Greatest TV Dads

Top 20 TV Dads

Real-life dads are sometimes preoccupied with their careers and distracted by life's many complications. Happily, on TV, all dads have plenty of quality time to share with their kids, while dispensing encouraging words and occasional tough love.

Maybe that's because TV dads never spend much time at work. (We're pretty sure everyone's fathers would sign up for that!) Step into the wonderful make-believe world where every day is Father's Day, and join us as we count down our 20 favorite TV dads. -- By Jefferson Reid

NBCU Photo Bank (2)

20. Tony Soprano
Show: 'The Sopranos'
Played by: James Gandolfini

My dad can beat up your dad? Fuggedaboudit! With Tony, it's my dad can whack your dad. Okay, so offing cousins and cheating on the wife aren't exactly traditional family values, but Tony's a power player who lives in a pressure cooker. So what if one of his two kids ended up a head case? That's a .500 batting average. And at least they both survived -- as far as we know.

HBO

19. Danny Tanner
Show: 'Full House'
Played by: Bob Saget

While we'd later learn that Saget was an uproariously filthy comic, as a TV dad he was a clean-freak widower trying to raise 3.5 daughters (the Olsen twins split the youngest daughter role). Sure he was a little overprotective of his girls ("I don't yell, I guide"). But dads know that's what needed sometimes, even if the kids don't realize it until later.

ABC

18. Steve Keaton
Show: 'Family Ties'
Played by: Michael Gross

Nobody said fatherhood was gonna be easy. So kudos to ex-hippie Steven, who struggles to cope with raising a rebelliously conservative Reaganite son. He and his Woodstock Nation wife sometimes harshed on the kids' mellow, but that's the parenthood bag, man. And with the "greed is good" economy in a shambles, the parents now get the last laugh. Small consolation, but sometimes that's what dads get.

NBCU Photo Bank

17. Ward Cleaver
Show: 'Leave It to Beaver'
Played by: Hugh Beaumont

Seriously whitebread without being bleached-out Wonderbread, Ward was a stern disciplinarian when he needed to be but was surprisingly in touch with his sensitive side for a '50s father. He taught sons Wally and Beaver life lessons and even learned a few himself with the help of wife June. Who hasn't wished their own dad wasn't sometimes a little more like Ward?

AP

16. Hal
Show: 'Malcolm in the Middle'
Played by: Bryan Cranston

Whether he's punching out a clown at a batting cage, building killer robots at home or going on bowling binges, Hal is a bit of an off-balanced dad but still a good one. In fact, his own problems seem to give him a window into the world of his troublemaking sons. But he may be a tad too permissive: "Boys, the next time you drive a golf cart over a catered lunch and into a swimming pool, there will be consequences."

C. Cuffaro, FOX

15. Gomez Addams
Show: 'The Addams Family'
Played by: John Astin

Too ghoul for school, ultra-suave Gomez was given to creepy enthusiasms and burning lust for his lady love, wife Morticia. But the best part of being an eccentric dad is the freedom it gives the family to express themselves, which is exactly what creepy-cool kids Wednesday and Pugsley did. Leading by example, Gomez is monstrously twisted, but in a good way.

ABC / Retna

14. Tom Bradford
Show: 'Eight Is Enough'
Played by: Dick Van Patten

Dick Van Male-Pattern Baldness played the warm and wise pops who worked as a newspaper columnist to support his behemoth brood. The chaos deepened when Tom's on-screen wife died in real life after only 4 episodes. But Tom soldiered on, quickly remarrying sensible schoolteacher Abby. The Bradford's home life sweetly mingled heartwarming humor and "very special" drama, but five seasons was enough for this Octo-Dad.

ABC / Retna

13. Eric Taylor
Show: 'Friday Night Lights'
Played by: Kyle Chandler

Parenting is a team effort -- Coach Dad's wife, Tami, blocks most of the family problems so he can tackle his small-town team's gridiron issues. Still, he's a good dad. While he'll inspire the team with coach-speak ("It is these times, it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves") he's also fluent in father-blab ("I want you to let yourself off the hook, son.") And he doesn't let the demands of serving as father figure to a whole team of high school boys interfere with being stern-but-loving dad to teen trouble Julie and surprise baby Gracie Belle.

Paul Drinkwater, NBC

12. Al Bundy
Show: 'Married...With Children'
Played by: Ed O'Neill

It's a father's job to set an example for the kids, and Al did that. Unfortunately it was a bad example: lying, lazy, loutish and lacking to the ladies (and that's just the L's!). But look how his kids, Kelly and Bud, turned out. Oh, wait. Here's some great advice for dads: When in doubt, ask yourself, "What would Al Bundy do?" And then do the opposite

Columbia Tristar / Fotos International / Getty Images