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Ward Cleaver’s Club: the Great TV Dads

Started by tomwatson · 3 months ago

Tomorrow, I shall take my breakfast under the covers - a twice-yearly occurrence around case Watson (birthday, too!) - and I shall enjoy the mild but heartfelt tribute to my fatherhood. Later, I’ll give my old man a card and a gift, and char a few burgers in his honor. And ... Continue reading »

8 comments

  • OutOfContext

    1 year ago

    Here I go:
    Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke Show)
    Darren Stevens (Dick York-Bewitched)
    James Evans (Good Times)
    Dan Connor (Roseanne)
    J R Ewing (Dallas)
    Howard Cunningham (Happy Days)
    Rocky Rockford (Rockford Files)
    Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
    Burt Campbell (Soap)
    Fred Ziffel (Green Acres)

    I'm barbecuing for my Dad tomorrow as well. I never thought about it, but it must be a wide practice.
    reply
  • Dan Leo

    1 year ago

    Hey, let's have a little love for the mighty Hank Hill of "King of the Hill".

    Oh, but Frank Costanza, definitely. I mean I have actually sat and watched the harmless "King Of Queens" only in the hopes of catching a few seconds of Jerry Stiller brilliance.
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  • Tony Alva

    1 year ago

    Mike Brady...
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  • Mudge

    1 year ago

    Of your list, only Cliff Huxtable and Andy Taylor are true fathers. They spent time in the series actually raising their children. Neither father-child relationship was cutesy. The fathers had serious jobs. I enjoyed their roles as father, unlike the rest, where being a father was more of a foil (or he was a clown) or the offspring were disfunctional.

    Did anyone actually like Richie Petrie?
    reply
  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Nobody liked Richie Petrie, it's true - he was more of a prop - like Little Rickey.

    I'm not so sure about the others - they were real fathers, perhaps not good ones. Certainly, Fred Munster - although undead - was a fine father to Eddie.
    reply
  • Lance Mannion

    1 year ago

    Richie Petrie's job was to be heard of but seldom seen, a role-model for TV children more shows should have followed.

    To add to the list of best TV dads:

    John Schneider as Jonathan Kent on Smallville.

    Since the 1970s some of the best fathers have been father-figures rather than actual fathers, surrogate dads to the rest of the cast.

    Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show
    Col. Potter on MASH
    Dr Westphall on St Elsewhere, with Aushlander as a surrogate grandfather---Westphall was a good father to his teenage daughter and autistic son but most of his fathering was of Dr Morrison.
    Adam Schiff on Law and Order.

    After 1970 or so, the fathers in TV sitcoms all but disappeared. When they returned in the late 1980s they became the biggest babies on their shows.

    Fathers have been largely absent from TV dramas on the main networks because the main characters are almost always intended to be sex symbols and the shows they're in focus almost entirely on their heroic work lives.

    There are more fathers on the premium channels and cable networks---WB, now the CB, had a bunch, but they've all been canceled now.
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    What's interesting to me is that Ralph Kramden, although not a father (he wished though, he wished!) was the model for so many sitcom/cartoon dads...
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  • Vassilis

    1 year ago

    Interesting...
    reply

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