The 7 Best TV Dads

What makes a good TV dad? Is it the ability to be there with open arms when their child needs it the most, no words needed to make everything a little better? Or is it the drive and desire to stop at no cost to protect their child from the evils of the world even if the end result makes them emotionally unavailable? Or is it just to be a good role model who as a father and husband always says the right thing and is there in the right way? All these things and more make up the top TV dads, past and present, that have been chosen here.

1. Eric Taylor: Friday Night Lights

As one half of my favorite TV parents, Eric Taylor has not been just a great father to his two daughters, Julie and Gracie, but also to his team of players. Eric may not be a man of many words (unless a rousing football speech is required), however, his actions speak just as loud and it is his ability to listen that makes him a great parent. In the recent season 4 episode ‘˜The Son’, this was most evident in his gesture to walk Matt home after he broke down about his father’s death. No words were said, just a protective arm placed around Matt’s shoulder, showing that he was there for him. In the same episode, he does the same for his daughter who is clearly upset, he does the thing she needs most and reminds her that he isn’t going anywhere.

At the start of season 2, when working at TMU and living away from his family, Eric was conflicted as to whether he should follow his career aspirations or return home to his wife, newborn baby and to Julie, who was going through her ‘˜acting out’teen phase, meaning she was less than helpful to her mother. Choosing family over career and returning to Dillon soon after was a move that showed that Eric was a father and husband who was willing to make career sacrifices as his wife had done,. Seeing his interactions with his children — reading Gracie a story or simply attempting a dialogue with Julie over dinner — proves once again that Friday Night Lights really gets the simplicity and complexities of human relationships just right, showing both small and grand gestures that matter in life.

The one thing that you really don’t want to happen if you are dating the Coach’s daughter is for him to walk in when you are in a post coital position. This is what happened in the season 3 episode ‘˜The Giving Tree’for Matt and Julie. Suffice to say, things after this are awkward and Eric mad3 Matt pay, not through a beating but by a series of looks and a well-worded warning about how to respect women.

It is a shame that Friday Night Lights still has not received the acclaim and audience that it deserves, but those who do watch know the importance of Eric as a father.

2. Walter Bishop: Fringe

Walter is the first of several fathers on this list who have done a lot of questionable things in both their work and in protecting their offspring. Perhaps Walter has gone one step further as he crossed in to an alternate reality to save another version of his son, Peter, after he was unable to cure his own Peter of a terminal disease and wanted the chance to save the son he couldn’t. In doing this, and by bringing the other Peter back to our world, he has set about a series of events that have altered the course of both realities, bringing about potential war and the end of the world.

Walter’s intention to return the other Peter to his reality was thwarted after he saw his wife’s reaction to seeing this Peter alive; he made the decision to keep this Peter as his son. After a couple of decades of lying to Peter about his origin, Peter finally realized the truth. Not surprisingly, he didn’t react well to Walter. Earlier in the episode (‘˜The Man From the Other Side’), Peter had called Walter ‘dad’for the first time in his adult life, and then took it back, claiming that he isn’t his son.

The season ended with Peter and Walter barely on speaking terms and I’m sure that this will be a conflict for these two characters in the coming episodes. After it took so long from Walter’s release from St Claire’s for Peter to trust his father again, I’m sure that this will be an uphill struggle. Despite this, Walter is a dedicated father who really will do anything to save his son’s life, whatever the global consequences.

3. Jack Bauer : 24

In season 1 of 24, Jack Bauer did everything and anything imaginable to save his family, who had been kidnapped, and this theme prevailed throughout 24’s run. Kim had a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was kidnapped several times, held hostage and was even almost cougar bait. On most of these occasions, it was her father and his unrelenting ability to keep going and do whatever it takes to save his daughter. Unfortunately, in the early seasons Kim was somewhat of a plot device…put her in danger and Jack had to save her. When she inexplicably got a job at CTU she did manage to hold her own, even when she was put in the field, showing that the Bauer ass-kicking gene was present.

After 3 seasons of kidnapping and danger it is understandable why Kim left and the story didn’t suffer for it. As a father, Jack was always somewhat closed off and it allowed other relationships to be explored, though these also often ended in violence and misery at the hands of his enemies. When Kim returned in season 5, after she was told that her father was not in fact dead, she was understandably annoyed and this was not helped by a bio attack in CTU while he was there. Emotions ran high. Her run of luck continued in season 7 when the airport she was at was attacked by terrorists. Being Jack’s daughter, she aided the operation and was nifty with a pen as a weapon. She also saved her father’s life, so she turned out to be a lot better than the audience perhaps anticipated and we can see why he was such a dedicated father.

4. Jack Bristow: Alias

Jack Bristow is a character who at first is hard to read. His motives and allegiance is not clear and this has led to the strained relationship with his daughter, Sydney. On several occasions in early episodes Sydney misconstrues the actions of her father as being disloyal, when really all he has ever done is try to protect her and those she loves. First he tried to save her fiancée Danny, and then her best friend Will, who became embroiled in their world while investigating Danny’s death. He was successful in saving Will, demonstrating to Sydney what he will do for her and how far he will go.

They make an excellent spy team, first in both of their roles as double agents at SD-6 and then when they are at the CIA. One thing that comes between them is the return of her mother, Irina Derevko, who betrayed Jack as an agent for the KGB who was posing as his wife to collect Intel on the CIA. His over-protective nature toward Sydney regarding her mother caused tension that threatened their relationship, especially when they both thought he had killed Derevko (it wasn’t her but a double).

Some of my favorite moments between the two were in season 5. Jack stepped in to help a pregnant Sydney with hospital appointments and crib building duties as the father of the baby, Vaughn, was in hiding. Sydney was kidnapped that season and Jack used some extreme methods to get information on who was holding her, including a scene involving an ear that Tarantino would be proud of. He was there when she gave birth and he was there to protect her life. He ended with the greatest sacrifice that a father can give, protecting his daughter to his death.

5. Sandy Cohen: The OC

Not all great TV dads go to extreme lengths to show how much they care for their children, in fact one of my favorites is someone who you might just call normal, but who I would call pretty super. He may not be super in strength but he most definitely is in kindness.

Sandy Cohen was one of the first TV dads who, in my experience, was a well-rounded and real representation of a father. I’m sure there were others before him, but The OC was the first teen show that I really enjoyed the parental characters and where they seemed like equals with the kids in terms of how the characters were written.

Taking Ryan in was the first action we see Sandy taking. He took in the kid from the wrong side of town who had nothing and he brought him into his world of the rich and privileged. In a way, this action makes him feel better about himself. The fact that he himself came from a lower-class upbringing and now lived in this extravagant lifestyle always seemed to make his character feel uncomfortable and question his moral standing. It also aided his son, Seth, a bullied and friendless teen who really needed to come out of his shell and get out in the world. The premise is a bit farfetched, but it seemed perfect in terms of who Sandy is and how he was as a father.

Sandy was far from perfect, particularly when he became the CEO of the Newport Group after Caleb’s death and Kirsten’s alcoholism, but the fact that he was flawed and wasn’t a perfect do-gooder added to his charm. It was clear that his family were what really mattered to him beyond anything else. I always appreciated the moments of normalcy for this family: watching TV, meal time and whenever they were gathered in the kitchen where Sandy would say something to embarrass Seth or Ryan in front of a girl like all fathers do.

6. Tony Soprano: The Sopranos

Tony Soprano may not have been a great husband, but he really did try to be a brilliant father and give his kids everything that they could ever want or need. Not that this always went to plan — that’s the trouble with his line of work. It can get in the way, even when he was with his kids. This is no more evident than when he was taking daughter Meadow on a road trip to look at colleges in season 1. First she questioned him on his job, asking if he is in the Mafia, which is something he denied. Unfortunately, this trip ended with more lying from Tony when he ended up spotting a former colleague, turned FBI rat, who was in Witness Protection and ended up spending most of his time tracking him and killing him instead of spending time with his daughter.

It is an unfortunate side effect of his job that situations like this arose. However, he was clearly a doting father who attended recitals (that make him cry) and spoke of how proud he was of their achievements. Like most fathers with daughters, he is critical of Meadow’s choice of boyfriends, either driving them away or they ended up involved in the same world he was in, which also did not have a happy ending.

His relationship with his son also suffered, despite his intentions to be a good father. AJ, unlike his sister, was not gifted academically and suffered from depression that even led to a botched suicide attempt which his father actually saved him from. Another father/son relationship that Tony has is with his nephew Christopher. This had more fatal consequences. Instead of Tony saving him, Christopher ended his life, after years of drug abuse that led to the car crash that almost killed both of them. Tony is another morally grey character on this list. But despite all his flaws, family is the most important thing in his life.

7. Christian Shepherd: Lost

Christian is another complex character and, as a father, he might not necessarily be seen as being one of the best. The reason why he features in this list is because of his role in Lost, with his relationship with Jack being one of the defining elements of the character and for show. It is a program full of ‘˜bad dads’, with characters having issues that stem from their relationships with their parents, and it is Jack and Christian that is the central father/son relationship. Despite all the bad blood between the two, Christian was proud of his son, even if he didn’t have ‘˜the stones to tell him’, leaving it to Sawyer to do this for him. The scene between Jack and Sawyer in the season 1 finale ‘˜Exodus'(Part 1), where he learned what his father said about him, is one of my favorites and it allowed Jack some closure regarding his long running feelings of inadequacy about how his father saw him.

The importance of Christian and his relationship with Jack is perhaps best explained in the Sideways storyline in the final episode, where Christian explains the significance of this plot device and how this relates to the Lost narrative as a whole. The relationship between Jack and his Sideways son, David, could also be interrupted as his own reconciliation with his feelings towards his own father, as they end up on good terms, which to me is an act of wish fulfillment.