Turning One: Father’s Day Filler
My Greatest Hits clip show continues, using the word “Greatest” loosely. In honor of Father’s Day, I’ll re-post this discussion of the best-and-worst TV dads.
Father’s Day Filler
June 18, 2006
This place is a work just barely in progress. As I attempt to choose a layout, I figured it would help to post something. I crawled into my archives and pulled out this, from Father’s Day ’05.
To celebrate Father’s Day, TiVo has put together a list of the Top 25 TV Dads. Here’s the Top 5:
1. Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show)
2. Sheriff Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show)
3. Pa Ingalls (Little House on the Prarie)
4. Howard “Mr. C” Cunningham (Happy Days)
5. Ward Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver)
The creepy Father Dowling publicity photo notwithstanding, I would have given Mr. C the top spot. But I think a more interesting list would be The Worst TV Dads. My list starts with three…
Ross Geller (Friends) — Entire seasons went by without even a mention of little Ben. They paraded out that kid from Big Daddy a few times, but Ross was borderline deadbeat. When Rachel was supposed to move to Paris with his second child, Ross didn’t show an appropriate level of dismay. Like many unhappy parents, it seemed like the writers just regretted Ben’s conception.
Frasier Crane (Cheers, Frasier) — He pissed away his thirties in the bar, then picked up and moved 3,000 miles away from his toddler son. It doesn’t take a psychiatrist (or an insightful radio talk show host) to know Frasier had parenting issues.
Derek Morris (Saved By The Bell) — The only way his son could get through to him was on a football-sized cell phone.
Honorable Mention: Paul Young (Desperate Housewives), Darrin Stephens (Bewitched) Joe Simpson, Toby Ziegler (West Wing), Richard Hatch.