Favorite TV Dads

1 Phillip Banks
2 Carl Winslow
3 Bob Belcher
4 Morty Seinfeld
5 Sean Finnerty

 

Toward the end of the series they began to have real emotionally charged father-daughter connections.

In season 4 he catches her smoking pot and loses his shit. It's a 2-part episode that explains why.

Then they had this scene in season 5 which again, is so emotionally charged and genuine.

 

No Peter Griffin? That show really has lost its audience. Of course, that is going with the idea that they don't actually have to be good fathers.

I like that people are including excellent characters without worrying about the character of the actors who played them. Cliff Huxtable belongs on the list in spite of the awfulness that is Bill Cosby.

I'll have to think more about my list. I doubt anybody but obsessive fans of The West Wing like me would put Josiah Bartlet on the list, but this moment popped into my head. My bias in this case isn't just love for the show and the character. This is exactly the kind of thing I do if my daughter and I had a rough moment. And she's a teenager, so they do seem to happen these days.

 

Rob Petrie and Ward Cleaver

 

Steve Douglas (My 3 Sons)
Jed Clampett (Father of Ellie May and father figure to Jethro Bodine. Never once did Jethro wind up in jail.)

 

Johnny Rose.

 

Did we all miss coach Taylor?

 

Bill Bixby Courtship of Eddie's Father
Dick Van Patten Eight is Enough
Ward Cleaver Leave it to Beaver
Rob Brady Brady Bunch
*Shirley Jones Partridge Family

*My parents divorced when I was 4 in the 60's so I didn't really look at fathers as much as parents so I give Ms. Jones big props as a single parent (like my mom was).

 

Dads who were newspapermen.

Martin Lane (Party Duke)
Tom Bradford (Eight Is Enough)
Raymond Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond)

Any others?

 

Lou Grant had three daughters
Charlie Hume had a son and a daughter

 

Opie ended up a journalist -- and so did Richie Cunningham.

 

John Walton Sr. John-Boy was a network anchor.