Happy Boss Day -- Asylum Salutes Good Bosses

Today is National Boss Day, which is supposed to be celebrated by thanking your boss for being kind to you throughout the year. Which makes it sort of a counter-intuitive holiday, since complaining about bosses is much more America's pastime than baseball.

This is reflected in popular culture, where bosses are generally portrayed as incompetent boobs (like Michael Scott) or passive-aggressive jerks (like Bill Lumbergh) or even Machiavellian maniacs who just might whack you (hello, Tony Soprano).

But, since we're all for getting into the spirit of even the silliest of holidays, we've trudged through pop culture's management hell to find five fictional bosses who would actually be pretty nice to work for.


Charlie from "Charlie's Angels"
Charlie always treated his angels with respect, and eliminated the need for annoying "face time" by never showing his face.


Agent Skinner from "The X-Files"
While the supervisor of the X-Files office was initially leery of Mulder and Scully, he eventually became their ally and advocate, even going as far as saving Mulder's life.

DA Adam Schiff from "Law and Order"
Back when there was only one show called "Law and Order" there was DA Adam Schiff. Remember, he was the world-weary old guy who would pop in and dispense with well-measured advice. He seemed to genuinely like his charges, and, when he did criticize, it was always well thought out and helpful.

Andrea Bower from "Who's the Boss"
First she took a down-on-his-luck Tony Micelli and daughter into her home. Later, she took them into her heart.

Montgomery Burns from "The Simpsons"
While good old Monty Burns will make his share of Worst Boss lists, he's also the guy who lets Homer sleep on the job, and never ends up firing our favorite everyman, even though he's responsible for almost causing nuclear disaster every few seasons.

Are there any great pop culture bosses that we missed? Or, if you really want to get into the spirit of the holiday, feel free to use the comment section to shout out words of thanks to your boss. Brown-nosing will get you everywhere.