say we’re done’’ could sound just as menacing when referring to that annoying project your team has been working on as it did referring to White’s drug empire on the show. If he’s your supervisor, perhaps your best course of action would be to tread lightly.

Bill Lumbergh

Whether he’s asking you to file those TPS reports or just moving your desk for the fourth time this year, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole, left, with Ron Livingston as Peter), Initech’s boss in “Office Space,’’ will do so in his annoying condescending tone. Hey, at least he’ll let you wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans on Hawaiian shirt day.

Selina Meyer

Julia Louise-Dreyfuss plays Vice President Selina Meyer on HBO’s “Veep.’’ Meyer and her bumbling staff are eager to make a lasting impact on American politics while navigating the treacherous routine of Washington politics. Meyer’s crew must withstand a barage of profanity and demeaning tasks — such as digging through garbage to protect their boss’s secrets.

Ron Swanson

Nick Offerman’s mustachioed libertarian on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation’’ is a public official who hates the public and loves handing off responsibility to his overachieving deputy Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). Swanson’s interests include woodworking, meat, jazz, meat, and avoiding his psychotic ex-wives — oh, and meat!

Olivia Pope

On ABC’s “Scandal,’’ Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is the the fierce leader of the consulting firm Olivia Pope & Associates, where she leads a team of gladiators in managing the crises of the nation’s elite in Washington, D.C. She is very dedicated to her job as a fixer and has even had a hand in saving her employees from their own personal trials and tribulations. But while she wears the white hat in her profession, her personal life is a mess (re: torrid affair with the president of the United States) with scandalous twists and turns that at times affect her work and her employees.

Roger Sterling and Don Draper

When they aren’t smoking, drinking, or having affairs (three things they do a lot of), Roger Sterling (John Slattery, left) and Don Draper (John Hamm, right) are two of the partners running a prestigious New York City ad agency in the ’60s. Maybe you wish you were born in a different time, and working for womanizing, scotch-swilling ad men appeals to you. Maybe it doesn’t. Either way, those old-school suits are pretty nice.

Charlie Townsend

Is your boss mysterious? Probably not as mysterious as Charlie Townsend, the unseen man who gave orders to his team of scantily-clad crime fighters (“Angels,’’ from left, Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith) via speakerphone on the hit series “Charlie’s Angels.’’ Voiced by John Forsythe, viewers never saw more than the back of his head – but while Farrah Fawcett and company were out catching bad guys in bikinis (and doing all the work), he was the one in charge.

The horrible bosses from ‘Horrible Bosses’

Jennifer Anniston, Colin Farrell, and Kevin Spacey played a dastardly trio of workplace superiors in 2011’s “Horrible Bosses.’’ Anniston sexually harassed her assistant (who wanted nothing to do with that), Farrell was a drugged-out maniac, and Spacey was an insensitive psycho. They were so bad that the workers they abused (Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, and Charlie Day) plotted their revenge, “Strangers on a Train’’-style.