Viewers send nominees of favorite team players

They don’t get their names above the title. Or in it. But don’t try to make a show without them.

They’re the supporting actors, the people who react to what the star is doing, who drive the B story while the leading man gets the A, who often get asked to move aside on the red carpet.

But they’re also the performers who can take a show from good to great, who can urge less able actors to better work. They can even bring viewers to a show when the star may not.

I recently asked readers of my blog for suggestions of great team players on series — narrowing the field to shows that premiered in 2005, or actors who joined an ongoing show in that year.

I then heard about Lara Flynn Boyle on Las Vegas and Lauren Holly of NCIS (both suggested by Richard Dervan), John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer on The Office (courtesy of ``JD’’) and — all from Fred Farrar — Christine Ebersole (Related), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Ryan Hurst (Wanted), G.W. Bailey (The Closer), Ever Carradine (Commander in Chief) and more besides.

But that leaves out still more people who deserve your holiday cheers. So here are some of my favorite back-benchers of 2005.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lost. Those of us who knew him from Oz felt a clear sense of terror when his Mr. Eko came on the Lost scene. But the writers have made him someone so mysterious and intriguing that you should wonder about him every week — and he hit it out of the acting park in the storytelling scene.

Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Angela Kinsey (Angela) and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), The Office. I thought about Krasinski and Fischer, and about Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight. They’re all good. But these actors are essential to the show, because they show you how back-breaking and mind-bending an awful workplace can be. And they’re funny doing it.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Alumni Society. Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), Nicholas Brendon (Kitchen Confidential), Charisma Carpenter (Veronica Mars) and David Boreanaz (Bones) are all improving the shows they now work on. (And yes, Boreanaz is promoted as almost a co-lead on Bones. Let me cast my net wide anyway.)

They also collectively remind viewers how important humor was to Buffy, since they all know how to bring laughs to their current roles. One of the season’s best moments was Carpenter dueling with Hannigan when the latter guest-starred on Veronica.

Terry Crews, Everybody Hates Chris. While this show is nominally about the young Chris Rock, ably played by Tyler James Williams, it has given considerable life to Arnold’s parents, Rochelle and Julius, played by Tichina Arnold and Crews.

Arnold is very funny. But it’s Crews’ portrayal of a soft-spoken, hard-working, minding-every-penny dad that makes me laugh as hard as anything on the show. In a prime time loaded with bumbling fathers, Crews is a refreshing alternative.

Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother. The former Doogie Howser did a major image makeover in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and it continues on this show, where his philosophical womanizer has become so entertaining that he has his own show promos.

On the down side, Harris and others in the cast demonstrate what Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger has called ``Herskozwickitis.’’ The name comes from producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once & Again.) They made shows where the supporting cast was more interesting than the star, and series like How I Met Your Mother fall into the same trap.

Erinn Hayes, Kitchen Confidential. Sadly, the showwas yanked from the schedule before you got to see Hayes as Becky, a new chef in Confidential’s kitchen. Tough, smart and more than ready to tangle with the men around her, she would have been a vivid new presence in prime time.

Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl. Another terrific ensemble, and I almost put Ethan Suplee on this list. But Pressly’s performance is more interesting because it seems to play directly on her Maxim-cover-girl image while showing what can happen to selfish party girls. And Pressly gets the joke.

Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy. As you can tell by now, there are a lot of shows where I wanted to name the entire ensemble, and this is one of them. But Wilson, as the dour ``Nazi,’’ is someone whom viewers keep talking about. I especially like that her seemingly constant irritation is balanced by tremendous skill at her job. And that recent scene with her and T.R. Knight (as O’Malley) confronting an obnoxious family played beautifully.

I could name more actors and shows, of course. Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan and T.J. Thyne from Bones come to mind, and all the supporting players on The Closer. But the overall message is still the same. No matter where they are in the credits, supporting actors are often as important as the show’s stars.